The Gist JUNE 2014

Gist of The HINDU (VOL.
18) 1
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Contents
THE HINDU.......................................................................................................................... 2
Waiting For Bifurcation ...................................................................................................................................................................... 2
New wildlife board to be notified soon ............................................................................................................................................. 3
SC issues notice to railway on safety................................................................................................................................................ 4
India-Pakistan-iran pipeline remains the most viable option ..................................................................................................... 7
Ukraine crisis worries india ................................................................................................................................................................ 8
Cold war redux ................................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Crimea proclaims independence from ukraine ............................................................................................................................ 13
Israel calls for reoccupation of gaza after rocket salvos ........................................................................................................... 17
U.S. To cede internet oversight ...................................................................................................................................................... 19
Pollution getting worse in indian cities: pachauri ....................................................................................................................... 22
India to appeal against italian court order in agustawestland case ........................................................................................... 23
Russia suspended from G-8: france ................................................................................................................................................ 24
Seeking clarity on human rights ..................................................................................................................................................... 27
Disappearances commission probe to cover IPKF period ........................................................................................................ 28
An under-defined constitution ........................................................................................................................................................ 29
Supreme court orders states to abolish manual scavenging ....................................................................................................... 30
WTO asks india to remove raw sugar export subsidy ................................................................................................................ 31
Striving for a polio-free world ........................................................................................................................................................ 34
YOJANA .............................................................................................................................. 36
Governance : civil service & politician interface ....................................................................................................................... 36
Strengthening rural lending ............................................................................................................................................................. 38
National AIDS Control Programme Phase IV Launched........................................................................................................... 41
Three New Services Launched by India Post ............................................................................................................................... 42
Highways Built and Upgraded ......................................................................................................................................................... 44
Administrative reforms : an assessment ....................................................................................................................................... 46
Inclusive and Citizen-centric Reforms needed............................................................................................................................. 47
KURUKSHETRA................................................................................................................ 48
Boosting rural development through agri-infrastructure ........................................................................................................... 48
Rural infrastructure key to inclusive growth ................................................................................................................................ 50
Toxicity caused by pesticides .......................................................................................................................................................... 54
Highlights of the interim budget 2014-15 .................................................................................................................................... 57
PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU .................................................................................. 58
Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural and Rural Labourers Base : 1986-87=100) ............................................ 58
Global crude oil price of Indian Basket decreased to US$ 106.88 per bbl on 17.4.2014 .................................................... 59
Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha sworn in as the Chief Justice of India ......................................................................................... 60
Index of Eight Core Industries (Base: 2004-05=100), March, 2014 ...................................................................................... 61
Tripigator.com Launched in Partnership with Incredible India ............................................................................................... 62
'RUPAY' .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 63
SCIENCE REPORTER ...................................................................................................... 64
Minamata convention : a silver lining on mercury .................................................................................................................... 64
Preserving biodiversity : practical approach required ................................................................................................................ 65
Pioneers of science : a story through stamps .............................................................................................................................. 67
COURTESY:
The Hindu
The Yojana
Kurukshet ra
Press Informat ion Bureau
Science Report er
2 Gist of The HINDU (VOL. 18)
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Gist of
THE HINDU
WAITINGFORBIFURCATION
President 's Rule in Andhra Pradesh was t he
only option left before the Union Cabinet after the
resignation of Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy,
who also quit the Congress protesting against the
bifurcation of the State. With most of the members
of the Legislative Assembly divided on geographical
lines, and party loyalt y count ing for not hing, no
government would have been able to get adequate
numbers for a vot e of confidence. Moreover, with
the election t o t he Assembly due to be held along
wit h the Lok Sabha polls soon, none of the senior
State leaders of the Congress could have been very
ent husi ast i c about t he prospect of servi ng t he
remai nder of t he t erm as an i nef f ect ual Chi ef
Minister. With the model code of conduct bound to
become operat ive with t he announcement of the
elect ion schedule, a new government would have
been left wit hout much leeway for even rout ine
administrative decision-making. Thus, other than
bringing together unwilling, disparate elements in a
weak, ineffectual government in Andhra Pradesh, the
Congress leadership had no option. President's Rule
suggest ed it self to the Cent re, and the Assembly
could only be kept in suspended animation.
President's Rule in Andhra Pradesh opens up
another possibility for the Centre and the Congress:
holding Assembly elections at a later date, and not
simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls. Unlike in
the case of t he previous round of state-formation
exercises involving Jharkhand, Ut tarakhand and
Chhattisgarh, the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh has
been left t o coincide wit h the parliament ary and
State Assembly elections. Depending on the timing
of the presidential assent and the notification of the
appoint ed dat e for t he format ion of Telangana,
elections will have to be held either to the composite
Andhra Pradesh Assembly or to the two assemblies
of Seemandhra and Telangana. Elect ions t o t wo
separat e assemblies may well t ake some time t o
organi se, but i t does make pol it ical sense. The
process of first forming a government for Andhra
Pradesh in it s current form out of the composit e
Assembly, and later for Telangana and Seemandhra
after bifurcating the Assembly, can thus be avoided.
However, while President's Rule can be justified on
t he ground t hat t here was in Andhra Pradesh a
"situat ion of impasse" as specified in the Bommai
judgment , t he post ponement of t he Assembl y
election will have no such justification. An alternative
government might not have been possible from the
current Assembly, but this in itself is no argument
for postponing the Assembly election. Whet her or
not Telangana comes into being before the Lok Sabha
polls, the Centre and the Election Commission need
to take the most democratic course - which is to put
a popular government in place without delay.
FISCALDEFICITEXCEEDS REVISED
BUDGETESTIMATES
The fiscal deficit in the 10 mont hs t hrough
January, 2014, has overshot revised est imat es of
Rs.5.24 lakh crore for this fiscal provided by Finance
Minister P. Chidambaram in his interim Budget.
Accordi ng t o t he dat a r el eased by t he
Gist of The HINDU (VOL. 18) 3
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Cont roller General of Accounts (CGA), t he fiscal
deficit during April-January 2013-14 worked out to
be Rs.5.32 lakh crore or 101.6 per cent of the revised
estimates.
The government had in the Budget for 2013-
14 proposed t o bring down the fiscal deficit to 4.8
per cent of GDP or Rs.5.42 lakh crore. This figure,
however, was revised downwards in t he int erim
Budget to Rs.5.24 lakh crore or 4.6 per cent of the
GDP.
With actual figures for February and March yet
to come, it would be difficult for the government to
rest rict t he fiscal deficit , which is a ref lect ion of
government's market borrowings to revised level.
As per the CGA data, the revenue deficit during
the 10-month period through January was Rs.3.79
lakh crore or 102.3 per cent of the revised estimate.
Government's total expenditure, however, was
onl y 79.8 per cent of t he revi sed est i mat es of
Rs.15.90 lakh crore. The data further revealed that
revenue receipts during April-January period were
Rs.7.22 lakh crore or 70.1 per cent of the revised
estimates.
NEWWILDLIFE BOARDTOBE
NOTIFIEDSOON
The National Board of Wildlife is ready to be
notified after the government revised the names of
non-government officials and organisations on board
the apex body which is chaired by the Prime Minister.
The board (NBWL), a st atutory body under
t he Wildlife Protect ion Act, 1972, is supposed t o
oversee implementation of the law and the wildlife
pol i cy. A sub-set of t he board, t he st andi ng
committee, chaired by the environment minister and
comprising of several non-government members and
officers, is required under Supreme Court orders to
appraise all projects falling within protected wildlife
areas or within 10 kilometres distance of any such
zones.
The non-government members are nominated
on to the board and it has always been considered a
covet ed posi t i on by some conservat i onist s and
naturalists.
The t enure of t he last board had lapsed in
Sept ember 2013 and i t had been pendi ng
renomination while an array of projects got queued
up for clearance for the board's standing committee,
including some coal project s. The PMO has been
pushi ng har d si nce 2012 t hat t he st andi ng
committee meet at least once a month to appraise
projects regularly.
Even as the board's creation remained stuck,
the ministry moved to reduce the size of the legally
protected area around wildlife zones to avoid seeking
clearance for t he board's standing commit tee for
hydroelectric projects in Sikkim.
Several project s in wildlife areas had been
object ed t o by t he last wildlife board which also
asked for serious reforms in the way the board and
t he st andi ng commi t t ee f unct i oned. Wi t h t he
standing committee's views being recommendatory
and not t he f i nal word t he non-government
members several t imes were over-ruled or t heir
agenda not followed upon by the ministry.
After Mr Veerrapa Moily took over, the setting
up of the new board ran in to rough weather when
the first list was recommended by the ministry and
approved by the PMO, sources in the government
told The Hindu. A demand arose for revising it.
Out of t hose nominat ed in t he first PMO-
approved list, Kalpvriksh, Ravi Chellam, P R Sinha,
Sanjay Gubbi, Erach Barucha and Vi vek Menon,
Centre for Ecological Studies and Asad Rehmani have
now been dropped. The names of Valmik Thapar, B
K Tal ukdar, Koust ubh Shar ma, Bi swaj i t
Mohant y,Shekar Dat t at ri and Bit t u Sehgal have
found place on the new list along with that of Green
Life Society, Raman Sukumar and Bombay Natural
History Society.
M K Ranji t si nh, K Ul l as Karant h, WWF,
Bri jendra Si ngh and t he Nat ure Conservat i on
Foundation continue to be on the revised approved
list as well. The Parliament Members on board the
revi sed approved l i st i ncl udes Jyot i Mi rdha,
Dushyant Singh and M S Gill.
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Sources in the government said the PMO had
approved t he revi sed li st t oo and sent i t t o t he
environment ministry for notification. When asked
for the reasons behind revision of the approved list
of members on board t he NBWL, t he mini st er's
of f i ce i nf ormed The Hi ndu, t hat i t "Was not
competent to comment on the matter and that the
minister was not in Delhi till March 4."
SC ISSUES NOTICE TORAILWAYON
SAFETY
The Supreme Court has served notice on the
Rai l ways on a publ i c i nt erest pet i t i on seeki ng
direction that sleeper coaches being manufactured
conform with international safety standards.
A Bench of Chief Just ice P. Sat hasivam and
Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued the notice, returnable in
four weeks, on the writ petit ion filed by advocate
Abhay Singh.
Pointing out that materials at present used in
cushions, cushion covers, curtains, f looring and wood
partitioning are substandard and do not comply with
safety standards, the petitioner sought a ban on the
use of these materials.
In his petition, Mr. Singh said in recent times
there had been a number of accidents "where a large
number of passengers have been charred to death."
These deaths, he added, were caused by asphyxiation
resulting from inhalation of toxic gases. "This toxicity
is caused from poi sonous gases rel eased by t he
inferior and subst andard qualit y of t he materials
used by t he I ndi an Rai l ways i n t he i nt eri or
furnishings, which are all around the passengers.
The materials used in the railway coaches emit
toxic gases much beyond the permissible limit. The
Officials of the Indian Railways are apparently aware
of this basic f law in the materials being purchased
and used in the passenger coaches."
He quot ed several t est report s released by
government laborat ories t hat clearly indicate that
t he Toxicity Index of t hese materials exceed t he
specified permissible limits. "The matter needs to be
invest igat ed and resolved at t he earl iest as t he
hapless passengers are being subjected to risking
t hei r li ves whil e t ravell ing in t rains run by t he
Railways, funded by the tax payers' money and is
considered as a safe and affordable mode of travel."
ICMRISSUES CODEFORLIFE
SCIENCES RESEARCH
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
has issued a mandatory code of conduct for research
scientists engaged in the field of life sciences. This has
been done wit h a vi ew t o prevent ing t he use of
scientific research for bio-terrorism and bio-warfare.
The aim is to ensure that all research activities,
involving microbial or other biological agent s, or
t oxi ns, what ever t hei r ori gi n or met hod of
production, are only of types and in quantities that
have just ificat ion for prophylact ic, prot ect ive or
other peaceful purposes.
Ethical considerations in this Code of Conduct
would be binding on all laboratory scientists involved
in scientific research concerning dangerous organisms
and t oxi c weapons agai nst any l i vi ng bei ng or
environment.
Bioethics has emerged as a new discipline over
the past couple of decades and is poised to become
a multidisciplinary specialt y. Institutional review
boards and et hi cs commi t t ees have evol ved as
conscience keepers of professionals with the view to
safeguarding t he welfare of members of societ y
against any possible harm from scientific advances.
Advances in laborat ory t echnologies have
creat ed new and compl ex et hi cal di l emmas.
Laboratory services are an integral part of disease
di agnosi s, t reat ment , r esponse moni t ori ng,
surveillance programmes and research.
Therefore, personnel working in clinical and/ or
research laboratories should be aware of their ethical
responsibilities. It is necessary to comply with the
ethical code of conduct prescribed by national and
i nt ernat i onal organi sat i ons, and address t he
emerging ethical, legal and social concerns in the field
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of biological and biomedical sciences.
Poi nt i ng out t hat moder n bi ol ogy and
biotechnology offer novel ways of manipulating basic
l i f e processes, t he Code of Conduct says t hat
purposefully or unintentionally, genetic modification
of mi cr o-or gani sms coul d be used t o creat e
organisms t hat are more virulent and ant ibiot ic-
resi st ant or have great er st abi l i t y i n t he
environment.
The sci ent i st s engaged i n such research
activities should be aware of the potential risks and
concerns relating to science and its wider applications
and the ethical responsibilities they shoulder. They
should not only be aware of but also comply with the
requi rement s of int ernat ional convent i ons and
treaties relevant t o t heir research work, the code
says.
KEYEVENTS INUKRAINE'S
POLITICALCRISIS
Nov. 21, 2013 - President Viktor Yanukovych's
government announces i t i s abandoni ng an
agreement t o st rengt hen ties with t he European
Union and is instead seeking closer cooperation with
Moscow. Protesters take to the streets.
Nov. 30 - Images of prot esters bloodied by
police truncheons spread quickly and galvanise public
support for the demonstrations.
Dec. 1 - A prot est at t ract s around 300,000
people on Kiev's Independence Square, known as the
Mai dan, t he l ar gest si nce t he 2004 Orange
Revolution. Activists seize Kiev City Hall.
Dec. 17 - Russian President Vladimir Putin
announces Moscow will buy $15 billion wort h of
Ukraini an government bonds and cut t he pri ce
Ukrainians pay for Russian natural gas.
Jan. 22, 2014 - Two prot esters die during a
confrontation bet ween police and demonstrat ors
manning barricades.
Jan. 28 - In concessions to the opposition, the
Prime Minister resigns and parliament repeals harsh
anti- protest laws that set off the violence.
Feb. 16 - Opposi t i on act i vi st s end t hei r
occupat ion of Kiev Cit y Hall in exchange for t he
release of all 234 jailed protesters.
Feb. 18 - Protesters attack police lines and set
f i r es out si de parl i ament af t er i t st al l s on a
constitutional reform to limit presidential powers.
Riot police respond to the violence by trying to push
protesters off Independence Square. Eight die and
hundreds are injured.
Feb. 20 - Hours after a t ruce is announced,
violence resumes, with government snipers shooting
protest ers from the roofs. 64 deaths occur on this
day.
Feb. 21 - Under a European-mediated plan,
protest leaders and Mr. Yanukovych agree to form a
new government and hol d an earl y el ect i on.
Parliament slashes his powers and votes to free his
ri val , Yul i a Tymoshenko, f r om pri son. Mr.
Yanukovych f lees Kiev after protesters take control.
Feb. 22 - Parliament vot es t o remove Mr.
Yanukovych and hold new elections. Ms. Tymoshenko
is freed and addresses t ens of t housands on t he
Maidan.
Feb. 23 - Ukrai ne's par l i ament assi gns
presidential powers to it s new speaker, Oleksandr
Turchinov, an ally of Ms. Tymoshenko. The new
aut hor i t i es ask t he West for l oans t o avoid an
imminent default. Pro-Russia protesters start rallying
against the new authorities in Crimea, where Russia
has a major naval base.
Feb. 24 - Ukraine's interim government draws
up a warrant for Mr. Yanukovych's arrest. Russian
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev derides the new
leaders in Kiev as "Kalashnikov-toting people in black
masks."
Feb. 26 - Leaders of Ukrai ne's prot est
movement propose legislator Arseniy Yatsenyuk as
prime minister. In Moscow, Mr. Putin orders major
military exercises just across the border.
Feb. 27 - Masked gunmen sei ze regi onal
parliament and government buildings in Crimea.
Ukraine's government, with strong backing from the
West , pledges t o prevent a national breakup. Mr.
Yanukovych is granted refuge in Russia.
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Feb. 28 - Ukraine says Russian troops have
taken up positions around strategic locations on the
Crimean peninsula. Ukraine's parliament adopts a
resolution demanding that Russia halt steps it says
ar e ai med agai nst Ukrai ne's sover ei gnt y and
territorial integrity. Mr. Turchynov says he has put
armed forces on full readiness because of the threat
of "potential aggression."
March 1 - Russian t roops take over Crimea
without firing a shot. The Kiev government and its
West ern support ers are powerless t o react . U.S.
President Barack Obama calls Mr. Putin to demand
the troops' withdrawal.
March 2 - Ukraine appeals for internat ional
help, fearing a wider Russian invasion. Supporters on
both sides take to the streets of Ukrainian cities and
of Moscow. The U.S. says it believes Russia has more
than 6,000 t roops in Crimea. The Group of Seven
suspends preparat ions for June's G8 summit in
Russia.
March 3 - Pro-Russian troops control a ferry
terminal on the easternmost tip of Crimea, adding
to fears t hat Moscow is planning to bring in even
more troops.
THEMISCHIEFINTHERULES
The refusal by two eminent jurists to join the
Lokpal Search Commit t ee is sympt omat ic of t he
credibility crisis that the United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) regime faces in its last days. Even the process
of putting in place an independent anti-corruption
ombudsman has been engul fed i n cont roversy,
exposing the government to the charge that it is in
an unseemly hurry to appoint the body before the
expiry of its term. At the very first meeting of the
Selection Committee, Sushma Swaraj, Leader of the
Opposition in the Lok Sabha, objected to the inclusion
of senior advocate P.P. Rao in the selection panel as
the fifth member, and her objection was overruled.
Senior advocate Fali Nariman declined to be on the
Search Committee, voicing the fear that in the two-
st age selection process, "the most competent, t he
most independent and the most courageous will get
overlooked." Retired Supreme Court judge, Justice
K.T. Thomas, went through the Rules framed under
the Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, and noted that the
Search Commit t ee's recommendat ions were not
binding on the Selection Committee, headed by the
Prime Minister. Such controversies need not imply
t hat t he st at ut ory f ramework for t he Lokpal is
substantively f lawed; but when the finer points in the
process t hat emerge after rules are framed appear
loaded in favour of t he ruling di spensat ion, t he
process itself becomes suspect.
When t he much-delayed Bill was passed in
Parliament in December 2013, there was a sense of
rel ief t hat a reasonably sound law was i n place.
However, the government equipped itself with some
potential filters while framing the rules. The process
involves a Selection Committee that will appoint a
Search Commit tee. Going by t he rules, the search
panel will scrutinise only applications forwarded to it
by the Department of Personnel and Training. The
rule circumscribes the Search Committee's role to
choosi ng names out of a li st submi t t ed by t he
government and blocks any independent nomination
from the community at large. Further, the panel of
names recommended by it need not be accepted by
the Selection Committee, which is free to consider
names from outside the panel too. Empowering the
apex committee with the freedom to go beyond the
recommendat ions may not be inherent ly wrong.
However, the potential for mischief in confining the
first stage to a government list and conferring wide
discretion on the selection panel in the second stage
may ultimately result in some deserving candidates
bei ng i gnored or, wor se, someone deemed
inconvenient being deliberately disregarded. The
government needs to shore up the credibility of the
process; as an immediate step, it should revisit the
rules and give a free hand to the Search Committee
to do its job.
INS SUMEDHATOBE
COMMISSIONED
INS'Sumedha', an Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV)
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indigenously designed and built by Goa Shipyard Ltd.
(GSL), Goa-based defence shipyard for the Indian
Navy, will be formally commissioned by Vice Admiral
Anil Chopra, Flag Officer, Commander-In-Chief, East
at GSL in South Goa.
The ship on commissioning will join Eastern
Naval Command at Vizag, the sword arm of Indian
Navy.
This warship is the culmination of many years
of in-house desi gn devel opment and shi p bui ld
techniques. The commissioning of this ship marks a
significant milestone in GSL's and country's march
t owards indigenizat ion and self reliance, said an
official spokesperson of GSL here on Monday.
Sumedha is 200th ship indigenously built by
GSL. GSL is the only yard which has delivered four
classes of OPVs to both Navy and Coast Guard. INS
'Sumedha' is the third of the new 105 meter class of
NOPV and the largest ship constructed by GSL for the
Indian Navy. This state-of-the- art ship will help meet
the increasing requirement of the Indian Navy for
undertaking ocean surveillance and surface warfare
operat ions i n order t o prevent i nf il t rat ion and
t ransgression of mari t ime sovereignt y, said t he
spokesperson.
INDIA-PAKISTAN-IRANPIPELINE
REMAINS THEMOSTVIABLE OPTION
Despite the Foreign Office emphasising that
India was looking for an undersea route to source gas
from Iran, bypassing Pakistan in the process, reliable
sources here maintained that the India-Pakistan-Iran
(IPI) "Peace Pipeline" still remained on the drawing
board and was the most viable option.
Fol lowi ng t al ks bet ween I ranian Forei gn
Minist er Mohammad Javad Zarif and Ext ernal
Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid last week, official
sources suggested that one important subject, which
was also discussed with the Oman Foreign Minister
the same day, was the revival of an undersea pipeline
project. Official sources suggested that this pipeline,
which would bypass Pakistan, was now technically
feasible after the success of the North Sea undersea
pipeline.
If Iran was looking at the cheapest way to get
gas t o cust omer s, i t woul d pref er European
customers. But what Iran had in mind was providing
spi llover benef it s of t he surface pipel ine t o t he
regi on it passes t hrough, especiall y t he Makran
Plat eau common t o bot h Paki st an and Iran and
where poverty has fuelled subversive tendencies.
And, the sources suggested that the future of
the IPI pipeline was entwined with the Chah-bahar
port as Iran was keen to ensure that this town and
t he surroundi ng regi on of Si st an-Bal uchi st an
Province also gained from the availability of gas. The
benefit s will cross t he border as development of
indust ry due t o availabilit y of energy would give
more employment opportunities to Pakistani youth.
Interestingly, this is India's approach too. Its officials
began t wo days of t al ks wi t h t hei r Paki st ani
count er par t s here on Wednesday on export ing
electricity.
Just 72 km from the Pakistani port of Gwadar
being built wit h Chinese help, t he first phase of
developing the Chah-bahar port is nearly over. The
Union Cabinet has already earmarked $100 millions
for the development of the port in anticipation of
Iran agreeing to involve India in developing the port
as well as utilising a north-bound route that enters
into Afghanistan and Central Asia.
India and Iran have held several rounds of talks
on sharing operations and developing the port. After
t he lat est conversat ion bet ween t he Iranian and
Indian Foreign Ministers, official sources said Tehran
will get back before Nauroz holidays (Persian New
Year) with answers to queries raised. But the next
government will have to work on several other fronts
before Iran agrees to give India access to a port that
faces the open sea unlike the bigger Iranian port of
Bandar Abbas which is in the Persian Gulf.
I rani an Forei gn Minist er as well as ot her
interlocutors have indicated that Iran is in no hurry
to get the money back, held up due to sanctions by
the US and the European Union. It would want this
money, even if it accumulates further, to be utilised
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as export credit for some big ticket joint vent ure
project s, possibly even a refinery at Chah-bahar
which is just 900 km away from Gujrat's Mundhra
Port.
SMOOTHENINGOUTCROSS-LOC
TRADE
In Januar y, t rade across the Line of Control
(LoC) came to a standstill after a truck driver from
the Pakistan side of Kashmir was arrested on a charge
of carrying 110 packets of brown sugar. About 48
trucks were stranded on the Indian side while 27
Indian trucks were held back, as Pakistan demanded
that the driver be handed over so that the case could
be investigated. It was argued that the driver could
not be arrested given the terms of the trade and the
fact t hat he enjoyed diplomat ic immunit y. Trade
resumed over a mont h lat er. An ext raordi nary
session of the Joint Working Group on Cross-LoC
Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) on March 4
discussed the streamlining of standard operating
procedures and int roduct ion of scanners, and a
suggestion that all stakeholders should be present at
the loading and unloading points. The introduction
of banking facilities would also help the trade, which
is now conducted on barter basis. The bus service
between the two sides of Kashmir had resumed on
humanitarian grounds to avoid inconvenience to the
people, even as the standoff continued.
Cr oss-LoC t rade, whi ch began i n 2008
through Salamabad in Uri and Chakan-da-Bagh in
Poonch district with two trade facilitation centres, is
an important CBM, and both India and Pakistan need
to learn the lessons from this episode. After an initial
standoff, both sides did show a willingness to resume
t rade, but it is import ant t o work out fool-proof
systems to avoid any more rounds of a blame game.
In t he past , t rade across t he LoC has wit nessed
i nt erference f rom armi es from bot h sides, and
tensions between the two countries also had their
impact. For t he CBM t o work, t here is a need t o
ensure the smooth f low of goods and also create an
atmosphere conducive to t he building of trust. If
trucks and people from either side are treated with
suspicion, it defeats the very purpose of a confidence
building measure. Scanning the goods and initiating
a joint mechanism to check them at crossing points,
as has been proposed during t he meet ing of t he
JWG, would help. It should not take over a month of
prot ract ed di scussi ons t o rest ore nor mal cy. A
prompt system of redress needs to be put in place so
that livelihoods and cross-LoC travel are not held up
whi le t he t wo count ri es disput e t hreadbare t he
details of standard operating procedures as in this
case. Neither should it be the case that an offence, if
est abl i shed beyond reasonabl e doubt , goes
unpuni shed. Any f ut ure st eps wi l l have t o
incorporat e measures t hat woul d prevent such
incidents and tackle them without any disruption of
trade or bus services
UKRAINE CRISIS WORRIES INDIA
I ndi a cal l ed f or el ect i ons and a di al ogue
between Ukraine and other countries involved in the
crisis there but left unstated New Delhi's concern
over Kiev's control of its military industrial complex,
with which India has developed close ties.
Of immediat e concern i s t he fat e of some
milit ary equipment fact ories from where India is
getting its entire fleet of medium military transport
aircraft modernised. Anot her Ukrainian military
facility provides engines for military helicopters of
Russian origin, which account for a quarter of the
worl d's medi um, medium-heavy and heavy l if t
helicopt ers. India also has cont ract s for sourcing
naval engines.
India had managed to strike deals with these
companies as an alternative to Russia. It has in the
past managed to play off the two countries and get
the best possible deal.
The br eakt hrough came dur i ng oust ed
Ukrainian President Viktor Yankovich's visit to India
in December 2012 wit h t he signing of a defence
cooperat ion agreement . It is a sign of Ukraine's
importance to India's military modernisation that the
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Indian embassy in Kiev has two military officers of
First Secret ary rank and one of Second Secret ary
rank.
The visit led to the doubling of imports in the
past two years with expectations of a further jump
i f t he new pol i t i cal di spensat i on r emai ned as
favourable as Mr. Yankovich and control some of
these military-industrial complexes.
JAPAN: BITCOINNOTACURRENCY
BUTTAXABLE
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Cabinet
said that bitcoin, the world's most well-known form
of virt ual money, is not a currency, but would be
taxable.
Tokyo defined bitcoin as a product that is not
handled by banks and securities houses. It also added
that consumption tax would be levied on purchases
of t he virt ual currency and income t ax would be
imposed on profits from its sale.
The decision came a week after the collapse of
t he Tokyo-based Mt Gox, one of t he l argest
exchanges for the virtual currency.
The collapse prompted Japanese lawmakers to
argue bitcoin should be under greater public control.
ELUSIVERECOVERY
Growth data released by the Central Statistics
Off ice l ast week point t o acont inuing economic
sl owdown and of f er ver y l i t t l e comf or t t o a
government that is hoping to proclaim a recovery
ahead of the elections. With no further data releases
scheduled until May-end, the government will have
t o reckon wit h t he fact t hat based on published
f i gures i t woul d be ext remel y di ff i cul t f or t he
economy t o clock a rate of even 5 per cent for the
whole year. The economy grew by 4.7 per cent in the
quarter ending December, which was slightly better
than the average of 4.6 per cent clocked during the
first half of the year (April-September 2013). For the
seventh successive quarter, GDP growth has been
below 5 per cent. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram
in hi s recent budget speech expect ed economic
growt h during the second half of the year to be at
least 5.2 per cent. That now seems a stupendous task
given the slackness in the third quarter. The CSO's
advance estimates for 2013-14 released earlier of 4.9
per cent growth cert ainly does not look t o be an
underestimate as some government officials have
been claiming. It ought to be quite disconcerting that
having witnessed annual growth rates above 9 per
cent in a few years during its two terms the UPA will
be facing elections with the economy stuck in a sub-
5 per cent growth trajectory.
A closer look at the third quarter data reveal
some well-entrenched weaknesses in specific sectors.
The i nvest ment scenari o remai ns weak
notwithstanding recent efforts by the government to
fast-track certain large projects. There is an expected
measure of uncertainty in decision-making ahead of
t he el ect i ons. Bot h mi ning and manufact uring
declined in the three-month period. They have been
weak t hroughout t hi s year. Pol i cy l ogjam and
environmental and judicial activism have impacted
adversely on mining output and this has had major
negative consequences for the current account of the
balance of payments. The outlook for the near future
is not bright. Eight core industries which have more
t han one-t hird weight in t he Index of Industrial
Production, an important lead indicator, grew by just
1.6 per cent in January compared with 2.1 per cent
in December. Export s are growing but at a slower
pace dur i ng t he t hree mont hs up t o Januar y.
Agriculture has done reasonably well while services,
dri ven mai nl y by one sub-sect or , personal
community and social services - which is a proxy for
government spending - picked up in t he Oct ober-
December quarter. GDP growt h along wit h ret ail
i nf lat i on and i nf lat i on expect at i ons wi ll f igure
prominent ly in t he general elect ion. Barring an
unexpect ed t urnaround, t he government would
seem to be on a weak wicket.
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COLDWARREDUX
Russia's de facto annexation of t he Crimea -
which President Vladimir Putin says is a humanitarian
intervention - has exposed ugly motives all round. On
February 22, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych,
pani cking over publ ic prot est s cal li ng f or early
elect ions and a ret urn t o t he 2004 Constit ut ion,
abandoned his violent crackdown on the protesters
and f led the capital, Kiev. The national parliament
voted to remove him from office and impeach him;
Speaker Oleksander Turchynov took over as interim
president, and the assembly decided to hold elections
on May 25. Mr. Turchynov has since t hen made
political appointments by decree, and some of his
choices have ext reme right -wing and ant i-Semit ic
backgrounds. On March 1, Russian t roops moved
into the eastern province of Crimea, without facing
any resistance; the Russian military had, in any case,
ret ained t heir Sevast opol naval base and various
airfields under an arrangement made after the Soviet
Union was abolished in 1991; there are now 16,000
Russian troops in the region. The West could only
watch as a candidate for EU and NATO membership
faced what could end up as a Russian takeover, or
partition, or possibly a new status on the front-line
of a fresh Cold War.
The western Ukrainian public were shocked by
revelations of Mr. Yanukovych's kleptocracy, which
funded an opulent mansion and a count ry est at e
with an artificial lake, a full-size replica galleon, and
a zoo; t heir east ern compat riot s, mainly et hnic
Russians, seemed to be disturbed less by the arrival
of Russian t roops t han by a new l aw from Ki ev
abolishing the official status of the Russian language
in their area. Moreover, Mr. Yanukovych resurfaced
in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and, according
to a Russian diplomat, said he had asked Moscow for
help; the U.S. reaction had already bordered on the
sur real , wi t h Secret ar y of St at e John Ker r y,
apparently forgetful of his own count ry's conduct
over Iraq, telling Russia not to invade a sovereign
state on a "trumped-up pretext." Washingt on also
needs EU support for sanctions against Moscow, but
many EU countries reject sanctions. Secondly, several
western governments are implicated in the Ukrainian
crisis; some of Mr. Yanukovych's assets are owned by
British-registered companies. Thirdly, NATO has tried
t o i mpl ement det ai l ed pl ans f or f ormer Soviet
republics like Georgia and Ukraine to join it. Moscow
sees t hat as highly provocat ive; furt hermore, by
acting through NATO, western governments are all
but el i mi nat i ng account abi l i t y t o t hei r own
legislatures and publics. While t he legality of the
Russian moves in the Crimea is at best uncertain, the
West for its part needs to learn the lessons of the
Cold War.
PANEL TOAIDBANKS COMPLY
WITHBASEL-III NORMS
A high-power committee under the Financial
Stability and Development Council (FSDC) has been
set up to find ways for the banking sector to comply
with Basel-III capital norms.
The decision was t aken at a sub-commit tee
meeting of FSDC chaired by Reserve Bank of India
(RBI ) Governor Raghuram Rajan. "The sub-
committee...discussed the capital requirements of
the banking sector over the next five years in view of
t he Basel -I II regul at i ons and requi rement s for
supervisory capit al and decided to set up a high-
powered inter-regulatory committee to explore ways
of enabling banks to meet these requirements," an
RBI release said.
Recently, Finance Minister P. Chidamabaram
had said t hat all banks sat isfied the global capit al
adequacy norms (Basel I II) and t he government
would keep on providing additional capital t o t he
banks. The FSDC meet i ng al so di scussed
implementing non-legislative recommendations of
Financial Sector Legislat ive Reforms Commission
(FSLRC) and setting up of a repository for investors.
Also, i t di scussed about ways f or set t ing up an
effective resolution regime for the financial sector.
Issues of greater harmonisation of regulations across
sectors for similar activities were also taken up.

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ABUSEOFSEDITIONLAW
Cricket between India and Pakist an indeed
incites great passion in both countries, and among
the followers of the two teams patriotism often gets
unduly mixed with the love for the game. However,
for its sheer perversity and unreason, the action of
the Meerut police in booking a group of st udents
from Jammu and Kashmir on a charge of sedition
beat s all previous inst ances of t he misuse of t he
penal provision. The ostensible 'crime' committed by
the students seems to be that they cheered for the
Pakistan cricket team during a closely fought one-day
match against India and celebrated Pakistan's victory.
The charge of sedition under Sect ion 124A of t he
Indian Penal Code has been dropped, but only after
t he st rong out rage evoked by t his irrat ional act .
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
appealed t o hi s count erpart i n Ut t ar Pradesh,
Akhilesh Yadav, and described the invocation of grave
offences unacceptably harsh. The only small comfort
is that no st udent has yet been named in t he first
informat ion report even t hough t he charges of
promoting enmity between different groups, under
Sect i on 153-A of t he I PC and causi ng mi schief
(Sect i on 427), remain. The Swami Vivekanand
Subharti University, a private institution in Meerut ,
says it sent back Kashmiri students from the hostel
where the incident t ook place as a precaut ionary
measure to prevent the incident from being given a
communal colour. While the University authorities
claim they had not lodged a complaint, the district's
Senior Superintendent of Police says the police acted
only on a complaint from its Registrar.
The reckless invoking of the grave charge of
sedition for minor expressions of views that may be
contrary to conventional notions of patriotism is an
unaccept able af front t o Indi a's democracy. The
Supreme Court has made it clear that it cannot be
invoked unless there is actual incitement to violence
and int ent ion t o cause disorder, and t hat merely
using words t hat indicate disaffection against t he
government cannot be termed sedition. The police
officers who included Section 124A in the FIR appear
to have no understanding of this aspect of the law.
Nor did t hey take into account the adverse effect
such a measure would have on the psyche of students
and ot hers f rom Kashmi r resi di ng or worki ng
elsewhere in the country. It was only recently that
the Jammu and Kashmir cricket team was subjected
to a midnight search of hotel rooms on the eve of a
Ranji Trophy match in Jammu. The Uttar Pradesh
government should take quick steps to drop the case
and bring back the Kashmiri st udents to the same
campus and l et t hem resume t hei r st udi es.
Otherwise, this will be another ugly episode that will
intensify the alienation of Kashmiris from the Indian
mainstream.
ATRAGIC MYSTERY
Days after the disappearance of a Malaysian
Airlines Boeing 777-200 aircraft , f lying from Kuala
Lumpur t o Beijing, even t he debris has not been
traced. It is suspected to have crashed into the South
China Sea between Malaysia and Vietnam. Neither
t he f leet of ships and rescue vessels nor aircraft
pressed int o an emergency search operat ion has
located any sign of wreckage at sea, except for an oil
sli ck. The Malaysian aut horit ies have t aken t he
initiative to start an international investigation. With
five of the 239 passengers and crew killed in the crash
being Indians, the DGCA is also joining the probe.
The one di st ur bi ng evi dence on Day 1 of t he
investigation was that two of the passengers were
travelling on fake, probably stolen, passports. But the
authorities do not want t o jump to the conclusion
that it was an act of terrorism. The Boeing 777 has
earned a reputation as a safe long-haul aircraft. After
the 2013 Asiana Airlines crash, this is only the second
tragedy involving this aircraft type in the nearly two
decades it has been in operation. Malaysian Airlines
wi ll cert ainl y want t o get t o t he bot t om of t his
tragedy in order to maintain its reputation for safety
in a very competitive environment. Given the close
cooperation in the Southeast Asian region, all t he
count ries are pooling t heir resources t o find t he
cause of the crash.
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The only premise the investigators have begun
with is that the end was "sudden and violent." There
was no report of bad weat her and t he aircraft was
cruising at about 35,000 feet above sea level. The
pi lot s did not radi o f or hel p and t here was no
emergency bleep. The plane just vanished from the
radar hardly an hour after take-off. There is also the
theory that it tried to turn back to Malaysia. Experts
have offered several explanations. First on their list
was structural failure in the fuselage, which could
result in the splitting up of the body. The second was
bad weather, of which there is no evidence. Was it an
act of terror? And finally, could it have been the rare
case of human failure or a suicidal streak? Until the
debris is recovered, the investigation cannot proceed.
Aviation experts are of the view that the size of the
debris spread could provide a useful starting point
for any serious investigat ion. That could give an
indication whether the aircraft suffered an explosion,
got split in the air, or just plunged into the sea and
broke up. Once t hat is known, t he invest igat ors
could proceed with a particular line of enquiry. Since
there are no survivors, not hing can be verified as
such. It is in the interests of all airlines, passengers
and aircraft manufacturers to uncover the mystery
behi nd t hi s unf ort unat e t ragedy and draw t he
lessons.
ACCOUNTABILITYINFOCUS
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will
have much to worry about when the 25th session of
the UN Human Rights Council takes up the 'report
of t he OHCHR on promot ing reconci liat ion and
accountability in Sri Lanka' on March 26. Despite the
f act t hat t he 47-member Counci l has 14 new
members, including some known friends of Sri Lanka,
such as China, Cuba, t he Russian Federation and
Saudi Arabia, the draft resolution submitted by the
Unit ed States is forceful as it incorporat es several
new aspects: it includes 'Human Rights' in its title,
elaborates upon the attacks on minorities, dwells on
the importance of transitional justice and reparation
poli cy, and asks t he Sr i Lankan gover nment t o
broaden the scope of its national action plan based
on its reconciliation commission, the LLRC. Though
the draft resolution, 'Promoting reconciliation and
accountability in Sri Lanka', stops short of using the
phrase "international investigation into war crimes"
- a fact that has disappointed the Tamil diaspora and
pro-LTTE elements in Tamil Nadu - Sri Lanka has no
reason t o feel l et of f t he hook. The resol ut i on
"welcomes t he High Commissioner's recommen-
dat i ons and concl usi ons on t he need f or an
i ndependent and credi bl e i nt ernat i onal
investigation," and asks the High Commissioner to
"assess t he progress t oward account abi li t y and
reconci l i at i on, t o moni t or rel evant nat i onal
processes, and to investigate alleged violations and
abuses of human rights and related crimes by both
parties in Sri Lanka."
In effect , t his gives the High Commissioner
many t ools t o carry out her work. These are new
mandat es, and move up from the oral updat e that
was gi ven i n t he l ast sessi on. And, f r om
"encouraging" Sri Lanka to cooperate with the High
Commissioner, t he draft resolut ion st eps up t he
tone and "calls upon" Sri Lanka to do so. Thus boxed
in, Mr. Rajapaksa's meet ing with Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh in Nay Pyi Taw on the sidelines of
t he BI MSTEC summi t on March 4 gai ned
significance. Dr. Singh, who has steadfastly refused to
visit Sri Lanka since the 2008 SAARC summit - while
he has met his Pakistani counterpart more often -
once again brought up the most critical issue t hat
affects the Tamils of Sri Lanka's Northern Province:
the Army's brazen occupation of vast areas of civilian
land. Dr. Singh asked Mr.Rajapaksa to pare the Army
presence in the North. No doubt, the mellow mood
in the Sri Lankan ruling establishment comes from
t he real isat ion t hat slowl y but st eadi ly t he UN
Human Right s Council, and, by implicat ion, t he
international community, is becoming tougher on the
issue. In t he long run, t here is no escape from a
credible investigation that establishes accountability.
And t he quest ion of the political right s of Tamils
remai ns t o be addressed wi t h a measure of
seriousness and urgency.
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CRIMEAPROCLAIMS INDEPENDENCE
FROMUKRAINE
The Parl i ament i n pro-Russi an Cri mea
declared independence from Ukraine as a first step
towards joining Russia.
Lawmakers overwhel mi ngl y adopt ed a
"declarat ion of independence of t he Aut onomous
Republic of Crimea" that will take effect if voters say
"yes" t o Cri mea becomi ng part of Russi a i n a
referendum.
The referendum will ask the people of Crimea
to choose between joining Russia and staying with
Ukraine as a self-governed autonomy.
The declaration referred to Kosovo's secession
from Serbia, which was endorsed by t he Unit ed
Nations International Court of Justice.
Cr i mean Parl i ament Speaker Vl adi mi r
Konstantinov said the declaration was needed "to
make t he upcoming referendum l egit imat e and
transparent."
Ukr ai ne's Parl i ament i n Ki ev hi t back
t hreat ening t o dissolve t he Crimean legislat ure
unless it cancels the referendum.
The United States appears to have abandoned
hope t o persuade Russia t o back of f on Crimea.
Secretary of St at e John Kerry declined a Russian
invitation to visit Moscow this week for talks with
President Vladimir Putin.
Washi ngt on want s Moscow t o st op t he
Crimea referendum and open direct talks with the
new government in Ki ev. Russia has refused t o
recognise the new authorities and insisted on rolling
back the situation to February 21, when President
Vikt or Yanukovych signed a West-brokered peace
accord with the opposition. The deal fell through the
same day as armed protesters stormed government
offices and Mr Yanukovych fled Kiev.
Contrary to expectations Mr Yanukovych said
nothing about the coming referendum in Crimea,
apart from mentioning that Crimea was "splitt ing
away" t hrough t he f ault of t he new Ukrai ni an
authorities.
In fresh military muscle flexing Russia launched
a second massive war drill this month. The Defence
Minist ry said 3,500 paratroopers will be dropped
from 36 warplanes at an undisclosed location during
the three-day "anti-terrorist" exercise, the first such
drill in 20 years. Earlier in March Russia held snap
war games involving 150,000 troops near Ukraine's
border.
HUMANDEVELOPMENTINDICATORS
ONTHE UPSWINGINBIMARU
STATES
Human development indicat ors across t he
poorer St at es wi t h a hi gh concent rat i on of
margi nal i sed groups ar e cat chi ng up wi t h t he
nat ional average, according t o t he lat est figures
released by t he Inst it ut e of Appli ed Manpower
Research (IAMR) under the Planning Commission.
The data suggest that these socially disadvantaged
groups are starting to share benefits of the process
of human development.
However, when compari ng t he Schedul ed
Castes and the Scheduled Tribes with Muslims in
terms of human development input and out come
indicat ors, Muslims have consist ent ly improved
better than other marginalised groups.
The eight poorer States - Bihar, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajast han,
Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand - are home to nearly
48 per cent of all the SCs, 52 per cent of all the STs
and 44 per cent of all Muslims in the country.
The report - an updated version of the Human
Development Report-2011: Towards Social Inclusion
- ranks Delhi, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and
Punjab among the best performing States in human
development indicators, while Chhattisgarh, Bihar,
Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Odisha are t he
worst performers. Most ot her St at es, including
Gujarat, have more or less remained the same.
The report f urt her poi nt s out t hat t he
importance of good governance and massive social
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mobilisation by State governments gets ref lected in
t he per f ormance of al l t he soci al groups. For
instance, the SCs and the OBCs in Delhi, Himachal
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala are better off than
the upper castes in Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Utt ar
Pradesh in terms of various health indicators.
Similarly, t he SCs in Delhi and Kerala have
higher literacy rates than the upper castes in Bihar
and Rajasthan. Muslims in Jammu & Kashmir and
A.P. are bett er than Hindus not only in t heir own
States but also in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Bihar and Gujarat in terms of some health outcomes.
As t he mai nst r eam popul at i on i n t he
northeast, the STs have social indicators that are a lot
better than the forest dwelling STs in the central and
eastern belt of India. The STs, especially in Stat es
affected by ext remist violence, are only worse off
than other social groups not only in their respective
States but also their counterparts in the rest of the
country.
INDIARULES OUTDILUTINGCIVIL
NUCLEAR LIABILITYLAW
India has ruled out diluting the Civil Liability
for Nuclear Damage Act and hoped a solution to the
stalemate caused by foreign companies not agreeing
t o t wo of i t s cl auses wi l l be f ound wi t hi n t he
framework of the legislation.
"It is st ill is our intent ion t o establish new
react ors. It i s t aking a l it t le bit l onger but I am
confident the problems can be resolved within the
f ramework of t he Act ," Pl anni ng Commi ssi on
Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at a
joint news conference with U.S. Energy Secretary
Ernest Moniz at t he end of t he U.S.-India Energy
Dialogue.
Dr. Ahluwalia agreed that India has benefited
f rom t he I ndo-US ci vi l nucl ear agreement and
suggested that it was its turn to make sure nuclear
energy generating capacities are put in place. "Rapid
expansion of nuclear energy is very much a part of
India's energy security scenario," he added.
While India is putting up indigenous nuclear
plants, their capacity is less than what Russia, France
and the US are offering. But all the suppliers have
objected to Sections 17(b) and 46 of the Act which
t hey say run count er t o t he I nt ernat i onal
Convention on Supplement ary Compensation for
Nuclear Damage (CSC).
The CSC requires domest ic liabilit y laws t o
conform t o a model t ext but t he Indi an l aw i s
tougher as it allows legal action against suppliers if an
accident is caused by faulty or defective equipment.
The U.S. has been candid in stating that the Indian
law violat es t he CSC. Russia, Canada and France
have similar reservations but are not public about
them.
Dr. Moniz also acknowledged t hat t he key
issue holding back the setting up of foreign nuclear
power plants in India is the resolution of differences
between the Indian liability law and the CSC. He said
the U.S. wished to see that India was aligned with the
CSC which may come into force this year. "Resolving
it is important for all companies including Indian
companies," he said.
The US Energy Secretary did not agree with
the suggestion that the Indian law should be diluted.
He preferred to use the term "rationalise" and said
discussions on Wednesday in Mumbai would give a
better idea about Indian proposals in this regard.
ROTAVIRUS VACCINE SAFE,
MODESTLYEFFICACIOUS INPHASE
III TRIAL
A Phase III randomised, double-blind, placebo-
controlled trial of 116E rotavirus vaccine undertaken
in infants at three centres in India was found to be
safe and had modest efficacy of 53.6 per cent against
severe rotavirus gastroenteritis.
However, the efficacy during the first year of
life was higher at 56.4 per cent . The result s were
published in The Lancet journal.
At about 75,000 to 1,22,000 deaths per year,
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I ndi a account s f or about a quart er of t he t ot al
number of rotavirus deaths worldwide. Rotavirus
diarrhoea account s for almost 10 per cent of all
under-5 deaths and it is responsible for about 39 per
cent of diarrhoea-related admissions. About 70 per
cent of admissions take place in the first year of life.
The Hyderabad-based Bharat Bi ot ech
Int ernat ional, which had undertaken t he clinical
development of the vaccine and would manufacture
t he vaccine, has committ ed t o make t he vaccine
avai l abl e at not more t han $1 per dose f or
government procurement.
The trial took place between March 2011 and
November 5, 2012 i n Del hi (urban), Pune i n
Maharashtra (rural) and Vellore in Tamil Nadu (rural
and urban). The institutions involved in the study
were Society for Applied Studies, Delhi; KEM Hospital
Research Centre, Pune; and Christian Medical College
(CMC), Vellore. Three doses of the oral vaccine were
given at ages 6-7 weeks, 10 weeks and 14 weeks
respectively. Other childhood vaccines were given
concurrently.
Over 4,500 infants received the oral vaccine,
while over 2,250 received a placebo. But for t he
primary per-prot ocol efficacy analysis, only over
4,350 vaccinated infant s and nearly 2,200 infants
who received a placebo were included. At the time of
analysis, the median age of t he infant s was 17.2
months. At 96 per cent, the compliance t o dosing
was qui t e hi gh. The fol low-up of i nf ant s would
continue till all infants reach the age of two years, the
paper states.
Though 25 deaths were reported in the vaccine
arm and 17 in the placebo arm, the deaths were not
rel at ed t o t he vacci ne, t he paper not es. Ni t a
Bhandari, from the Centre for Health Research and
Development, Society for Applied Sciences, New Delhi
is the lead author of the paper.
"Our findings provide good evidence of the
efficacy of the 116E rotavirus vaccine and the study
sat isfied t he pri mary ef ficacy hypot hesis. 116E
protected against rotavirus gastroenteritis of varying
severity, with protection generally increasing with
clinical severity," the paper states. "Importantly, 116E
also reduced severe gast roent erit is of any cause,
showing the importance of rotavirus as a cause of
severe gastroenteritis in infants in India. Findings
from intention-to-treat analyses strongly supported
those of the per-protocol analyses."
The rotavirus strain found in the 116E vaccine
is an unusual strain in that it "rarely causes clinical
disease in India and elsewhere" the paper notes.
According to the paper, the strain was found
to provide protection against most of the commonly
circulating rotavirus genotypes in India and in other
parts of the world. The strain was identified by Prof.
Maharaj K Bhan way back in the mid 1980s. He was
then a paediatrician at AIIMS. He is currently with
the Ministry of Science and Technology.
The vaccine uses a live, attenuated virus strain
and would be given orally. The acidic environment in
the stomach greatly affect s the efficacy of any live
virus given orally. "Infants are given an antacid prior
to the vaccine administration to buffer the stomach
acid," explained Dr. Krishna Ella, Chairman and
Managing Director of Bharat Biotech International.
"The buffering allows t he virus t o survive in t he
st omach for about 20-30 minut es." The t rypsin
enzyme then activates the rotavirus and helps the
virus to multiply faster. The replication is faster as
the virus is live.
"The strain can provide cross-protection as the
out er st ruct ur al prot ei ns are si mi l ar t o ot her
rotavirus serotypes," said Dr. Ella. "It is a human neo-
natal strain and very different from other rotavirus
vaccines that are bovine based." It took as many as
three years to ident ify the dosage as t he strain is
unique. Unlike other vaccine that have 30-40 per cent
efficacy in the developing countries, the 116E vaccine
has over 56 per cent efficacy.
"It is very close to getting licensed in India," Dr.
El l a sai d. "We have devel oped a dedi cat ed
manufacturing facility for rotavirus vaccine. It will be
ready in 4-6 months." The facility has the capacity to
manufact ure about 4,00,000 million doses. "India
alone may require 75,000 million to 1,00,000 million
doses as three doses need to be given t o an infant
and the birth cohort is 26 million babies a year," he
noted.
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The vaccine was developed by the "combined
expert ise and int erest s" of investigat ors from 13
institutions. Besides Bharat Biotech, DBT, Melinda
Gates Foundation, ot her institut ions in India and
abroad were involved. Funding was jointly provided
by the pharma company, DBT and the Foundation.
PATH provided technical guidance and support.
EARLYOXYGENATIONOFDEEP
OCEAN
Tradit ional t heory has it t hat t he origin of
complex life on earth was catalysed by oxygenation
of the atmospheric and ocean. Scientists now counter
this argument to suggest that in fact they were the
first life forms, such as sponges, which oxygenated
t he deep oceans and aided i n t he evol ut ion of
complex life forms.
The ocean contained sufficient levels of oxygen
to support life for over 1.5 billion years before the
first animals evolved. Yet , the oxygen so found was
restricted to the upper few metres of the ocean. The
ocean dept hs, including t he bott om of t he water
body, continued to remain anoxic till half a billion
years ago.
Central to determining t he oxygen levels in
deep oceans is the delicate balance between oxygen
supply and demand. The demand shoots up when
organic matter in the form of dead organic material
sett les to the bot tom. Sponges that were found in
the continental shelf of t he ocean played a crucial
role in reducing the oxygen demand by t he dead
organic matter.
Thi s was achi eved by t he sponges f i rst
"ventilating" the continental shelf by clearing water of
organic material such as phytoplankton and dissolved
organic carbon. This helped in reducing oxygen
consumption and creating conditions suited for the
evolution of more complex, multi-cellular life with
higher oxygen needs, the researchers say in a paper
published in the latest edition of Nature Geoscience.
By increasing the oxygen level in the shelf, the
sponges inadvert ent ly helped in also "removing"
phosphorus found in t he ocean. Phosphorus is a
nutrient and its removal affected the ecosystem and,
in turn, reduced the oxygen demand. This led to a
ri se in oxygen suppl y in t he deep ocean for t he
animals to evolve. Recently, for instance, researchers
at Denmark's Nordic Cent er for Eart h Evolution
f ound t hat sponges i n Dani sh Fj ords needed
ext remel y l it t le oxygen (0.5 per cent of t oday's
atmospheric oxygen levels) to survive.
US HOUSEPASSES RESOLUTION
CALLINGFOR SANCTIONS AGAINST
RUSSIA
The US House of Represent atives passed a
resolution condemning Russia's violation of Ukrainian
sovereignty and calling for Russian sanctions.
The resol ut i on af fi rms t hat t he US has a
st rong int erest i n a democrat ic and prosperous
Ukraine with its territorial integrity intact and calls
for a number of actions, including:
Removal of all Russian military forces from
Ukraine's Crimean peninsula other than
those operating in accordance with its 1997
agreement regarding it s Black Sea Fleet
stationed there.
Deployment of independent monitors from
t he Organi zat i on f or Securi t y and
Cooperation in Europe in Crimea and other
areas of Ukraine.
Suspension by NATO allies and European
Uni on member st at es of mi l i t ary
cooperation with Russia, including sales of
military equipment
Boycott of the G8 summit in Sochi, Russia,
by the US, Canada, Germany, Italy, France,
Britain and Japan.
The Kreml i n war ned l ast week t hat any
sanctions imposed by the Unit ed St ates on Russia
over the turmoil in Ukraine could "boomerang" on
Washington.
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REGULATINGSTEMCELLTHERAPY
A revi sed set of gui del i nes on st em cel l
research was recently released by the Indian Council
of Medi cal Research and t he Depart ment of
Biotechnology, seven years after an earlier one was
i ssued. Despit e cl aimi ng t hat t he revi sion was
necessitated by a need to "ref lect new scientific and
clinical findings" that have changed the landscape of
stem cell research being undertaken in the country
and it s possi ble t ransl at i on, t here i s a glari ng
omission t hat ref lect s a lack of applicat ion of t he
mind. The guidelines make it abundantly clear that
any use of st em cel ls in pat ient s except t o t reat
var i ous haemat ol ogi cal , i mmunol ogi cal and
metabolic disorders using haematopoietic stem cells
should, by default, be considered as clinical trials. The
exempt i on i s on t he gr ounds t hat t he use of
haematopoietic stem cells to treat the said disorders
has been "established as a standard of medical care."
Of course, t he use of bone marrow (cont ai ni ng
haemat opoietic st em cells) to t reat diseases like
leukaemia has been in vogue in India since the 1960s.
But what has been overlooked in the new guidelines
i s t hat t reat i ng damaged corneas by l i mbal
transplantation for limbal stem cell deficiency should
also be considered as an established method of care;
limbal stem cells are transplanted from the healthy
eye to the damaged eye of the same patient to treat
an affected cornea. No other alternative method is
currently available to treat such cases. For the last
few years, a handful of tertiary eye hospitals in India
have been treat ing such cases using limbus stem
cells; since 2001, one inst itut e alone has treated
nearly 1,000 patients. Though the use of limbus stem
cells is not as old as haematopoietic stem cells, about
1,500 pat ient s wit h corneal damage have been
treated so far; there is also sufficient evidence to
prove its safety. Hence, there is a compelling reason
f or t he I CMR and t he DBT t o appl y t he same
yardstick and correct the anomaly.
Though belat ed, t he decision to call all the
unt est ed "t herapies" offered t o gullible people as
clinical trials is indeed commendable. This would end
t he rampant expl oi t at ion of pat i ent s by some
doct ors. Many unt est ed and unproven st em cell
treatments are being offered as a magic bullet for
many types of diseases and condit ions. Similarly,
several untested techniques to separate, grow and
expand specific stem cells are available in the country.
Besides failing to produce t he promised benefits,
there is a real possibility of causing greater harm to
patient s when st em cells are manipulat ed in t he
laborat or y. But wi t h many cli nics and hospit als
already offering stem sell therapy for a wide variety
of conditions, it remains to be seen how swiftly they
can be regulated under the new guidelines.
ISRAELCALLS FORREOCCUPATION
OFGAZAAFTERROCKETSALVOS
Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman
has cal l ed f or reoccupat i on of t he Gaza St ri p,
following a heavy Palestinian rocket fire int o the
Jewish state.
He said Israel would have no choice but t o
reoccupy Gaza, from which it withdrew all troops and
settlers in 2005, after the militant strikes - biggest
wave of attacks in 16 months.
"I do not think we can ignore such an attack, a
salvo of 50 rockets. My views are known and clear.
After Operations Cast Lead and Pillar of Defence,
t here i s now no ot her choi ce but compl et e
occupat ion of t he Gaza Strip, and cleaning house
there," Mr. Lieberman told Channel 2.
Israel earlier t his week displayed a cache of
advanced arms, including long-range rockets, seized
from a ship it claimed to have been sent by Iran for
Gaza-based militants.
"There are many t error hi deout s and
t housands of rocket s in t he St rip, and every day
(t error organisat ions in Gaza) increase weapons
smuggling and self-production of bombs, and this is
why we need t o put an end to it ," Mr. Lieberman
said.
The Islami c Jihad's mili t ary wi ng claimed
responsibility for the rocket fire, saying it was in
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response to an air strike on Tuesday that killed three
of its militants in southern Gaza.
The militant fact ion, which claimed to have
fi red 90 rocket s, t ook advant age of t he st ormy
weather when the Israel Defence Forces' ability to
identify and intercept rocket fire is lower.
This escalat ion in violence came hours after
British Prime Minister David Cameron arrived on his
first official visit to Israel since taking office in 2010.
The Israeli Foreign Minister said, "The Islamic
Jihad is sending a message to Cameron, who visited
the Knesset today and gave a speech in favour of an
agreement between us and the Palestinians - 'we are
on t he map, and we wi l l st op any agreement
between Israel and the Palestinians'"
The British Premier strongly condemned the
rocket fire calling it "barbaric".
"Let me absolutely clear about t hese attacks
from Gaza, we condemn t hem complet el y," Mr.
Cameron said during a press conference with Israel's
President Shimon Peres.
"These attacks are completely indiscriminate
ai med at ci vi l i an popul at i ons and t hat i s a
demonst rat i on of how barbari c t hey are," Mr.
Cameron said.
TIME-BOUNDTRIALS FOR
LEGISLATORS
By fixing a deadline of one year from the date
of framing of charges for t he complet ion of t rial
involving members of Parliament and Legislat ive
Assembli es, t he Supreme Court has once again
intervened effectively to give some credibility to the
idea of cleansing the polity of criminalisation. Last
year, it gave a jolt to the political class by striking
down a provision that protected sitting legislators
from immediate disqualification on conviction. It has
now sought to ensure that repeated adjournments
and dil at ory t act ics do not i ndef init el y prot ect
lawmakers from conviction and disqualification. The
i nt eri m or der - on a pet i t i on by a vol unt ary
organisation - making the framing of charges as the
point at which the clock begins to tick is based on a
Law Commission recommendation that the filing of
charge sheet could not be the appropriate stage for
disqualification of candidates from contesting. The
Court has asked t ri al court s t o wrap up t ri al s
involving legislators within a year; and if they are
unable t o do so, they need t o explain t he delay to
t he Chi ef Just ice of t he Hi gh Court . When t he
Supreme Court held in 1979, and reiterated in 1986,
that speedy trial is a fundamental right under Article
21 of the Constitution, what it had in mind was the
plight of hundreds of poor prisoners languishing in
jails across the country wit hout being brought t o
trial for years. The languid criminal justice system, on
t he ot her hand, has worked t o t he advant age of
members of the political class who occasionally find
themselves facing prosecution on corruption and
other charges.
Many political leaders and functionaries have
managed to prolong for years an inherently supine
trial mechanism, enjoying in the meantime repeated
elect oral vict ories and comfortable tenures in t he
l egi sl at ures of t he St at es and i n Parl iament . A
si gni f i cant number among t he l aw-maki ng
community, including leaders of polit ical parties,
manage to get trial proceedings stayed by superior
court s or post poned by means of i nt ermi nabl e
interlocutory petitions. The Criminal Procedure Code
does not prescribe a time limit for winding up a trial,
but Section 309 makes it clear that once examination
of witnesses begins, it shall proceed on a day-to-day
basis until all witnesses are examined. This provision
is rarely adhered to for various reasons. It is no easy
task for t he lower judiciary as MPs and MLAs are
influential litigants, engaging the services of a battery
of advocat es who spare no ef fort and l eave no
procedural aspect unquestioned before allowing the
trial t o commence. The latest order helps address
this problem by empowering the trial court to refuse
routine adjournments.
THEWAGES OFSCIENTIFIC FRAUD
Wi t h t he Supreme Court of Sout h Korea
upholding it s 2010 ruling, Hwang Woo Suk, t he
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not ori ous st em cel l researcher f rom t he Seoul
Nat ional Universit y in Sout h Korea, will serve a
suspended jai l t erm of one-and-a-half years f or
embezzl ement and vi ol at i on of t he count ry's
bioethics law that came into effect in January 2005.
This brings to an end a sordid tale that shocked the
scientific community across the world. Hwang shot
into international fame for two "landmark" papers
published in February 2004 and May 2005 in the
journalScience. If the first one was for "cloning" 30
human embr yos and f or "der i vi ng" a human
embryonic st em-cell line from one of t hem, t he
second was for "creating" 11 human embryonic stem-
cell lines from the skin cells of individual patients. But
less t han t hree mont hs aft er t he first paper was
publ i shed, t he past caught up wi t h hi m and
questions about unethical practices started cropping
up. I t soon became evi dent t hat Hwang had
commit ted one of t he biggest scientific frauds in
recent times by indulging in all kinds of unethical
measures. He did not resort to relatively lesser evils
like plagiarism but instead settled for the bigger ones
- image manipulation, rampant data falsification and
f abri cat i on, gross mi sr epresent at i on of f act s,
purchasing eggs for research, and forcing junior
members in the same lab to donate eggs. There were
acts of out right fraud as well - embezzlement of
nearl y $3 mi l l i on and maki ng appl i cat i ons f or
research funds based on fabricated data. Though
South Korea did well by investigating the fraud and
punishi ng him, it i s surpri sing t hat a vari et y of
unaccept abl e act s commi t t ed by hi m are by
t hemsel ves not puni shable. Sout h Korea has t o
quickly correct the anomaly.
Hwang epitomises and exemplifies the case of
a brilliant researcher who allowed his moral compass
t o go complet ely haywire, all for inst ant aneous,
though ephemeral, glory and fame. In the process,
he self- destructed. The simple yet vital message that
any scientific st udy carried out through unet hical
means is not hi ng but a cast le bui lt on sand got
completely lost on him. The t rut h is t hat science
places a high premium on et hical conduct and the
sci ent i fic communit y is ext remel y int olerant of
peopl e i ndul gi ng i n unaccept abl e act s. Wi t h
t housands of keen eyes scrut i ni si ng even t he
minutest details of most papers, the high-visibility
ones in particular, and trying to replicate the results,
t he chances of cheats gett ing exposed in double-
quick time are real. It pays to remember that there
are no short -cut s, and t hat doing good science
ethically brings lasting benefits.
U.S. TOCEDEINTERNETOVERSIGHT
The Uni t ed St at es wi l l gi ve up i t s rol e
overseeing the system of Web addresses and domain
names that form the basic plumbing of the Internet,
t urning it over in 2015 t o an internat ional group
whose st ruct ure and admi ni st rat i on wi l l be
det ermined duri ng t he next year, government
officials said.
Since t he dawn of the Int ernet, the United
St at es has been r esponsi bl e f or assi gni ng t he
numbers that form Internet addresses, the .com, .gov
and .org labels that correspond to those numbers,
and for t he vast dat abase t hat links t he t wo and
makes sure Internet traffic goes to the right place.
The funct ion has been subcont ract ed since
1998 t o t he Int ernet Corporat ion for Assi gned
Names and Numbers (ICANN), an international non-
profit organisation, with the expectat ion that t he
Unit ed States would eventually step back from its
role.
But t hat t r ansi t i on has t aken on a new
urgency in the past year because of revelations that
t he U.S. int elligence communit y, part icularly the
National Security Agency (NSA), has been intercepting
Internet traffic as part of its global spying efforts.
While other count ries have called for t he United
States t o turn over t he keys to t he syst em, many
businesses, dependent on the smooth functioning of
t he Internet for t heir livelihood, have expressed
concern about what form the new organisation will
take.
While the announcements were structured to
portray a cooperative global community, t here has
been widespread hostility toward the United States
since the former NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden

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began releasing documents showing the extent of U.S.
global spying.
Those spying programs had nothing to do with
t he rol e of t he Uni t ed St at es or I cann i n
administering Internet addresses. But the perception
that the United States was pulling all the strings led
to a global uproar.
UKRAINE ACCUSES RUSSIAOF
INVASIONINCRIMEA
Ukraine accused Russian forces of invading a
village in Crimea and vowed t o use "all necessary
measures" to stop the attack.
The Ukraine foreign ministry said about 80
Russian troops, backed by four helicopter gunships
and t hree armoured combat vehicles, seized t he
village of Strilkove near the north eastern edge of the
Crimean peninsula.
There was no i mmedi at e react i on f r om
Russian officials.
Cri mea t ot all y depends on Ukraine for it s
energy and drinking water.
A day before t he crucial breakaway vote in
Ukraine's Crimea, deadly clashes again erupted in
Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine, while in Moscow
tens of thousands rallied for and against Russia's
intervention in Crimea.
kraine's Acting President Oleksandr Turchinov
on Saturday blamed the violence on "Kremlin agents"
who were "organising mass prot est s in east ern
Ukraine."
Following the clashes in Donetsk the Russian
Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying that the
Ukrainian authorities did not control the situation
and that Russia reserved t he right t o prot ect it s
compatriots in Ukraine.
Opponent s and support ers of Russi a's
intervention in Crimea held rival rallies in Moscow on
Sat urday. Bet ween 20,000 and 30,000
demonstrators marched "For Peace" and against war
between Russia and Ukraine. The marchers carried
Russian and Ukrainian f lags and chant ed "Putin is
Russia's enemy" and "Russia without Putin."
Speakers at t he pr o-government ral l y
denounced the "fascist coup" in Ukraine and vowed
not to allow a "Maidan-style" protests in Russia.
Crimea, where ethnic Russians account for 60
per cent of the population, will be voting on Sunday
either for splitting from Ukraine and joining Russia
or for st aying as part of Ukraine wit h ext ended
powers
NIGERIA'S NORTHERNCHALLENGE
Even f or a count ry whi ch has seen much
violence by the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram,
t he f act i on's Febr uary 25 at t ack on sl eepi ng
schoolchildren in Buni Yadi, 70 km from Yobe state
capital Damat uru, was shocking. The attackers set
alight the administration block and then locked the
pupils in before firebombing the hostels. Up to 59
children were killed; a teacher said they died either in
the blaze or at the hands of the attackers, who shot
them as they tried to climb out of the windows or
caught them and cut their throats. All of Nigeria was
st unned, and i n Abuja t he nat ional parl i ament
observed a minute's silence for the victims; Speaker
Aminu Waziri Tambuwal made an emotional speech,
and the House suspended proceedings for the day.
Boko Haram means "western education is sinful" in
Hausa, and since t he school murders, the federal
government has closed five federal secondary schools
i n t hree nort hern st at es; t he pupi ls have been
offered alternatives. The violence continues, with at
least 650 already ki lled t hi s year; nort heast ern
Nigeria is in a state of civil war.
It is, however, far f rom clear whet her t he
federal government has done all it can. The Nigerian
milit ar y, consistent ly a large presence in African
Union (AU) operations, has had little impact; locals
accuse the army of serious abuses of power, including
summary executions, and of delaying interventions
when terrorists attack villages. Secondly, rampant
corrupt ion has severely weakened most publi c
institutions; the Central Bank head, Lamido Sanusi,
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was suspended af t er accusing t he st at e-owned
Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) of
failing t o account for $20 billion in oil revenues.
Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has called for
an audit of NNPC's accounts, but wider issues arise,
as only a small proportion of Nigeria's 170 million
people have seen the benefits of a decade-long 7 per
cent growt h r at e. Furt hermore, t he count ry's
northeastern regions have been badly neglected, and
Boko Haram sees the Muslim majority there as being
ripe for indoctrination. Yet Abuja seems not to be
using all available resources, such as AU leverage;
neighbouring Chad says Nigeria has not asked it for
help over Boko Haram groups apparent ly based
t here. Most tragically, t he federal government is
wasting genuine political capital; Nigerians have never
voted on communal lines, and in 2011 t he voters
themselves ensured a peaceful general election. It is
imperative that, despite all the problems, President
Goodluck Jonathan and his government address
nort hern Nigeri ans' concerns - and t hat means
reducing the corruption that stops them benefiting
from many of Nigeria's undoubted advantages.
SPACEDEBRIS CANMAKEFUTURE
SPACEMISSIONS IMPOSSIBLE
There may soon be so much debris in orbit
around the Earth that future space missions could
become impossible, scientists have warned.
Researchers at t he European Space Agency
(ESA) have said that the amount of debris from man-
made objects is about to reach "criticality".
This means there is so much debris that it is
colliding with other debris - generating particles of
space junk at an accelerating rate.
The sci ent i st s sai d i t woul d event ual l y
surround the planet in so much speeding space junk
that swathes of space will become inaccessible.
"If t he current launch rat e cont inues, then
collisions will soon be 25 times higher than now. This
would make space f light in low Earth orbits almost
impossible," ESA said.
"There are already 17,000 trackable object s
larger than a coffee cup, which threat en working
missions with catastrophic collision. Even a 1cm nut
could hit with the force of a hand grenade."
To t ackle the problem, t he space agency is
designing a hunter-killer space probe to track down
and destroy defunct satellites and so halt the growth
of t he bur geoni ng cl oud, 'The Sunday Ti mes'
reported.
The e.DeOrbit probe would deploy a Roman
gladiator-style array of nets and harpoons to first
trap rogue satellites and then drag them downwards
until they burn up in the atmosphere.
While the question remains how long it will
take for the debris cascade to render space unusable,
researchers said t here are already cert ain orbits,
popular with communication and military satellites,
that could become unusable within a decade or two.
The worst affected are orbits of 800-965 km
alt i t ude t hat pass over t he poles, because t hese
already contain many of the 5,000 or so satellit es
launched by humanity since the space age began.
ESA said removing between five and 10 large
satellites from space each year would be enough to
stop the debris cloud growing.
CERC COMPENSATORYTARIFF
WON'TBURDENDISCOMS,
CONSUMERS: CARE
The cent ral elect ricit y regulat or's order for
compensatory tariff to Tata Power and Adani Power
has not only provided relief to producers but also
ensured t hat di scoms and consumers are not
burdened by higher tariff, says a report by rat ing
agency Care.
The Cent ral El ect ri ci t y Regul at ory
Commission (CERC) has directed the states to pay a
compensation of Rs. 329.45 crore to Tata Power and
Rs. 829 crore to Adani Power for a period from April
1, 2012 t o March 31, 2013 for t heir past losses
arising out of higher coal imports.
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The CERC has al so al l owed a gross
compensat or y t ariff of Rs. 0.53 per unit for Tat a
Power, which supplies power to Gujarat , Haryana,
Maharasht ra, Punjab and Raj ast han, whi l e a
provisional gross compensatory tariff of Rs. 0.85 per
unit for Gujarat and Rs. 0.36 for Haryana for Adani
Power.
The report furt her said, "These t ariffs st ill
remain within the range of 25-50 per cent of merit
order dispatch for all the discoms. Thus, discoms
stand to gain even after compensatory tariff hikes as
most of recent Case-1 and Case-2 bids are being
clinched at higher tariffs Rs. 4.5-5 per unit."
It also noted through the judgement, CERC
has managed to do a fine balancing act of preserving
project viability for developers without disturbing
sanct i t y of PPA and creat i ng a mechani sm for
optimising discom power purchase costs, thereby
reducing tariff shock to consumers.
POLLUTIONGETTINGWORSE IN
INDIANCITIES: PACHAURI
A study pointing that the pollution levels in
New Delhi is worse than that of Beijing may have
been quoting the data from the worst period of the
year but the air quality in Indian cities is progressively
get ting worse, UN climat e change chief Rajendra
Pachauri said.
"We also have to allow the fact that there are
variat i ons in t he composit ion of PM 2.5 i n t he
atmosphere which varies from season to season. It
may very well be the study they are quoting is that
of the worst period during the year," he told media
here at a pre-launch function of the report on the
India-China Low Carbon Study.
But at t he same he sai d t he si t uat i on i s
progressively getting worse in Delhi and Bangalore
and even in second rung cities like Ludhiana.
Dr . Pachauri , chai rman of t he UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, was co-
recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize with former US
vice president Al Gore in 2007.
The Mi ni st r y of Envi ronment shoul d
commission two or t hree institutions to carry out
det ailed assessment of the sit uation and what are
the drivers of things making this is worse and future
policy making, he said.
On the debate about the safety of the nuclear
power plants, he said: "Frankly we have to demystify
nuclear energy. People have to have make decision. In
a democracy you cannot ignore that aspect."
Nuclear energy is not a panacea to solve all our
problems. We are little glib about it ," he said. He was
answering questions abut China's plans to build 28
nuclear power plants which are under various stages
of construction.
Asked about what India can learn from China,
he said both can learn each from t heir strengt hs.
"One cannot generalise. Some sectors they have done
wel l , some we have done well . There has t o be
exchange of knowledge which will have enormous
value for both," he said.
NATOPLEDGES CLOSE
COOPERATIONWITHUKRAINE
NATO has vowed to intensify cooperation with
Ukraine after residents in the Crimea peninsula voted
overwhelmingly to secede and try to join Russia.
Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Deshchytsya
visited NATO headquarters with a request list for
t echnical equipment t hat Ukraine's government
needs to deal with the secession of Crimea and the
Russian incursion there. It was not immediately clear
what equipment Ukraine was asking for.
NATO said in a stat ement t he alliance was
det ermined t o boost cooperat ion, incl uding t he
"increased ties with Ukraine's political and military
l eadershi p, st rengt hening ef f ort s t o bui l d t he
capacity of t he Ukrainian military and more joint
training and exercises."
Mr. Deshchyt sya said i n t al ks wi t h NATO
Secret ary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen he
"discussed our possible cooperation in the field of
sending monitors to Ukraine."
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AEROSOLS CANENHANCE
MONSOONRAINS: STUDY
Monsoon rains over India could increase if
desertification leads to more dust from West Asia
and North Africa swirling into t he air, suggest s a
research report bei ng publ i shed i n Nat ure
Geoscience. There has been growing int erest in
examining how fine part icles in t he atmosphere,
known as aerosols, affect the climate.
However, much of this research has looked at
particles generated by human activity, especially the
role of soot.
But natural aerosols, such as sea-salt and dust,
are far more abundant than human-produced ones,
remarked V. Vi noj, who i s cur rent l y wi t h I I T
Bhubaneswar.
The research appeari ng onl i ne i n Nat ure
Geoscience was carried out by him wit h Philip J.
Rasch's group at t he Pacific Northwest National
Laboratory in the U.S.
Analysing observational data, Dr. Vinoj and
his colleagues found that monsoon rainfall during
June, July and August over central India was strongly
correlated with aerosol levels over West Asia, North
Africa and the Arabian Sea.
The sci ent i st s t urned t o a gl obal cl i mat e
model, the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM5),
to simulate what effect different types of aerosols
would have on the monsoon rains.
When dust was removed al t oget her, t he
correlations between the central Indian rains and
West Asian aerosol levels disappeared.
The simulations also showed that when West
Asian dust levels dropped, rains over central India
decreased within a week.
The dust acted by absorbing radiation from
the sun and heating the atmosphere.
High levels of dust over West Asia and North
Africa lowered atmospheric pressure in land regions
t o t he nort h and west of t he Arabi an Sea, t he
scientists said.
That l ow-pressure band st rengt hened
moisture-laden winds that fed the Indian monsoon.
"The expected expansion of desert and arid
regions under global warming could enhance dust
transport from the deserts of the Middle East and
North Africa to the Asian monsoon regions, further
enhancing monsoon rainfall," observed William Lau
of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in the U.S
in a commentary published in the same journal.
INDIATOAPPEAL AGAINSTITALIAN
COURTORDER IN
AGUSTAWESTLANDCASE
India will appeal against a Milan court order
barring encashment of bank guarant ees in t he
contract for procurement of 12 VVIP helicopt ers
from AgustaWestland that was t erminat ed by t he
Defence Ministry in January on grounds of breach of
the pre-contract integrity pact and the agreement
by the supplier.
The decision comes a day after the Milan court
admitted a plea by AgustaWestland's parent company
Finmeccanica t o prevent the Indian Government
from encashing bank guarantees worth over Rs.2,360
crore as a post-contract termination penalty imposed
by the Defence Ministry.
AgustaWestland had already supplied three of
the 12 helicopters to the Defence Ministry after the
cont ract was si gned i n February 2010. Whi l e
guarantees to the tune of Rs.240 crore held with the
banks i n India have already been encashed, t he
guarant ees wit h t he banks in It aly are yet t o be
impounded.
The VVI P chopper deal came under t he
Central Bureau of Investigation scanner in February
2013 after the Italian investigators arrested the then
Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi on allegations of
kickbacks to Indian officials.
Af t er a prel i mi nar y enqui r y, t he agency
regist ered a case naming ret ired Indian Air Force
chief S.P. Tyagi, his three cousins Julie, Docsa and
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Sandeep Tyagi; Chief Executive Officer of Aeromatrix
Info Solution Private Limited Praveen Bakshi; IDS
Infotech Chairman Satish Bagrodia and its Managing
Director Pratap K. Aggarwal; and advocate Gautam
Khait an. The accused persons have denied t heir
involvement.
Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnol i ni , t he
f or mer CEO of Uni t ed Ki ngdom-based
AgustaWestland, besides alleged middlemen Guido
Ralph Haschke, Carlo Valentino Ferdinando Gerosa
and Christian Michel were also named.
While the suspects based in India have already
been examined by the CBI, t he agency has gained
l i mi t ed access t o Haschke t hr ough t he Mi l an
prosecutors. He is one among the accused persons
facing trial in the case being pursued in Italy.
RUSSIASUSPENDEDFROMG-8:
FRANCE
France's foreign minister says that leaders of
the Group of Eight world powers have suspended
Russia's participation in the club amid tensions over
Ukraine and Russia's incursion into Crimea.
The other seven members of the group had
already suspended preparations for a G-8 summit
that Russia is scheduled to host in June in Sochi.
France's Laurent Fabius went further, saying
on Europe-1 radio t hat "concerning the G-8 ... we
decided to suspend Russia's participation, and it is
envisaged t hat all t he ot her count ries, t he seven
leading countries, will unite without Russia."
The U.S. and European Union announced new
sanct ions agai nst Russi a over i t s act ions i n t he
Crimean Peninsula.
THE NEWCOLDWAR
The March 16 referendum on whet her t he
southeastern Ukrainian province of Crimea should
unite with Russia or have greater autonomy within
Ukraine has present ed t he Unit ed States and the
European Union with their most severe political test
in decades. On available figures, almost 97 per cent
of those who voted favoured unification with Russia;
the option of the status quo was not offered, and the
Crimean government , headed by Sergey Aksyonov,
prompt l y vot ed t o approve t he pl an. I n t he
Ukrainian capit al Ki ev, int er im Pri me Mi ni st er
Oleksandr Turchynov rejected t he referendum as
unconstitutional, but he was powerless to prevent it.
The proximate cause of the referendum was the then
Ukrai ni an Presi dent Vi kt or Yanukovych's
unannounced departure from office on February 22,
following weeks of public prot ests - and a violent
government crackdown - over revelat ions of his
corrupt ion and his abrogat i on of an associat ion
agreement with the EU, which may well have led to
Ukraine's joining the EU in due course. In response,
Russia, which had offered Kiev a 15-billion aid
package and ret ains a naval base at Sevastopol in
Crimea, sent t roops int o t he 58 per cent et hnic-
Russian province, where Mr. Aksyonov had already
been voted into the regional prime ministership while
armed guards kept all but his own party out of the
Assembly building in Simferopol.
Russian President Vladimir Putin considers Mr.
Yanukovych the victim of a West-inspired coup d'tat,
but t he issues are much wider. The EU deal would
have involved Ukraine in IMF restructuring and much
cl oser cooperat i on wi t h NATO-domi nat ed EU
defence institutions. Moscow saw this as a threat,
especially following the emergence of evidence that
U.S. troops had helped prime Georgian weapons in
t he latt er's 2008 at t empt to seize Sout h Osset ia;
Russian governments also recall the unilateral U.S.
recognition of Kosovo in 2008, and Mr. Putin was
incensed when plans emerged for Ukraine to join
NATO. Moreover, ethnic Russians in Crimea were not
consul t ed over t hen Sovi et Pr esi dent Ni ki t a
Khruschev's decision to hand over the province to
Ukraine in 1954. Tensions wit hin Ukrai ne were
further exacerbated by Mr. Turchynov's appointment
of several far-right politicians to senior ministerial
posts in Kiev, and by a new law ending the official
status of the Russian language in Crimea. The U.S.
and the EU are considering sanctions, such as visa
bans and asset freezes, against Russian officials; the
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G7 countries have declared the Crimea referendum
illegal, but no Western bloc may be able to stop the
dismemberment of Ukraine and prevent the start of
a new Cold War.
RUSSIA, CRIMEASIGNACCESSION
PACT
Russian President Vladimir Put in signed a
t r eat y on Cri mea's accessi on t o Russi a af t er
delivering a defiant speech defending his move and
blasting t he West for pursuing "cont ainment " of
Russia and f louting international law. The treaty was
also signed by the Crimean leaders who attended a
special joint session of the Russian Parliament in the
Kremlin. Mr. Putin said he was confident the Russian
Parliament would ratify the pact.
In his address at the meeting Mr. Putin called
Crimea's reunification with Russia a "historic" event
of "vital importance." He said Crimea was always an
"inseparable part of Russia" and its separation after
the fall of the Soviet Union was a "historical injustice."
More than 90 percent of Crimea's residents voted in
a ref erendum f or spl i t t i ng f r om Ukrai ne and
rejoining Russia. Mr. Putin called t he vote a "free
choice of their destiny" that was expressed fully in
accordance with the right to self-determination.
He denied West ern accusat ions t hat Russia
had i nvaded Cr i mea, sayi ng t hat Russi an
"reinforcement s" were in line wit h a t reat y wit h
Ukraine t hat allows Russia t o have up t o 25,000
t roops at it s Black Sea Fleet base in Crimea. Mr.
Put in dismissed concerns t hat Russia could seize
other regions in Ukraine.
Describing Crimea as "strategic territory," Mr.
Putin said that Ukraine's likely joining of NATO would
have led to t he deployment of NATO warships in
Crimea's Sevastopol, "t he cit y of Russian military
glory."
The Russian leader dismissed Western criticism
of Russia over Crimea as hypocrisy. "Our colleagues
in t he U.S. and elsewhere t ell us we are violat ing
int ernat i onal laws. I t is good t hat t hey at l east
remember there are international laws. Better late
than never."
CHINA'S MOONROVER'JADE
RABBIT' LISTENINGBUTIMMOBILE:
SCIENTISTS
China's moon rover that moved between 100-
110 metres before stalling in late January owing to
a mechanical failure is awake but still immobile.
Yutu, or 'Jade Rabbit', has stopped hopping.
But its ears are still twitching - and communicating
with eart h, said a report in the scientific journal
Nature.
Yutu may never move more than the 100-110
metres it has already travelled from its landing site
- in the Mare Imbrium.
Mission officials had earlier hoped that Yutu
woul d t ravel t o t he ri m of a nearby crat er and
explore it but a mechanical failure in Yutu's drive
system has stilled the rover since late January.
"The r over has al r eady used i t s ground-
penetrating radar to probe the structure of the lunar
soil more than 100 metres deep. Those data are still
being processed," informed Chinese scientists at the
Lunar and Planet ary Science Conference in The
Woodlands, Texas.
Early results from the rover's alpha-particle X-
ray spect romet er al so hi nt at t he chemi cal
composition of the landing site.
It spotted expected major chemical elements
such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, potassium
and calcium.
Much of the purpose of having a rover is lost,
t hough, if Yut u can no longer gat her dat a from
different areas, the report added.
THEMESSAGEFROMSPEEDYTRIALS
If there is one message in the Mumbai Sessions
Court's judgment in the Shakti Mills gang rape cases,
it is that the pervasive cynicism about the country's
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criminal justice system, especially in rendering justice
t o vict ims of sexual violence, may not always be
justified. The verdict of Judge Shalini S. Phansalkar-
Joshi, sentencing four convicts to life terms for the
gang rape of a telephone operator in the abandoned
mill compound eight months ago, is noteworthy for
meting out speedy justice as well as for imposing the
maximum punishment available in law under t he
recent l y amended and st rengt hened penal
provisions. There was much shock and anger when a
photo-journalist was sexually assaulted by a group of
youngsters, including a juvenile, on August 22 last
year. The f act t hat she went t o t he pol i ce
i mmedi at el y encouraged anot her woman, t he
telephone operator, to come forward and disclose
that she too had been gang-raped some weeks earlier
at the same spot. A key response of the government
after the Delhi gang rape of December 2012 was to
amend t he penal provi si ons rel at i ng t o sexual
vi ol ence. The Shakt i Mi ll s episode provi ded an
opport unit y t o t he judici ary t o make use of t he
provision for enhanced punishment. It is significant
that the judge has sentenced the four convicts under
Section 376D, which deals wit h gang rape, t o the
maximum punishment of imprisonment for t he
remainder of their natural life. The sentence in the
second incident involving the photo-journalist has
been deferred after the prosecutor, invoking Section
376E, whi ch provides for t he deat h penalt y f or
repeat offenders, demanded capit al punishment .
Three of the convicts participated in both the crimes,
but it is debat able whether t here is any case for
awarding death, when life-long incarceration, which
comes wi t h t he possi bi l i t y of repent ance and
introspection, can serve the ends of justice.
There were moment s in t he last year or so
when many believed that the national outcry since
December 2012 may have been in vain, as sexual
crimes continued to be reported, and no part of the
count r y seemed safe for women. Yet , even if t he
larger malaise of sexual violence against women
appears entrenched in society, it is of some comfort
to know that there is no question of impunity. There
i s a f ai r degree of cer t i t ude now t hat t i mel y
complaints and disclosures would help the police to
undert ake a proper invest igat i on, whi l e publi c
opinion and activism keep the issue alive so that the
case is not derailed at the trial stage. As the Shakti
Mi ll s t ri al s demonst rat e, t he way forward i s in
f ost eri ng t rust i n t he syst em of cr i mi nal
administration by efficient investigation and speedy
trials.
FRICTIONOVER DRUGPATENTS
Differences over intellectual property rights
(IPRs) have emerged as a strong undercurrent in
India's economic relations with the U.S. The attempt
by the inf luent ial pharmaceut ical lobby to st ymie
India's efforts to ensure the supply of medicines at
affordable rat es without violat ing exist ing t reat y
commitments, requires a principled response from
New Delhi. At the core of the issue is what Columbia
University Professor Arvind Panagariya calls "t he
hijacking of the economic policy dialogue between
the U.S. and India by pharmaceutical lobbies in the
U.S." Piqued by India's decision to use the flexibilities
that are available in the existing TRIPS(Trade Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement,
big pharma in the U.S., along with other inf luential
business groups, is using it s considerable clout to
pressure t he U.S. Trade Represent at i ve i nt o
designating India as a "priority foreign country" in its
2014 Special 301 Report, due on April 30. That label
is reserved for the worst offenders of IPRs, and as a
follow-up the U.S. could impose trade sanctions such
as withdrawing tariff preferences for Indian exports.
In an elect ion year, India will most likely retaliate
through anti-dumping duties or tariff hikes on U.S.
imports.
The genesis of t his issue goes back to 1994
when at the Uruguay Round of t rade t alks India,
while not being wholly successful in resisting U.S.
at t empt s t o have a 20-year product pat ent on
medicines and chemicals, managed t o incorporate
certain flexibilities in the TRIPSagreement. However,
si nce 2005 when I ndi a i ncor porat ed pat ent
prot ect i on int o domest i c l aws, i t has used t he
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f lexibilit ies only twice. In March 2012, it issued a
compulsory licence t o an Indian firm for a cancer
drug, whose pat ent -hol der, t he German
multinational Bayer, had priced it well beyond the
reach of a majority of Indian patients. Under another
provision, countries have the option to deny a patent
to a drug that involved only incremental innovation
over an exist ing drug. In April 2013 the Supreme
Court upheld the 2006 decision of the Indian patent
office denying t he Swiss mult inat ional Novart is
patent on a drug t hat involved only increment al
innovation. Clearly, not just these two instances but
the prospect of other countries emulating India has
rattled big pharma. India, which has not violated the
t reaty obligations, can challenge any prospect ive
action by the U.S. by taking it before the WTO, whose
dispute settlement mechanism has a good record of
impar t ialit y. Developing count ries as also a few
developed ones expect India to act effect ively t o
saf eguard i t s domest i c commi t ment t o publ i c
health.
GAYOOMCOMES BACK, INSTYLE
Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who rul ed t he
Maldives with an iron hand for three decades before
giving way to more democratic forces, is back. The
party he founded, the Progressive Party of Maldives,
has emerged as t he si ngl e l argest part y i n a
surprisingly trouble-free parliamentary election in
the Maldives on March 22. More important, the PPM
and its allies have won a nearly two-thirds majority
in the 85-member People's Majlis, the Maldives'
Parliament. The PPM on its own has 34 seats; the
Jumhooree Party, run by a business tycoon, won 15
seat s, and t he Maldi ves Devel opment All i ance
managed five. The Maldivian Democrat ic Part y,
whose nominee, Mohamed Nasheed, was elected
President in the first multi-party elections in 2008,
lost its numbers in Parliament, winning just 24 seats.
Islamists have got representation in the Majlis with
the Aadalath Party's lone success. The elections were
held even as the head and deputy of the country's
Elect ions Commission (EC) were removed by the
Supreme Court . Ahead of t he pol ls, t here were
widespread complaints of distribution of money and
goods. With no firm law in place, and being virtually
headless, t he EC looked the ot her way, and went
ahead with the polls. Transparency Maldives, which
monit ored t he pol ls, sai d t he process was wel l
administered and transparent but that wider issues
of money politics threaten the democratic process.
This result leaves the PPM now at the helm in
bot h t he legislat ure and t he execut ive, and wit h
Gayoom-era judges heading t he Supreme Court ,
democracy in the Maldives has come full circle. For
Mr. Gayoom's half-brother, Abdulla Yameen, who
won the presidency in the 2013 elections, the victory
means freedom to put his agenda into action. During
hi s campai gn, Mr. Yameen, an economi st , had
asserted that turning the country around would be
his first t ask. Ever since February 2012, after Mr.
Nasheed st epped down i n cont roversi al
circumstances, the Maldives has slipped from one
crisis t o anot her. The economy has hit the lowest
level in decades, and many multinationals insist on
payment in U.S. dollars for any t ransact ion. Mr.
Yameen presides over a mammoth government: the
number of Mi ni st er s i n t he Mal di ves i s onl y
marginally less t han in Sri Lanka - which has the
largest number of Ministers in this region. Public
confidence in institutions and government is at an all-
time low. Also, t hough Mr. Yameen made his first
foreign visit to India, there is a discernible confidence
gap between the two countries. India is critical to
sustaining the Maldivian economy and Mr. Yameen is
aware of this. In addition to managing relations with
India, he needs to carry all sections with him and
work to improve governance.
SEEKINGCLARITYONHUMAN
RIGHTS
The human right s gaunt l et t hat Amnest y
International has thrown down will not be easy to
pass over when India's polit ical part ies seek t he
people's mandate in the coming weeks. The 14-for-
2014 chart er seeks concret e commit ment s from
prime minist erial hopefuls in the elections to t he
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16th Lok Sabha on almost every rights violation that
has shaken t he ci t i zens' consci ence. The l egal
prohi bi t i on of t ort ure, abol i t i on of t he deat h
penal t y, decr i mi nal i sat i on of homosexual i t y,
punishment for marital rape and a law for migrant
labour, figure in the 16-item questionnaire, seeking
a poi nt ed yes or no answer f r om part i es and
prominent leaders. A categorical position on these
deep moral questions will determine the depth and
direction of Indian democracy. Election time is when
prospective representatives should make their views
known, and Amnest y's quest ions are t imely. The
current prevaricat ion on t he quest ion of capit al
punishment, under the so-called rarest of rare cases
dictum, may not be tenable considering the extent
t o which t he i ssue has of lat e acqui red divi si ve
political overtones, while the dimensions of ethics
and just ice have been rendered marginal t o t he
ent i re debat e. Si mi l ar l y, t he bal l i s cl earl y i n
Parli ament 's court subsequent t o t he Supreme
Court 's ret rograde verdict on Section 377 of t he
I ndi an Penal Code. I nt erest i ngl y, t he El ect i on
Commission mentions transgender electors (under
t he head of 'ot hers') who have regist ered for the
coming elections.
When organised political forces participate in
the poll process, t hey affirm a commitment to the
constitutional values of justice, freedom, equality and
human di gni t y, reasons Amnest y. I ndeed, t he
regist ration of polit ical part ies wit h t he Elect ion
Commission is a statutory requirement under the
Representation of the People Act, 1951. This law also
stipulates that the respective party constitutions are
in consonance wit h t he principles of t he Indian
Const it ut i on and t he composi t i on of t he part y
st r uct ure ref l ect s t he democrat i c spi r i t . As a
signatory to the 1994 Declaration of Free and Fair
Elect ions of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, India
regards periodic and genuine elections as a necessary
and indispensable element of sust ained efforts to
prot ect t he rights and interest s of t he governed.
Election 2014 is surely the time for political parties
to renew t hat pledge in their poll manifestos. The
moral mileage they would gain thus would be worth
a great deal more than they can either measure or
imagine. For t he sponsors of ext remist left-wing
violence and the far-right purveyors of ideologies of
hat e, t here i s a l esson i n t he Amnest y chart er,
namely, to engage in democratic dialogue with the
political mainstream.
DISAPPEARANCES COMMISSION
PROBETOCOVERIPKFPERIOD
The Sri Lankan government has amended the
time period for its Presidential Commission looking
into cases of alleged disappearances in its Northern
and Eastern Provinces to cover the 26 years 1983-
2009.
The Commission's earlier mandat e spanned
t he period from 1990 t o 2009, but t he new t ime
frame is of relevance t o India, for it includes the
period when then Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF)
was active in Sri Lanka [1987-1990].
The government made t he announcement
just a couple of days before member countries on the
U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva vote on a U.S.-
backed resolution calling for an international probe
in Sri Lanka.
Senior Sri Lankan government functionaries
have, however, from t he beginning of t his year,
made a few subtle and some obvious references to
the role of the IPKF in connection with allegations of
war crimes and human rights abuse in Sri Lanka.
I n Januar y, Presi dent ial Secret ar y Lali t h
Weeratunga - who was then in Washington to lobby
support ahead of the Human Rights Council session
- said: "If there is an international investigation, the
whole period has to be investigated - from the 1980s
onward - which includes the two-year IPKF tenure,
which will upset India," he said.
In April 1990, soon after the IPKF offensive
against the rebel Tigers, a group of four university
teachers in Jaffna wrote the Broken Palmyrah, one of
the few works t ill date that looks at the atrocit ies
committed by allegedly the IPKF and various Tamil
militant movements, including t he LTTE, from a
critical perspective.
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RESERVEBANKEASES FOREIGN
PORTFOLIOINVESTMENTNORMS
The Reserve Bank of India simplified foreign
portfolio investment norms by putting in place an
easier registration process and operating framework
with an aim to attract inf lows.
"The port f ol i o i nvest or regi st ered i n
accordance with the Securities and Exchange Board of
India (SEBI) guidelines shall be called Registered
Foreign Portfolio Investor (RFPI)," the RBI said in a
notification.
The existing portfolio investor class, namely,
Foreign Institut ional Investor (FII) and Qualified
Foreign Investor (QFI) registered with SEBI shall be
subsumed under RFPI, it said.
The gui del i nes for Por t fol i o I nvest ment
Scheme for FII and QFI have since been reviewed, and
it has been decided to put in place a framework for
investment s under a new scheme called Foreign
Portfolio Investment Scheme, it said.
RFPI may purchase and sel l shar es and
convertible debentures of Indian companies through
a registered broker on recognised stock exchanges in
India as well as purchase shares and convertible
debentures, which are offered to public in terms of
relevant SEBI guidelines, it said. Such investors "may
also acquire shares or convertible debentures in any
bid for, or acquisition of, securities in response to an
off er f or di si nvest ment of shares made by t he
Central Government or any State government, it
said.
These entities would be eligible to invest in
government securities and corporate debt, subject to
limit s specified by the RBI and SEBI from time to
time, it added.
However, it said, all investments made by that
FII/ QFI in accordance with the regulations prior to
registration as RFPI shall continue to be valid and
t aken int o account for comput at ion of aggregat e
limit.
The RBI sai d such i nvest or s woul d be
permitted to trade in all exchange-traded derivative
contract s on t he st ock exchanges, subject t o t he
posit ion limit s as specified by SEBI from time t o
time.
ANUNDER-DEFINEDCONSTITUTION
The draft of a new Egypt ian Const it ut ion,
which according to the national electoral commission
was approved by 98 per cent of those who voted in
the January 14-15 referendum, is more problematic
than it seems to be at first sight. For the record, the
turnout of 38.6 per cent, in a total electorate of 53
mi lli on, was higher t han t he 33 per cent i n t he
referendum held by the elected and now overthrown
Presi dent Mohamed Morsy. The head of t he
Supreme Electoral Commission, Nabil Salib, hailed
t he resul t as an "unri val l ed success" wi t h an
"unprecedented turnout", but the participation rate
was lower t han t he 41.6 per cent recorded for a
similar referendum after the uprising which removed
the dictator Hosni Mubarak in February 2011. The
draft gives the President up to two four-year terms,
and grant s t he nat i onal Parl i ament powers t o
i mpeach t he head of st at e. I t al so guarant ees
equality between men and women, and says the state
will be bound by international human rights treaties
which Egypt has ratified. Furthermore, it bans the
closure of media bodies and replaces administrative
court removals of programmes or individuals with
cri minal procedures, and in ef f ect ends pri son
sent ences for press and ot her public-expression
offences. Significantly, artists, writers, and filmmakers
will no longer be liable to lawsuits by individuals who
find their work irksome.
While such measures have been welcomed, the
draft leaves crucial areas under-defined. It gives
absolut e freedom of religion and bans pol it ical
parties based on "religion, race, gender or geography"
- but t he latter may serve to exclude the Freedom
and Justice Party, which has close links to the banned
Muslim Brot herhood. Secondly, t he militar y will
appoint t he Defence Minist er for t he next eight
years; t hat shows t he reluct ance of t he milit ar y,
which forms t he current int erim government , t o
relinquish control. Such nervousness is underlined by
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t he wi der cont ext of t he ref erendum; 160,000
soldiers and 200,000 police personnel were deployed
during t he vot e, and t urnout was f ar hi gher i n
nor t her n t han i n sout hern Egypt , where t he
Brot herhood's support is the st rongest . The new
document even keeps Mr. Morsy's clause giving the
government legal powers regulat ing t he right t o
strike; the trade unions have strongly criticised this.
In addi t ion, t he overall current evidence i s not
encouraging. For exampl e, on March 24 a court
sentenced 529 Morsy supporters to death for killing
a police officer in August 2013, after the coup which
deposed Mr. Morsy, but 382 of t he accused were
tried in absentia, and the defence arguments were
not heard. The verdicts will be appealed. In sum, the
draft Constitution leaves far too much to executive
and legislative discretion.
IMFTHROWS UKRAINE ALIFELINE
The International Monetary Fund has agreed
to throw Ukraine's sinking economy a lifeline worth
up to $18 billion provided the country adopts severe
austerity measures.
After two weeks of emergency talks the IMF
announced agreement to give Ukraine between $14
and $18 billion in loans over the next two years.
The I MF's board must st i l l appr ove t he
package once the Ukrainian Parliament passes a set
of laws on painful and highly unpopular reforms. If
Ukraine honours its end of the deal it could receive
the first installment as early as April.
Even before the IMF talks began Acting Prime
Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk had said the government
had "no other choice but to accept the IMF offer".
"The country is on the edge of economic and
f i nanci al bankr upt cy", Mr. Yat senyuk t ol d t he
Parliament. "This package of laws is very unpopular,
very difficult, very tough. Reforms that should have
been done in the past 20 years".
Under the IMF deal Ukraine will have to cut
t he budget deficit , raise t axes, shift t o a f lexible
exchange rat e and increase ret ail energy t ari ffs
toward their full cost.
Mr Yatsenyuk told lawmakers that Ukraine's
economy will contract by 3 percent and inf lation will
rise up to 14 percent.
The IMF deal will unlock about $10 billion in
aid from the European Union, the United States and
other countries.
Ukraine's Finance Ministry has said it needs
$35 billion over the next two years to avoid default.
Russia has put on hold a $15 billion aid package
it pledged to ousted President Viktor Yanukovych and
has withdrawn gas price discounts to Ukraine. The
price of Russian gas is to nearly double to $480 per
1000 cubic metres on April 1.
The harsh economic measures may furt her
weaken the Ukrainian new authorities' shaky grip on
power ahead of president ial elect ions scheduled
forMay 25.
Ms Tymoshenko, the 53-year-old fiery leader
of the 2004 "orange revolut ion", served t wice as
prime minister and ran for president in 2010, losing
to Mr Yanukovych in a run-off vote. She served two
years of a seven-year term for abuse of office.
SUPREMECOURTORDERS STATES
TOABOLISHMANUALSCAVENGING
Deprecating the practice of manually removing
ni ght soi l wi t h bare hands, brooms or met al
scrappers, the Supreme Court directed all the States
t o abolish manual scavenging and t ake st eps for
rehabilitation of such workers.
A three-judge Bench comprising Chief Justice
P. Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and N.V.
Ramana, while disposing of a writ petition filed by
t he Safai Karamchari Andolan, and ot hers, said:
"Manual scavengers are considered as untouchables
by ot her mainst ream cast es and are thrown into a
vort ex of severe social and economic exploitat ion.
Dry latrines have not only continued to exist till date
in several States, but have increased to 96 lakh and
are st i l l being cl eaned manuall y by scavengers
belonging to the Scheduled Castes."
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With a view to bringing to a close the practice
of manual scavenging and also t o prevent fut ure
generations from the inhuman practice, the Bench
gave a seri es of di rect i on t o al l t he St at es f or
implementation of this law and for the rehabilitation
of manual scavengers.
The Bench said, "For sewer deaths, entering
sewer lines without safety gears should be made a
crime even in emergency situations.
For each such death, a compensation of Rs. 10
lakh should be given to the family of the deceased;
railways should t ake t ime-bound strat egy t o end
manual scavenging on the tracks; persons released
from manual scavenging should not have to cross
hurdles to receive what is their legitimate due under
the law, safai karamchari women should be provided
support for dignified livelihood in accordance with
their choice of livelihood schemes."
ADISTURBINGG7 DECISION
The March 24 deci si on by seven maj or
industrial countries (the G7) to suspend Russia from
the informal grouping called the G8 is not surprising
in view of Russia's annexat ion of t he Ukrainian
province of Crimea. Specifically, the G7 announced in
what it called the Hague Declaration - made on the
sidelines of the global Nuclear Security Summit -
that it would not attend the forthcoming G8 summit
i n Sochi and woul d i nst ead meet as t he G7 i n
Brussel s; i t has al so t hreat ened "co-ordi nat ed
sectoral sanctions" if Moscow continues to "escalate
this situation." Russia has been a G8 participant since
1998, under a general plan to strengthen East-West
relations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had
earlier shrugged off t he possibilit y of expulsion,
poi nt i ng out t hat as t he G8 has no f ormal
membership no country can be expelled from it; in
addition, the Ukrainian embassy in the Netherlands
has report ed Mr. Lavrov as saying Russia had no
int ent ion of using milit ary f orce in east ern and
southern Ukraine, and that if the situation worsens,
Ukrainian-Russian contacts will occur at the foreign
ministry and defence ministry levels.
The G7 deci si on i s, however, open t o
exploit ation. To st art with, the G7 has apparently
accept ed t he appoi nt ment of many Ukrai ni an
mi ni st ers wi t h neo-Nazi and ant i -Semi t i c
backgrounds. Secondly, NATO has assert ed t hat
Russi a pl ans a Cri mea-t ype move f or t he
aut onomous Mol dovan t erri t ori al uni t of
Transnistria, where Russian is the official language
and t he most widely used one; Moscow rejected a
2006 poll t here showing t hat 96 per cent of t he
population favoured joining Russia. NATO, needless
to say, has oft en tried t o justify it s own exist ence
since the Soviet Union collapsed; the Warsaw Treaty
Organi sat i on (t he Warsaw Pact ) had a 2004
di ssol ut i on dat e, but NATO has no such l i mi t .
West ern milit aries and arms manufact urers also
stand t o benefit from another Cold War. Former
British Chief of Staff Lord Dannatt has called for a
new brigade of 3,000 troops to be sent to Germany,
while current plans are to remove all 20,000 such
t roops from t hat deployment , which dat es from
1945. Given t hat European Union count ries buy
Russian oil and natural gas for hard currency, anti-
Russian sanctions mean that western oil corporations
will welcome British Prime Minister David Cameron's
immediate call for more fracking, which is a highly
controversial activity in his country. Financial bodies,
nevert hel ess, may not l ike sanct ions; Vi sa and
MasterCard have resumed services to customers of
Russia's SMP Bank. The G7 move, in sum, is less
principled than it might look, and western legislatures
must scrutinise their respective executives closely
over their handling of the Ukraine crisis.
WTOASKS INDIATOREMOVE RAW
SUGAREXPORTSUBSIDY
A few WTO members, including Australia, have
asked Indi a t o remove i mmedi at ely t he export
subsidy of Rs.3,300 a tonne on raw sugar, saying it
distorts the global trade.
This demand was raised in the recent meeting
of t he Agriculture Committ ee of t he World Trade
Organization (WTO) in Geneva.
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"India's new support programme for sugar
sparked comment among a number of delegations
with some urging India to remove immediately what
they described as export subsidies that will potentially
impact world trade," the WTO said. On March 3, the
Cent ral Government not i fied export subsidy of
Rs.3,300 a t onne on r aw sugar shi pment s
undertaken during the February-March of this year.
The WTO said that discussion was about one of
31 sets of questions and answers, a key part of the
agenda of the committee, whose major responsibility
was to oversee the present Agriculture Agreement
and members' commitment to agriculture.
"The l argest number of comment s f r om
delegations was on India's sugar programme. The
topics that also aroused interest included...India's
domestic support for rice and wheat and its food
security programme," it added.
Australia, Colombia, Brazil and the EU asked
India about a new policy announced in February,
i nvol vi ng i ncent i ve payment s t o I ndi an sugar
exporters. Members sought to know the legal basis
for extending the export subsidy under t he WTO
regime. Several of t he members also point ed out
that India had agreed not to subsidise its exports.
GOVTPANELFOR TAX
ADMINISTRATIONREFORMSETUP
As part of bringing in more credibility among
tax payers and to streamline income tax procedures,
the Government has set up a Tax Administ ration
Reform Commission comprising officials from public
and pri vat e sect or agencies, Advisor t o Finance
Minister, Parthasarathi Shome said.
Dr Shome, who is also the chairman of Tax
Administ ration Reform Commission (TARC), was
speaki ng af t er rel easi ng a book on servi ce t ax
authored by P Rajendra Kumar, a member of Society
of Auditors which has published it.
Elaborating on the Commission, he said that
with the setting up of the Commission, the income
tax department would be able to work out solutions
f or a good t ax payer so t hat he does not get
"hampered" while a poor tax payer was "targeted"
and then an appropriat e yardstick can be used (to
collect the taxes from him).
Dr Shome said t he Commi ssion members
comprise former chairmen of two tax boards, former
Chief Financial Officer from IT service provider Tata
Consultancy Services and an Ex-Vice President for
Taxation from the Murugappa Group.
Dr Shome said one of the reasons for setting
up t he Commi ssi on was t o br i ng i n more
t ransparency i n t he t ax depart ment and in t he
collection of taxes as a certain amount of "distrust"
emerged between the t ax depart ment and the tax
payers.
"One challenge remains and has emerged in the
l ast f ive years or so, is t hat , even FM (Fi nance
Mi ni st er P Chi dambaram) also observed t hat a
certain amount of distrust between tax payer and tax
officer has emerged," he said.
AMANDATEFOR THE UNHRC
I n adopt i ng a count ry-speci fi c resolut ion
against Sri Lanka that calls upon the United Nations
Human Ri ght s Commi ssi oner t o "undert ake a
comprehensive investigat ion int o alleged serious
violations and abuses of human rights and related
crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka," the UN Human
Rights Council has again brought the focus as much
on the killings in the last phase of the civil war in Sri
Lanka, as on t he int ernat ional investigat ion int o
issues in a sovereign stat e. No progress has been
made to fix responsibility for the mass killings in the
last phase of the civil war in 2009. The resolution, co-
sponsored by 41 countries and piloted by the U.S.,
cont ended t hat Sri Lanka has f ai led t o achi eve
reconciliation following the end of the three-decade
long civil war. But it does not build on t he earlier
resolut ions against Sri Lanka; it rat her marks a
worrying point of departure. So far, the emphasis
has been on 'encouraging' and 'urging' Sri Lanka. The
new mandat e of t he int ernat ional invest igat ive
mechani sm i s open-ended. Opponent s of t he
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resol ut i on wer e agai nst t he i mposi t i on of an
international investigation by expanding the role of
t he Office of t he High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR), and the Special Procedures of the
HRC. The resolut ion includes many prescript ive
elements. The U.S. sees the vote as an act that seeks
to push Sri Lanka into pursuing lasting peace, and
want s t o drive home t he point t hat just i ce and
accountability cannot wait.
India was in the limelight at the 25th session
of the HRC. It had unconditionally backed Sri Lanka
in the 2009 session, soon after the end of the war.
It went to the other extreme and voted against Sri
Lanka in 2012 and 2013. In fact , in 2013 it even
worked t o make t he l anguage of t he resol ut i on
harsher. The same conditions as in 2013 exist now:
elections t o t he Nort hern provincial council were
held in September 2012. The Tamil Nadu factor that
had inf luenced Indi a's vot e t he last t ime round
seems to have lost steam with the Congress and the
DMK parting ways. In any case, it is debatable if even
at it s height it would have overcome India's long-
st anding opposi t i on t o i nt rusive i nt ernat i onal
investigations as envisaged by the latest resolution.
By voting twice against Sri Lanka in the past years,
India had already antagonised the majority Sinhala
communit y. Wit h India abst aining t his t ime, t he
northern Tamils seem to have lost faith in India. Not
many believe anything will change for Tamils in Sri
Lanka if the OHCHR carries out the investigation. An
intrusive investigation has so far not yielded genuine
reconciliation, and a life of dignity and self-respect for
people anywhere. Sri Lanka can't be any different.
DRI GETS UNAWARDFOR RECORD
SEIZUREOFOZONE-DEPLETINGGAS
The Direct orate of revenue Intelligence has
seized a record over 2.4 lakh kg of ozone-depleting
restricted refrigeration gas 'R-22', which was being
smuggled into the country. Taking note of its efforts
in checki ng t he smuggli ng of R-22 gas int o t he
count r y, t he DRI has been chosen for a Uni t ed
Nations award.
The gas, whose import is restricted, was being
brought into t he country illegally t hrough various
means including misdeclaration of good and outright
smuggling, they said.
The illegal import of refrigerant 22 gas (R-22),
which is used for air-condit ioning applicat ions,
residential as well as process chillers and industrial
refrigerant plants, has been noticed in India.
Smuggling of such ozone depleting substances
(ODS), reduces t he incentives for users t o shift to
alt ernative technologies using ozone-and climate-
f ri endl y ref ri gerant s and hence i s a mat t er of
concern, the officials said.
The DRI, country's premier intelligence agency
dealing with matters relating to violation of customs
law, has been awarded the prestigious 'ECA Ozone
Prot ect ion Award f or Cust oms & Enforcement
Of f i cer s (3rd Edi t i on)' by UN Envi r onment
Programme (UNEP) i n recogni t i on of i t s
cont ri but i on t o enf orce t he t r ade provi si ons
applicable to ozone-depleting substances under the
Montreal Protocol.
Mont real Prot ocol i s a mul t i l at er al
environmental agreement aimed at restoring ozone
layer via strategic management of ozone depleting
chemicals.
I ndi a, bei ng si gnat ory t o t he Mont r eal
protocol, is required to phase out consumption and
production of ODS chemicals and for which legal
framework has been put in place.
Ozone Deplet i ng Subst ances (Regul at ion)
Rules, 2000 regulates and restricts the import and
export of ODS.
The UNEP award aims to provide incentive and
recogni t i on t o cust oms and enf orcement
organisat i ons and i t s of f i cers, who succeed i n
preventing illegal or unwanted trade in ODSand ODS
equipment.
Though this award mainly covers European,
Caucasus and Central Asian region, an exception was
made t hi s year due t o t he remarkabl e sei zures
affected by DRI.
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DRI i s one of t he f i ve or gani sat i ons or
individuals recognised and awarded the '3rd edition'
of the award this year, the officials said.
A representative of the DRI has been invited
to attend t he award ceremony in Sarajevo, Bosnia
and Herzegovina in May.
WORLDNOTPREPAREDTOFACE
CLIMATECHANGE: EXPERTS
A U.N.-backed panel said cl i mat e change
impacts are already taking place on all continents and
across the oceans, however, the world is unprepared
for risks from a changing climate.
The I nt ergovernment al Panel on Cl imat e
Change (IPCC) finalized a report on the impacts of
climate change on human and natural systems, and
possible methods of adaptation during the five-day
conference in the Japanese city of Yokohama.
"I mpact s f rom recent cl i mat e-r el at ed
ext remes, such as heat waves, drought s, f loods,
cyclones and wildfires reveal significant vulnerability
and exposure of some ecosystems and many human
systems to current climate variability," the report
said.
Climate change is a growing threat to human
security as it causes damage to homes and property,
disrupts access to food and water and leads to forced
migration, according to the IPCC, which is composed
of hundreds of sci ent i st s and government
representatives.
"Nobody on t hi s pl anet i s goi ng t o be
unt ouched by t he i mpact s of cl i mat e change,"
Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the IPCC, told a news
conference.
Risks from climat e change are "high to very
high" if temperatures increase over 4 degrees Celsius
above pre-industrial levels, where the world is now
heading, the report said.
If temperat ures rise bet ween 1 t o 2 degrees
Celsius, risks increase "disproportionately," it said.
The report issued assesses t he impact s of
cli mat e change, adapt at ion and vulnerabi lit y of
human and natural systems. It is the second of three
assessment reports by the IPCC.
"One thing that we have come up with is the
import ance of adapt ation and mitigat ion choices
because this is t he only way we might be able t o
reduce risks of climate change," Mr. Pachauri said.
Adaptation to reduce such risks is starting to
take place, but, with a stronger focus on reacting to
past events than on preparing for a changing future,
said Chris Field, co-chair of the working group.
"Governments, firms and communities around
the world are building experience with adaptation,"
Mr. Field said. "This experience forms a st arting
point for bolder, more ambitious adaptations that
will be important as climate and society continue to
change." "We're walking a t ight rope, but if we act
boldly and cut climate pollution faster major threats
to human security can still be avoided and vital ocean
systems, forests and species protected," said Kaisa
Kosonen, a Greenpeace International official.
"The report makes it clear that we st ill have
time to act ," said Samantha Smith from the World
Wide Fund for Nature campaign group.
"We can limit climate instability and adapt to
some of t he changes we see now. But wi t hout
immediate and specific action, we are in danger of
going far beyond the limits of adaptation," she said.
In September, the IPCC warned that humans
were primarily responsible for global warming, which
has led to a faster-than-predicted rise in sea levels,
rapidly melting glaciers and ice sheets.
A third report, which will focus on mitigation
of climate change, is due for release in April in Berlin.
A summit in Paris in 2015 will focus on t he
creat i on of new i nt ernat ional cl imat e t reat y t o
replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the first phase of
which came to an end in 2012.
STRIVINGFORAPOLIO-FREEWORLD
The polio-free certification given by the World
Health Organisation to its 11-nation South-East Asia
Region, which includes India, has become a beacon of
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hope at a t ime when there is much t o be gloomy
about in terms of ridding the world of a virus that
has crippled and even killed countless children. When
the nations of the world committed themselves to
eradicating polio in 1988, it was a goal they intended
t o achieve by t he year 2000. But t he t arget dat e
slipped repeatedly. The strategic plan approved last
year aims t o st op t ransmission of al l nat urall y-
occurring 'wild' polio viruses by the end of this year
and complete the task of eradication by 2018. The
first of those objectives appears to be in jeopardy.
Polio cases worldwide during 2013 recorded an 82
per cent increase over the previous year. Although
t he polio-endemic count ries of Afghanist an and
Nigeria more than halved the number of polio cases
last year, Pakistan registered a 60 per cent increase.
"The current situation in Pakistan is a powder keg
that could ignit e widespread polio transmission,"
warned the Independent Monitoring Board, a body
established to evaluate global eradication efforts, in
a letter sent in February 2014 to the WHO Director-
General, Margaret Chan. Worse still, the virus has
reappeared in countries t hat had been free of it .
Viruses from Pakistan have surfaced in the Middle
East, and those from Nigeria produced a resurgence
of polio in the Horn of Africa.
The vi rus coul d well f ind it s way t o more
countries, and the situation is serious. Dr. Chan has
call ed a meet i ng next mont h of an Emergency
Commi t t ee under t he I nt ernat i onal Heal t h
Regulations to advise on measures to reduce the risk
of further international spread. One such step could
be the compulsory vaccinat ion of t ravellers from
pol i o-i nf ect ed areas. I ndi a recent l y made i t
mandatory that those coming from countries with
polio produce a certificate of vaccination with an oral
polio vaccine. As long as the virus circulates in any
part of the world, all countries free of it need to be
vigilant and stop it from getting a foothold in their
territory. Despite the current unpromising outlook
for global polio eradication, it would be unwise to
give up in despair. As recently as in 2009, almost half
the world's polio cases were occurring in this country.
Yet , India had its last polio case just two years later,
paving t he way for t he Sout h-East Asia Region's
certification. As the Americas, Western Pacific and
Europe have already received such certification, four
out of five children in the world now live in countries
that have eliminated polio. The global community
must find the will and the means to end this scourge
once and for all.
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36 Gist of YOJ ANA (VOL. 18)
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GOVERNANCE: CIVILSERVICE &
POLITICIANINTERFACE
Two important issues facing the nation today
are how the economic growth can be accelerated and
how benefits of growth and development can f low
t o t he cit izens in an efficient manner. Issues of
governance have increasingly come to centre stage
while working out strategies for the above. There is
a st rong vi ew t hat corrupt ion in ci vil servi ce is
endemic and funds provided' by government leak
very badly.
The independence of civil service in giving
advice in policy-making and in performing field
responsibilit ies is an import ant issue which has
affected the functioning of the civil service in recent
years. In the Constituent Assembly of India, on 10th
October, 1949, Sardar Vallabh Bai Patel said:
"If you want an efficient all-India service, I
advise you to allow the service to open their mouth
freely. If you are a Premier, it would be your duty to
allow your Secretary, or Chief Secret ar y, or other
services working under you, to express their opinion
without fear or favour But I see a tendency today
that in several provinces, the services are set upon
and told, "No, you, are servicemen, you must carry
out our orders." The Union will go, you will not have
a unit ed India, if you do not have a good all-India
set-vice which has the independence to speak out its
mind, which has a sense of security t hat you will
stand by your word and that after all, there is the
Parliament, .of which we can be proud, where their
rights and privileges are secure. If you do not adopt
t hi s course, t hen do not f ol l ow t he present
Constitution."
In t he init ial years of independence, in the
1950s and even t he early 1960s, the relationship
between political executive and civil service was of
trust and non-partisan functioning of the civil service.
This trust has gradually given way to segmentation
of civil servants and their politicisation in many cases.
Two different types of relationships have emerged.
First covers those, who try to maintain a degree of
integrity and upright behaviour. Second covers those
senior civil servant s, who cosy up t o t he political
executive and go along with them, irrespective of the
ci vi l servi ce norms, good conduct or et hi cal
behaviour. Often, the second category is bifurcate
when the polit ical power is t ransferred from one
political party to the other.
An important point, which is often overlooked
in the above context, is the requirement of citizens
for good governance.
The Ci vi l Servi ce provi des an exci t i ng
opport unity full of challenges. There are very few
servi ces whi ch provi de such a vast range of
chal l enges, a mi x of f i el d and pol i cy maki ng
opportunity and opportunity to act as a key player
in the national growth process. One has to be proud
of one's work and dedication to get full satisfaction
from these challenges.
Ci vi l Servi ce has t o f ol l ow norms of
professional conduct. These will not only bring good
governance agenda" on centre stage, but also once
again enhance the reputation of the All India Service
as that of a steel frame which serves the country for
growt h and prosper i t y. I t wi l l al so hel p i n
Gist of
YOJ ANA
Gist of YOJ ANA (VOL. 18) 37
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development of confidence of people in the civil
services and earn them new respect.
First , maintain high personal integrity. The
st rengt h of civil service is people's fait h in t heir
absolute incorruptibility and honesty.
Second, be fair in administering law, policies
and administrative decisions. The biggest strength of
civil servants is people's faith in their impartial and
fair actions and transparent functioning.
Third, people respect you for your knowledge
and skills. Acquire thorough knowledge and develop
an analytical ability to fully assess and understand
issues which need to be addressed wit h adequate
attention to details.
Fourth, field jobs, on which civil service often
has t o spend t i me, provide an opport unit y for
change in t he syst em. Your mot t o shoul d be t o
deliver results and work as an effective field officer.
Fif t h, Good Governance is a Fundament al
Right of the citizen. Ident ify gaps in public service
delivery and implement ation of schemes. Ident ify
rules and regulations which are hampering progress
and suggest changes to Government.
Sixth- the biggest disservice to the governance
st ruct ur e i s t o hesi t at e i n t aki ng deci si ons or
deliberat ely avoidi ng it . Do not hesit at e t o t ake
decisions.
Seventh, in civil service you may invariably be
the leader of the pack. Assume full responsibility for
achi evi ng t he t arget s and key perf ormance
paramet ers of t he organi zat i on whi ch you are
heading. Learn t o delegat e aut hority but ensure
effective leadership.
Ei ght h, be sensi t i ve t o t he needs of poor,
especially marginalised groups, women, SC/ ST and
minorit ies. These are the groups which need your
support the most. By effective implementat ion of
programmes for them and your empat hy for t heir
welfare, you can help build an egalitarian society.
Ninth, the political executive makes policies in
consultation with civil servants for attaining certain
objectives for the welfare of people. While advising
Ministers and working as senior civil servants, analyse
all t he reasonable pol i cy opt i ons whi ch can be
considered on the issue under examination.
While giving advice, do not anticipate what the
Minister may like to hear. State what you consider
the most appropriate course of act ion. You will be
respect ed in t he long run by peers, as well as the
political executive.
Tenth, do not criticise Government policies in
public discussions. As a civil servant, the responsibility
on you is to provide support to the government to
enable it to defend the policies. By criticising it, you
are undermining government, as well as yourself.
Eleventh, develop inter-personal skills. In the
modern world wit h wide range of organisat ions,
private sector expansion and technological explosion,
it is important t hat you have good relat ions wit h
persons from diff erent sect ors t o enable you t o
access them when needed.
Twelfth, adapt to IT use, new technologies and
their use to ensure good governance. Informat ion
technology can help reduce delays, ensure efficient
delivery of public services and cut down corruption.
You must be, therefore, fully cognizant of its use and
potential.
Thirteenth, prepare well in advance to ensure
ef fect ive art i culat i on of t he vi ew poi nt of your
Ministry. Put forward your point of view concisely
and in a focused manner.
Fourt eenth, develop t he abilit y t o list en t o
visitors and different points of view carefully and
patiently. An enormous amount of feedback about
problems in the field and different approaches can be
had in this manner. This is the best learning method.
Fifteenth, develop the ability to integrate and
form a consensus view point consist ent with the
policy objective planned. While doing so, you should
be able to evaluate and assess the technical, social
and political dimensions of the problem.
Sixteenth, make a well-informed judgement of
ground realities and policies which will work. Have a
f eedback on t he proposed pol i ci es f rom t hose
working in different geographical area where t he
proposed pol i ci es or pl ans are supposed t o be
implemented. Ensure enough f lexibility with ground
realities in your plan.
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Seventeenth, accept challenging assignments.
Do not t ry t o wri ggl e out of i t . Of t en, t hese
assignments involve tough decision taking and have
risk of failure. Success can be assured if you have
accept ed t he chal l engi ng job and are worki ng
diligently with all stakeholders as a team.
Eighteenth, in face of grave provocation, stand
by your principles and convictions. Do not lose your
cool. The administrative challenges are varied and
involve wide varieties of people and organisations
with vested interests.
Nineteenth, civil servants are accountable to
Government. There is, however, public accountability
also. Identify key target areas which you must achieve
during your work based on Government policy and
programmes. Identify people's felt needs and enmesh
them in your programme too.
An interesting aspect, in the above context, is
the relative responsibility of political executive and
the civil service in improving the governance system.
It has to be emphasized that onus is on civil servants
t o st rengt hen publ i c admi ni st rat i on and good
governance. However, while working as part of policy
making or field responsibilities, it may be useful to
understand the nature of relationship between the
polit ical execut ive and t he civil service. It is also
necessary to appreciate the enormous inconvenience
and widespread corruption faced by ilk-people while
availing public service. Following points, therefore,
need special focus:
First, the corruption in governance system and
delivery of public services is quite widespread. It has
to be tackled initially by preventing possibilit y of
corruption.
Second, it is useful to recall that the All India
Services are creatures of the Constitution (Article
312). While the services have to follow the policies
laid down by the Government headed by the political
executive, t hey also have legal obligat ions under
cert ain st at ut es, whenever t hey exercise t hose
powers. Such exercise of power has to be done with
an independent application of mind.
Third, it is important that Civil Servants clearly
bring out t heir views in writ i ng while doing an
analysis of the issues concerned when engaged in the
task of policy making.
Fourth, there may be complex sit uations in
which Ministers and some civil servants try to push
illegal orders on subordinates. This could be because
of ulterior monetary interest or corruption. There
could be Mafia. In all this foggy and unclear vision, the
civil servants have to be clear on t heir course of
action for handling these situation.
The political executive which is responsible to
t he legi sl at ure has t o al so reconsi der bow t he
governance can be st rengt hened. The norms of
conduct mentioned above will need a strong political
consensus. They may need to discuss it across the
country and their readiness t o act on it as Sardar
Patel had advised more than six decades back.
STRENGTHENINGRURALLENDING
Expanding access to finance in rural areas has
been an important focus of banking sector policy for
a number of decades and while t here is no-doubt
that there has been progress, the overall situation
that obtains currently is very grim from a cost, risk,
and effectiveness perspective. While India as a whole
has a low credit to GDP ratio of about 70 per cent
for agriculture, at less than 36 per cent, it is even
lower, indicating poor outreach of formal credit to
the sector despite all the policy priority that has been
given t o it . Thi s has resul t ed i n t he cont i nued
prevalence of informal indebtedness among farmers
- only 14 per cent of the marginal farmers (with land
hol di ngs l ess t han 1 hect ar e) were t aki ng
inst it ut ional credit in 2009, wit h t he remaining
largely relying on informal sources of credit for their
credit needs.
There are also very large regional imbalances.
States such as Bihar have an overall credit to GDP
ratio of less than 16 per cent despite the fact that it
has one of the lowest levels of GDP in the country.
During 2007-2012, 38 per cent of agricultural credit
was -accounted for by the Southern St ates despite
them constit uting less than 20 per cent of India's
Gross Cropped Area while the East ern and North-
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Eastern states accounted for only 8 per cent, despite
having comparable Gross Cropped Area. Cent ral
India received only 13 per cent of agricultural credit
with 27 per cent of Gross Cropped Area.
The problems of low effectiveness in rural
lending are compounded by the fact that at close to
5 per cent, Non-Performing Asset ratios for rural
(priority sector) assets are very high and are double
those of other sectors despite all the subsidies that
have been directed at this sector. The cost-to-serve
for small loans for national full-service banks exceeds
30 per cent while they are required to lend money to
this sector at spreads ranging from 3 per cent below
their base rate to 2 per cent above them.
Rural credit delivery in India has been led by
national full-service banks. Over t he years, it has
gradually become clear that the branch structure of
the national full-service banks, in its present form is
not well suited to processing small loans and priority
sector loans from a cost, risk, as well as effectiveness
perspect ive. Cost s of operat ions (not i ncl udi ng
interest costs) tend to be as high as 30 per cent and
non-performing assets are 10 per cent or more for
the small loan segments.
Global and Indian best-practice suggests that
t he onl y way f or nat i onal f ul l -service banks t o
eff ect i vely run such operat i ons i s t hrough t he
creation of specialised verticals within the bank or
dedicated subsidiaries that are focussed exclusively
on these tasks and operate with a decision-making
st ruct ure that transfers credit decision making to
staff that directly interact with the borrowers and do
not centralise it. Or, alternately, they need to partner
with much more effective independent institutions
such as Regional Banks and RBI-regulated Non-Bank
Finance Companies (NBFCs) in order to meet their
lending goals wit hout put ting t heir own balance
sheets and profitability at risk.
Regional Banks in India, particularly t hose
within the cooperative structure, have a number of
advantages on all the three fronts of costs, risks, and
ef fect i veness of out reach, but have hi st orical ly
suffered from both governance problems as well as
an inabilit y to successfully manage regional level
syst emat ic risks such as rai nfall shocks and t he
t ransf ormat i ons i n t he nat ure of t he regi onal
economy. The Indian cooperative structure has, over
t he years, experienced a great deal of failure on
account of bot h t hese i ssues. Due t o concert ed
effort s of t he Government, the National Bank for
Agriculture and Rural -Development (NABARD), and
t he RBI, t hese issues are in the process of being
addressed at least for those cooperative institutions
t hat have survi ved, but t he st r uct ural i ssues
mentioned earlier are far more complex and will need
t he development of new capabil it ies wit hin t he
Regi onal Banks and NABARD as wel l as t he
development of new risk management product s
such as catastrophic insurance and securitization.
One of t he core probl ems of t he I ndi an
banking sector is its small size relative to the needs
of a developing economy like India. The impact of
this small size on the amount of lending t hat can
t ake place is exacerbated by t he fact t hat a large
proportion of the modest resources mobilised by the
banks are being pre-empted by the Government by
requiring banks to invest in government bonds and
providing food credit. The capital markets of India
have acquired sufficient depth for both of these needs
to be met exclusively by non-bank sources and a large
amount of resources for rural and other forms of
lending can be freed up from bank-balance sheets if
these pre-emotions were taken away. Additionally,
banks, particularly government owned banks, are
requi red t o pri ce t hei r f arm l oans at very l ow
prescribed rat es of int erest and the Government
offers additional interest rate subsidies. This results
in a massive distort ion of the farm credit system
resulting in a denial of credit to small farmers and
land-less labourers; a desire on the part of banks to
only offer minimal amounts of credit to this sector
despite a large unmet demand and very low levels of
innovation. It would be far better if the banks were
free to price t heir farm loans based on their risk
model s and any Government benef i t s such as
i nt erest subvent i ons and debt wai vers were
t r ansf erred di rect l y t o t he f armers wi t hout
channeling it through the credit system.
In order t o address issues relating t o Moral
Hazard and to allow high performing rural borrowers
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t o signal their credit wort hiness and obt ain bot h
lower cost and higher quantum of credit, there is a
need t o mandat e uni versal report ing t o credi t
bureaus of al l l oans by all ori gi nat i ng ent it i es,
including for SHG loans, and Kisan Credit Card and
General Credit Card facilities, just as has been done
successf ul l y f or RBI / regul at ed Mi cro Fi nance
Institutions.
In the longer run, as the relative importance of
vari ous sect or s f or pover t y al l evi at i on and
enhancement of growt h changes, it will become
important to revisit t he very definition of priority
sector and to use metrics such as regional and sector
credit t o GDP rat ios and die growt h elast icity of
credit to determine the weights that will be used to
det ermi ne APSL t arget s. However, f or t hi s t o
happen, among other things, there will be a need for
the Planning Commission to start to publish official
GDP series for each district in the country and for
key sectors within each district and for the RBI to
make available comparable credit data so that these
analyses can be accurately carried out.
For a number of reasons related both to the
achi evement of PSL t ar get s as wel l as act i ve
management of bank balance sheets, it is essential to
develop robust markets for t he act ive transfer of
assets, liabilities and risks between financial markets
participants. Such markets will facilitate the sale and
purchase, of PSL (and other) assets between all types
of ent it ies, in a manner t hat i s based purely on
quality and is agnostic to institutional differences.
I n order t o f aci l i t at e t hi s, speci al i sed
Institutions such as NABARD, the National Housing
Bank (NHB), and the Small Industries Development
Bank of India (SIDBI) will also need to move towards
becoming much more market ori ent ed i n t hei r
support to their constituents. For example, NABARD
can help to improve the financial health" of better
performing cooperative banks by providing fairly
priced second-loss deficiency guarant ees inst ead
balance sheet based refinance.
The development of critical complementary
infrast ruct ure for customer dat a (such as -credit
bur eaus and al t ernat e-dat a reposi t ori es);
warehousing, particularly of the type which facilitates
maki ng el ect roni c-warehouse recei pt s di rect l y
available to small farmers, land registries, weather
stations, registries for movable collat eral, and the
development of markets for second-hand assets,
would also be very important to strengthen rural
lending.
Pension Sanction and Payment
Tracking System Launched
on Pilot Basis
The department of Pension & Pensioner's
Wel f are has launched a web based Pension
Sanct i on and Payment Tr acki ng Syst em "
BHAVISHYA" which provides for online tracking
of sanct i on and payment process by t he
i ndi vi dual as wel l as t he admi ni st rat i ve
aut horit ies. The new proposed syst em wil l
capture information relating to the pensioner's
personal and service dat a including cont act
details like mobile number and email etc. It will
al so have el ect roni c f orms requi red t o be
submitted to pension sanctioning authority. The
system will keep retiring employees informed of
t he progress of pensi on sanct i ons process
through SMS/ E-mail in future. The application
will help in monitoring the delay which take place
sanction of pension and retirement benefits to
a retiring Government Servant.
The software has been launched on a pilot
basis in fifteen Ministries/ Departments of the
Government vi z. Mi nist ri es of St at ist ics &
Programme I mpl ement at i on, St eel, Urban
Development and Text i l es, Home, Heal t h,
Family Welfare, Commerce; Depart ment s of
Electronics & Informat ion Technology, Ayush,
Indust rial Policy & Promot ion, Personnel &
Trai ni ng, Administ rat i ve Ref orms & Publ ic
Grievances, Pension & Pensioners Welfare and
Planning Commission.
DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP
Scientific R & D Projects
I n a bi d t o boost sci ent i f i c research and
development , t he Prime Minist er announced an
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out l ay of Rs 9,000 crores f or vari ous project s
including a National Mission on High Performance
Comput ing and a Neutrino-based observat ory in
Tami l Nadu. The Nat i onal Mi ssi on on Hi gh
Performance Computing would have an outlay of Rs
4,500 crore whi l e t he Nat i onal Geographi c
Information Systems would have an out lay of Rs
3,000 crore. The Neut r i no-based obser vat or y,
proposed to be set up in West Hills of Tamil Nadu at
a cost of Rs 1,475 crore, is t o st udy at mospheric
neutrinos.
Interest Subvention on Loans by Woman
SHGs
The government has announced a Rs 1,400
crore interest subvention in loans taken by Self Help
Groups run by rural women. The scheme is applicable
for loans availed by women SHGs from April 1,
2013. I nt erest subvent i on f or such l oans i s a
significant init iative under the Aajeevika scheme -
Nat i onal Rural Li vel i hoods Mi ssi on (NRLM).
According to the new initiative, all banks will lend to
women SHGs at 7 per cent interest for loans upto Rs
3 lakhs in 150 most backward districts, most of which
are affected by Naxal menace. The SHGs will get a
further 3 per cent subvention on prompt repayment
- thus ensuring that the effective charge on all such
loans will be only 4 per cent. In addition, all women
SHGs wit h outstanding loans (for loans upto Rs 3
lakhs from April 1st 2013 onwards) will pay interest
on at 7 per cent . The differential amount for the
period 1st April 2013 to January 2013 would be
reimbursed. In the remaining districts, women SHGs
which have been NRLM compliant and regular in
repayment , wi l l enjoy i nt erest subvent i on i n
reimbursement basis, making the interest for loan of
Rs 3 lakh only 7 per cent effective from 1st April
2013.
The tot al budgetary allocat ion for NRLM in
2013-14 was Rs 2,600 crore out of which Rs 650
crore is being spent on interest subvention in 150
di st rict s, while Rs 750 crores i s being spent on
interest subvention in the non-150 districts.
Second Project Under Nirbhaya Fund
The second project under the Rs 1,000 crore
Ni rbhaya Fund f or est abl i shi ng an i nt egrat ed
computer platform to respond to calls from women
i n di st ress has been cl eared. An I nt egrat ed
Computer Aided Dispatch platform is proposed to
be established in 114 cities at a cost of Rs 321.69
crores. A 247 Emergency Response unit will be able
t o t rack any di st ress cal l usi ng a Geographi cal
Posit ioning Syst em or Geographical Information
System. The 247 helpline would respond to all kinds
of emergenci es i ncl udi ng medi cal and di sast er
services, children's emergencies, helpless women and
chi ldren who face vi ol ence, eve-t easi ng, dowry
demands, sexual assault, molestation or any other
abuse at home or in public. The city-wise high tech
control rooms will include 71 cities with population
of more than a million or headquarters of states as
also headquarters of 41 crime prone districts. The 71
cit ies woul d cover a popul at ion of over 231.23
million and 41 districts would cover a population of
160.27 million, i.e., a coverage of 32.6 percent of the
country.
National AIDS Control Programme Phase IV
Launched
The IVth phase of the National Aids Control
programme (2012-2017) was l aunched wi t h a
budget out l ay of Rs 14,295 crore out of which
government support would be Rs 11, 394 crores
f or mi ng 36 percent of t he t ot al share. The
pr ogramme ai ms t o accel er at e t he process of
epidemic reversal and st rengt hen t he epi demic
response i n t he count ry t hrough a well defined
integration process over the five year period. The
eligibility for receiving anti-retroviral therapy (ART)
has been increased so that HIV positive are initiated
on t reat ment at an early stage. This will not only
enhance longevit y but also help t o prevent new
infections. A third ART for all multi-drug regimen for
pr event i on of parent t o chi l d t ransmi ssi on,
st rengt heni ng migrant i nt ervent ions at source,
transit and destination; scaling up on interventions
among t ransgenders t hr ough communi t y
part i ci pat i on f ocused st r at egi es t o address
vulnerabilit ies; scaling up of Opioid subst it ut ion
therapy for injecting drug users, etc.
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Three New Services Launched by India Post
India Post has launched three new services as
value additions to ePost: eIPO Facility to pay RTI fee
online (b) Locality based PIN Code Search Directory
(c) 'Many-to-One' ePost service that ensured last mile
home/email delivery. Indian Citizens living in India or
abroad can now pay RTI fee online in t he form of
eIPO. Also, the Online Locality-based Pin code Search
Directory will facilitate or locality pincode.
DOYOUKNOW?
LIBOR
LIBOR - London Interbank Offered Rate -
is an interest rate at which banks can borrow
f unds f rom ot her banks i n t he London
int erbank market . One of t he world's most
widely used benchmarks for short-term interest
rates, LIBOR rates were first used in financial
markets in 1986. From then on Libor has been
growi ng in st at ure and t oday i t is t he key
reference rat e for financial product s wort h
about $ 350 trillion. Small changes in the Libor
can cause ripples in the money market.
LIBOR is fixed on a daily basis by the British
Banker's Associat ion and is derived from a
f i l t er ed average of t he worl d' s most
credit worthy bank's interbank deposit rates.
Count ri es t hat rel y on t he LI BOR f or a
ref erence rat e i ncl ude t he Uni t ed St at es,
Canada, Switzerland and United Kingdom.
In 2012, regulators from around the world
were probing alleged manipulation of LIBOR by
US and European banks. In 2013, a worldwide
i nvest i gat i on di scovered wi despread
manipulation of this benchmark lending rates
by traders and brokers.
Geographical Indication
A Geographical Indication (GI) is a sign
used on cert ain goods t hat have a specif ic
geographical origin and which possesses certain
qual i t i es, mer i t s, and f eat ures t hat are
essentially attributed to their place of origin.
Most commonly, a geographical indicat ion
includes the name of the place of origin of the
goods.
GI is an aspect of industrial property which
refer t o t he count ry or place of origi n of a
product indicating an assurance locality and
distinctiveness which is essentially attributable
t o t he ori gi n in t hat def i ned geographi cal
locality, region country. Under Articles 1 (2) and
10 of the Paris Convection for the Protection
of Industrial Property, Geographical Indications
are covered as an el ement of I nt el lect ual
Property Rights (IPRs). GI is also covered under
Articles 22 to 24 of the Trade Related Aspects
of I nt el l ect ual Pr opert y Ri ght s (TRI PS)
Agreement, which was part of the Agreements
concl udi ng t he Ur uguay Round of GATT
negotiations. As a member of the World Trade
Organi zat i on (WTO), I ndi a enact ed t he
Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration
& Protection) Act, 1999 and it has come into
force with effect from 15th September 2003.
The GI tag ensures that no one other than
registered users (or at least those residing the
geographic territory) are allowed to use the
popular product name. Darjeeling Tea became
the first GI tagged product in India in 2004-05.
Since then 194 items have been added to the
list. Some of them include Aranmula Kannadi
(Mirror), Chanderi Fabric, Kancheepuram Silk,
Kashmir Paper Machine, Kashmir Pashmina
among others.
ACIVIL SERVICE FOR THE 21ST
CENTURY
The complexities and controversies in choosing
people for the Indian Civil Service (ICS) started early.
In 1854, the introduct ion of an open competitive
exam was opposed by universities on the grounds
that the exam required a strong factual memory and
that candidates from "crammer" institutions will be

Study Kit for Preli minary Exami nations:
v IAS (Pre) GS Paper 1
http://upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-pre/csat-paper-1

v IAS (Pre) GS Paper 2
http://upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-pre/csat-paper-2

v W. V. V8. (8|R|4 NI44B) 9|1R4 91|H| 2014 9 91 -1
http://www.upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-pre/csat-paper-1-hindi

v W. V. V8. (8|-8) 9|1R4 91|H| 2014 9 91 -2
http://www.upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-pre/csat-paper-2-hindi

v GS Foundation Course (PT+ MAINS) for 2014
http://upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-pre/general-studies-foundation-course

v 8|R|4 NI44B (GS) 9|3BsHB 4|8 (9|. |. + R C4)
http://upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-pre/gs-foundation-course-hindi

Study Kit for Mai ns Examinati ons:
v Contemporary Issues
http://www.upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/contemporary-issues-ias-mains

v Public Administration
http://www.upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-mains-public-adminstration

v Essay Writing
http://www.upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/essay-mains

v English Grammar & Comprehension
http://www.upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-mains-english-compulsory

v History
http://www.upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-mains-history

v Philosophy
http://upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-mains-philosophy

v Sociology
http://upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/ias-mains-sociology

v General Studies
http://www.upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/gs-mains

Study Kit for UPSC Other Exami nations:

v Armed Police Forces (CAPF)
http://upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit/capf

Study Kit for Other One Day Exami nations:

v SSC Combined Graduate Level (Tier - I)
http://sscportal.in/community/study-kit/cgl

v 8|H|VH (41-1) NI44B 8|R0|
http://sscportal.in/community/study-kit/cgl/tier-1-hindi

v SSC Combined Graduate Level Examination (Tier - II)
http://sscportal.in/community/study-kit/cgl-tier-2

v SSC Combined Higher Secondary Level (10+2) Examination
http://sscportal.in/community/study-kit/chsle

v IBPS Specialist Officer Study Kit
http://bankpoclerk.com/community/study-kit/ibps-specialist-officer

v IBPS Probationary Officer (PO) Study Kit
http://bankpoclerk.com/community/study-kit/ibps-po

v IBPS Clerk Study Kit
http://bankpoclerk.com/community/study-kit/ibps-clerk

For Full Information about Study Kits Click below Link:
http://upscportal.com/civilservices/study-kit
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more successful than t hose from universit ies. In
1886, a Public Services Commission headed by Sir
Charles Aitchison not only created the Provincial Civil
Services, but opened the window for Indians to enter
the ICS despit e being warned by a member of t he
Viceroy's council that "Teenage Indians were infinitely
quicker at exams than Europeans and soon half the
service will be Bengalis." After independence, t he
framework for civil services drew heavily on t he
Br i t i sh bl uepr i nt , responded t o t he t i me and
at t ract ed t he best candi dat es because of weak
alternatives. But India has changed and we now need
a radical overhaul of how we recrui t , promot e,
compensate and empipwer risk taking for our civil
servants.
The recruit ment process for all India Civil
Servants at entry level does not need tweaking; it is
widely accepted as fair, transparent and competently
admi ni st ered by t he Uni on Publ i c Servi ces
Commission (UPSC). But any organization that only
has one ent ry gat e and poor perf ormance
management (a fear of falling and hope of rising)
t ends t o become incest uous, self-referent ial and
stagnant. An overdue and high impact innovation in
the recruitment process is lateral entry for senior
positions. There is widespread acceptance that the
t op posi t i on t o whi ch ci vi l servant s shoul d
automatically reach should be joint secretary and its
equivalent after that, all candidates from the career
civil services pools should be made to compete with
outsiders (from other ' services, civil society and the
private sector) on equal terms. This will not be easy
but UPSC must be t asked wi t h creat i ng a
t ransparent and f air process t o creat e a pool of
candidates cleared for senior civil positions. This
could also be complemented gradually by a modified
form of the "up or out" policy of the army, where the
differential retirement ages for various ranks ensures
that the organization renews itself.
The most i mport ant i nt ervent i on i n t he
human resources framework for civil services is
performance management . The current "bat ch"
based promotion and weak appraisal system under
which more than 90 per cent of the candidates are
ranked in the top grade lead to an inability of t he
syst em t o di f f erent iat e bet ween good and bad
performers. Any reform must also figure out as to
how to give the top civil service jobs to people when
t hey are 45 rat her t han 58. The aut hori t y and
experience in the first five years of a career in the civil
servi ces and pri vat e sect or coul d not be more
different.
As civil servants get more successful, success is
defined narrowly as rising to higher levels and their
risk taking ability exponentially decreases. This is a
pr obl em; t he t op j obs i n any organi zat i on -
government , privat e or non-profit, need courage
more than intelligence. Obviously non-cognitive soft
skills are harder to measure and public policy is much
more multi-dimensional and complex than functions
which have clear objectives, inputs and time frames.
But the current system is confusing the accounting of
accountability.
The final objective of any civil services reform:
i ncreasi ng i nnovat i on and ri sk t aki ng. I ndi a's
problems are not like cancer or climate change where
the solutions are not clearly known. Most problems
t hat I ndi a needs t o sol ve have some ki nd of
committee from the past that has nicely articulated
t he solut ions. But moving from t he quest ion of
"what " t o t he quest ion of "how" is what requires
courage, persistence and a willingness to innovate.
Ci vil servant s wil l not be ambit i ous if t he
incentives they face are asymmetric incentives. Today,
a civil servant is not punished for a sin of omission
(something they did not do) nor does he/ she receive
recognition for a sin of commission (something out
of the ordinary that they did) which went well. But,
if a sin of commission goes wrong, they will find few
supporters. This framework does not recognize how
innovation happens because wast e and failure are
inherent to the process.
Einstein once gave an exam to his-st udents
when one of them asked "The questions in this year's
exam are exactly the same as last year's exam?" He
said "Don't worry; t he answers are different t his
year". This story is relevant to India and her civil
service because the three questions India faces today
are the same we faced at independence; how do we
build a nat ion? How do we deliver social just ice?
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How do we reduce povert y? But t he answers are
different because of many reasons. Because 3 million
people win an election of some kind and because I
million kids will join the labour force every month for
the next twenty years. Because our founding fathers
put together a polity and const itut ion that meant
the fear of -India splintering behind us and social
just ice as a work in progress. But t he defi ning
problem and challenge for India over the next two
decades is poverty reduction.
Pover t y reduct ion i s a mul t i-di mensional
project that requires the government, civil society
and the private sector to work together. Yet , today,
all three of us st ruggle with our birt h defect s; t he
government has an execution deficit, civil society has
a scale deficit and t he privat e sect or has a t rust
deficit. But a more diverse, performance orient ed
and motivated civil service is crucial to a fess poor
India. Let the work begin.
India emerges as a favoured
investment destination
$ 175 Billion Foreign Direct Investment
Into India in the Last Four Years
India received 94% of its total FDI in the
last 10 years
Robust FDI policies create more jobs and
world class infrastructure development
India ranked as top investment destination
for FDI among emerging and developed
markets.
Increased Exports
Exports increased from Rs. 2.93 lakh crores
to Rs. 16.34 lakh crores in Last Nire Years
Foreign trade policy opens new markets in
Africa, Latin America and Asia
Exports from SEZs touch a record of US $
87.55 Billion (Rs. 4,76,159 crores) in 2012-
13
SEZs provide direct employment to about
12 lakh persons.
Grain Production Sets New Record
I n t he l ast 10 years ri ce product i on
increased from 83 to 104 million tonnes,
wheat from 68 to 92 tonnes and sugarcane
from 237 to 341 million tonnes.
With over 80 million tonnes of grains in
stock, food security of the nation is now
ensured
India is now one of the top countries in the
production of milk, fruits, vegetables, eggs
and fish.
Highways Built and Upgraded
18,200 km of Highways Built and upgraded
in the Last 10 Years.
Investment on road construction increased
by five times.
Under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana
more than 2,67,000 kilometers of new all-
weather roads added to t he rural road
network.
More than 33 lakh kilometers of rural roads
giving farmers easy access to agricultural
markets.
MOBILISINGANDMANAGING
KNOWLEDGERESOURCES
The inst it ut ional capaci t y t o cont inuously
access, mobilise, generat e and manage knowledge
resources t o st rengt hen publ i c syst ems and
programmes - across sectors and on an ongoing basis
- is a critical aspect of state capacity. Unfortunately,
all t oo often, t he approach t o knowledge and it s
management within public systems has straggled to
find a productive balance between being valourised
(as 'expert ise') and t ri viali sed (as 'academi c or
theoretical'), externalised (as technical assistance) and
routinised (as standardised and mandatory training
days), over-emphasised (as report ing and record
keeping) and unrecognised (as the 'tacit knowledge'
and experience of local communities and field-level
implementers.) In the process, we tend to arrive at
a narrow underst andi ng of poor programmat ic
out come's and a l i mi t ed vi ew of t he r ol e of
knowledge resources in transforming public systems
and services.
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In most cases, poor programmatic outcomes
are perceived as implementation failures, with weak
monitoring and enforcement held responsible as the
major administrative lapse. And implementat ion
failure is almost always equated with the failure to
follow the scheme guidelines in a competent manner.
Thi s i s bot h a narrow and l argel y mi sdi rect ed
underst andi ng of t he si t uat i on. I n addit i on t o
serious gaps in financial and human resources, public
systems and programmes suffer, greatly from t he
inability to adequately and appropriately access the
knowledge required for continuous capacity building
and problem-solving at different levels. It is here
that the budgetary allocations and the appointment
of qualified staff, while necessary, are not sufficient.
Knowledge must instead be recognised as a critical
resource - on par with and distinct from financial and
human resources. What is needed are well-defined
and accountable institutional mechanisms designed
to address the unique objectives, requirements and
architecture of public systems and programmes to
access and harness t he knowledge essent i al f or
implementation.
Diverse Sources of Knowledge
The cent ral challenge is to build an adaptive
system - a vibrant, learning organisation, one that
learns from communities, from academics, and from
its own experiences in implementation and uses this
learni ng t o i mprove programme out comes on a
continuous basis.
The rest of this art icle focuses on three key
i nst i t ut i onal mechani sms commonl y used f or
accessing technical capacity and support, enabling
syst emat ic learning and developing inst itut ional
memory in public systems: (1) Resource Centres; (2)
Knowledge Part nerships; (3) Int ernal Decisi on-
Support Systems. For each, it presents some specific
strategies and steps that may be taken to strengthen
their design, management and performance. While it
i s of cour se, vi t al t o t ake i nt o account t he
requirements and unique features across diverse
sectors and schemes, what follows is intended as a
short thought-piece on some of the common design
principles, which may be of value across systems and
regions.
Enabling Dynamic Boundary
Organisations
Resource centres can be productively thought
of as boundary organi sat i ons - 'organi sat i ons
designed to facilitate collaboration and information-
f l ow bet ween t he research and publ i c pol i cy
communities.
Of course, resource centres are not a new idea
in development programmes in India and have been
a feature of the design and implementation of public
programmes and systems across different states and
sectors over many years. Unfortunately, very few such
init iat ives have been abl e t o est abl ish dynamic
institutions that exemplify the special potential and
rol e t hat resource cent res can and must play as
boundary organi sat ions and vibrant cent res of
learning, transforming access to knowledge resources
acr oss publ i c syst ems and progr ammes. The
experience of est ablishing and running resource
cent res across different programmat ic cont ext s
suggest s some of t he key aspect s t hat must be
addressed for resource centres to work as an effective
mechanism for accessing and generating knowledge
required for programme implementation:
1. Resour ce cent r es need governance
st ructures that ensure t hat t hey are t he
most responsive to the day-to-day priorities
of implementers and planners.
2. Resour ce cent r es are best set up as
organisations with considerable functional
autonomy to adopt the Human Resource
policy most suited for their functions, for
the construction of partnerships as needed
and for building their own internal capacity
and cumulat ive increases in institutional
memory.
3. A key requirement is for the organisation
and for individuals within the organisation,
to be given sharply defined deliverables and
outcomes, which form the basis of their
appraisal and continuation.
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4. Finding the right human resources for such
lean, high impact centres is important.
5. Finally, resource centers have typically only
a small t eam i n each of t hei r areas of
intervention and require partnerships to be
effective. In any case, no single institution
can build the capacit y or mobilise all the
knowledge needed for a complex public
system or large-scale programme.
Conclusion
While decentralisation is widely accepted as an
important goal of administrat ive reform, it is also
wel l -recogni sed t hat wi t hout t he necessary
institutional capacity at the decentralised levels, the
opportunity to make use of the devolved powers to
ensure more ef fect i ve resource al locat ion and.
improved programme outcomes is limited or even
lost. However, discussions on institutional capacity
are often restricted to issues around the devolution
of powers and t o fi nding and t raining t he ri ght
human resources. Moreover, t hese act ions have
become increasingly preoccupied with whether rent-
seeking and corruption will increase or reduce as a
resul t of devol ut ion, or i n ot her words, i n t he
proposition of a mechanical decentralisation, while
doing away with discret ion. But, while increasing
transparency and accountability is vital, this tends to
be a very narrow and ultimately counter-productive
approach t o t he f ar more diverse, complex and
cont ext ual problems of implement at ion. For, in
runni ng l arge-scal e decent ral i sed syst ems i n
knowledge intensive areas such as health, education,
agriculture, water and energy systems, it is the ability
to synthesise tacit knowledge gained from practice in
local contexts with more codified knowledge gained
f rom t r ai ni ng and t echni cal support , i nt o
i mpl ement at i on processes", const ant i nt ernal
learning and renewal and buil ding inst i t ut ional
memory that makes a crit ical difference between
success and failure. As this article has tried to argue,
this requires diverse and specific strategies and well-
defined inst it utional mechanism t o mobilise and
manage knowledge resources intended t o support
decision-making that is both flexible and accountable
at all levels of implement ation, especially by mid-
level managers and frontline functionaries, who must
constantly apply and renew their knowledge on the
ground. Without these in place, the vital potential,
fi nancial all ocat ions and expect ed out comes of
decentralisation, will not materialise.
ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS : AN
ASSESSMENT
The institut ion of an efficient, effect ive and
responsive administrative system is crucial to t he
delivery of democrat ic mandat e in any pol it ical
system. Having adopt ed a Parliament ary form of
government, India opted for continuity with the civil
service system that existed during the British rule.
The federal framework implied that St ates would
have-their own administrative arrangements. The all-
I ndi a servi ces were expect ed t o provi de an
administrative basis for the unity of the country that
had a complex socio-cultural t errain and multiple
forms of diversity. The civil service system was to be
characterised by constitutional protection, political
neutrality, permanence, anonymity and merit based
recruit ment . Despit e all care, t he administ rative
syst em, however, came to ref lect the at tributes of
the colonial system, meant to cater to law and order
needs, rat her t han t he democrat ic aspirat ions of
public to shape and share the destiny of the nation
and attain the goals of development for all.
The Road to Reforms
Widespread corruption, inefficiency, lack of
responsiveness, accountability, social prejudice and
ineffective administration became a source of rising
discontent with administration among the general
public. The political rulers in search of explanations
for policy and development failure also found some
hope in administ rat ive reforms. From t he initial
efforts to the present times, there have been about
fift y Commissions and Commit t ees at the Union
Government level which looked into the possibilities
of administrative reforms.
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The initial phase of reforms sought to prepare
bureaucracy t o underst and i t s responsi bi li t i es,
develop capacity and offer an administration that
could deliver development . Administrat ion in this
phase was seen as capable of offering development
and welfare goals and the challenge involved creation
of appropriate structures and administrative capacity
t o address t he chall enge of del iver y. The Fi rst
Administrative Reforms Commission, set up in 1966
to take a comprehensive look at the administrative
reforms, gave several recommendations regarding
the organization and functioning of ministries and
depart ment s and t he int roduction of civil service
reforms. Since the responsibility for recommending
acceptance or rejection of the recommendations was
pl aced on t he concerned depart ment s and t he
commit tee of secret aries was to review and take
decisions in t he light of t he recommendat ions of
these Departments, most of these remained largely
unimplemented.
The Economi c Admi ni st rat i on Ref or ms
Commission Reports, 1983 emphasised reduction of
government responsibilit ies, t he Report s of t he
Expendi t ure Ref orms Commi ssi on, 2000,
recommended downsizing to reduce expenditure on
government. The Fifth and Sixth Pay Commission
Report s recommended employment reduct ion in
Government of India over the years, by restructuring
and ri ght si zi ng t hrough decent ral i zat i on of
functions to state and local government as well as by
entrusting the functions undertaken by government
to civil society organisations or autonomous bodies
and contract employment to change the character of
public service that have been significant in shaping
this changing discourse on administrative reforms.
The Surendra Nath Committee Report, 2003, and
Commit tee on Civil Services Reforms, 2004, also
adhered t o this line of thinking, while dwelling on
Civil Service reforms,
As one looks at t he reforms init iated in t he
recent years, three important dimensions of these
can be delineated. One, involving the reorganization
of institutional jurisdictions across state, market and
ci vi l soci et y and t he consequent emphasi s on
governance rather than government to ensure the
del i ver y of devel opment al goal s; t wo, t he
reconf igurat ion of administ rat ive st at e and it s
underlying logic; and three, reinstitution of citizen
spaces. The First dimension of reforms attempted to
t ake away some responsi bi l i t i es f rom publ i c
administration and assign these to non-state entities,
t hereby, alt er ing t he nat ure of administ rat ion's
responsibilit ies in some spheres. These bear t he
inf luence of public management thrust ; the second
dimension sought to alter the organizational and
procedural dimensions of administration as well as
the conditions and capacities of administration; and
the third one sought to bring about a change in the
citizen's experiences of administration by increasing
the opportunities for participation.
Inclusive and Citizen-centric Reforms needed
A careful analysis of t he various st rands of
reforms attempted in recent years clearly suggests
that these represent a bundle of remedies meant to
pacify the diverse concerns of competing interests
without resolving their underlying contradict ions.
While, there is a strong thrust towards strengthening
t he posit ion of cit izens through an expansion of
part icipat ory spaces, there is also an evidence of
increasing marginalisation of the poor on account of
reduced commitments of state intervention in many
spheres. 'Reforms' discourse in India has, in fact, been
shaped by the somewhat competing claims of new
public management and democratic strivings, evident
in concerns for efficiency, effectiveness and autonomy
on one hand and access, equity, citizen-centricily and
accountability on the other. It is important to work
towards a resolution to ensure that the imperatives
of democracy are not compr omi sed and
administ rat ive spaces remain relevant t o t hei r
ef f ect i ve real i sat i on so t hat bot h t he ref orms
processes and the reforms outcomes are as inclusive
and citizen-centric as possible.
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48 Gist of KURUKSHETRA (VOL. 18)
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Gist of
KURUKSHETRA
BOOSTINGRURALDEVELOPMENT
THROUGHAGRI-INFRASTRUCTURE
What a tragedy it has been for the agriculture
sector in India. While we celebrate the agricultural
production in the country reaching an all time high,
at the same time the country is unable to store the
excessive produce. Along wit h land, labour and
capit al t he income emanating from agriculture is
being directly linked to the quality of infrastructure.
The agricult ural infrastruct ure includes all of t he
basic services, facilities, equipment, and institutions
needed f or t he economic growt h and ef f i ci ent
f unct i oni ng of t he f ood and f i ber market s.
Infrastructure is basically supporting both physical
and organi zat i onal st ruct ures needed f or t he
operation of a society or enterprise, or the services
and facilities necessary for an economy to function.
I nf rast ruct ure has been one of t he much
neglected aspects of Indian agriculture. Agriculture in
India lacks minimum necessary infrastructure and
t his is holding India back. A recent st at ement of
minister of Agriculture in the Rajya Sabha confirmed
the loss due to lack of inadequate infrastructure to
the tune of rupees 44,000 crore. Of this the value of
annual wast age of f rui t s and veget abl es was
est imat ed at rupees 13,309 crore. The Saumit ra
Chaudhari committee constituted by the planning
commission in 2012 had put the total cold storage
capacity requirements in the country at 61.3 million
t onnes as against t he present annual capacit y of
around 29 million tonnes. There is thus a gap of 32
million tonnes.
Infrastructure and Development : The
investment in infrastructure impacts positively the
economi c devel opment , Rost ow (1960) whi l e
discussing the different stages of growth of economy
argued t hat expansion and improvement of t he
t ransport and t he i nf rast ruct ure is a necessary
precondition for capital formation and increase in the
production and productivity. It should be noted that
the infrastructure in the agricultural sector enhances
the comparative advantage of that region in which
the infrastruct ural investment is made. When the
regi on gai ns compar at i ve advant age i n t he
agricultural activities, the net result is increase in the
production and productivity of various agricultural
goods and services in general. An empirical study by
Binswanger et al (1993) revealed t hat increased
marketing infrastructure that includes components
such as road facilities in India enhanced the t ot al
agri cul t ural out put wi t h t he el ast i cit y of 0.20.
Similarly a st udy by Ahmed and Hussain (1990)
concluded that the fertilizer use in the agricultural
sector increases with the improvement in the quality
of road. An i mport ant benefi t derived from t he
agricultural infrastructure is that it helps to increase
the level of value added products in the region.
Multiplier Effect : The major f ocus of
infrastructural investment has been on irrigation,
transportation, electric power, agricultural markets,
etc and these not only contributed to the agricultural
growth at the macro level but also to wide disparity
bet ween different regions in terms of agricultural
growth. The introduction of a resource conserving
technology such as the drip or sprinkler in dry land
areas lessens the ground water exploitation in that
area. This would result more ground water available
Gist of KURUKSHETRA (VOL. 18) 49
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for farmer fields downstream. Another import ant
aspect of the introduction of this technology will be
that the expenses on digging wells or arranging for
tanks for irrigation will be saved which the farmer
can use for other social functions. When the water is
available to the farmers he can also go for change in
his cropping pat tern; he can now grow high value
crops earn more income and thus improve his social
status. Similarly the dams have the primary aim of
electricity generation and irrigation can also be used
for fishing. The addit ional area of land brought
under cultivation due to construction of an irrigation
dam would lead to increased consumption of inputs
l ike fer t il i zer, weedi cides et c. To mat ch t o t he
demand of t his increased consumption we would
have to either increase the capacity of the existing on
or est abl i sh new uni t s. Thi s woul d provi de
employment to many.
Agri marketing infrastructure : The agri
market i ng i nf rast ruct ure i s anot her import ant
component. Agri marketing infrastructure includes
infrastructure for collection, drying, grading, labeling
and packaging of the produce. This needs market
yards, of f i ces and pl at f or ms f or l oadi ng and
unloading of the produce. Rural markets and t hat
too well regulated are a core component of the agri
market infrastructure. These help in preventing the
expl oi t at i on of t he f armers at t he hands of
middlemen and brokers. Informat ion regarding
provision of timely information is also essential. For
that we need to set up e-kiosks through which timely
information could be sent to the farming community.
They can also go for e-trading and futures trading.
NABARD's initiative : NABARD has also been
providing Rural Infrastructure Development Fund
(RIDF) since 1995. This RIDF finances the states for
creation of rural infrastructure like rural roads, minor
and medium irrigation projects, agricultural market
yar ds et c. I t has al so support ed wat ershed
development in about 2 million hect ares of land
around t he country invest ing about rupees 1600
crores to demonstrate people centered approaches
of conserving soil and water.
Government Intervention : The
government of I ndi a now provi des f i nanci al
assistance in the form of grant in aid at the rate of
50 percent of the total cost of plants and machinery
and technical civil works in general areas and at the
rate of 75 percent in difficult areas including north
east ern st at es f or creat i on of col d chai n
infrastructure with a ceiling of rupees 10 crore. The
government has also formulated a scheme called as
PEG for creat ion of additional storage capacity for
guaranteed hiring by the Food Corporation of India.
In this scheme against a t arget of 60 lakh tonne
capacity creation in the year 2013-14, 3.36 lakh was
completed up to July 2013.
The government of India has already taken
some initiatives for safety of farm produce. India's
first horticulture train started operation in June last
year carrying onions from Nashik farmers to Kolkata.
This has proved very successful for small farmers who
do not have to become vict im of middlemen and
commission agents.
Ten mega food parks have been approved in
Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Jharkhand, Assam, West
Bengal, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Bihar
and Tripura. These Mega Food Parks are aimed at
accelerat i ng t he pace of f ood processing in t he
country backed by an efficient food supply chain.
Besides t his t he parks will provide employment
opportunities for so many peoples.
What to do : Most of the perishable items are
produced in the villages which remain confined to
t hese due t o t he absence of road net works. The
existing road and rail facilities are inadequate. Most
of the areas which produce good quality fruits are
still inaccessible. This coupled with the rough terrain
of the area and lack of regulatory markets make the
farming community to suffer a lot at the hands of
t he l ocal t raders. Farmers have no informat i on
about the market price. There is an urgent need to
est ablish suit able infrast ruct ure like t he use of
informat ion communicat ion technology (ICT) for
benefit of farming community. The technology like e-
kiosks and e-choupals of Indian Tobacco Company in
Madhya Pradesh and other states of the country are
doing a great job. Each electronic kiosk is connected
to a number of villages.
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I rri gat ion i s anot her area which requi res
i nf rast ruct ure upgr adat i on. Wi t h sui t abl e
i nf rast r uct ur e t he i rri gat i on pot ent i al can be
increased. The ut ilizat ion of available wat er for
agriculture too is far from efficient. Wastage of water
is huge in surface irrigation systems. The inability to
conserve adequate water and curb its indiscriminate
utilization, including rampant wasteful exploitation
of water is also a cause of concern. The problem is
more severe in dry land area of the country which
account s for more t han 60 percent of t he t ot al
cul t i vabl e area. Sui t abl e wat er conservi ng
infrastructure like the drip irrigation and sprinkler
irrigation should be installed in these areas. Water
conservation techniques like water sheds, rainwater
harvesting and other measures can bring additional
area under irrigation in these water scarce regions.
Si mi l arl y we can al so i nvest i n cr eat i ng
community grain storage Banks where the farmers
can store their excessive food grains. This will also
prevent them from distress selling as they can wait
for the right time to sell their produce.
At the same time greater emphasis has to be
laid on research infrast ruct ure by est ablishing a
number of new institutes, national research centers
for several crops and livestock to address the local
problems and come out with site specific solutions.
To conclude, infrastructure potentially can inf luence
rural economic performance through three ways.
These are (i) individual development by the increased
use of existing resources-land, labor, capital, etc. (ii)
bringing additional resources to rural areas and (iii)
socio-economic development by creating assets and
making rural economies more productive.
RURALINFRASTRUCTURE KEYTO
INCLUSIVEGROWTH
The recurrent t heme of publ i c discourse
during the last one decade has been 'inclusive growth.'
Inclusive growth is essential for social and economic
equity. Since India's majority of people live in villages,
it is easily seen that rural infrastructure is a major
component for ensuring inclusive growth.
Devel opment of Infrast ruct ure envi sages
creation of values through engineering consultancy.
Rural development entails structural changes in the
socio-economic situation to achieve improved living
standard of low-income population and making the
process of t heir development self -sust ai ned. It
i ncl udes economi c devel opment wi t h cl ose
integration among various sections and sectors; and
economic growth, specifically of the rural poor. In
fact, it requires area based development as well as
beneficiary oriented programmes.
Devel opment of rural areas is slow due t o
improper and inadequate provision of infrastructure
as compare to urban areas. That's why rural share in
GDP is always less. The planning and development of
human set t l ement s and provi si on of requi red
infrastructure are much better in urban areas. Rural
population migrates to urban cities for employment
opport unit ies and bet t er facilit ies. Besides, t he
limited capacity of rural economy to accommodate
the increasing population sends the labour force as
surplus to migrate large cities.
Rur al i nf rast ruct ur e i s not onl y a key
component of rural devel opment but al so an
import ant ingredient in ensuring any sustainable
povert y reduct i on programme. The proper
devel opment of i nf rast ruct ure i n r ural areas
i mproves rural economy and qual it y of l i fe. I t
promotes better productivity, increased agricultural
incomes, adequat e employment and so on and so
forth.
Hence t he "Bharat Ni rman" t i me bound
business plan for act ion in rural infrastructure. It
envisages action in the following areas:
Irrigation
Rural Roads
Rural Housing
Rural Water Supply
Rural Electrification
Rural Telecommunication Connectivity, etc.
Infrastructure development has a key role to
play in both economic growth and poverty reduction.
Fai l ure t o accel erat e i nvest ment s i n rural
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infrastructure will be a stumbling block to achieve
the Millennium Development Goals. Further, it also
severely limits opportunities to benefit from trade
liberalisat ion, int ernational capit al market s and
other pot ent ial benefit s offered by globalisat ion,
point out development wat chers. No doubt , t he
creation of infrastructure in emerging 'rural-urban'
clusters remains a "major challenge". To meet t his
chal l enge, t he Rural Devel opment Mi ni st ry i s
optimistic that its revamped project for developing
amenities in such areas will yield results soon.
Cur rent l y, t here are around 3,900 such
clust ers in t he count ry which do not fall either in
rural or urban category. Government has said it will
undertake projects such as water supply, sanitation,
street lighting, tourism and improvement of roads
t hrough public-private part nership mode in such
areas. The Project is re-christ ened as new PURA
(Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas).
When PURA-2 is launched, t he Cent re will
select the developers, while the state governments
will choose the clusters for creation of infrastructure.
The Ministry is committed to the grounding of good
PURA projects across the country to ensure people
in rural areas do not feel deprived of urban amenities
and do not have t he urge t o mi grat e t o cit ies in
search of good living. According t o t he ministr y,
there are 4 Ps in the model as this is not only about
Publ i c Pri vat e Part nershi p, but al so about
involvement of People and communities at Gram
Panchayat level.
The year 2013 witnessed stirring events in the
area of rural development . One of t hem was The
Right t o Fair Compensat ion and Transparency in
Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement
Act. With its notification, it has replaced an archaic
law of over a century-old.
During the year, government came out with
it s phase II of the Pradhan Mant ri Gramin Sadak
Yojana (PMGSY) to upgrade rural roads constructed
under the programme. The Union Cabinet gave its
approval for a proposal for launching the PMGSY-II.
While the exist ing PMGSY scheme will cont inue,
under PMGSY phase II, the roads already built for
rural connectivity will be upgraded to enhance village
infrastructure.
The Ministry, at the fag-end of the year, also
announced si gni f i cant changes t o i t s f l agshi p
MNREGA programme seeking to ensure permanent
and durabl e asset creat i on and i nt roduct ion of
penalty for delayed wage payments. It launched a
new skill development scheme called 'Roshni' for
rural yout h f r om 24 most cri t i cal l ef t -wi ng
extremism affect ed dist ricts in the count r y. The
initiative aims at imparting skills and placement of
50,000 yout h from t hese dist rict s. The minist ry
select ed six dist ri ct s each f rom Jharkhand and
Odisha, five from Chhattisgarh, two from Bihar and
one each from Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West
Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra for the
scheme.
The programme will be implemented at a cost
of Rs. 100 crore over t he next t hree years : The
government which initiated various programmes to
deal with the challenge to Maoism has said that at
least 50 per cent of the candidates covered under the
scheme should be women and special efforts will be
made to proactively cover Part icularly Vulnerable
Tribal Groups on a priority bais. The year also saw an
ambit ious programme 'Himayat' launched by the
Rural Ministry in Jammu and Kashmir to train and
give jobs to over one lakh youth from poor families
evoking positive response from the youth.
Mahatma Gandhi's words that India lives in its
villages rings true even today. The majority of its 1.2
billion people still live in villages and have agriculture
as their means of livelihood. Any plan for the country
cannot but have i t s part i cul ar f ocus on t he
development of the vast rural areas and the people
inhibiting them.
As expected, the rural development was given
its deserving priority in the union budget 2013-14.
The rural development ministry, which carries out
many of the government's pro-poor programmes,
recei ved a 46 per cent hi ke i n i t s al l ocat i on.
The budget proposed t o allocat e t o t he minist ry
Rs.80, 194 crore in 2013-14.
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Food Security
Food security is as much a basic human right
as the right to education or the right to health care.
The National Food Security Bill was a promise of the
.Government which it kept during the year.
NABARD
NABARD operat es t he Rural Infrastruct ure
Development Fund (RIDF). RIDF has successfully
utilised 18 tranches so far. A sum of Rs.5000 crore
was made avai l abl e t o NABARD t o f i nance
construction of warehouses, godowns, silos and cold
storage units designed to store agricultural produce,
both in the public and the private sectors.
Road Construction
The road const ruct ion sect or has reached a
certain level of maturity. But it facts challenges not
envisaged earlier, including financial stress, enhanced
construction risk and contract management issues
that are best addressed by an independent authority.
Hence, Government has decided t o const it ut e a
regulatory authority for the road sector. Bottlenecks
stalling road projects have been addressed and 3,000
kms of road projects in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh will be
awarded in the first six months of 2013-14.
CORPORATEINITIATIVES IN
IMPROVINGRURAL RETAIL FORMATS
In the past decade or so the focus of corporate
on exploring the hinterlands has seen a steady surge.
Apart from companies dealing in agriculture and
rel at ed product s, fast moving consumer goods
(FMCG), Durables, Telecom Companies, Banks and a
few others have also made a significant investment
i n t he rural I ndi a and have begun t o reap t he
benefits. Although exploring and exploiting the rural
India came with its own share of challenges. From
the perspective of companies these challenges can be
underst ood bet t er i n t erms of market i ng mi x:
pr oduct , pri ce, pl ace and promot i on or more
speci fi call y, i n cont ext of rural market i ng mix;
acceptability, affordability, availability and awareness.
According to Pradeep Kashyap, known as the father
of rural market ing in India and founder of MART
(India's leading rural consultancy organization), the
physical distribution of products continues to pose
an immense challenge to marketers because reaching
7.8 million ret ai l out let s spread across 600,000
villages and feeding a retail network of village shops
is a distribution nightmare.
Bharat Nirman, a time bound business plan
for action in rural infrastructure proposed action in
t he areas of irrigat ion, roads and bridges, rural
housing, rural water supply, rural electrification and
telecommunication facility. Apart from these aspects
related to infrastructure development, the changing
face of retail format s in rural areas also signifies
infrastructure development ; directly or indirect ly;
indirectly because in order to increase and improve
the reach to rural areas, government and corporate,
i n par t ner shi p or ot herwi se support t he
development of infrastructure by building roads and
improving railroad access or through coming up with
cold storages or warehouses and ensuring consistent
supply of power etc.
Long-term programs and projects like Bharat
Nirman, MGNREGA and NRHM have brought a
promise of sustainable and social development of
rural India, bringing rural markets t o the cent re-
stage of the corporate world (Kashyap, 2012).
A few corporate giants like ITC, Godrej, TATA,
DCM Shriram etc have taken an initiat ive t hat is
leading to emergence of modern (organized) retail in
rural India. The increase in average rural shop size is
al so i ndi cat i ve of t he f act (Tabl e 1). Wi t h t he
increasing footprint of big companies in rural India,
the impact is also visible in development of related
infrastructure.
Table 1: Rural shop size
Size (in sq ft) Year
1999-2000 2008
Up to 100 71 53
101-250 25 37
>250 4 10
Source: A.C. Nielsen Shop Census 1999/ 2000; RMAI
2008
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Some of t he init iat ives t hat have brought
about a marked change and signify the transition of
rural markets from conventional t o contemporary
retail formats are brief ly discussed:
Murugappa Mana Gromor Stores
ITC Choupal Saagar
TATA Kisan Sansar
Godrej Aadhaar
DSCL Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar
Murugappa Group Mana Gromor Stores
Coromandel International Limited, a part of
t he I NR 225 bi l li on Murugappa Group t ook an
initiat ive and opened t wo modern stores in rural
Andhra Pradesh i n t he year 2007. Unl i ke
convent ional small ret ail format s t hat offered a
limited assortment, these stores offered more than
mi neral s, f ert i l i zers and seeds et c. The st ores
provided expert guidance to the farmers on adopting
right practices, crop diagnosis, soil testing and other
measures to increase the yield.
ITC Choupal Saagar
ITC's Choupal Saagar is one of the first retail
ventures in rural India that followed after the success
of e-Choupal . Choupal Saagar i s a physi cal
infrast ructure hub t hat comprises collect ion and
storage facilities and a unique rural hypermarket that
offers multiple services under one roof. The mall
having shopping area of about 7000 square feet
(which is quite small for a mall if compared to the
urban areas) offers attractive merchandise displayed
in open shelves. The premise has high ceiling as the
building is a warehouse for storing the farm produce
t hat t he company buys t hrough i t s popul ar e-
choupals.
Tata Kisan Sansar (TKS)
Tat a Ki san Sansar, an i ni t i at i ve of Tat a
Chemicals, came in to being with t he object ive of
empowering and supporting the Indian farmer and
community in creating more value for their produce.
TKS follows a hub and spoke model. TKS centers are
franchised retail outlets and each centre caters to
about 30-40 villages in the vicinity.
Apart from providing generic as well as store
brands of fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, cattle feed and
farm implements, TKS provides services relating to
soi l and wat er t est i ng, cont ract f armi ng, seed
production and application and advisory services.
Godrej Aadhar
Adhaar, a joint venture between t he Future
Group and Godrej Agrovet Lt d, focuses on retail
distribution of agricultural and consumer products
for personal and household use in rural and semi-
urban areas. It is positioned as a supermarket and
has a presence in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and
Haryana. Adhaar of f ers more t han 1500 st ock
keeping units (SKUs) across broad product lines like
processed food, personal care, general .merchandise
and appliances etc.
DSCL Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar (HKB)
DCM Shriram Consolidated Lmited (DSCL), a
rural ret ail business init iat ive was established t o
create a long term relationship with the farmers and
est abl ishing one-st op-shop for cat ering t o t heir
needs. HKB is by far the largest rural retail chain in
India and cat ers t o t he household as well as t he
agricultural needs of the people living in semi-urban
and rural areas. The products and services offered by
t he company i ncl ude FMCGs, households, food
items, grocery, apparel, personal care durables, agri-
inputs, financial services, fuel, agri-advisory services
and output linkages. A range of agricultural products
are also available on t he shelves of HKB st ores:
seeds, pest icides, f ert il izers, farm implement s,
vet erinary and irrigat ion i t ems et c. HKB can be
considered as an important and instrumental link in
retail value chain.
The Government of India understands this is
the need of the hour and building infrastructures in
rural India will ensure inclusive growth. The retail
vent ures such as discussed above have not only
gar nered government 's support i n t erms of
improving infrastructure but has also paved the way
for private public partnership.
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Ten years from now, t he landscape of rural
retail in India will change considerably and with it,
the habitat that will strongly support it, that is, the
rural infrast ructure wit h marked improvement in
roads, rai l roads and br i dges, power suppl y,
elect ricit y, cold st ores and warehouses, housing,
water resources and telecommunication etc. The two
are related.
TOXICITYCAUSEDBYPESTICIDES
Agriculture is the single largest sector of India
that provides the principal means of livelihood for
over 58.4% of country's population. It contributes
approximately one-fifth of the total gross domestic
product (GDP). Agriculture accounts for about 10%
of t he t ot al export earni ngs and provi des raw
material to a large number of industries, however,
l ow and vol at i l e growt h rat es and t he recent
escalation of agrarian crisis in several parts of the
Indian countryside are a threat not only to national
food security but also to economic well-being of the
nation as a whole. To satisfy the growing demand of
fruits and vegetables, farmers in the country utilize
pesticides to boost production and to prevent insect-
pest s and diseases, which pose great t hreat s t o
veget able and frui t product ion. It has also been
report ed t hat pest i cides are commonly used on
periodic basis throughout the growing season at very
high concentration. Such a use of pesticides during
production often leads to the presence of pesticide
residues in fruits and veget ables after harvest . In
addi t i on, t he usage of t hese chemi cal s has
occasionally been accompanied by serious risks to
both human health and the environment because of
t hei r t oxi c pot ent i al , hi gh per si st ence, bi o-
concent rat ion, and especially, due t o t heir non-
specifictoxicity. Some of the pesticides are persistent,
and hence, t hey remain in the body causing long
exposure.
Pesticide residues
Pesticides residues have been defined as any
speci f i ed subst ance i n f ood, agri cul t ur al
commodities, animal feed, soil, or water, resulting
from the use of pest icide. The term includes any
der i vat i ves of a pest i ci de such as conversi on
product s, met abol i t es, r eact i on product s and
impurities that are of toxicological significance.
Monitoring of Pesticide Residues
The aim of t hese programs, i.e., pest ici de
monit ori ng, is just t o ensure t hat t he pest ici de
resi dues do not exceed maximum residue l evel
(MRLs) in f rui t s and veget ables all owed by t he
government and no misuse of pesticides that could
result in unexpected residues in food and t hat the
good agri cul t ural pract i ces (GAP) are bei ng
maintained. For monitoring studies in the general
survey, all the samples are monitored for residues for
all t he appl i ed pest ici des. The result s of t hese
moni t or i ng programmes are used f or f ut ure
development in setting MRLs and risk assessment
exercises for public health.
Maximum Residue Limit
To regulate the pesticides residues in food to
a safe level, a concept was introduced by Joint FAO/
WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives in 1955,
and Codex Al i ment ar i us Commi ssi on was
est ablished in 1964. The maximum residue limit
(MRL) is the utmost concentration for a pesticide
residue on crop or food commodity resulting from
the use of pesticides according to good agricultural
practice. The concentration is expressed in milligram
of pesticide residues per kilogram of the commodity
(mg kg-1/ug g-1/ ppm).
Pesticides in Environment
The environment al impact of pest icides is
often greater than what is int ended by those who
use them. Pesticides can reach a dest ination other
than their target species, including non-target species
and cont ami nat e soi l , wat er, t urf and ot her
vegetation. Although there can be benefits of using
pesticides, but in addition to killing insects and weeds,
t hey can be t oxi c t o a host of ot her organi sms
including birds, fish, beneficial insects and non-target
plants. Insect icides are generally the most acut ely
toxic class of pesticides but herbicides can also pose
risks to non-target organisms.
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Pesticides in Human body
They can ent er t he human body t hrough
various modes like inhalation of aerosols, dust and
vapor that the pesticides contain, via oral exposure
by consuming food and water and through dermal
exposure by direct contact of pesticides with skin.
The pesticides sprayed on the food, especially fruits
and veget abl es, can l each down i nt o soi l s and
groundwater, and can mix up with drinking water.
Pesticide spray can drift and pollute the air.
The effects of pesticides on human health are
more harmful based on the toxicity of chemical and
the length and magnitude of exposure. Not only farm
workers and their families experience the greatest
exposure to agricultural pesticides through direct
contact wit h the chemicals but also every human
contains a percentage of pesticides in their body and
children are comparat ively more suscept ible and
sensitive to pesticides since they are still developing
and have a weaker immune system than the adults
do. Children may also be exposed to pesticides due
t o t hei r cl oser proxi mi t y t o f l oor and nat ural
t endency t o put cont ami nat ed object s in t hei r
mouth, and also because, the children tend to spend
more time at home in a pot ent ially contaminat ed
environment.
Exposure t o pest icides can cause mild skin
irritation, birth defect s, tumors, genet ic changes,
blood and nerve disorders, endocrine disruption and
even coma or death. The developmental effects have
been associated with pesticides. Recent increases in
childhood cancers, such as leukemia, throughout
North America may be the result of genot oxic and
non-genot oxi c pest i ci des due t o somat i c cel l
mutations. Insecticides targeted to disrupt insects
can have harmful effects on nervous systems of the
mammals because of basic similarities in their system
structure. Both chronic and acute alt erations have
been observed i n t hose who are exposed t o
pesticides. Pesticides can act in the promotion and
prol if erat i on of cancer whil e causing hormone
imbalance.
Effects of Pesticides
The health effects of pesticides may be acute
or delayed in workers who are exposed to pesticides.
Acute effects
A large number of report s are available on
acute effects associated with occupational exposure
to pest icides. These exposures may be accidental,
occupat i onal , or i nt ent i onal . A revi ew on
unintentional pesticide poisoning in 35 countries has
been already published.
The acute health problems, such as dizziness,
headaches, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, as well
as skin and eye problems, skin conditions, seizures,
coma and even deat h may occur in workers t hat
handl e pest i ci des. Mi ld t o moderat e pest i ci de
poisoning mimics intrinsic bronchitis, asthma, and
gastroenritis.
Table 1: Fact ors inf luencing skin absorpt ion of pest icides
Skin Characteristics Sores and abrasion
Wetness of skin
Location on the body (absorption occurs readily though eyes and
lips for example) and vascularization
Environmental factors Temperature and humidity
Pesticide characteristics Acidity (pH)
Vehicle
Physical state (solid, liquid and gas)
Concentration of active ingredient
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Long-term Health Effects
Neurological problems: Strong evidence links
pest i ci de exposure t o wor sened neurol ogi cal
outcomes. The risk of developing Parkinson's disease
is 70% greater in those exposed to even low levels of
pesticides. People with Parkinson's were 61% more
likely to report direct pesticide application.
Fertility: A number of pesticides like2, 4-D and
dibromochl orophane has been associ at ed wit h
impaired fertility in males.
Reproduct ive ef fect s: Pest icides, let hal t o
dividing cells of genitalia, may cause abnormalities in
sperms l eadi ng t o decr ease t hei r abi l i t y f or
fert ilization. On t he other hand, the ova become
defect ive and not able to implant on t he ut erine
surface, leading to early abortion or miscarriage.
Hormone disruption: Some substances cause
physical birth defect s and ot hers can cause subt le
hormonal effect s on t he developing fet us or can
aff ect a chi ld's funct i onal capacit ies. Hormone
disrupters have been linked to many health problems
i ncl udi ng repr oduct i ve cancers. The dr ug
diethylstilbestrol (DES), which was given to pregnant
women to prevent miscarriage between 1941 and
1971 worked as an endocrine disrupting chemical on
the developingfetus. Decades later, many of these
DES exposed daught ers developed cervical cancer.
Twenty-four pesticides still in the market, including
2, 4-D, lindane and atrazine, are known endocrine-
disrupters.
St eroi d hor mones, such as oest r ogens,
androgens (e.g., testosterone) and progesterone, are
cruci al f or pri mary sex det ermi nat i on, f oet al
development and acquisit ion and maint enance of
secondary sexual characteristics in adults. Chemicals,
including many pesticides, with similar structures to
these hormones can interfere with their function and
lead to a, variety of developmental and reproductive
anomalies.
Alternatives to pesticides
Alt ernatives to pesticides are available and
include methods of cultivation, use of biological pest
cont rol s (such as pheromones and mi crobi al
pest icides), genet ic engineering and met hods of
int erfering wi t h insect breeding. Applicat ion of
composted yard waste has also been used as a way
of controlling pests. These methods are becoming
i ncreasi ngl y popul ar and are of t en saf er t han
t radi t i onal chemi cal pest i ci des. I n addi t i on,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is registering
reduced-risk convent ional pest icides in increasing
numbers.
In India, t radit ional pest cont rol met hods
include Panchakavya (the mixture of 5 products). The
met hod has recent ly experienced resurgence in
popularity due in part to use by the organic farming
community.
Table 2: Classificat ion of pest icides according to degree of hazard t o human beings
LD
50
(rat) (mg kg
-1
of body weight)
a
Hazard Class Oral Dermal
Solid
b
Liquid
b
Solid
b
Liquid
b
I(a) Extremely Hazardous 5 or less 20 or less 10 or less 40 or less
I(b) Highly Hazardous 5-50 20-200 10-100 40-400
II Moderately Hazardous 50-500 200-2000 100-1000 400-4000
III Slightly Hazardous Over 500 Over 2000 Over 1000 Over 4000
(a) A dosage of 5 mg kg'1 of body weight is equal to a few drops ingested or a splash in the eye, 5-50 mg
kg-1 of body weight up to one teaspoonful and 50-500 mg kg-1 of body weight corresponds up to
two teaspoonfuls.
(b) The terms Solid and Liquid refer to the physical state of the product or formulation being classified.
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HIGHLIGHTS OFTHE INTERIM
BUDGET2014-15
Fiscal deficit for current fiscal to be 4.6%
Revenue deficit estimated at 3% for current
fiscal
140m people lifted out of poverty in last 10
years
Rs 6000 crore to rural housing fund, Rs 2000
crore for urban housing fund
Minorit y bank accounts have swelled t o
43,53,000 by 2013-14 from 14,15,000 bank
accounts 10 years ago
Rs 3711 crore for minority affairs; housing
and urban poverty alleviation gets Rs 6000
crore
Panchayati raj ministry gets Rs 7000 crore
Foodgrain product ion est imat ed at 263
million tons in 2013-14
Expenditure on education has risen from Rs
10,145 crore 10 years ago to Rs 79,251 crore
this year
Average growth under UPA-I was 8.4 per cent
and UPA-II 6.6 per cent
Rs 2,46,397 crore allocated for food, fertilizer
and fuel subsidy
Food subsidy will be Rs 1,15,000 crore for
implementation of National Food Security
Act.
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58 Gist of PIB (VOL. 18)
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Gist of
PIB
CONSUMERPRICEINDEXNUMBERS FORAGRICULTURALANDRURAL
LABOURERS BASE: 1986-87=100)
Agricultural Rural
Labourers Labourers
General Food General Food
State Feb., Mar., Feb., Mar., Feb., Mar., Feb., Mar.,
2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014 2014
Andhra 809 815 809 815 807 813 809 814
Pradesh
Asam 741 746 731 735 747 753 741 746
Bihar 687 700 639 655 691 704 638 653
Gujarat 767 772 773 778 767 772 776 782
Haryana 843 847 872 874 836 840 875 878
Himachal 623 629 642 650 656 663 667 677
Pradesh
Jammu & 727 734 743 749 721 729 732 740
Kashmir
Karnataka 810 816 811 818 804 811 800 808
Kerala 776 780 777 783 774 779 771 778
Madhya 709 710 673 674 729 730 674 675
Pradesh
Maharashtra 787 797 798 810 784 793 788 801
Manipur 720 725 625 631 723 728 625 631
Meghalaya 752 757 743 747 748 753 740 744
Orissa 711 707 667 662 711 707 667 663
Punjab 813 821 840 857 807 814 839 855
Rajasthan 828 834 793 798 815 820 785 789
Tamil Nadu 762 765 686 690 758 760 695 698
Tripura 666 683 660 684 660 675 653 672
Utt ar 729 740 738 755 728 739 740 757
Pradesh
West Bengal 720 728 669 677 730 738 670 679
All India 757 763 733 741 759 765 735 744
Gist of PIB (VOL. 18) 59
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GLOBALCRUDEOIL PRICE OFINDIAN
BASKETDECREASEDTOUS$ 106.88
PERBBL ON17.4.2014
The international crude oil price of Indian
Basket as computed/ published today by Petroleum
Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry
of Pet roleum and Nat ural Gas went down to US$
106.88 per barrel (bbl) on 17.04.2014. This was
l ower t han t he pri ce of US$ 107.50 per bbl on
previous publishing day of 16.04.2014
In rupee terms also, the price of Indian Basket
decreased to Rs 6453.41 per bbl on 17.04.2014 as
compared to Rs 6474.73 per bbl on 16.04.2014. This
was due t o decrease in price in dollar t erms and
rupee depreciation. Rupee closed weaker at Rs60.38
per US$ on 17.04.2014 as against Rs 60.23 per US$
on 16.04.2014.
The table below gives details in this regard:
Particulars Unit Price on April 17, 2014 For Pricing Fortnight
(Previous publishing day effective 16.4.2014
i.e. 16.04.2014) (March 27 to 10
April, 2014)
Crude Oil (Indian Basket) ($/bbl) 106.88 (107.50) 104.25
(Rs/bbl) 6453.41 (6474.73) 6262.30
Exchange Rate (Rs/$) 60.38 (60.23) 60.07
CHINESE DELEGATIONVISITS INDIA
Lieutenant General Qi Jianguo, Deputy Chief
of General Staff (Operations), PLA China arrived in
New Delhi on 22 April 2014 along wit h an eight
member delegation for a two day visit. The visit is in
response t o an i nvi t at i on ext ended by t he
Government of India.
The official talks with the Chinese Delegation
were held t oday in Sout h Bl ock. The t wo si des
exchanged views on various issues of mutual interest
such as maintenance of peace and tranquility along
Li ne of Act ual Cont rol and enhanci ng mut ual
cooperation and understanding between the armies
of India and China. Measures for implementation of
existing Bilateral Agreements were also discussed.
The meeting was held in a warm and cordial
at mosphere. Bot h si des agreed on t he need t o
enhance bilateral military engagements. The Chinese
side have confirmed their participation in the Fourth
India China Joint Training Exercise scheduled to be
held in November 2014 in India. The PLA Delegation
al so cal l ed on t he Chai rman Chi ef s of St af f
Commit t ee and the Chief of Army Staff, General
Bikram Singh and the Defence Secretary.
India and China at tach great importance to
high level milit ary exchanges. 2014 has also been
declared as "Year of Friendly Exchanges". It may be
recal l ed t hat i n Febr uar y t hi s year, t he PLA
Del egat i on l ed by Li eut enant General Wang
Guanzhong, Deputy Chief of General Staff had come
t o India for Annual Def Dialogue and the Indian
Defence Minister had visited China in July 2013. The
Chinese side have also confirmed the visit of their
Defence Minister General Chang Wanquan to India
later this year.
DGCAALLOWS USEOFCELLPHONE
DURINGFLIGHT
The Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA)
has amended i t s CAR Sect i on 5 Seri es X Part I
relating to air safety and decided to allow the use of
Por t abl e El ect roni c Devi ces (PEDs) i ncl udi ng
cellphones. The use of PEDs shall be in t he non-
transmitting mode commonly called f light/ airplane
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mode. The amended CAR also directs all operators
for reporting of any suspected or confirmed PED
interference or smoke or fire caused by PEDs to the
DGCA. It also lays down the guidelines for the crew
training.
The scheduled operators, during their meeting
with the Director General Civil Aviation, raised the
demand for allowing use of PEDs during all phases of
f l i ght i n t he f l i ght / ai r pl ane mode. The DGCA
examined t heir demand in view of t he new and
current regul at i ons of t he Federal Avi at i on
Admi ni st rat ion (FAA) and t he European Uni on
Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Under the FAA and
the EASA Regulations, the use of PEDs is allowed in
the airplane mode in all phases of f light.
JUSTICE RAJENDRAMALLODHA
SWORNINAS THE CHIEFJUSTICE
OFINDIA
At a ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Shri
Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha was sworn in as t he
Chief Just ice of the Supreme Court of India. He
made and subscribed to the oath of office before the
President.
'EMERGINGFIREPROTECTION
TECHNOLOGIES FORROLLING
STOCK'
The Mi nist er of Railways Shri Mallikarjun
Kharge inaugurat ed an Int ernat i onal Technical
Conf er ence on 'Emergi ng Fi re Prot ect i on
Technologies for Rolling Stock' here today. In his
inaugural address, t he Railway Minister said that
Indian Railways inducted new technologies in every
area of rail way operat ions and t here has been a
st eady decline in railway accident s. However, t he
incidents of fire in passenger carrying trains on run,
which inevitably led to precious loss of lives, are very
painful. Shri Kharge said t hat t here is a need for
creating diverse technology absorpt ion strategies
wi t h r espect t o upgradi ng of desi gn and
manuf act uring t echnologi es in India relat i ng t o
prevent ion of fire in coaches. He said t hat t his
Conference will provide a much needed avenue for
the part icipants forging cooperative relat ions for
future projects, advance partnerships in technology
devel opment and creat e an envi r onment f or
innovating India-specific solutions, besides providing
a glimpse of fire related technologies that will serve
the railways in future.
Speaking on the occasion, Chairman, Railway
Board, Shri Arunendra Kumar sai d t hat I ndian
Railways has been actively working over the years to
reduce the potential of fire accidents on the trains.
He said that considering the serious nature of fire
accidents, lot of development s are taking place all
over the world in all the fields related to controlling
t he fi re covering fi re det ect i on syst ems, use of
material with low inf lammability and fire retardant
characteristics as well as fire extinguishing systems.
Mat eri al used al so need t o ensure t hat smoke
produced should be less as it makes escape difficult
as well affects breathing and can even be toxic. He
said that this conference is bringing together experts
from nine countries including European countries,
US, Japan and Aust ralia. It is expect ed t hat their
inputs will be useful to Indian Railways and help in
devel opi ng a st rat egy f or f urt her maki ng
improvements in the area.
In his address, Member Mechanical, Railway
Board, Shri Alok Johri said that Indian Railways has
always accorded highest priorit y t o t he safet y of
passengers and has been upgrading its infrastructure
including rolling stock t o ensure bett er safet y of
passengers. He said t hat I ndian Rail ways have
i nt roduced t he t est of f l ammabi l i t y i n i t s
specifications keeping pace with the developments in
abroad and also the Indian industries Indian Railways
has upgraded its specification based on international
norms of fire ret ardancy adopt ed on Europe for
inter-operability of the trains. He expressed his hope
that participants of this conference will go back richer
wi t h i deas and i nf ormat i on whi ch can be
implemented leading to improvement of fire safety
in India.
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Shri Arvi nd Khare, Addi t i onal Member
(Product i on Uni t s), Railway Board gave vot e of
thanks at the conference. Railway Board Members,
senior railway officers were also present among
others on the occasion.
This two days conference is being organized by
the Institute of Rolling Stock Engineers (IRSE) and
Indian Railways service of Mechanical Engineers
Associat ion (IRSMEA) wit h support from Indian
Rai l ways and RI TES. IRSE i s a regi st ered body
consisting of Railway officers and experts as members
and i s headquar t ered at Research Desi gn &
Standards Organization (RDSO), Lucknow. IRSMEA is
an association of the Mechanical Engineers of Indian
Railways. RITES are an ISO-9001-2008 cert ified
multi-disciplinary consultancy organization in the
f i elds of t ransport , i nf rast ruct ure and relat ed
technologies.
A first of it s kind, t he conference will bring
t oget her exper t s t o pr ovi de f i re prot ect i on
technologies and to find solutions to reduce the fire
cases t hereby maki ng rai l t ravel furt her saf er.
Technical papers and part ici pat ion would cover
Railway operat ors, Rolling St ock manufact urers,
Universit ies, Consult ant s et c. from a number of
countries outside India such as Germany, Australia,
UK, Japan, France, Belgium, Aust ria, Poland and
Italy.
Indian Railways have played a significant role
in t he development of India since their inception
since 1853. Indian Railways today have the largest
passenger oper at i on amongst al l t he r ai l way
networks in the world and carry about 25 million
passengers daily. The safet y record of the Indian
Railway has been improving over t he years. The
number of accident s has come down from 325 in
2003-04 to 121 in 2012-13. The train accidents per
million train kms is only 0.12 which is amongst the
best in the world. The causalities in Railway accidents
per year have also reduced from 156 in 2003-04 to
80 in 2012-13. Railways have identified fire in trains
as one of the causes of accidents. Alt hough many
cases have been at t ri but ed t o negl i gence by
passengers and contractors, Indian Railways have
always endeavoured to enhance fire worthiness of
coaches. The first act ion was t he phasing out of
wooden body coaches more t han 20 years ago.
Indian Railways has also started using fire retardant
furnishing materials, fire extinguishers, and has
conduct ed t rial s wit h smoke and fi re det ect i on
systems. Indian Railways has also made efforts to
spread safety awareness by using fire posters and
conducting training for on board staff. Provision of
emergency exit windows, modification of fuse boxes
and conducting of internal safet y audits are ot her
endeavors i n t hi s area. As saf et y i s t he highest
priority for Indian Railways it has been decided to
address this issue in a focused manner through this
internat ional conference t o st ay abreast wit h the
world.
INDEXOFEIGHTCOREINDUSTRIES
(BASE: 2004-05=100), MARCH,
2014
The summary of t he I ndex of Ei ght Core
Industries (base: 2004-05) :
The Eight Core Indust ries have a combined
wei ght of 37.90 % i n t he I ndex of I ndust ri al
Production (IIP). The combined Index of Eight Core
Industries stands at 175.4 in March, 2014, which was
2.5 % higher compared to the index of March, 2013.
Its cumulative growth during April-March, 2013-14
was 2.6 %.
Coal : Coal product i on (wei ght : 4.38 %)
increased by 0.7 % in March, 2014 over March, 2013.
Its cumulative index during April to March, 2013-14
increased by 0.8 % over corresponding period of
previous year.
Crude Oil : Crude Oil product ion (weight :
5.22 %) decl ined by 1.6 % in March, 2014 over
March, 2013. The cumulat ive index of Crude Oil
during April to March, 2013-14 declined by 0.2 %
over the corresponding period of previous year.
Natural Gas: The Nat ural Gas production
(weight: 1.71 %) declined by 9.3 % in March, 2014
over March, 2013. Its cumulative index during April
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t o March, 2013-14 decli ned by 13.0 % over t he
corresponding period of previous year.
Petroleum Refinery Products (0.93% of
Crude Throughput) : Pet rol eum ref i nery
production (weight: 5.94%) registered a growth of
2.8 % in March, 2014 over March, 2013 and it s
cumulat ive index during April t o March, 2013-14
increased by 1.7 % over the corresponding period of
previous year.
Fertilizers: Fert ilizer product ion (weight :
1.25%) declined by 6.1 % in March, 2014 over March,
2013. However, it registered a cumulative growth of
1.5 % duri ng Apri l t o March, 2013-14 over t he
Steel (Alloy +Non-Alloy): Steel production
(weight: 6.68%) recorded a growth of 5.4 % in March,
2014 over March, 2013. The cumulat ive growt h
during April to March, 2013-14 was 4.3 % over the
Cement: Cement production (weight: 2.41%)
remains same in March, 2014 as of March, 2013
while its cumulative growth during April to March,
2013-14 was 3.0 % over the corresponding period of
previous year.
Electricity: Electricit y generation (weight :
10.32%) increased by 5.4 % in March, 2014 over the
period of March, 2013 and it registered a cumulative
growth of 5.6 % during April to March, 2013-14 over
the corresponding period of previous year.
"NABHRATHNA"
"A long felt void to have a f lying test bed for
testing the airborne radars and aerospace systems
developed by DRDO is fulfilled", said Shri Avinash
Chander, SA TO RM and Secretary Deptt of Defence
R&D, speaking on t he occasion of taking over t he
flying test bed (FTB) from DrRKTyagi Chairman HAL
at Kanpur. "There are many syst ems lined up for
t est ing such as Maritime Pat rol Radar, Synthetic
Aperture Radar, Data-link, Electro-opt ics and EW
syst ems. The money i nvest ed in procuri ng t his
aircraft will give us returns many times more as the
aircraft will prove its worth in the months to come.
The use of f lying test bed (FTB) aircraft will reduce
the cycle time for development for such airborne
system" he added.
The aircraft, a modified Dornier was handed
over t o DRDO in a bri ef ceremony held at HAL
Kanpur on 1st May 2014. LRDE, a premier DRDO
lab known for design, development and leading to
production wide spectrum of indigenous radars, had
ent ered int o a cont ract for delivery of Modified
Dornier, DO-228 aircraft last year for testing t he
airborne radars and other systems.
Dr. Tyagi in his address said that it is named as
'Nabhrathna' signifying a jewel in the sky, for testing
aer ospace syst ems. The whol e pr ogramme of
delivery is done in a short span of one year, even
though the schedule was 18 months.
Dr.K Tamil Mani, DS & DG ( Aero), Sri SS
Sundaram, DS & DG (ECS), Sri S Ravind, DS &
Director, LRDE, AVM Nambiar, Commandant , ASTE,
Bangalore and Sri VK Joshi, GM, HAL, Kanpur were
among t he seni or of f i ci al s present on t hi s
momentous occasion.
TRIPIGATOR.COMLAUNCHEDIN
PARTNERSHIP WITHINCREDIBLE
INDIA
Tripigator.com, a travel planning engine, was
l aunched t oday i n Del hi i n part nershi p wi t h
I ncredi bl e I ndi a of Mi ni st r y of Tour i sm.
Tripigat or.com inst ant ly generat es personalized
travel itineraries on fewer inputs and significantly
reduces users' effort by replacing ten tabs with one
tab. The website has been chosen as the official travel
planner by the Ministry of Tourism and will also be
available on Incredible India website. . The website
was unvei l ed by Mr. Parvez Dewan, Secret ary
Minist ry of Tourism, Govt . of India and its three
founders - Mukul Garg, Piyush Grover, and Karteek
Narumanchi - prot g of I ndi an I nst i t ut e of
Technology (IIT).
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Parvez Dewan,
Secret ar y, Mi ni st r y of Tour i sm sai d t hat wi t h
int roduct ion of t his technology, travelling t o and
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within India will become easier to plan. The process
will be more enjoyable for all tourists, from within
the country and internationally.
Tri pi gat or wi l l hel p bot h domest i c and
i nt ernat i onal t ravell ers i n pl anni ng t heir t rips
seamlessly by asking basic inputs such as timeline,
budget , areas of int erest (advent ure, romant i c,
nat ure et c.) and dest i nat i ons of choi ce. The
technology creates a range of travel itineraries in no
time and ranks them as per user's experience.
'ASTAMP IS BORN'
The Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid
Ansari released a book entitled "A St amp is Born"
authored by Shri C. R. Pakrashi, a renowned stamp
designer. Addressing on t he occasion, he said that
Stamps are intimately connected with our lives and
earl i er l et t er s used t o be t he onl y mode of
communicat ion and t hese communicat ions used
postage stamps.
He said that once upon a time he himself used
to be a stamp collector. Some of the smallest states
have produced t he biggest size of st amps. Aft er
Independence India has done well in the field of
st amp design. He hoped t hat t his book will be a
valuable addition not only to artists of all genre but
also to all. He congratulated the author for bringing
out a very useful book.
In t his book on stamp making, t he aut hor,
who has designed 56 commemorative stamps, has
described his first-hand experiences with all stages of
production of the stamp, right from conception to
final execut ion and print ing. He has focussed on
designing which plays the most vital and important
role in the entire process. The book gives a graphic
account of history and evolution of postage stamps.
'RUPAY'
The President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee
dedicated 'RuPay' India's own card payment network
to the nation at function at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Speaki ng on t he occasi on, t he Presi dent
congratulated the Reserve Bank of India for having
envi si oned t he need f or such an i ndi genousl y
managed service in 2005 and for entrusting this task
to the National Payments Corporation soon after its
operationalization in 2010. He said that it usually
takes five to seven years to build a fully functional
card payment network. He was happy to note that
the NPCI could make the RuPay service operational
by April 2013.
The President said creativity lies in developing
products meeting the special needs of the customers
by the issuing banks. For a large country like India
wi t h a rapi dly growi ng economy, t he volume of
payment transactions, specially those settled through
car ds, wi l l be si gni f i cant i n t he years ahead.
Transactions which are mostly settled today either
by way of cash or cheque will progressively make way
for card based payment transactions as the economy
mat ures and int ernet penet rat ion increases. An
indigenous system like RuPay will not only reduce the
dependence on cash and cheque modes of
set t lement but wi ll also make i t easier t o off er
products based on specific requirements of diverse
user sets within the country.
The President said that seven million cards
issued so far is onl y a fract i on of t he pot ent ial.
Launch of milk procurement pre-paid card by milk
procurement agencies or grain procurement agencies
i n Punj ab are ot her such vari ant s of t he card
payment mechanism which only a card payment
system developed within the country can appreciate
and implement faster. Dedicat ion of RuPay to the
nat i on is t hus symbol i c of t he mat uri t y of t he
payment syst em devel opment i n I ndi a and
contribution of the National Payments Corporation
of India to nation building.
The Presi dent fel ici t at ed Shri A. P. Hot a,
Managing Director and Chief Execut ive Officer of
NPCI. He also presented appreciation plaques to 17
banks for t hei r cont ribut ion in connect ion wit h
RuPay card.
Among the dignitaries present on the occasion
were Shri G. S. Sandhu, Secretary, Financial Services,
Ministry of Finance, Shri K.R. Kamath, Chairman,
Indian Bank Association and Shri Balachandran M.,
Chairman, National Payments Corporation of India.
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64 Gist of SCIENCE REPORTER (VOL. 18)
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Gist of
Science Reporter
MINAMATACONVENTION: ASILVER
LININGONMERCURY
A metaphor, every cloud has a silver lining, fits
i n wel l wi t h t he r ecent endeavors by t he
international community to protect human health
and envi ronment f rom t he hi ghl y dangerous
mercury contamination by way of a legally binding
i nst rument , now known as t he Mi namat a
Convention on mercury.
Mercury (Hg) f i gures i n group I I B of t he
periodic t able having at omic number of 80 and
atomic weight of 200.59 amu/ u Mercury is the only
metal that is liquid at normal room temperature. It
is also referred as quicksilver because of its silver-
white appearance. Mercury constitutes only 0.5 parts
per million (ppm) of the eart hs crust , making it
scarcer t han uranium, but is more common t han
gold or si lver. I t i s pri nci pally f ound as t he ore
cinnabar (HgS) but is also found in an uncombined
state.
It is a heavy, odorless, lustrous liquid met al
with density of 13.53g/ cm3 at 25 C (heavy metal)
that sinks in water. Stone, iron, and even lead can
f loat on its surface. It is a poor conductor of heat as
compared t o ot her met al s but i s a f ai rl y good
conductor of electricity. It alloys easily with metals
such as gol d, si l ver and t i n, whi ch are cal l ed
amalgams.
A Global Concern
Al t hough Mercury occurs nat urall y i n t he
Ear t hs bi ogeochemi cal syst em, due t o maj or
anthropogenic activities such as mining and fossil fuel
burning, its amount and mobilization has increased
in the atmosphere, oceans and terrestrial systems,
Once emitted into the atmosphere in its elemental
form, mercury travels worldwide before oxidizing to
a form that enters the ecosystems.
I n aquat i c syst ems, mi croor gani sms
metabolize elemental mercury into methyl mercury
(CH3Hg). Sulfate reducing bacteria convert mercury
int o met hyl mercur y. This process is affected by
factors such as the sulfur cycle, ecosystem pH, and
the presence of organic matter. Methyl mercury is a
potent neurotoxin that affects human and wildlife
development . People and wi ldlife development .
People and wildlife are exposed to methyl mercury as
it bioaccumulates through multiple level in the food
chai n. Humans are exposed pri mari l y t hrough
consumption of sea food contaminated with methyl
mercury, particularly those having high levels of fish
consumption.
Sources and Dynamics of Mercury
Methyl mercury affects the health of wildlife
exposed t o el evat ed l evel s t hrough t hei r di et .
Behavi oral , neuro-chemi cal , hor monal , and
reproductive effects have been observed in wildlife at
concentrations present in the environment.
Mercury emissions in the United States and in
some countries of Europe have declined in the past
few decades, most ly owing t o t he co-benefit s of
sulfur controls in the 1980s. Rapidly industrializing
Asia is believed to be the largest current source of
at mospheri c mer cury emi ssi ons, wi t h Chi na
contributing a third of the global total. As mercury
tends to remain in the environment, it is estimated
Gist of SCIENCE REPORTER (VOL. 18) 65
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that half the mercury pollution in the surface layer
of t he ocean today came from emissions prior t o
1950, when U.S. and European cont r i but i ons
exceeded those from Asia.
Alt hough overall use of mercury has been
reducing, substantial concentrat ions of the met al
are st ill present in sediments associat ed with t he
indust rial applicat ions of mercury. Some mercury
compounds have been used in agriculture, principally
as fungicides (substances that control fungus).
The Minamata Disease Story
Mi namat a, a sout h-west ern part of
Kumamoto Prefecture, is approximat ely 1000 km
from Tokyo, Japan. During the 1950s, in Minamata,
an outbreak of an unknown neurological illness was
first reported among the areas fishing families. They
were diagnosed with a mysterious ailment, which was
at t ri but ed t o cont ami nat ed seaf ood. Peopl e
experienced neurological damages such as visual,
audit or y, and sensory dist ubances, numbers, and
difficulty walking.
In 1957, scientists gave the ailment a name:
Minamata disease. The responsible contaminant was
event ually identified as methyl mercury t hat had
been discharged in waste water from a local chemical
factory owned by the Chisso Corporation Ltd. Since
1932, the factory was producing acetaldehyde from
acetylene gas, using mercury as a catalyst and was
di schar gi ng i t s ef f l uent i n t he r i ver t hat was
concluding in the Minamata Bay.
The met hyl mercury t hat ent ers t he body
mainly attacks the central nervous system, including
t he brain and spinal cord, and causes sympt oms
including numbness and unsteadiness in the legs and
hands, tiredness, ringing in the ears, narrowing of the
field of vision, loss of hearing, slurred speech, and
awkward movements. Some early severe victims of
Minamata disease went insane, became unconscious,
and died within a month of the onset of the disease.
Minamata Convention on Mercury
The Uni t ed Nat i ons Conf erence on t he
Human Environment , held in St ockholm during
1972, initiated action on high-priority pollutants in
the marine environment , including mercury. It took
a further thirty eight years for the first session of an
Intergovernmenal Negotiating Committe (INC), also
held in Stockholm, during June 2010, to init iat e
developing a global legaly binding inst rument on
mer cury at t he Uni t ed Nat i ons Envi r onment
Programme (UNEP) Governing Council in February
2009.
I n Oct ober 2013, a new i nt ernat i onal
convent i on t o cont rol mercury emi ssi ons was
opened for signing in Japan. Named the Minamata
Convention on Mercury, the agreement is a response
to the realization that mercury pollution is a global
problem that no single country can solve alone.
The Convention aims to protect human health
and the environment from anthropgenic emissions
and releases of mercury and mercury compounds.
The Part i es al so agreed t o cont rol and where
feasible reduce emissions of mercury and mercury
compounds, (i.e. total mercury) to the atmosphere
through measures to control emissions from point
source categories such as coal-fired power stations
and non-f errous met al smelt ers (e.g. alumi num
smelters). The Convention also calls for additional
research on issues related to mercury.
It includes both, compulsory and volunt ary
measures to control mercury release and emission
from various sources, to phase the element out of
certain products and industrial processes, to restrict
its trade, and to eliminate its mining.
India participated in all the INC meetings and
played an important role in finalizing the text of the
Convent i on. However, India is yet t o rat if y t he
Convention.
PRESERVINGBIODIVERSITY:
PRACTICALAPPROACHREQUIRED
India is a mega-diverse country, one of twelve
countries that collectively accounts for 60-70% of
the worlds biodiversity. A land of high speies richness
and endemism as well as of agro-biodiversity, with
only 2.4% of t he worlds landmass, it supports an
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astounding 8.1% of the worlds biodiversity. In fact ,
an estimated 70% of Indias population is dependent
locally on natural ecosystems for subsistence means
of livelihood, including fuel, housing, food, water, and
security of health, and hence the immense pressure
on the countrys biodiversity.
In fact, the world over, biodiversity is being lost
at an unprecedent ed rate. This, in turn, is gravely
eroding the capacity of our planet to sustain life on
earth. The tenth meeting of the Conference of the
Parties, held from 18 to 29 October 2010, in Nagoya,
Ai chi Pref ect ure, Japan, adopt ed a revised and
updated Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, including the
Aichi Biodiversity Targets for the 2011-2020 period.
Further, at the COP-CBD-11 held in India in
October 2012, world leaders who attended the grand
event also agreed to achieve, by 2020, a significant
reduction in the rate of loss of biodiversity.
Aichi Biodiversity Targets
Strategic Goal A: Address t he underlying
causes of bi odi ver si t y l oss by mai nst r eami ng
biodiversity across government and society.
Strategic Goal B: Reduce the direct pressure
on Biodiversity and promote sustainable use
Strategic Goal C: I mprove t he st at us of
biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems species and
genetic diversity
Strategic Goal D: Enhance the benefits to all
from biodiversity and ecosystem services
Strategic Goal E: Enhance implementation
t hr ough par t i ci pat ory pl anni ng, knowl edge
management and capacity building the Way Forward
Some of the major challenges that biodiversity
f aces t he worl d over ar e habi t at degradat i on,
declining natural resource base and overexploitation
of resources, invasive al ien species, and climat e
change.
Landscapes across I ndi a are const ant l y
changing as a result of economic, demographic and
ecological drivers. These changes, usually, have
degraded our natural assets. The urgency now is to
ensure t hat posi t i ve out comes f or bi odiversit y
conservation are built into the processes of change.
Conservat ion of biological syst ems and diversit y
needs to be factored in to economics and planning
more ef fect i vl ey if we are t o buil d ecologicall y
sustainable landscapes.
Some l ong-st andi ng conser vat i on
programmes, particularly development of a National
Biodiversity Conservation Plan, threatened species
specific plan and invasive species control remain key
components of the current focus, though progress is
limited due to competing priorities and the scale and
complexity of threats. Many of these programmes
woul d provi de a pl at f or m f or bi odi versi t y
conservat ion - putt ing in place research, planing,
capacity-building, public support and changes in land
management.
Educat ion and science are key element s t o
responding to current challenges. An Indian sense of
place is emerging, based on our landscapes and the
native species and ecosystems they contain, and we
now real ize t hat t he cost of repairi ng damaged
ecosystems and restoring the services they provide is
very large. Theref ore, prevent i on i s more cost
ef f ect i ve t han cure. Ar rest i ng t he decl i ne i n
biodiversity is a challenging issue. It would involve all
land tenures and will require a range of legislative,
policy and conservation strategies that are f lexible
and adaptive.
Underst andi ng ecosyst em model i ng t o
minimize impacts on biodiversity and retain their
functionality into the future is crucial. Improving the
outcomes from our efforts to conserve and restore
biodiversity will necessitate some changes in the way
we live and do business.
The Conference of Parties on Convention on
Biodi versi t y COP-CBD-11, in I ndi a, showcased
expl i ci t l y t hat t he nat i onal and i nt er nat i onal
community is committed to conserving biodiversity
and combating loss of species. The global response to
these challenges needs to move much more rapidly,
and with more determination at all levels global,
national and local.
Maybe, when this year, we celebrate the first
anni versary of COP-11 in I ndi a, as part of t he
celebration and ref lection, we should be in a position
Gist of SCIENCE REPORTER (VOL. 18) 67
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to understand conservation, and in what ways has
conservation succeeded in the last quarter century.
And also be able to comprehend, what needs to be
done to increase the impact of conservation in the
next quarter century.
PIONEERS OFSCIENCE: ASTORY
THROUGHSTAMPS
Panini (Circa 6th Century BCE)
Panini was a pioneer of linguistic sciences.
Pani ni i s known f or hi s Sanskri t gr ammer,
part i cul arl y f or hi s f ormul at i on of about f our
thousand rules of Sanskrit morphology, syntax and
semant i cs i n t he book of gr ammer known as
Ashtadhyayi. Paninis grammer is algebraic where a
finite set of rules generat es an infinite number of
words and sentences. Several features of Paninis
grammer have direct parallels in computer science.
William Jones (1746-1794)
William Jones was a philologist and scholar of
anci ent I ndi a. He proposed t he exi st ence of a
relat ionship among Indo-European languages. He
founded t he Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 and
st art ed a journal called Asiat ick researches. The
Asiatic Society made notable contributions to society,
culture and scientific progress.
Radhanath Sikdar (1813-1870)
Radhanath Sikdar was a mathematician who,
among many other things, estimated the height of
Mount Everest. He joined the Great Trigonometric
Sur vey i n 1831 as Comput or. The Great
Trigonometric Survey of India was undertaken under
t he gui dance of Wi l l i am Lambt on and George
Everest.
Allan Octavian Hume (1829-1912)
Allan Octavian Hume trained as a surgeon, was
a ci vi l servant , pol i t i cal ref ormer and amat eur
ornithologist and horticulturalist in British India. A
notable ornithologist, Hume has been called t he
Fat her of I ndi an Orni t hol ogy. Al t hough he i s
remembered in India as one of the founders of the
Indian National Congress, he was an ornithologist of
international stature.
Samanta Chandrasekhar (1835-1904)
Samanta Chandrasekhar was a great naked eye
astronomer. He took observations with ingenious
i nst rument s desi gned and f abr i cat ed by hi m.
Samanta Chandrasekhar designed and fabricated
Chapa Yantra, Gola Yantra, Golardhayantra, Mana
Yant ra, Chakra Yant ra, and Swayambaha Yantra.
Indiapost issued a commemorative stamp to honour
him in 2001.
Ganga Ram (1851-1927)
Ganga Ram was an eminent civil engineer who
designed and built many government buildings and
educat ion inst it ut es in Lahore. He was a leading
philant hropist and agriculturist of his times. He
designed irrigation channels by water lifting from
hydroelectric plant for his farm which was once a
barren land. He established the Renala Hydel Power
Station in Renala Khurd, Punjab in 1925. Sir Ganga
Ram Hospit al, New Delhi wa built in 1951 in his
memory.
Ronald Ross (1857-1932)
Ronald Ross was born in Almora and received
the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902
for his work on malaria. He discovered the malarial
par asi t e i n t he gast roi nt est i nal t r act of t he
Anopheles mosqui t o and t he mechanism of it s
transmission.
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya (1860-
1962)
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was a notable
engi neer, scholar, st at esman and t he Diwan of
Mysore during 1912 t o 1918. He was t he chi ef
designer of the f lood protection system for the city
of Hyderabad, as wel l as t he chi ef engi neer
responsible for the construction of the Krishna Raja
Sagara dam in Mysore. Every year, 15 Septemeber si
celebrated as Engineers Day in India by Institution of
www.upscportal.com
Engi neers i n hi s memor y. He was awarded t he
Bharat Ratna in 1955.
Salim Ali (1896-1987)
Sal i m Al i was among t hef i rst I ndi ans t o
conduct systematic bird surveys across India and his
bird books helped develop ornithology. He became
the key figure behind the Bombay Natural History
Society after 1947. He helped create the Bharatpur
bird sanctuary (Keoladeo National Park). He helped
t o prevent t he dest ruct i on of t he Si l ent Val ley
National Park which has the largest biodiversity in
the region.
Maria Montessori (1870-1852)
Maria Montessori was trained as a physician.
She was the first female doctor of Italy. She then
acquired degres in psychology, anthropology and
phi losphy. She was t he pi oneer of Mont essori -
method of education.
She was thrice nominated for the Nobel Peace
Prize. India post honoured her by issuing a stamp in
1970 at her birth centenary.
Bidhan Chandra roy (1882-1962)
Bidhan Chandra Roy was t he second Chief
Minister of West Bengal. The National Doctors Day
is celebrated on July 1 every year to commemorate
his birth day.
Dr Bidhan completed his M.R.C.P. and F.R.C.S.
from St Bartholomews Hospital. He etablished the
Jadavpur T.B. Hospital. Chitt aranjan Seva Sadan,
Kamala Nehru Hospital, Victoria Inst it ut ion, and
Chittaranjan Cancer Hospital.
Ram Nath Chopra (1882-1973)
Ram Nath Chopra is hailed as the Father of
Pharmacology in India. Chopra was appointed the
f i rst Prof essor of Pharmacol ogy i n t he newl y
established Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine in
1921, while simultaneously heading the Department
of Pharmacology at the Calcutta Medical College.
Birbal Sahni (1891-1949)
Birbal Sahni was a paleobotanist. Paleobotany
deals wit h the recovery and identification of plant
remins or fossils preserved in rocks. Paleobotany is
important in the reconstruction of ancient ecological
systems and climate. Birbal Sahni was pioneer of this
f i el d i n I ndi a. He was t he founder of The
Pal eobot anicalo Soci et y which est abli shed t he
Institute of Palaeobotany in Lucknow. The institute
i s now known as Bi r bal Sahni I nst i t ut e of
Paleobotany.
Yellapragada Subbarao (1895-1948)
Yel l apragada Subbarao was an I ndi an
biochemist who discovered the function of adenosine
t riphosphate as an energy source in t he cell, and
devel oped met hot rexat e f or t he t reat ment of
cancer. Most of his career was spent in the United
St at es. He is known for synt hesis of Folic Aci d,
tetracycline and Methotrexate. He is also known for
discovery of Diethylcarbamazine, a wide spectrum
antibiotic and ant-filarial drug.
< <
MCQs (VOL. 18) 69
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DESCRIPTIVEQUESTIONS FOR
MAINS
Q.1 Increased pressure from political executive is
to be blamed for the poor show by Civil Service
of India in recent times Comment.
Q.2 Write a short not about the following.
(a) LIBOR
(b) Geographical Location
Q.3 What is meant by Knowledge Resources and
how to mobilise it?
Q.4 What is Administrative Reforms? Elaborate.
Q.5 What are the harmful effects of Pesticides? What
are the alternatives?
Q.6 What do you understand by Bharat Nirman?
What does i t have t o do wi t h corporat e
initiatives in improving rural retail formats?
Q.7 What are the steps that can ensure inclusive
growth in India?
Q.8 What was Minamata convention all about?
Elaborate.
Q.9 Explain Biodiversity. Explain ways to pressure
it.
MCQs FOR THEHINDU
1. Fiscal Deficit is most productive when it is on:
A. Planned Expenditure and Long-term
B. Non-Planned Expenditure and Long Term
C. Planned Expenditure and Short Term
D. Non-Planned Expenditure and Long Term.
2. The Canine Distemper (CD) Disease has led to
a number of deaths of:
A. Cows B. Dogs
C. Tigers D. Humans
3. i) Ri yadh Decl arat i on, si gned i n 2010
proclaimed establishment of a "strategic
part nership" bet ween New Delhi and
Riyadh spanning diverse fields including
energy security, information technology
and outer space.
ii) This pact was signed by Crown Prince
Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on behalf of
Saudi Arabia and P. Chidambaram on
behalf of India.
Which of the above statement/statements is/
are NOT true?
a) only I b) only ii
c) both i and ii d) neither i nor ii
4. i) According to a google survey , Corruption
and Lokpal are most likely to be the two
decisive factors on which young people are
going to vote in the upcoming Lok Sabha
polls.
ii) The UPA government has recently decided
t o gi ve reser vat i on t o Jat s in a few,
northern States.
are true?
5. i) INS 'Sumedha' is the name of Offshore
Patrol Vessel (OPV) indigenously designed
and built by Goa Shipyard Ltd.
ii) According t o a new l aw, doct ors can
examine rape victims without an FIR if
the survivor reports to the hospital first.
are true?
6. i) Goa is the only State in India which has
private sector mining and exports.
ii) Sheila Dikshit, the former Chief Minister
of Delhi , was recent ly appoi nt ed t he
Governor of Tamil Nadu.
are NOT true?
7. i) Six members of Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) are -Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain,
Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.
70 MCQs (VOL. 18)
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ii) Iran has recently completed one nuclear
plant, built with Russia's help and looking
forward for more.
are NOT true?
8. i) Odisha has been accorded 'special category
status' owing to it's "special disadvantage."
ii) Most recently, Telangana has been given
'special category st atus' because it was
deprived of its capital Hyderabad along
with lots of resources.
are true?
a) only i b) only ii
9. i) Over-the-counter/ OTC can be used t o
refer t o stocks t hat t rade via a dealer
network as opposed to on a centralized
exchange.
ii) India is ranked sevent h on the Hurun
Global Rich List .
are true?
10. i) IPI or 'Peace Pipeline' is to connect India-
Pakistan-Iran in order to deliver natural
gas .
ii) Saina Nehwal is the only Indian competitor
left at the ongoing $400,000 All England
Championship.
are true?
11. i) The Muslim Brotherhood was recently
named a terrorist group by Saudi Arabia ,
along with al-Qaeda.
ii) And it was made clear that those who join
them or support them could face five to
30 years in prison.
are true?
12. i) A high-power committee to find ways for
the banking sector to comply with Basel-
III capital norms has been set up under
the Financial Stability and Development
Council or FSDC.
ii) Basel III was to strengthen bank capital
requirements by increasing bank liquidity
and decreasing bank leverage.
are true?
13. i) Even though there is an authoritarian
regime in North Korea, the Assembly is
nominally the highest legislative power
there.
ii) Organization named 'The 1947 Partition
Archive' is a joint effort by universities of
India and Pakistan.
are true?
14. i) U.Sis amongst many countries that India
has a FTA (Free Trade Agreement ) with.
ii) Increasing efficiency of solar photovoltic
cells by using local content and second
generation bio-fuel production using non-
edible oilseeds produced locally are topics
to be discussed during Indo-U.S. Energy
Dialogue this year.
are true?
15. i) Of the 30 Millennium Development Goals
targets set in the 11th Plan two of them
t hat were achi eved are - 'roads and
infrastructure' and 'forest cover'
MCQs (VOL. 18) 71
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ii) U.S. economy had been downgraded from AAA
to AA in the 2011.
are true?
16. i) Vaani and Swara : the practices that are
methods of settling blood feuds between
clans by forcing a young girl to marry a
man f rom t he enemy cl an are st i l l
practised in Pakistan.
ii) The Parliament in pro-Russian Crimea
recent ly declared independence from
Ukraine as a first step towards joining
Russia.
are true?
17. i) FAA has recent ly downgraded India's
aviation safety rating from the top to the
second category.
ii) The Securities and Exchange Board of
India has t ightened norms t o prevent
money laundering through t he capit al
market.
are false?
18. i) Parl i ament of Syri a has recent l y
unanimously approved a new election law
allowing multiple candidates to run for the
post of president.
ii) Syria has been ruled by the Republican
party since the year 1963.
are true?
19. i) CPSE ETF, an open-ended Index Exchange
Traded Scheme NFO i s goi ng t o be
l aunched by Gol dman Sachs Asset
Management (India) .
ii) World's first solar-powered toilet has been
developed by TERI in India.
are true?
ANSWERS
1. A 2. C 3. b 4. c 5. c
6. b 7. d 8. b 9. a 10. c
11. c 12. c 13. a 14. b 15. c
16. c 17. d 18. a 19. a
MCQS FROMPIB
1. Consider the following:
i) The book entitled "A Stamp is Born" is
authored by Shri C. R. Pakrashi.
ii) Tripigator.com, a travel planning engine,
was launched in Delhi in partnership with
Incredible India of Ministry of Tourism.
are true?
a) only i b)only ii
c)both i and ii d)neither i nor ii
i) The aircraft , a modifi ed Dornier was
handed over to DRDO in a brief ceremony
held at New Delhi.
ii) Shri Just ice Rajendra Mal Lodha was
recently sworn in as the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of India.
are true?
a) only i b)only ii
72 MCQs (VOL. 18)
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i) In rupee terms, crude oil price of Indian
Basket decreased to Rs 6453.41 per bbl
recently as compared to Rs 6474.73 per
bbl.
ii) 2014 has also been declared as "Year of
Friendly Exchanges" between India and
Pakistan.
are true?
a) only i b)only ii
i) The Directorate General Civil Aviat ion
(DGCA) has amended its CAR Section 5
Series X Part I relating to air safety today
and decided to allow the use of Portable
Elect roni c Devi ces (PEDs) including
cellphones.
ii) IRSE is a registered body consisting of
Railway officers and experts as members
and is headquartered at Research Design
& St andards Organi zat i on (RDSO),
Lucknow.
are false?
a) only i b)only ii
c) both i and ii d)neither i nor ii
i) Indian Railways today have t he largest
passenger operat ion amongst all t he
railway networks in the world and carry
about 25 million passengers daily.
ii) Indian Railways had it's inception in 1870.
are NOT true?
a) only i b)only ii
ANSWERS
1. c 2. b 3. a 4. d 5. b

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