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15

TH
SEPT, 2014 TO 21
ST
SEPT, 2014
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CHRONICLE
IAS ACADEMY
A CIVIL SERVICES CHRONICLE INITIATIVE
Weekly Current Affairs Bulletin
MOMENTUM
[2] Weekly Current Affairs 15
th
Sept. to 21
st
Sept., 2014
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CONTENTS
TOPICS Pg. No.
National ....................................................................................................................... 4-10
International ............................................................................................................. 11-14
India and the World ............................................................................................. 15-19
Economy ................................................................................................................... 20-20
Science & Technology ........................................................................................... 21-21
Health........................................................................................................................ 22-23
News in Brief .......................................................................................................... 24-28
Editorial...
More than a quota........................................................................................................ 30
Build it green ................................................................................................................ 31
Indias fast power......................................................................................................... 32
Britain on the brink .................................................................................................... 33
On trial, the criminal justice system......................................................................... 34
Changing Team State .................................................................................................. 35
Hindi-Chini 2.0 ............................................................................................................ 37
RBI, we have a problem ............................................................................................. 38
And the noes have it .................................................................................................... 39
State and utopia............................................................................................................ 40
A virtual revolution..................................................................................................... 41
Scotlands tryst with destiny ..................................................................................... 42
Weekly Current Affairs 15
th
Sept. to 21
st
Sept., 2014 [3]
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The biggest problem with labour laws ................................................................... 44


No need for a financial super-regulator .................................................................. 45
Mine it, use it, dont export it .................................................................................... 46
An aye for unity ........................................................................................................... 48
Time to put substance before style ........................................................................... 48
Focus on revival of units, not asset-stripping......................................................... 50
Disruption is needed after disasters ...................................................................... 51
Changing times ............................................................................................................ 54
Why archaic citizenship laws must go .................................................................... 55
Writing SAARCs incomplete chapter .................................................................... 56
Outreach plans for scientists ...................................................................................... 58
A vote to watch in Scotland ....................................................................................... 58
Towards an Asian century of prosperity ................................................................ 60
Federalism in judicial appointments ....................................................................... 62
Developing model village clusters ........................................................................... 63
For a victim-centric approach.................................................................................... 65
Neither warmongers nor wimps .............................................................................. 67
Crippling cost of disparities....................................................................................... 69
The link between sanitation and schooling ............................................................ 69
Talking trade and peace with China ....................................................................... 71
[4] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014
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NATIONAL
INDIAN UNIVERSITIES FAILS TO SECURE TOP RANKINGS
The plight of higher education in India was
highlighted when not a single Indian university has
found a place in the top 200 global university
ranking list. The list was released by The
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University
Rankings, regarded as the most rigorous of its type.
It has placed Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) at the topmost position for the third year.
Globally, students continue to use rankings as
one of their decision making tools to choose their
destinations for pursuing education. The prestige
associated with higher ranks also drives universities
to benchmark themselves globally. With the
increasing globalisation of higher education, Indian
universities need to compete to attract the best
intellectual students, as well as best qualified faculty
from across the world.
As represented by number of papers and reports
in the past, parameters where Indian universities
are weak in comparison to global peers are quantity
and quality of research. These have to be addressed
through reorientation of institutional priorities,
focused deployment of human and financial
resources, enhancement of global reputation and
prestige through academic excellence and national
higher education policy reforms.
Highlights of the Report
A total of 31 countries are represented in the
top 200 in which the US is the dominant
nation, with 51 institutions, ahead of the UK
(29), Germany (13), the Netherlands (11),
Canada (10), Japan (10) and Australia (8).
The top-placed Indian institution, the Indian
Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) is
ranked 222nd in the world, followed by IIT-
Delhi at 235th, IIT-Kanpur at 300th, IIT-Madras
at 322nd and IIT-Kharagpur at 324th position.
The number of Indian institutions in the
rankings has grown to 12 from 11.
The other Indian educational institutions that
were given a rank lower than 400 on the list of
over 700 top universities are University of
Delhi, IIT-Roorkee, IIT-Guwahati, University of
Mumbai, University of Kolkata, Banaras Hindu
University, University of Pune.
Imperial and Cambridge have come as second
equal, behind only the MIT, while Harvard
dropped from second to fourth overall.It was
followed by Oxford and University College
London in joint fifth place, with Stanford,
Caltech, Princeton and Yale of the US filling
out the rest of the top 10.
The QS World University Rankings is an annual
league table ranking universities as a result of
performance in four key areas: research,
teaching, employability and internationalisation.
The National University of Singapore leads the
list as far as the Asian continent is concerned
and is ranked 22nd.
Global Well-Being I ndex
The Gallup-Healthways Global Well-Being Index
outlines thattwo out of every three Indians are either
financially struggling or suffering.The Well-Being
Index is a barometer of individual perceptions of well-
being. It is based on data collected across 135 countries
in a year, with more than 1.33 lakh interviews. It
measures five elements of well-being which include;
purpose, social, financial, community and physical. It
seeks to understand the perception of citizens own
well-being at individual, social network,
organizational, city, state, country and global levels.
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014 [5]
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Among the five elements, purpose refers to
liking what a person does each day and being
motivated to achieve his/her goals. Social means
having supportive relationships and love in ones
life. Financial relates to managing the economic
life to reduce stress and increase security.
Community implies liking where the individual
lives, feeling safe, and having pride in the
community, and physical covers good health and
enough energy to get things done. Responses have
been classified as thriving - well-being that is strong
and consistent, struggling - i.e. well-being that is
moderate or inconsistent, or suffering- well-being
that is low and inconsistent.
Highlights of the Report
Only about one-fifth of Indians, or 21 per cent,
was financially thriving while 49 per cent were
struggling and 30 per cent suffering.
In terms of purpose well-being, 16 per cent
of Indians are thriving, indicating that a
majority of the population does not feel
fulfilled in its day-to-day life. Having a job
makes little difference to the purpose factor.
The proportion of Indians suffering in social
well-being is alarmingly high at 36 per cent.
More significantly, 46 per cent of Indians 45
and older were suffering in this element versus
31 per cent of those under 45. This suggests
that the older population is vulnerable to social
isolation.
Only 23 per cent of the Indians are thriving in
the physical well-being category.
Inconsistency in access to maternal healthcare,
especially in the impoverished rural areas, is
an ongoing health risk for many women.
The survey advises Indian leaders to tap huge
opportunities to improve the well-being of a
large section of the population. There is a need
to promote job growth and infrastructure
development to adapt to rapid demographic
and social changes. Else, Indians well-being
will stagnate as large sections of the population
are unable to participate in the formal economy
and those at the bottom suffer.
CHAMAN: TECHNOLOGY FOR CROP MANAGEMENT
A new project has been launched by the
Agriculture Department which envisages the use of
geo-spatial applications for the assessment and
management of horticultural crops such as onion,
potato and mango.The project has been named as
CHAMAN which stands for Coordinated
programme on Horticulture Assessment and
Management using geo informatics. The project will
be implemented at a cost of Rs. 13.38 crore for
duration of three years starting 2014 till 2017.
Project Info in Crux:
Fruits such as banana, mango, citrus and
vegetables such as potato, tomato, onion and
chilli will be covered under the project.
Under the project, the remote sensing
technology and sample survey techniques will
be used for production forecasting of major
horticultural crops in select districts.
Other components include geospatial
applications for horticultural development and
management planning which include site
suitability, post-harvest infrastructure, crop
intensification, GIS database creation, orchard
rejuvenation, aqua-horticulture
Detailed scientific field level studies will be
conducted for developing technology for crop
identification, yield modelling and disease
assessment.
What is Horticulture?
Horticulture is the science and art of producing,
improving, marketing, and using fruits, vegetables,
flowers, and ornamental plants. It differs from botany
and other plant sciences in the sense that horticulture
incorporates both science and aesthetics. Under it,
the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds,
herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers,
seaweeds and non-food crops such as grass and
ornamental trees and plants are studied. Its other
focus areas include plant conservation, landscape
restoration, landscape and garden design,
construction, and maintenance, and
arboriculture.Horticulturists work as gardeners,
growers, therapists, designers, and technical advisors
in the food and non-food sectors of horticulture. They
apply their knowledge, skills, and technologies used
to grow intensively produced plants for human food
and non-food uses and for personal or social needs.
National Horticulture Mission:
National Horticulture Mission was launched by
the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India,
in 2005-06. It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to
promote holistic growth of the horticulture sector
through an area based regionally differentiated
strategies. The scheme has been subsumed as a part
of Mission for Integration Development of
Horticulture (MIDH) during 2014-15. At present,
India is the 2nd largest producer of fruits &
vegetables in the world.
[6] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014
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KERALA TO BECOME DEMENTIA-FRIENDLY
A joint initiative has been launched by the Kerala
Government and Alzheimers and Related Disorders
Society of India (ARDSI). The initiative is aimed to
declare Kerala as the first dementia-friendly State
in the country. This will be the first such initiative
in South Asia. A dementia-friendly State would
mean a State where people with dementia can live
with dignity in a supportive community
environment, have access to diagnosis, information
and treatment, and, be able to reduce their discomfort
and disabilities. The government is also planning to
set up specialty clinics, 24-hour helplines and day-
care centres.
The issue of dementia was highlighted in the
award-winning Malayalam movie, Thanmaathra. In
the movie, the actor was diagnosed with the
Alzheimers Disease, a neurological disorder that
triggers memory loss, progressive decline of
cognitive skills and language ability. The
sensetisation caused by the movie might have
resulted into the launching of such an initiative in
Kerala.
What is Dementia?
Dementia is a general term for a decline in mental
ability. It is severe enough to interfere with daily
life. The Dementia India Report defines dementia as
a syndrome usually chronic, characterised by a
progressive, global deterioration in intellect, including
memory, learning, orientation, language,
comprehension and judgment due to disease of the
brain. It is not a specific disease. It is an overall
term that describes a wide range of symptoms
associated with a decline in memory or other thinking
skills severe enough to reduce a persons ability to
perform everyday activities. Memory loss is an
example. Alzheimers is the most common type of
dementia which accounts for 60 to 80 percent of
cases. It usually attacks people aged 65 and above.
An early onset is not rare. There are four million
people afflicted with dementia in India. The dementia
population in India is all set to double by 2030.
Symptoms
Memory loss (particularly of recent events),
depression, mood fluctuations, misplaced sexual
behaviour, anxiety and inability to communicate are
common in most forms of dementia. In the later stages,
memory loss is high, with the patient failing to
recognise family members, friends, objects and places.
RECONSTITUTION OF NBWL
After the apex court had stayed all the decisions
of the standing Committee relating to constitution
of National Board for Wildlife, the Ministry of
Environment and Forests has filed an affidavit in
the Supreme Court for the reconstitution of the
National Board for Wildlife (NBWL). In the affidavit
the government has retained the Gujarat Ecological
Education and Research (GEER) Foundation and
added four NGOs World Wildlife Fund for
Nature-India, New Delhi, Aranyak, Guwahati,
Nature Conservation Society, Jharkhand and the
Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai,
Maharashtra.
The ten eminent conservationists are apart from
Prof. R. Sukumar, who was on the standing
committee of the Board appointed in July, as also
H.S. Singh, a retired Gujarat forest officer, V.B.
Sawarkar, former head of the Wildlife Institute of
India (WII) , S.S. Bisht, a retired IFS officer from
Bengal and former director, Project elephant, Dr. P.S.
Esa, a veterinarian with the Department of Wildlife,
Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), P.R. Sinha,
who retired as Director of WII, Dr. R.J. Rao, Rector
of Jiwaji University, Gwalior, and previously with
WII, he did his PhD on the ecology of aquatic
animals in the Chambal River, Dr. Madan Mohan
Pant, a retired IFS officer and a natural resources
economist, in which he holds a doctorate, Rajendra
P. Kerkar, environmentalist from Goa, he focuses
on water purification and protection of the Western
Ghats and Lav Kumar Khachar from the royal family
of Jasan in Saurashtra, Gujarat, where he is involved
with nature education camps in the Hingolgadh
Nature Education Sanctuary. A well-known
conservationist he has spent his life spreading
awareness about nature, especially on ornithology
and Gir Forest. He is a member of the Gujarat State
Wildlife Board.
However many environmentalist criticizes the
board on the ground that all wildlife experts who
spent decades of their life for saving wildlife have
been kept away from the Board. Only retired forest
officers and some from Gujarat have found a place.
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014 [7]
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National Board for Wildlife (NBWL)
The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) is a
statutory body constituted under the Wildlife
Protection Act, 1972, to frame and monitor
conservation policies to safeguard Protected
Areas.Part of their job is to review and appraise all
projects that require forest lands either inside the
national parks and sanctuaries or within a 10 km
radius around them.Due to the rapid decline in
wildlife population, the Government of India in 1952
had constituted an advisory body designated as the
Indian Board for Wildlife (IBWL). In 1972, the
Wildlife (Protection) Act was enacted for providing
special legal protection to our wildlife and to the
endangered species of animals in particular. As per
the Amendment of the Act in 2002, a provision was
incorporated for the constitution of the National
Board for Wildlife, replacing the Indian Board for
Wildlife.The National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) is
the apex body under the Wildlife Protection Act,
1972, to frame and monitor conservation policies to
safeguard Protected Areas. The NBWL is chaired by
the Prime Minister. It has 47 members including the
Prime Minister. Among these, 19 members are ex-
officio members. Other members include three
Members of Parliament (two from LokSabha and one
from RajyaSabha), five NGOs and 10 eminent
ecologists, conservationists and
environmentalists.Wildlife activists are of the view
that the original intent of the NBWL has been
defeated, making the board a platform for clearing
projects damaging to wildlife. On NBWL, the views
and advice of non-governmental members are largely
overlooked. Activists feel that these members, meant
to provide an independent view to the Government,
are nothing more than window dressing.
MAKING THE LEGISLATION WOMEN-FRIENDLY
The Law Commission of India is of the view
that a pre-Independence law dealing with property
succession in Christian families gives preferential
approach to men and is unfair and unjust to
Christian women. Citing this, the commission has
recommended the government to amend provisions
in Indian Succession Act, 1925.
Noting that Christianity is the third largest
religion in India, the Law Commission headed by
Justice A.P. Shah said Sections in the aforesaid law
weave an archaic principle of giving superior status
to man in access to and owning property. The 247th
Law Commission report specifically focuses on the
impact caused by Sections 42 to 46 of the 1925 Act
on Christian women and mothers. The Commission,
in its 27-page report submitted to the Ministry of
Law and Justice, suggests amendments that would
make the law more reflective of rising social
awareness in the Christian community and of needs
of changing times.
By pointing to Section 42 of the 1925 Act the
report quotes that the provision mandates that if a
son dies intestate (without writing a will) and has
no lineal descendants (children, grandchildren), his
property, excluding his widows share, should go
entirely to his father. His mother, even if she is alive,
will not get a share. Similarly, the next Section says
if the father is already dead at the time of his sons
untimely demise, the assets of the deceased son will
not go entirely to his mother. Instead, she would
have to share it equally with the dead sons surviving
siblings.
In its report the Commission recommended that
the law should be amended so that both parents get
equal share in the deceased sons property and if
the father is already dead at the time of his sons
demise, the mother should succeed to the entire
property.The Commission believes that the
amendments suggested would go a long way in
bringing the law in consonance with time and in
addressing concerns of Christian community. At the
same time it would also be in tandem with the
objective of women empowerment,
LOSS OF ICE BY HIMALAYAN GLACIERS
As revealed by a study published in the Journal
of Glaciology, the response of the Himalayan glaciers
to climate change is very puzzling. Some of these
glaciers appear to be stagnant as their fronts appear
to be stationary, despite being subjected to similar
climate changes. However, appearances can be
deceptive and these glaciers are in one stage of
development where they are losing ice by thinning,
In this regard the report highlights the three
puzzling aspects. First, despite experiencing similar
climatic changes, such as warming, many glaciers
appear not to be retreating, in other words, they
appear to be stagnant.Second, there is a marked
difference between the average behaviour of
extensively debris-covered glaciers and sparsely
[8] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014
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debris-covered glaciers. Third, there is a large
variation in the retreat rates of the fronts of glaciers,
which is the point where the glacier begins.
Of the several variables connected with ice loss,
a careful study by the researchers indicated that
debris cover played a significant role. For instance,
of the 128 glaciers with sparse debris cover, only 18
per cent are stationary/advancing and 82 per cent
are known to be retreating. In the case of the glaciers
with extensive debris cover, as much as 48 per cent
are stationary/advancing while only 52 per cent are
retreating.This is all the more puzzling as the two
types of glaciers are not geographically separated
and do experience similar climates.
These glaciers maintain a stationary front during
the first period, which can last as long as a century.
The shape, however, changes and ice is lost by
thinning. After this period, it starts to retreat.The
study thus helped in reclassifying the glaciers with
extensive debris cover as retreating despite the front
appearing stationary. As a result, the fraction of
shrinking debris-covered glaciers shot up to 73 per
cent.
Thus the percentage of glaciers that are retreating
was nearly the same immaterial of whether they
were extensively debris covered or sparsely
covered.The group has also obtained the warming
rate in the Himalayas from the bare glacier retreat
data.The glaciated regions in the past 40-50 years
experienced an average warming rate roughly the
same as the global average warming rate, but with
a wide variability.
REVIVAL OF NALANDA UNIVERSITY
A sum of Rs 2,727 crorehas been sanctioned by
the Centre for the construction of Nalanda University
over the next decade. The first academic session of
the university was formally inaugurated by theUnion
Minister for External Affairs SushmaSwaraj. In the
ceremony she expressed that the Centre was
committed to take the project beyond India and East
Asian countries.
Therevival ofthe university is aimed to depict
the richnessof Indian tradition. Nalanda is the link
between past and present and bridge to the future.
Minister also visited the original campus at Rajgir
and agreed with Bihar CM Jeetan Ram Manjhis
proposal of an airport for the city. Manjhi also
proposed setting up an authority to develop the area.
Interest in the revival of Nalanda University was
not limited to people of India. In the year when the
then president APJ Abdul Kalam had come up with
the idea, the Centre had also received a proposal from
Singapore in this regard. The Centre owned it later
and ensured that it is not limited to being a state
university. Though the East Asian Summit countries
have been contributing to the flagship project, India
invited other countries to take it beyond. As India
believes,Nalanda University will emerge as a centre
of excellence by developing cutting-edge technology.
With its construction set to start next year, the
university will have an arts centre and museum,
amphitheatre, recording studio, auditorium, biogas
plant, railway station and sports fields.
RAJASTHAN BECOMES FIRST STATE TO RATIFY NJAC
Rajasthan has become the first State of the
country to ratify the National Judicial Appointments
Commission Bill 2014. The billhas already been
passed by Parliament. The Bill needs to be endorsed
by at least 15 States before it can be sent for
Presidential assent and brought into effect.
The house also adopted 121st Constitutional
Amendment simultaneously.The Assembly
unanimously passed a resolution to endorse the Bill.
The bill seeks to end the two-decade-old collegium
system of appointments and transfer of judges and
establish the National Judicial Appointments
Commission (NJAC). It lays down the procedure to be
followed by the proposed Commission for
recommending persons for appointment as Chief
Justice of India and other judges of the Supreme Court,
and Chief Justice and other judges of High Courts.The
Bill would be a milestone in the history of Indian
judiciary.It is expected to establish a balance between
Judicial accountability and Judicial independence
which, at present is tilted in the favour of latter.
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014 [9]
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National J udicial Appointments Commission
The National Judicial Appointments
Commission (NJAC)will be aconstitutional body,
proposed under NJAC bill. It will be a six-member
body under the chairmanship of the Chief Justice
of India for recommending names to the President
of individuals with outstanding legal acumen and
impeccable integrity and credibility for judgeship
in the Supreme Court and the High Courts. It would
also recommend transfer of judges of one High
Court to another.The other members of the body
would be the law minister, two senior Supreme
Court judges and two eminent people.A collegium
comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of
India and the leader of the single largest party in
the LokSabha will select the two eminent people.
The NJAC billproposes to insert Article 124 (A) in
the Constitution and amending Articles 124(2),
217(1) and 222(1).
Procedure for Filling Up of Vacancies
When a vacancy arises in the SC or HCs, the
central government will make a reference to
the NJAC.
Existing vacancies will be notified to the NJAC
within thirty days of the Act entering into
force.
When a vacancy arises due to the completion
of term, a reference will be made to the NJAC,
six months in advance.
For vacancies due to death or resignation, a
reference must be made to the NJAC within
thirty days of its occurrence.
COURT SETS GUIDELINE FOR WITNESS EXAMINATION
The Delhi High Court has expresseda deep
concern at the collective failure of the prosecution
and the trial court to ensure early completion of
recording of evidence in a murder case. Following
this the court has issued a slew of guidelines for
examination of witnesses during trial of cases
involving grave offences punishable with more than
seven years of imprisonment.
A Sessions Court verdict awarding death penalty
to two persons, Sunil and Sudhir, for killing a youth
in 2009 was set aside by a Division Bench comprising
Justice S. Muralidhar and Justice Mukta Gupta. The
court sentenced the convicts to eight years of
imprisonment. The Court, in this regard, has held
that there was an inexplicably long gap in the dates
of examination of the main witness, the mother of
the deceased. As regards another witness, the failure
to ensure her personal safety and security, combined
with the delay in her examination by over two years,
rendered her position extremely vulnerable.
The two judges wrote separate and concurring
judgments in the case and gave benefit of lack of
evidence and delay in examination of witnesses to
four other convictswho were awarded life term by
the lower court. The four convicts were also awarded
eight years jail term.The Court rejected the death
sentence reference and modified the conviction of
all appellants after considering various facts,
including that the mother of the deceased had turned
hostile during the trial.
The Bench said the collective failure of the
prosecution and trial court to complete recording of
evidence on time and before the release of some of
the accused on bail had led to the mother of deceased
resiling from her earlier testimony and rendered her
evidence unreliable.
In its guidelines issued for compliance by the
courts conducting trial of cases involving grave
offences punishable with more than seven years
imprisonment, the Court held that:
As far as practicable, public witnesses, and in
particular eyewitnesses, should be examined
at the earliest point in time once the witness
action commences.
At every hearing, the trial court will note the
status of summoning of the public witnesses.
It will elicit from the Assistant Public
Prosecutor (APP) and record the reasons for
[10] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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the non-appearance of the public witnesses
summoned for a specific date.
In relation to vulnerable witnesses, particularly
eyewitnesses, the trial court will enquire about
each of them even at the time of their
summoning whether in the assessment of the
APP, they would require police protection and
pass appropriate orders in that regard.
The Court stated that where a public witness
appears not to be confident of deposing
fearlessly, the trial judge will temporarily halt
the recording of evidence, enquire into the
reasons and ensure that a conducive
atmosphere is created for further recording of
evidence.
The trial court will also ensure, as far as
practicable, that short dates are given so that
the evidence of the public witnesses is
concluded within three months of the
commencement of the witness action.
Where it is not possible to adhere to this
procedure, the trial court will record the
reasons in its orders.

Weekly Current Affairs 15


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A VOTE FOR INDEPENDENCE
INTERNATIONAL
The people living in Scotland is going to conduct
a referendum to answer the question: Should
Scotland be an independent country?A simple
majority would decide the fate of the nation, which
at present is a British Dominion. British Prime
Minister David Cameron agreed to a referendum a
couple of years ago when he and Alex Salmond, the
First Minister of Scotland, who is also the leader of
the Scottish National Party (SNP), signed the
Edinburgh Agreement that set in motion plans for
the vote.
The official campaigns related to independence
are Yes Scotland, with party support from SNP and
Scottish Greens and the unionist Better Together,
supported by Labour, Liberal Democrats, and
Conservatives. Salmond has been the primary face
of the Yes campaign, while Alistair Darling, Labour
MP and former chancellor of the exchequer, has
headed Better Together.
The reason for I ndependence:
Scotland is a nation under the control of British
Government, which excercises significant control on
major policy and administrative matter of the
country. In 2011, the pro-independence Scottish
National Party won the 2011 Scottish Parliament
election by a landslide. The Salmon-led government
believes independence would make Scotland one of
the worlds richest countries. Scotlandhas rich
resources of oil.
Position and Authority of Scottish government:
Following a yes vote in a referendum on
devolving some powers to a Scottish elected body,
the Scottish Parliament came into existence in 1999.
The Parliament was initially controlled by the
Scottish Labour Party, but since 2007, SNP has held
most of the seats. Under the terms of the Scotland
Act of 1998:
The Scottish government can pursue its own
policies in a broad range of areas, including
education, health, agriculture and
environment.
The Parliament at Westminster (Britain)
controls foreign policy, defence, immigration,
most government benefits, corporate
regulation, and energy.
It also sets most of the tax rates for the UK as
a whole.
After a yes vote in the referendum concerning
to independence of the country, there will be 18
months of negotiation on a range of issues which
includes currency, division of assets and liabilities,
borders, movement of people, EU membership,
and the distribution of welfare agreements. If
Scotland votes for a no, the SNP will remain in
office in Edinburgh until the Scottish
parliamentary elections in May 2016. All three
Westminster parties have promised more
devolution to Scotland. But Queen Elizabeth II will
still be head of state.
However, it is unclear whether an independent
Scotland would need to reapply or automatically be
granted entry in the European Union.
The Fate of North Sea oil:
In case the Scotland votes for yes, the issue
could be subject to years of wrangling. In 2012, the
North Sea supplied the UK with 67 per cent of its
oil and 53 per cent of its gas. According to experts,
if Scotland were to get a geographical share based
on the median line, about 90 per cent of UKs oil
would be under Scottish jurisdiction.
[12] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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A landmark European Unionpact was ratified
by the Ukrainian lawmakersfor adoption of laws
granting self-rule to the eastern regions. This will
shape the future of the splintered former Soviet
state.Russia, on the other handindicated that it had
no intention of backing down in the most serious
East-West standoff since the Cold War. It announced
its plans to boost its troop presence in annexed
Crimea.
The legislation calls for December polls in
Donetsk and Lugansk and allows local legislatures
to set up their own police forces and name judges
and prosectors.Crucially, it also guarantees the right
for Russian to be used in all state institutions, a
particularly sensitive issue in the mainly Russian-
speaking regions. The law also grants amnesty to
both the insurgents and Ukrainian government
forces over their actions during the conflict, although
rights groups have alleged abuses by both sides that
could be considered war crimes.Washington, by
commending the step has said the amnesty and the
special status accorded to Donbass underscored
Kievs continuing commitment to resolve the
ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine peacefully.
The European and Ukrainian parliaments held
simultaneous votes to approve the political and
economic association agreement. The rejection of this
agreement by the former government triggered the
countrys worst crisis since independence in
1991.Lawmakers in Kiev also voted to grant self-
rule in eastern regions under the control of pro-
Russian rebels and offer amnesty to fighters under
a peace plan drawn up to halt the ongoing bloody
conflict.Insurgent leaders reacted cautiously to the
moves, although they insist they want nothing less
than full independence.
The Ukrainian President Poroshenkotermed the
adoption of the 1,200-page EU deal as Ukraines first
step towards membership of the 28-nation bloc.EU
leaders hailed it as a blueprint for Ukraines
transformation into a modern and prosperous
European democracy.Washington also praised the
pact, with State Department saying Ukraine had
made history in the face of great challenges.But the
historic occasion was muted by a decision to delay
until 2016 the implementation of a free trade deal,
an apparent concession to the Kremlin.
The Ukrainian Crisis
The rejection of the broad EU pact by Kremlin-
backed president Viktor Yanukovych in November
set off the bloody chain of events that led to his
ouster in February, Russias subsequent seizure of
Crimea and the unleashing of the revolt in the
east.The conflict in the Lugansk and Donetsk
regions has now killed almost 2,900 people and
forced at least 600,000 from their homes, according
to UN figures.Russias denials of involvement have
not spared it from waves of punishing Western
sanctions that have left President Vladimir Putin
more isolated than at any stage of his 15-year rule.
The Russia termed it a priority to send
reinforcements to the Black Sea peninsula because
of what was described as the escalating Ukraine
crisis and the buildup of foreign troops on its
border.NATO has also unveiled plans to boost its
forces in eastern Europe in response to Russias
aggression.Russia already has tens of thousands of
soldiers in Crimea but denies NATO charges that it
sent more than 1,000 elite troops into eastern
Ukraine to help the militias launch a surprise
counter-offensive.The truce signed in early
September has offered the first significant glimmer
of hope that the crisis may be abating, although up
to 30 civilians and servicemen have since been
killed, most in shelling around the rebel stronghold
of Donetsk.Under the terms of the truce, lawmakers
adopted special status legislation that offers three
years of limited self-rule to the coal and steel belt
known as the Donbass that generates a quarter of
Ukraines exports.Many in the east accuse the
nationalist-leaning government of turning a blind
eye to alleged persecution of members of the
Russian-speaking population.But some political
leaders in Kiev and right-wing groups have also
questioned whether Poroshenko is ceding too much
to Moscow.
UKRAINE RATIFIES LANDMARK DEAL
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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UN CLAIMS DECLINE IN WORLD HUNGER
The United Nations has said that the number of
hungry people in the world has dropped by 100
million over the last 10 years. But it also expressed
the concern that one in nine is still undernourished.
Ittermed Asia as home to the majority of the
underfed population.The food agencies said the
global number was down over 200 million since the
early 1990s, but warned that despite the progress
made, about 805 million people in the world, or one
in nine, suffer from hunger. The report points that,
the Millennium Development Goal of halving the
proportion of undernourished people by 2015 is
within reach if appropriate and immediate efforts
are stepped up. As per the report, to date, 63
developing countries have reached the target and
six more are on track to reach it by 2015.
MI llenium Development Goals
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the
targets set by international community to make the
world a better place to live for all. They are the
outcome of Millennium Summit of the United
Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the
United Nations Millennium Declaration. The goals
range from halving extreme poverty rates to halting
the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal
primary education. All the targets are to be met by
2015. They have galvanized unprecedented efforts
to meet the needs of the worlds poorest. The UN
is also working with governments, civil society and
other partners to build on the momentum generated
by the MDGs and carry on with an ambitious post-
2015 development agenda.
The goals include:
To halve the number of undernourished
people
To achieve universal primary education
To promote gender equality and empower
women
To reduce child mortality
To improve maternal health
To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other
diseases
To ensure environmental sustainability
To develop a global partnership for
development
BANGLADESH ENACTS LAW TO PROHIBIT CHILD MARRIAGE
The Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2014 has
been approved by Bangladesh officials. A Cabinet
meeting presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina has given approval to law. The main aim of
the law is to prevent people from following or
supporting the bad practice of child marriage. The law
closely follows the release of a report published by the
UN childrens agency which shows that two-thirds
of Bangladeshi girls marry before reaching adulthood.
Highlights of Legislation:
This law provides fora two year jail term for any
person who marries a girl under the age of 18
It sets the minimum age of marriage for men
at 21 and for women at 18
Women who violated the law would not face
punishment, while offenders would be punished
Parents and marriage registrars would also be
punished in addition to those marrying minors
Political Turmoil in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has been witnessing increased
political tensions since January when the countrys
Nationalist Party boycotted the election that returned
Hasina to power.
In January a Bangladeshi courtsentenced 14
men to death for their involvement in a 2004
arms smuggling operation. Among those
sentenced was the leader of the opposition
Jamaat-e-Islami party, a former deputy interior
minister and a former director general of the
National Security Intelligence.
In March Bangladeshi investigators moved the
government to ban Islamist party Jamaat-e-
Islami for its alleged involvement in war crimes
during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War.
In April Bangladeshs High Court ordered
former prime ministerKhaleda Zia to stand
trial on corruption charges, accusing her and
three other members of the opposition
Nationalist Party of embezzling funds from a
charitable trust named after Zias deceased
husband, former president ZiaurRahman.
In June a Bangladesh court sentenced eight
people to death and six others to life
imprisonment in connection with a 2001
Bengali New Years celebration bombing that
killed ten people.
Recently, Human Rights Watch announced
that the Bangladesh government should
abolish an enacted policy that restricts the
medias freedom of expression.
[14] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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RISE IN ANTARCTIC SEA ICE
Scientists claim that the extent of sea ice in
Antarctica is set to reach a record high in coming
days. The observation follows the finding that Arctic
sea ice appeared to have shrunk to its sixth lowest
level ever.
As highlighted by The National Ice and Snow
Data Centre (NSIDC), Antarctic sea ice, now at 19.7
million sq km (7.6m sq m) is continuing to increase
which poised to set a record maximum this year.
The experts of Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems
Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) claim that the
area covered by sea ice have never been seen from
space before.The conundrum of why Antarctic sea
ice appears to be expanding as the Arctic decreases
had puzzled polar observers, but scientists have
suggested that the reason. Antarctic ice extent
appears to be increasing is changing wind patterns.
Figures released by the NSIDC in Boulder,
Colorado, show that the so-called Arctic sea ice
minimum, the point where the extent of sea ice there
is at its lowest after the summer, before it begins to
refreeze for winter, is expected to be confirmed
imminently and would be millions of square
kilometres below the long-term average. However,
the centre noted that there had been a particularly
strong retreat of sea ice in the Laptev Sea and
although the reasons for that were not yet clear, sea
temperatures there had been up to 5C higher than
average. With temperatures rising more rapidly in
the Arctic than the rest of the planet, the amount of
sea ice cover in the Arctic has been showing a long-
term decline as climate change takes hold.
What are I ce Sheets?
Meaning and Siginificance
An ice sheet is a mass of glacial land ice
extending more than 50,000 square kilometers. At
present, the two ice sheets on Earth cover most of
Greenland and Antarctica. During the last ice age,
ice sheets also covered much of North America and
Scandinavia. Together, the Greenland and Antarctic
Ice Sheets contain more than 99 percent of the
freshwater ice on Earth. The Antarctic Ice Sheet extends
almost 14 million square kilometers, roughly the area
of the contiguous United States and Mexico combined.
The Antarctic Ice Sheet contains 30 million cubic
kilometers of ice. The Greenland Ice Sheet extends
about 1.7 million square kilometers, covering most of
the island of Greenland, three times the size of Texas.
Ice sheets are important as they contain
enormous quantities of frozen water. If the
Greenland Ice Sheet melted, scientists estimate that
sea level would rise about 6 meters. If the Antarctic
Ice Sheet melted, sea level would rise by about 60
meters. The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets also
influence weather and climate. Large high-altitude
plateaus on the ice caps alter storm tracks and create
cold downslope winds close to the ice surface.
Formation of I ce Sheets:
The formation of Ice sheets takes place in the
areas where snow that falls in winter does not melt
entirely over the summer. When, the layers of snow
pile up, over thousands of years, into thick masses
of ice, it grows thicker and denser as the weight of
new snow and ice layers compresses the older layers.
Ice sheets are constantly in motion, slowly flowing
downhill under their own weight. Near the coast,
most of the ice moves through relatively fast-moving
outlets called ice streams, glaciers, and ice shelves.
As long as an ice sheet accumulates the same mass
of snow as it loses to the sea, it remains stable.
Climate Change and I ce Sheets:
A decline has been witnessed in the mass of ice
in the Greenland Ice Sheet. From 1979 to 2006,
summer melt on the ice sheet increased by 30
percent, reaching a new record in 2007. At higher
elevations, an increase in winter snow accumulation
has partially offset the melt. However, the decline
continues to outpace accumulation because warmer
temperatures have led to increased melt and faster
glacier movement at the islands edges. Most of
Antarctica has yet to see dramatic warming.
However, the Antarctic Peninsula, which juts out
into warmer waters north of Antarctica, has warmed
2.5 degrees Celsius since 1950. A large area of the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet is also losing mass, probably
because of warmer water deep in the ocean near the
Antarctic coast. No clear trend has been emerged in
East Antarctica, although some stations appear to
be cooling slightly. Overall, scientists believe that
Antarctica is starting to lose ice, but so far the process
has not become as quick or as widespread as in
Greenland.

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INDIA AND WORLD
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION IN SCS MOOTED
Indian and Vietnam has moved beyond
diplomatic relations and this is the fourth year of
strategic partnership between both the countries.
During the four day state visit of The Indian
President, Mr. PranabMukharjee, to Vietnaam, a
jointcommunique was issued by the President and
his Vietnamese counterpart Truong Tan Sang. India
and Vietnam sent out a stern message by reiterating
that the freedom of navigation in the East Sea/South
China Sea should not be compromised with. They
called on all parties concerned to exercise restraint,
avoid threat or use of force and resolve disputes
through peaceful means. However, they didnt name
any particular country.
The two sides called for collective commitment
of the parties concerned to abide by and implement
the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in
the South China Sea and to work towards the
adoption of a Code of Conduct on the basis of
consensus. China has been exerting its influence in
these waters which is not taken well by Vietnam
and other bordering countries like the Philippines.
Beijing has also objected to Indias exploration
projects in the Vietnamese oil blocks.
On this front, they called for cooperation in
ensuring security of sea-lanes, maritime security,
combating piracy and conducting search and rescue
operations. Both the countries also decided to
strengthen and deepen bilateral ties on the basis of
the strategic partnership with focus on political,
defence and security cooperation.They decided to
step up collaboration in the economic sector, science
and technology, culture and people-to-people links.
In his speech at the inauguration of an India
Study Centre at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy
of Politics, President Mukherjee spoke of a time
when cooperation between the two countries would
reach a level when it will be possible to drive from
Hanoi to Kolkata. He quoted Ho Chi Minh in
describing the sustained partnership between India
and Vietnam as a cloudless sky. He highlighted
that India considers Vietnam as a trusted friend and
an important pillar of Indias look East Policy and
stressed that in the cooperation in the area of defence
and security, both the countries are committed to
promotion of peace in our region.
Highlights of MoU:
Extension of $100 million Line of Credit to
Hanoi for defence procurement, including
patrol vessels
Signing of a letter of intent between ONGC
Videsh Limited and PetroVietnam for
exploration of new oil blockswhich is aimed
at further consolidating cooperation between
India and Vietnam in energy sector and pave
the way for future collaboration between the
two countries.
EXIM Bank of Indias extension of a dollar
credit line to Vietnam, agreement on
cooperation and mutual assistance in Customs
Transfer of technology for setting up catfish
breeding and farming in India
MoU on operating and jointly promoting direct
air services under which Vietnam Airlines and
Indias Jet Airways will operate flights .This
includes daily flights between Delhi and
Mumbai and Ho Chi Minh City
SAARC CULTURAL MINISTERS MEET
India is going to host the Third Meeting of
SAARC Cultural Ministers in New Delhi. This is
indicative of the continuing relations of India with
SAARC nations and the emphasis on its further
enhancement. The meet will be attended by the
seven states out of which six including Afghanistan,
Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan,
have already confirmed for their
attendance.Pakistani government is yet to
confirmation on their stance.
As per the SAARC practice, the leader of the
delegation of the host country is elected as the
[16] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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chairman of the meeting.The MoS (Independent
Charge) for Culture and Tourism ShripadYessoNaik
is expected to head the meeting this time round.
A Day-long trip for delegates to the TajMahal
has also been in the schedule, where a cultural
evening has been organised by the Archaeological
Survey of India. The event will be followed by a
three-day SAARC Dance Festival in Delhi, wherein
80 dancers from the eight member states have been
invited to participate.
Major Agendas:
The major agendas of the meeting include:
Setting up of a SAARC body, called the
SAARC Heritage Committee on the lines of
UNESCO. With an aim to cover all aspects of
heritage management, it will function under
the auspices of SAARC Cultural Centre,
Colombo.
Declaration of the year 2016-17 as the SAARC
Year for Cultural Heritage. This is in line with
the SAARC practice of designating different
years and decades to focus on issues of
common concern.
Talks on holding SAARC cultural festivals in
member states, and cooperation in areas of
libraries, archives, museums, performing arts
and conservation activities.
What is SAARC?
SAARC stands for the South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation. It was established on
December 8, 1985 by the Heads of State or
Government of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives,
Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The SAARC
Secretariat was established in Kathmandu, Nepal
which serves as the headquaters of SAARC. It is a
regional forum which provides a platform for the
peoples of South Asia to work together in a spirit of
friendship, trust and understanding. It aims to
accelerate the process of economic and social
development in Member States. At the inception of
the Association, the Integrated Programme of Action
(IPA) consisting of a number of Technical
Committees (TCs) was identified as the core areas
of cooperation. Over the period of years, the number
of TCs was changed as per the requirement. The
current areas of cooperation under the reconstituted
Regional Integrated Programme of Action which is
pursued through the Technical Committees cover:
Agriculture and Rural Development
Health and Population Activities
Women, Youth and Children
Environment and Forestry
Science and Technology and Meteorology
Human Resources Development
Transport.
NEW DAWN IN INDO-CHINA TIES
The three-days state visit of Chinese President
Xi Jinping to India begun with the landing of the
President at Gujarat airport. The visit of was
accompanied by a delegation of senior officials and
was aimed at ramping up trade and investments,
besides having discussions on issues like the
contentious border dispute.Following this, a
landmark agreement has been signed by China with
the government of Gujarat. This agreement is
expected to facilitate investments worth thousands
of croresin the form of industrial parks and other
such initiatives. It was decided that China will be
guest of honour country at the New Delhi World
Book Fair 2016.
The major areas of cooperation identified by both
the countries are as follows:
Development of Gujarat
During the visit to Gujarat, PM accompanied
Chinese President to the Sabarmati Ashram and
explained its historical significance to him. They later
took a walk down the Sabarmati riverfront, where
the visiting dignitaries were treated to a mix of
Gujarati tradition and culture through dances like
Garba. China signed few pacts with Gujarat for the
development of the state. They include
Making Guangzhou city in China and
Ahmedabad as sister cities. The agreements
were for establishing sister province-state
relations between Guangdong and Gujarat and
between Guangzhou City (capital of
Guangdong) and Ahmedabad.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was
signed between the China Development Bank
(CDB) and the Industrial Extension Bureau
popular as iNDEXTb, aunit of Gujarat
government for accelerating industrial
development in the state.
The MoUhas three years of validity. According
to the MoU, the CDB will guide and introduce
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Chinese enterprises to set up industrial parks
in Gujarat. CDB will also provide financial
support for the industrial parks, the first of
which will come up in Vadodara.
At present, Gujarat has a significant presence of
Chinese with close to Rs 9,000 crore of promised
investments, most of which came during the regime
ofMr. Modi. Among the biggest Chinese investments
promised is that of Chinese firm TBEA Energy
(India) Pvt Ltd, which is developing a Green Energy
Park at Karjan near Vadodara with an investment
of about Rs 2,500 crore. Also, China Steel Corporation
is setting up an Electrical Steel Plant at Dahej GIDC
Estate at a cost of Rs 6,000 crore.
Trade Promotion and Market Access
The Chinese President assured that Beijing is
committed to taking concrete steps to address Indias
concerns on market access and investment
opportunities. Besides, a financial commitment to
realiseChinese investments in the next five years was
also made by China. These stepswould ensure that
the economic relations between both the
countriesshould realize their potential. They were
aimed toaddress the slowdown in trade and the
worsening trade imbalance and help improve market
access and investment opportunities for Indian
companies in China.
China committed $20 billion investment over
the next five years and agreed to provide
greater market access to Indian products in
farm, pharma and gems and jewellery sectors,
with a view to reducing the large trade gap
with India.
The Five-year Trade and Economic
Development Plan was signed by commerce
minister NirmalaSitharaman and her Chinese
counterpart GaoHucheng.The agreement seeks
to reduce the bilateral trade imbalance and
strengthen investment cooperation to realise
$20 billion investment from China in the next
five years.
As per the agreement, China will provide
market access to Indian pharmaceuticals,
handicrafts, textile, gems and jewellery, bovine
meat, oil meals, basmati and non-basmati rice,
fruits and vegetables.
India has been pressing China to lower duties
on these items with a view to encouraging
exports and bringing down the trade gap that
increased exponentially from $18.65 billion in
2009 to $36.86 billion in 2013.
Border I ssue
For the first time China has expressed its
determination to resolve the boundary problem
between New Delhi and Beijing. The President of
China remarked early settlement of the border issue
as a strategic objective. The joint statement issued
at the end of visit saw the resurfacing of the One
China concept. It was last mentioned explicitly in
2009, and then dropped since 2010.
The Indian side appreciated the support and
cooperation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
the local government of Tibet Autonomous Region
of the Peoples Republic of China to Indian pilgrims
for the KailashManasarovarYatra. Indian Prime
Minister conveyed Indias concerns on the incidents
along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) and pressed
for withdrawal of the Chinese troops. The major
highlights of the border negotiations are as follows:
Both nations recognised peace and tranquility
in the India-China border areas as an
important guarantor for the development and
continued growth of bilateral relations.
11 months after the Border Defence
Cooperation Agreement was signed during
former Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs visit
in October 2013, the two sides took a positive
view on defence cooperation.
They called for regular exchange of visits
between the defence ministries and military
leaders, so as to expand pragmatic cooperation.
President Xi, as chairman of the Central
Military Commission, is head of Chinas armed
forces and his role is crucial for this agreement.
Recalling the Agreement on the Political
Parameters and Guiding Principles for the
Settlement of the Boundary Question signed
in April 2005, both sides reiterated their
commitment to an early settlement of the
boundary question and expressed their
conviction that this will advance basic interests
of the two countries and shall, therefore, be
pursued as a strategic objective.
The two sides reaffirmed the utility and
significance of the mechanism of Special
Representatives (SRs) for seeking a political
settlement to the boundary issue and of the
Working Mechanism for Consultation and
Coordination on India-China Border Affairs
for handling border-related matters.
Terrorism and Counter-Insurgency:
?Both sides reiterated their resolute opposition to
[18] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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terrorism in all its forms and manifestations
with zero tolerance, and committed
themselves to cooperate on counter-terrorism.
They also emphasised the need to implement
all relevant UN resolutions, in particular
UNSC resolutions 1267, 1373, 1540 and 1624.
Beijing has been facing the heat on incidents
emanating out of Xinjiang province, and the
Tiananmen Square incident has shaped its
thinking on terrorism.
They also agreed to hold the fourth joint Army
training at a mutually convenient time, hold
Navy/ Air Force joint exercise at a proper time,
and strengthen cooperation in such areas as
peacekeeping, counter-terrorism, naval escort,
maritime security, humanitarian rescue,
disaster mitigation, personnel training, and
think tank communication.
Nuclear Cooperation:
On the civil nuclear energy issue, both the
countries reaffirmed theirbelief on expansion
of civil nuclear energy programmeand
recognized it as an essential component of their
national energy plans to ensure energy
security.
The two sides decided to launch working level
consultations between the Department of
Atomic Energy (DAE) on the Indian side and
the China Atomic Energy Authority.
The two sides decided to carry out bilateral
cooperation in civil nuclear energy in line with
their respective international commitments.
Tourism and Pilgrimage
China has agreed to allow the
KailashManasarovar yatrathrough the Nathula
pass in Sikkim. Following this, theIndians
travelling on the annual yatra will have
another route.
The new route will pass through the city of
Shigatse, which is part of the Tibetan
Autonomous Region. It will be in addition to
the Lipulekh pass in Uttarakhand through
which the yatracurrently takes place.
A Memorandum of Understanding between
the Ministries of External Affairs of India and
China signed allows for the opening of the
new route for Indian pilgrims to the Tibet
Autonomous Region in the Peoples Republic
of China.
The opening of new route offers many
benefits. It makes KailashMansarovar
accessible by a motorable road, which is
especially beneficial for older pilgrims. It offers
a safer alternative in the rainy season, makes
the pilgrimage shorter in duration and will
enable a much higher number of pilgrims to
go there.
Space and Transportation
An MoUwas signed between the Indian Space
Research Organization(ISRO) and the China
National Space Administration
MoUwill allow India and China to encourage
exchange and cooperation in the exploration
and use of outer space for peaceful purposes,
including research and development of
scientific experiment satellites, remote sensing
satellites and communication satellites.
The two countries have also agreed to enhance
cooperation in the railway sector, including
studying the feasibility of cooperation in a
high-speed train. In this regard, the MoUwas
signed between the Ministry of Railways and
Government of China.
Under the Memorandum of Understanding for
Railways, both sides agreed to work on raising
the speed and more cooperation on the
Chennai-Mysore route as well as discussing
the bullet train project.
BOOSTING TELE-CONNECTIVITY IN BORDER AREAS
Alicence condition that has barred telecom
service providers from installing Base Trans-receive
Stations (BTS) within 10 kms of the international
border has been relaxed. The move is aimed at
strengthening mobile connectivity in areas close to
the countrys international border.
The Department of Telecommunication has
admitted to some difficult areas where mobile signals
are not available, primarily on account of the bar on
service providers to set up base stations. However,
several instances of the availability of mobile signals
of foreign mobile networks inside Indian territories
have been reported in the past. The instances of
availability of mobile signals of Pakistani mobile
networks inside Indian territories in the border areas
of Rajasthan such as Bakhasar, Barmer, Jaisalmer,
Bikaner, Sriganganagar, Sri Karanpur, Raisingh
Nagar, Anupgarh and Punjabs Gurdaspur, Amritsar
and Ferozpur.
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Highlights of Guidelines:
This new norm is subject to the condition that
the base stations, wherever located, would be
as far away from such border as feasible and
made to operate in such a manner that the
radio signals fade out when nearing or about
to cross international border and become
unusable within a reasonable distance across
such border.
The relaxation is for the entire border.
However, the areas falling within 10 km of
the Line of Control, Line of Actual Control
and the international border running between
Akhnoor in Jammu and Kashmir and
Pathankot in Punjab have been notified as out-
of-bounds for telecom service providers.
In addition to this sector, other out-of-bounds
areas could also be notified from time-to-time
by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The installation of base stations, cell sites or
radio transmitters can be taken up by the
service providers only after prior approval
from local Army authorities about their specific
location.

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ECONOMY
RBI EASES NORMS OF EQUITY ISSUES
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed
companies to issue equity shares to a resident outside
India against any type of fund subject to certain
conditions. This highlights the further liberalissation
of foreign direct investment (FDI) norms by RBI.
The existing guidelines were reviewed by the
central bank for the issue of shares or convertible
debentures under the automatic route. It has
permitted issue of equity shares against any fund
payable by the investee firm, remittance of which
does not require prior nod of the government or the
RBI.
According to earlier provision, an Indian
company under the automatic route could issue
shares/convertible debentures to a person resident
outside India against lump-sum technical know-how
fee, royalty external commercial borrowings (other
than import dues deemed as ECB or trade credit)
and import payables of capital goods by units in
special economic zones. The guidelines allow
issuance of shares subject to certain conditions like
entry route, sectoral cap, pricing guidelines and
compliance with the applicable tax laws.
Convertible debentures are a type of loan issued
by a company that can be converted into stock by
the holder and, under certain circumstances. On
account of addition of the convertibility option, the
issuer pays a lower interest rate on the loan
compared to if there was no option to convert. These
instruments are used by companies to obtain the
capital they need to grow or maintain the business.
Convertible debentures are different from convertible
bonds in the sense that debentures are unsecured.
Notification: At a Glance:
Equity shares shall be issued in accordance
with the extant FDI guidelines on sectoral caps
Pricing guidelines and the issue of equity
shares under this provision shall be subject to
tax laws as applicable to the funds payable
The conversion to equity should be net of
applicable taxes
AUGUMENTING NAVAL SECURITY INFRASTRUCTURE
Indian Navy istaking active steps for fortifying
the security of berthed warships. As a part of the
strategy, the Navy is set to adopt force protection
measures. The measures are envisaged in the
aftermath of 26/11 in order to augment security
around the coast and high-value naval assets.
The project is said to cost around Rs. 270 crore.
The process of installation is going on and the plan
is expected to getoperationalised by end of the year.
There is already the specialisedSagarPrahariBal
ensuring security of vital naval installations and
assets stationed along the coast. The new measures
will help neutralise asymmetric sub-surface threats.
Measures in Crux:
The deployment of a cluster of high-power
underwater sensors, diver detection sensors
and high-definition sensors for surveillance,
both surface and sub-surface, of naval wharfs
and jetties
The high-priority Integrated Underwater
HarbourDefence Surveillance System
(IUHDSS) is currently in various stages of
implementation around naval quays in
Mumbai, Visakhapatnam, Kochi and Port Blair.
The multi-agency Joint Operations Centres
(JOC) at these naval locations will receive real-
time images relayed by these sensors, with the
command and control vested with the coastal
defence commanders Flag Officers
Commanding-in-Chief in respect of the three
naval commands and the Commander-in-Chief
of the Andaman and Nicobar joint services
Command.
The plans to cast a network of electro-optical
sensors, thermal imaging sensors, radars and
diver detection sensors around naval jetties.

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A LOW COST WATER PURIFICATION TECHNIQUE
SCIENCE AND TECH.
A study published in the Journal of Materials
Chemistry A highlights that the researchers of
Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and
Steer Engineering Pvt. Ltd, has developed a low-
cost water purification membrane. It is capable of
filtering out objects greater than one micron size
and also killing E. coli bacteria. The novel
membrane with pores as small as 0.57-0.68 microns
was developed by mixing two polymers,
polyethylene (PE) and polyethylene oxide (PEO), at
180 degree C. Unlike PE, PEO is water-soluble and
the two polymers are immiscible.Tiny holes came
into being once the water-soluble polymer was
removed.
The amount of PEO polymer distributed in the
PE matrix should also be sub-micron in size, in order
to create pores that are sub-micron in size. For the
achievement of aforesaid objective, only a tiny
amount of PEO was taken compared with PE. Also,
the polymers mixed at 180 degree C were sheared at
high speed to produce tiny droplets of PEO. The
higher the shear rate, the smaller the droplets.The
PEO droplets on the matrix were then removed to
create tiny holes. The mixture is taken and dipped
in water. As soon as the mixture is dipped, the PEO
gets dissolved in water leaving behind tiny holes in
the PE matrix.
As a further development, the researchers
rendered the membrane antibacterial against E.coli.
For this, grapheme oxide (GO) was mixed with PE
and PEO and the graphene oxide was made
functional with amine groups. The tablet-shaped
samples with tiny holes are hydrophobic (water
repellent) in nature.
Since the holes were sub-micron in size, pressure
was required to force water through the holes. The
pressure used varied from one to seven psi. Flux,
which is also the rate of water flow, increased as the
pressure applied increased. Since pressure was used
to force water through the tiny holes, the
hydrophobic nature of the tablet would not have
mattered.
The membrane filtered all solid substances that
were more than one micron in size. By itself, the
membrane cannot remove salinity. For that, the
reverse osmosis has to be used.When put into a
colony of E. coli bacteria, the tablets reduced the
E. coli colony at 37 degree C; measurements were
made 24 hours after the tablets were left in the
bacterial colony.There are two ways in which the
bacteria may be getting killed. The roughness of the
grapheme oxide surface is one factor while the
interaction of the amine group of the tablet with the
phosphate group of the lipids present in the cell
could be another. The amine group destroys the
integrity of the cell membrane.The tablet being
hydrophobic in nature, the killed E. coli to a large
extent do not stick to the membrane.
Though it cannot remove salinity, its ability to
filter particles larger than one micron makes the
membrane attractive.This membrane can support
reverse osmosis but cant replace it. If this membrane
is used before RO then the efficiency of RO
membrane will increase. When the pure water is
supplied to RO unit, the pressure on RO motor will
come down. So the efficiency of RO will increase.

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HEALTH
COMBATING KALA-AZAR
As a part of initiatives to curb the spread of the
vector-borne disease, Kala Azar, the Union Health
and Family Welfare Ministry has urged States to
accelerate the construction of pucca houses. The
Ministry hasset deadline for eradication of Kala Azar
by 2015. Kala Azar, which spreads through the bite
of the sandfly, is predominant in Bihar, Uttar
Pradesh, Jharkhand and West Bengal.
For effective implementation of the project, the
Centre had set aside a special package of Rs. 96
crore for construction of houses under the Indira
AwasYojana in 15 districts of Bihar during 2008-09.
However, owing to various constraints, including
cost overruns, the project did not take off and the
spread of disease continues.
As highlighted by Ministry Indoor residual
spraying (IRS), which is a preventive step, is more
effective in pucca houses than those made of mud
and thatch. Extensive use of IRS is among the steps
being taken up under the renewed programme to
control the disease.Ensuring clean, hygienic
surroundings is an important preventive measure.
Sandflies are found in moist, unhygienic conditions
and if that is prevented, it would be easy to work
for eradication of disease.
The Centre has also begun an extensive outreach
programme to combat the disease. As per the
programme instead of waiting for the patients to
come for treatment, health workers and voluntary
organisations would locate the patients who need
treatment. The disease will be combated through a
four-pronged programme. The first step will be IRS,
the second will be the care treatment protocol, the
third is active search where we will locate patients,
and fourth will be changing the treatment regime
shifting from tablets to injectable medicines.
As a part of its strategy to combat the disease, a
Kala Azar rapid-diagnosis kithas also been unveiled
by the Centre. It will also supply an insecticide,
synthetic Pyrethroid, directed specifically at the
sandfly, for spraying on the walls of homes in the
endemic regions in 54 affected districts.
Understanding Kala-Azar
What is Kala Azar?
Kala-azar is a vector borne disease. It is a slow
progressing indigenous disease caused by a
protozoan parasite of genus Leishmania. In India,
Leishmaniadonovani is the only parasite causing
this disease. It is the second largest parasitic killer
in the world after Malaria. The parasite is spread to
humans by bites from infected female sand flies.
The parasite primarily infects reticuloendothelial
system and may be found in abundance in bone
marrow, spleen and liver. It also attacks the immune
system, and is almost always fatal if not treated.
Post Kala-azar Dermal Leishmaniasis (PKDL) is
a condition when Leishmaniadonovani invades skin
cells, resides and develops there and manifests as
dermal leisions. Some of the kala-azar cases
manifests PKDL after a few years of treatment.
How Kala-azar is transmitted?
Sandfly of genus Phlebotomusargentipes are
the only known vectors of kala-azar in India
Indian Kala-azar has a unique epidemiological
feature of beingAnthroponotic which means
human is the only known reservoir of infection
Female snadflies pick up parasite (Amastigote
or LD bodies)while feeding on an infected
human host.
Parasite undergoes morphological change to
become flagellate, development and
multiplication in the gut of sandflies and move
to mouthparts
Healthy human hosts get infection when an
infective sandfly vector bites them. The blood
containing leishmania parasites is drawn from
an animal or human, the next person to receive
a bite will then become infected and develop
leishmaniasis.
Signs and Symptoms of Kala-Azar
Recurrent fever intermittent or remittent with
often double rise
Loss of appetite, pallor and weight loss with
progressive emaciationweakness
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Splenomegaly: spleen enlarges rapidly to
massive enlargement, usually soft and non-
tender
Liver enlargement, not to the extent of spleen,
soft, smooth surface, sharp edge
Skin dry, thin and scaly and hair may be
lost. Light coloured persons show grayish
discolouration of the skin of hands, feet,
abdomen and face which gives the Indian
name Kala-azar meaning Black fever.
Rapiddevelopment of Anaemia
I ssues of Diagnosis
The most effective diagnostic tests for
leishmaniasis are invasive and potentially
dangerous
Tissue samples are required from the spleen,
lymph nodes or bone marrow.
These tests require lab facilities and specialists
not readily available in resource-poor, endemic
areas.
The most common method of diagnosing
kalaazar is by dipstick testing. However, this
method is highly problematic. In endemic
areas, people can become infected with
kalaazar but it may not develop into the
disease. Therefore, no treatment will be
required.
Dipstick testing only establishes whether a
patient is immune to kalaazar. So if the parasite
is present it would appear that the patient has
the disease. Because of this, dipstick testing
cant be used to see if the patient is cured, is
re-infected or has relapsed.

[24] Weekly Current Affairs 15


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NEWS IN BRIEF
Lalitha Kumarmangalam
Lalitha Kumaramangalam has been appointed
as the new chief of the National Commission for
Women (NCW). The appointment was made by the
Union Ministry of Women and Child
Development.Ms. Kumaramanglam is an alumnus
of St. Stephens College, Delhi and has an MBA from
Madras University. She runs Prakriti, an NGO. She
had contested the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and
2009 from BJP.
Ms. Kumaramangalam expressed her keenness
to mainstream the gender issue in a holistic manner.
After being appointed as the chief of NCW, she laid
down her primary aim to mainstream the gender
issue in every developmental activity. Gender issues
are usually reduced to man versus woman, but the
new chief wants to address it in terms of allowing
women access to all and every development activity,
whether it is access to sanitation, or smart cities.
NEWSMAKERS
National Commission for Women (NCW)
The National Commission for Women (NCW)
was established as a statutory body under the
National Commission for Women Act, 1990. It seeks
to review the constitutional and legal safeguards
for women, recommend remedial legislative
measures, facilitate redressal of grievances and
advise the Government on all policy matters
affecting women.The NCW has adopted a multi-
pronged strategy to tackle the problem viewing the
problem of violence against women as multifaceted.
The Commission has initiated generation of legal
awareness among women, thus equipping them
with the knowledge of their legal rights and with
a capacity to use these rights. It assists women in
redressal of their grievances through pre-litigation
services. To facilitate speedy delivery of justice to
women ParivarikMahilaLokAdalats are organized
in different parts of the country to review the
existing provisions of the Constitution and other
laws affecting women and recommending
amendments thereto, any lacunae, inadequacies or
shortcomings in such legislations. It organizes
promotional activities to mobilise women and get
information about their status and recommend
paradigm shift in the empowerment of women.The
Complaints and Counselling Cell of the commission
processes the complaints received oral, written or
suomoto under Section 20 of the NCW Act. The
complaints received relate to domestic violence,
harassment, dowry, torture, desertion, bigamy, rape,
refusal to register FIR, cruelty by husband,
deprivation, gender discrimination and sexual
harassment at work place.NCW tackles the
problems by ensuring that investigations by the
police are expedited and monitored. Family disputes
are resolved or compromised through counselling.
K LManjunath
K L Manjunath is the Judge of Karnataka High
Court.The central government has sent back the
Supreme Court collegiums recommendation to
transfer him to the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Meanwhile, a group of Lok Sabha MPs has started
a signature campaign to initiate impeachment
proceedings against him.
The four Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MPs and some
others have already signed the notice of motion for
presenting an address to the President under Article
217 read with Article 124 (4) of the Constitution for
Justice Manjunaths removal for proven
misbehaviour.Among the charges that the MPs have
levelled against Manjunath are: possession of wealth
disproportionate to his known sources of income,
hearing and deciding a petition in favour of a
housing society in which his daughter owned a plot,
and failing to declare his assets in violation of the
Full Court Resolution of 1997.
It was alleged that Manjunath, who was elevated
as additional judge in 2000 and a permanent judge
in 2001, abused his position to amass several
movable and immovable properties worth crores of
rupees, disproportionate to his known sources of
income.Property registration deeds and several other
documents have been attached as annexures to
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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support the allegation that Manjunath acquired
several properties in the name of his daughter, wife
and mother-in-law.
The MPs have also accused him of hearing and
deciding a petition involving a housing society with
clear conflict of interest.An MP who has signed the
impeachment motion said it would be presented to
the President before the winter session of Parliament.
In July this year, citing a strongly-worded
adverse note by a senior Supreme Court Judge
against Manjunath, the Centre had sent the
recommendation regarding Manjunath back to the
SC collegium for reconsideration. The collegium,
headed by Chief Justice of India R M Lodha,
thereafter didnt reiterate its recommendation.
The previous two attempts by Parliament to
impeach sitting members of higher judiciary,
Calcutta High Court judge SoumitraSenand Chief
Justice of the Sikkim High Court P D Dinakaran,
came to end after both resigned from their respective
posts before the impeachment motions against them
could be taken to their logical conclusion. The
judicial accountability has been a core question of
discussion among Indian political system. The NJAC
bill 2014 seeks to address this issue.
OBITUARIES
Mandolin U Shrinivas
Mandolin U Shrinivaswas a great musician. The
Carnatic music world is in a state of deep shock
over the untimely death of his on account of liver
failure.
He emerged at a time when there was
despondency about the future of Carnatic music.
Many of the Carnatic greats had passed on and the
then reigning generation was considered the last of
the classicists.
He entered into the field of Carnatic music at
the age of 12. He was holding the so-called mandolin,
which was nothing other than a mini-electric guitar.
He did not come from the kind of Brahmin home
that is in the Carnatic world, nor from a position of
any affluence. Yet he emerged as an icon, a child
icon of the 80s.
His father, Satyanarayana, was a band clarinet
player and also part of the film world. Initially, he
translated the music of his father into the mandolin
and this was how his father knew that here was a
gifted child.
He soon received tutelage from Subbaraju. But
the truth is that Shrinivas had to discover the
mechanics of the instrument, its aural shape and
place the Carnatic within it. He listened to many
great artists rendering ragas and recreated them with
spectacular success.
This was only the beginning of his musical
search. Soon Shrinivas had gone beyond the
instrument, he was creating artistic spaces and
moments that were not driven by his skill, ability or
instrument.
He played Kalyani at the Music Academy in
Chennai when Shrinivas disappeared and the
Kalyani pervaded the arena. This movement of
Shrinivas from a raw performer to an artist was
something to behold.
COMMITTEE/COMMISSION
Mashelkar Panel
An expert panel has been set up by the
government to recommend best technologies for
Prime MinisterNarendraModis Swachh Bharat
national sanitation campaign.Scientist
RaghunathAnantMashelkar, former director general
of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research,
has been named as the Chairperson of the panel.
At present, MrMashelkar overseas the Global
Research Alliance, a network of publicly funded
institutes from the Asia-Pacific, South Africa, Europe
and the US with over 60,000 scientists.He was
conferred with the Padma Shri in 1991, Padma
Bhushan in 2000 and Padma Vibhushanin 2014.The
committee consists of 19-members. It also includes
senior officials from the ministry of drinking water
and sanitation, and representatives from the state
governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Rajesh
Kumar, director for water in the central nodal
ministry, is member secretary.
Terms of Reference:
To examine best technologies on sanitation and
water so that they can be scaled up on a
sustainable basis in various states, with
affordability, sustainability, scalability and
quality as the main criteria.
[26] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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To suggest ways for achieving PMs Swachh
Bharat goals by 2019, with an emphasis on
areas like potable water and sanitation.
To examine the environmental impact of each
technology compared with its uses.
To examine the uses of these technologies in
different agro-climatic zones in the country,
and also suggest what non-technological
innovations that will be needed in terms of
policy and fiscal measures, to put them in
effective use.
To recommend innovative ways by which all
stake-holders- government, utilities, service
providers, non-profits and other institutions-
can be roped in to create a powerful network
to deliver the larger objective.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is an initiative launched
by PMModi under which he has urged all the
citizens of the country to devote some time to clean
the country. While the exact nature of the
programme is yet to be finalised, PM has invited
ideas from people at large on the design of Mission
Swachh Bharat. Mission Swachh Bharat aspires to
realiseGandhijis dream of a clean India through
janbhagidari (peoples participation). PM has
announced that the programme will be launched
on Oct 2, 2014, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.
Objectives:
The programme is expected to include following
broad priniciples:
Construction of individual, cluster and
community toilets.
To eliminate or reduce open defecation. Open
defecation is one of the main causes of deaths
of thousands of children each year.
The Swachh Bharat Mission will also make an
initiative of establishing an accountable
mechanism of monitoring latrine use.
Public awareness will also be provided about
the drawbacks of open defecation and
promotion of latrine use.
Proper, dedicated ground staff will be
recruited to bring about behavioural change
and promotion of latrine use.
For proper sanitation use, the mission will aim
at changing peoples attitudes, mindsets and
behaviours.
To keep villages clean.
Solid and liquid waste management through
gram panchayats.
To lay water pipelines in all villages, ensuring
water supply to all households by 2019.
Hoolock Gibbon
A highly endangered species has made a new
entry in the Delhi zoo. Ithas been brought here all
the way from Mizoram. The 6-8-year-old female
hoolock gibbon is a highly endangered species and
is listed on Schedule 1 of the Indian (Wildlife)
Protection Act, 1972. Presently, she is getting used
to the climate and change of diet at the Delhi zoo
and will be introduced to the two other hoolock
gibbons (a male and female) on display.
The animal has been brought in as part of the
zoos breeding programme and is from the wild.
This gibbon was in the Mizoram zoo for over four
years and was transported to Kolkata by road and
then brought here by air. The animal weighs about
12-15 kg and has an average life span of 30-35 years.
The animal is currently coping with a change in diet
and is getting used to a new variety of fruits and
other supplements being provided to her. Zoo
authorities as giving her bananas, apples and other
fruits along with egg, bread and milk which are
new to her in order to facilitate slow adaptation to
the change.
Facts about Hoolock Gibbon
Hoolocks are the second-largest of the gibbons.
They reach a size of 60 to 90 cm and weigh 6 to 9
kg. They differ considerably in coloration: males are
black-colored with remarkable white brows, while
females have a grey-brown fur, which is darker at
the chest and neck. White rings around their eyes
and mouths give their faces a mask-like appearance.
The range of the hoolocks is the most northwestern
of all the gibbons, extending from northeast India
to Myanmar. Small populations live also in eastern
Bangladesh and in southwest China. In northeast
India, the hoolock is found south of Brahmaputra
and east of the Dibang Rivers. Like the other gibbons,
they are diurnal and arboreal, brachiating through
the trees with their long arms. They live together in
monogamous pairs, which stake out a territory. Their
calls serve to locate family members and ward off
other gibbons from their territory. Their diet consists
mainly of fruits, insects and leaves. They are primate
species of genus Hoolock in the gibbon family,
Hylobatidae.
MISCELLANEOUS
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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SPORTS
I ndonesia to Host 2018 Asian Games
As per the decision of the Olympic Council of
Asia, the 18th Asian Games will be hosted by
Indonesias capital Jakarta in 2018.Hanoi in Vietnam
had originally won the bid to host the next Asian
Games, but withdrew this year because of economic
problems.Hanois bid was for 2019, but Indonesia
will host the event in 2018.
The second-largest city of Indonesia, Surabaya,
had missed out to Hanoi in the original bid for the
next Asian Games. But Indonesias National Olympic
Committee came back with an offer for Jakarta to
host, supported by Palembang, the capital of South
Sumatra, the OCA said.The 17th Asian Games are
taking place in Incheon, South Korea.Indonesia held
the fourth Asian Games in 1962 and has hosted other
international events, including the inaugural Asian
Beach Games in Bali in 2008.
The Olympic movement was witnessing a decade
of Asia in terms of events, headlined by Tokyo
hosting the Olympics in 2020 and South Koreas
Pyeongchang due to host the 2018 Winter
Olympics.Asia also has two strong candidates for
the 2022 Winter Olympics, with Beijing in China
and Kazakhstans largest city, Almaty, both in the
running. This is the manifestation of the growth and
dynamism of sport in Asia.
Pradip Wins Bronze Medal
The young shooter Pradeep bagged a bronze
medal in the 51st Shooting World Championships.
This brings a wave of cheer among Indian players.
Pradeep won the honour in 25-metre standard pistol
event for junior men.Pradeep also helped the three-
men Indian team to finish fourth overall. He ended
with a score of 561 in the competition stage, to settle
for third position behind Dario Di Martino of
Italy.Both Dario and Pradeep finished with identical
scores.
The Italian, however, edged out Pradeep by a
point in the shoot-off for second and third positions.
Alexander Chichkov of the USA won the gold
with a score of 563.This is the Indian squads second
medal in the competition after JituRais silver in the
mens 50-metre pistol event.
In the other events, Gurpreet Singh shot well
but not well enough to finish 13th in the 25-metre
mens standard pistol event with a score of 566.
Rahul Poonia, Anil Pal Singh in the mens and
HemaChetri in womens category, also made it to
the competition stage having survived their
elimination rounds in the 300-metre standard rifle
event.
J itu Rai Brings First Gold for I ndia
As India launched its campaign in the 17th Asian
Games, new shooting sensation JituRai stole the
limelight by providing the first gold medal.
ShwetaChaudhry claimed a bronze. This was Jitus
sixth medal on the trot in international competitions
this year.
Jitu struck gold in the 50m pistol event
andShwetas bronze came in the 10m air pistol
competition at the Ongnyeon Shooting Range. Medal
aspirants HeenaSidhu and MalaikaGoel turned out
to be disappointments as they failed to even reach
the finals. India also assured themselves of a bronze
medal in badminton and squash events on what
turned out to be a reasonably good opening show
with a gold medal coming on the very first day.
India ended a 28-year-oldmedal drought in
badminton,in Asian Games after the womens
shuttlers, led by SainaNehwal and P V Sindhu,
edged out Thailand 3-2 to reach the semifinals of
the team event. After Saina and Sindhu registered
hard-fought victories in the first two singles, scratch
combination of Sindhu and AshwiniPonnappa
finally assured India the bronze medal after they
clinched the final womens doubles match.
India also assured their first ever womens
singles medal after top players DipikaPallikal and
JoshanaChinappa won their respective openers and
set up an exciting contest in the quarterfinals. World
No.21 Chinappa blanked 183rd ranked South Korea
Song Sunmi 11-9, 11-7, 11-7 at the Yeorumul Squash
Courts. Soon after, World No. 12 Pallikal stepped
on the court against 150th ranked JinyueGu of China.
The Indian womens tennis team was also off to
a winning start as it blanked Oman 3-0 in the first
round. PrarthanaGulabraoThombare and
AnkitaRaina notched up contrasting singles victories
before the pairing of Natasha Marie Anne Palha and
RishikaSunkara was handed a walkover in the
doubles match.But the star of the early proceedings
was undoubtedly ArmymanJitu. The 27-year-old
showed steely grit to get the better of a strong field,
which included two-time Olympic champion Jin
Jongoh of South Korea, to snatch the gold off the
[28] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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final shot in a straight duel with Vietnamese rival
Nguyen Hoang Phuong.
The Vietnamese was leading the Indian ace, who
had recently won the gold at the Glasgow
Commonwealth Games and a silver at the Granada
World Championships going into this competition.
But the Indian clinched the issue on the last shot.
The bronze was clinched by Chinas Wang Zhiwei
(165.6). Jitu thus became only the second Indian
pistol shooter to clinch an Asian Games title after
JaspalRana and the fourth shooter overall after
shotgun experts Randhir Singh in 1978 and Ronjan
Sodhi in 2010.

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EDITORIAL
The MGNREGS stands out as one of the Indian
governments most ambitious social schemes, with
far-reaching consequences throughout the
economy. The only known recipe for poverty
eradication is a combination of high growth and
high development spending. Neither is sufficient.
A recent study (Kapoor and Ahluwalia, 2012) has
shown that post-liberalisation, one champion of
poverty reduction in India is Andhra Pradesh. This
reduction in poverty is widespread, as seen in all
possible cross-cutting of the data: rural/ urban,
Hindu/ Muslim, SC/ ST. The study shows that
this was achieved through sustained high growth
in the state, including growth in the agricultural
sector, together with high social spending. The
lesson, therefore, from the Andhra experience is
that growth does trickle down, if managed
properly.Almost all research on the MGNREGS
concludes that the demand for employment exceeds
the states capacity to create jobs. In eight years,
households on average got employment for less than
50 days, whereas the act guarantees at least 100
days of unskilled work. With complete disregard
for the states low capacity at job creation, political
pressures remain to raise the number of days under
this scheme. The Rajasthan government succumbed
to this temptation in 2013 under Ashok Gehlot,
and raised the number of days to 150. A legal right
that is impossible to fulfil is a bad idea. It
fundamentally weakens the value of a right by
making its violation acceptable.
Against this fact, one could argue that if India
had a robust identification system and strong
political will, the MGNREGS could be replaced by
a direct cash transfer programme. In the absence
of political will and accurate targeting capabilities,
however, a workfare scheme like the MGNREGS is
second-best for the rural sector, where the absence
of productive employment opportunities in
agricultureis severe. The merit of a workfare
programme as a means for direct transfers to the
most needy is that it helps target beneficiaries, as
the non-poor are less likely to accept low wages
and heavy unskilled labour. It is time, however, to
restructure the MGNREGS to raise its overall
efficiency and gains to rural households.
Through my own research using longitudinal
data, I am convinced of the positive impacts that
this scheme has had in lowering poverty by
improving food security, financial inclusion and
physical and mental health outcomes of
participating rural households (Ravi and Engler
2011). Simultaneously, we have found that the
MGNREGS had a strong positive influence on real
rural wages, with far-reaching repercussions for
farmers as well as micro, small and medium
enterprises in rural areas. Using the same data, we
find that the rising real rural wages have increased
the cost of labour for small and medium farmers
and raised the opportunity cost of self-employment,
thereby causing a great casualisation of the rural
labour force. There is widespread movement away
from self-employment and small farming into casual
labour. This is a cause for concern, as one expects
the reverse with the development of an economy.
Higher labour costs and scarcity of labour have
also had adverse impacts on the cropping pattern
in agriculture. If these lead to an increase in prices
of agricultural products, the gains from the
MGNREGS are likely to be eroded, even for the
participating households. The MGNREGS must
then be restructured such that it doesnt impede
enterprise while contributing to the overall
productivity of the rural economy.
Limiting the MGNREGS to the 100 days of
summer when agricultural work is in short supply
is a good point to start. This is a possible solution
to the twin problems of the low job creation
capacity of the state as well as distortions in the
private rural labour market. In the first few years
after the scheme was implemented, there was a
strong seasonality to the demand and supply of
work under the scheme. Over the years, this
seasonality vanished as the above-market wages of
MGNREGS made public works more lucrative and
the incentive to seek outside employment decreased.
Restricting the MGNREGS to the summer months
will, therefore, reduce these pressures on rural
labour markets and, at the same time, allow
implementing authorities to specialise in the
MAKING IT WORK
[30] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014
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MGNREGS during those months. It is nave to
expect local government officials to possess the
capacity to create mass employment at short notice,
within a geographical proximity, repeatedly
through the year.
Second, the emphasis must be shifted from
employment to productive employment. In his
budget speech, Arun Jaitley stated the need to link
job creation under the MGNREGS to asset creation.
Even ardent supporters of the scheme acknowledge
that not enough assets are being created. Between
2007 and 2010, the number of assets created were
2.3 per 100 hectares of cropped land (ministry of
rural development, 2012). Shifting the focus to asset
creation has to start by expanding the scopeof
permissible activities. This has been attempted by
including work on private land, building individual
household latrines, school toilet units and
community sanitary complexes. While this is
welcome, the selection of assets to be created has
to be done with a long-term view on usage and
productivity. At the same time, the creation of some
of these assets might require a serious rethink of
Section 1 of the MGNREGA, which limits
expenditure on material and skilled labour costs to
less than 40 per cent of the total project cost for
each independent work.
Third, the scope of the work has to be expanded
from purely unskilled to semi-skilled jobs. The
provision of such jobs under the MGNREGS would
lead to the skilling of agricultural workers and make
them employable beyond unskilled work. Low-
skilled food processing, manufacturing and
handloom weaving are possible areas. Including
such labour-intensive industries in the MGNREGS
would be a win-win solution these industries
could grow and create jobs while rural workers
would gain skills.
Finally, there is significant variation in the
implementation of the MGNREGS across states.
Lower-income states with limited organisational
capacities tend to lag, while wealthier states like
Andhra have been more successful. The Andhra
government has extensively used technology in the
MGNREGS, tying electronic transfers to biometric
authentication to monitor leakage and track usage.
If the MGNREGS is here to stay, there has to be an
effort to create capacities in low-income states to
successfully plan, organise and implement such
large social schemes. Over time, states should have
the flexibility to redesign the MGNREGS according
to their own needs and potentially experiment with
alternatives, such as direct cash transfers.
Source: I ndian Express
In a judgment last week, the Supreme Court
held that differently-abled persons will be entitled
to reservation in the civil services, not just at the
time of recruitment, but also in promotions. In
doing so, the apex court quashed a 2005 Central
government directive that the reservation quota be
confined to identified posts. The SC ruling intends
to give effect to the full scope of the provisions in
the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities,
Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act,
1995. But a lot more will also need to be done if
the reservation of jobs is not to remain an
intervention at the top, disconnected with and
remote from the everyday, ground-level concerns
of the groups it is meant to address.
The enabling legislation and the court
directive on its scope and intent ought to be
seen as only a beginning. For the law to be
implemented in its true spirit, a concerted effort is
needed to streamline and sensitise social and public
infrastructure to the rights and needs of the
differently-abled. From conducting awareness
campaigns to making physical infrastructure
friendly to those with special needs, there is a lot
for government and society to do. The differently-
abled must be seen as equal participants in Indias
growth story and the impediments that prevent
them from contributing fully must be acknowledged
and addressed. This requires a focus on providing
better access to public facilities, such as schools,
hospitals, recreational areas and government
buildings, among other measures.
While the Central government and many states
have social welfare schemes for the differently-
abled, there is room to understand the special
requirements and demands of the groups they
intend to address better and tailor the programmes
accordingly. Poverty is a major cause of disability.
Prevention of disability through poverty alleviation
and better nutrition, complemented by better health
services, therefore, is one of the first steps that need
to be taken. Periodic reviews of welfare schemes
using perception surveys among the intended
beneficiaries would help the government tweak
programmes for better implementation and results.
No law can be an effective tool for social
transformation unless last-mile issues are addressed.
Source: I ndian Express
MORE THAN A QUOTA
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014 [31]
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arrangements within which building energy
efficiency operates. Technical expertise is housed
within different institutional arrangements
countrywide and traverses a range of issues, such
as building technologies, energy-management
systems, materials, ratings, codes and incentives.
However, there is no mechanism to link expertise,
which resides in individuals, projects, and
disconnected institutions, to macro-level national
policymaking and then further to the international
context.
The asymmetry of knowledge has resulted in
low levels of awareness across stakeholders. Real
estate developers are largely unaware about market
advantages or regulatory incentives that promote
efficiency. End users are unfamiliar with the
monetary and environmental benefits from an
efficient space. There is also a deficit in skilled
professionals who are trained to design for,
implement and monitor the performance of
efficiency measures. On the financial side, banks
have a limited understanding of this new market
for efficient technologies and energy-service
companies and instead associate financial risk with
investments. This attitude permeates to developers
and end users, making them reluctant to invest or
change behaviour patterns. Lastly, state and
regulatory actors have a notion of energy efficiency
that is divorced from macro-level co-benefits of
energy security and greenhouse gas reductions. A
complex relationship between energy and real estate
thus exists, which manifests itself as a gridlock for
energy efficiency, in spite of the latter being a win-
win strategy for all.
Such a crisis in the knowledge infrastructure is
coupled with a lack of political will to ascertain
efficiency goals at the national and state levels, and
the actual capability of implementing them.
Institutional arrangements have also led to a
fragmentation of responsibility. Since buildings come
under the purview of Indias concurrent list, the
Centre determines the regulatory framework for
building energy code notification. But its
enforcement takes place under local municipal laws.
Further, since India is a federal polity, the Centre
does not have the power to mandate states to
implement energy-efficiency targets.
Laying the foundation for a buildings efficiency
strategy will involve rethinking the approach taken
so far. Our planning hitherto has followed a top-
The ministry of power and the ministry of
petroleum and natural gas jointly released three
new energy-efficiency initiatives, which are now
part of various programmes to advance energy
saving in buildings across the country. These include
programmes for rating energy usage of diesel
generators and hospital buildings, and design
guidelines for energy efficiency in multi-storey
residential buildings. Despite this, however, the
country is without a clear strategy that links
building energy use, which already accounts for
more than 30 per cent of the economys electricity
consumption, with its larger development, energy
and climate change plan.
There is little ambiguity about the
unprecedented growth expected in real estate and
infrastructure in the next two decades. The
initiatives, which were unveiled in early September,
point to the increasing part that buildings play in
Indias energy consumption. As calculated in 2010,
a staggering two-thirds of commercial and high-
rise residential buildings that will exist in 2030 are
yet to be built. Such development is juxtaposed
with two looming and inter-related questions: what
will Indias energy strategy be in light of the
extraordinary power demand and urbanisation; and
what will its response be to the considerable threat
of climate change to its development agenda?
Within this context, how India strategises, develops
and implements its position on energy efficiency in
buildings could be pivotal in responding to these
questions. So far, there is little evidence that such
a strategy is being considered. What exists, instead,
is a narrative that disguises some of the deeper
structural issues at play.
The dominant reasoning for the slow pace of
building efficiency adoption is considered to be the
high upfront investment and a misalignment of
incentives. All of this is true. Energy efficiency costs
more at the time of purchase. It also pays for itself
over the operational lifetime of the building, with
paybacks largely accruing less than five years after
construction. However, for non-owner-occupied
buildings, while the developer invests in the
efficiency measures, it is the tenant who reaps the
economic savings, taking away the incentive for
the initial investment.
The story, however, is not just about who
benefits from energy saving. Rather, it is embedded
in the larger political, technical and institutional
BUILD IT GREEN
[32] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014
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down technocratic and economic approach to
increasing efficiency adoption. Taking a deeper look
at existing narratives and underlying structures is
essential to transform how one of Indias most
important power consuming and rapidly growing
sectors uses energy. Without doing so, we will fail
to bridge and further our development, energy and
climate change debate.
Source: I ndian Express
Wrapping up an account of the Narendra Modi
governments foreign policy activism in its first
hundred days in office, External Affairs Minister
Sushma Swaraj claimed last week that Indian
diplomacy had moved into high gear with its fast-
track diplomacy. The foreign ministrys public
diplomacy division has published a colourful
booklet filled with photographic evidence of the
governments impressive global engagement in the
past three months.
In claiming credit for this diplomatic activism,
the foreign minister has drawn attention to a new
facet of power in the contemporary world, which
John Chipman of the International Institute for
Strategic Studies (IISS) explored in an essay for the
Munich Security Conference of 2013. Students of
international relations and diplomacy are familiar
with Joseph Nyes concept of hard power and soft
power as well as Hillary Clintons smart power.
Chipman suggested, on more recent evidence,
that a nation states ability to influence
developments in an increasingly complex and fast-
changing world, other things being equal, is
determined by the speed of its diplomacy. Thus,
proposed Chipman, fast power matters too.
While hard power and soft power are necessary
attributes of sustainable power projection by nation
states, smart and fast power can help nations, big
and small, find their way through or adapt to
complex and rapidly changing strategic
environments. By acting fast, the Modi
government can claim it has more than neutralised,
in a short period of time, the negative impact of its
predecessors months of inaction. While critics and
cynics may dismiss this activism as nothing more
than photo-ops and collecting flying miles, a la
Hillary Clinton (the most travelled foreign minister
in history), the MEAs fast-track diplomacy
booklet is indeed an impressive document, in that
it shows clarity of purpose in all this speedy
activism.
The booklet itself draws attention to four
different categories of diplomatic engagement by
Modi and Swaraj: first, with South Asian
neighbours, second, with East and West Asian
neighbours, third, with the five permanent
members of the United Nations Security Council
(P-5) and, finally, Indias most important economic
and strategic partners, led now by Japan and
including Australia, Brazil, South Africa and
Singapore. Within its first 100 days in office, the
Modi government has engaged all.
Swarajs last port of call at the end of the 100
days was, interestingly, Bahrain. This writer was
in Bahrain watching Swaraj manoeuvre her way
through the increasingly complex and charged
West Asian diplomatic minefield. While Swarajs
Bahraini hosts were delighted, many West Asia
watchers raised their eyebrows, speculating on the
significance of her choice.
Recall the fact that the first foreign visitor Swaraj
met, apart from the South Asian and Indian Ocean
heads of government invited to the Modi
governments swearing-in ceremony, was the
foreign minister of Oman, another West Asian
neighbour. With its wide-ranging economic,
political and military relations, Oman is an
important neighbouring country. Bahrain, however,
has not had the same salience in Indian foreign
policy till recently, despite the long history of ties
between India and the island kingdom (the rupee
was the official currency of Bahrain till the Bahraini
dinar was launched in the mid-1960s), and the
large presence of people of Indian origin.
Bahrain, it seems, has acquired new clout in
the fast-changing strategic environment of West
Asia. As a Shia-majority nation with a minority
Sunni ruling elite, stuck between the regions big
powers a Sunni Saudi Arabia and a Shia Iran
and as host to the USs Fifth Fleet, Bahrain has
understood that it has the potential to emerge as a
regional Switzerland and Singapore woven
together. A politically neutral territory, keeping a
safe distance from the sectarian rivalry of regional
powers, and a business and financial hub, offering
security of life and investment.
In what way, then, does Bahrain fit into Indias
emerging West Asian diplomacy? The first sign of
the new Indian thinking was, in fact, made visible
during the last months of the Manmohan Singh
INDIAS FAST POWER
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014 [33]
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government when then External Affairs Minister
Salman Khurshid chose Bahrain as the venue for a
regional conference of Indian ambassadors to the
Gulf. By convening a meeting of Indias ambassadors
to the region on the sidelines of the annual IISS
conference of defence and foreign ministers, the
Manama Dialogue, in December 2013, India
signalled to the regions rivals that it would choose
a path of regional non-alignment.
Indias West Asian non-alignment meant that
it would pursue good relations with all regional
players, namely, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates (Indias biggest trade partner)
and the US. There was no better place for the
regions ambassadors to meet to discuss this policy
than Bahrain.
The Modi government has taken one more step.
It has made it clear to all regional players that it
would not like to get drawn into the Muslim
worlds sectarian conflicts. India has, so far, been
fortunate that such sectarian conflict has not
entered Muslim politics here. While former defence
minister A.K.
Antony explained away his governments
decision to establish defence ties with Saudi Arabia
in sectarian terms, claiming that Kerala had more
Sunni than Shia Muslims, and the Congress
repeatedly explained away Indian friendship with
Iran in terms of the importance of the Shia vote in
Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and a few other pockets,
the BJP seems to have adopted a policy of non-
alignment between Sunnis and Shias, if anything,
tilting a bit towards various Muslim minorities
persecuted in Sunni-majority countries.
The BJP government has also had no difficulty
in letting everyone know that maintaining good
and strategic relations with Israel will not come in
the way of seeking better relations with Saudi
Arabia, Iran, Iraq and the Gulf states. With China
reducing its dependence on Gulf oil and gas,
plugging into Central Asian and Russian sources,
and the US increasingly energy self-sufficient, it is
India and other East Asian economies that will
remain critically dependent on West Asian energy.
India also has millions of productive workers living
there and remitting billions home every year.
However, while India seeks stability in the
region and feels Western, particularly US, policies
are in fact destabilising West Asia, it has not done
enough on its own to help stabilise a region of
great strategic importance to it. West Asia seeks
Indian hard, soft, smart and fast power projection.
Having enunciated the doctrine of high-speed
diplomacy, the Modi government now needs the
intellectual and administrative wherewithal to think
and act fast.
Source: I ndian Express
Its the passionate poetry of freedom versus the
cold prose of facts, the sweetness of yes against
a churlish no. On September 18, more than 40
lakh Scottish voters go to a poll on whether to
leave the United Kingdom and become an
independent nation. The stakes for both are
existential. A poll of opinion polls on September 10
put the break-up vote at 48 per cent and unity
vote at 52 per cent. But on the ground, the razors
edge is sharper.
Blame the existence of the referendum on
glorious British democracy and a little bit of
smugness. Self-rule powers have been devolved to
Scotland for decades, giving it a parliament. Yet
the Scots voted the separatist Scottish National Party
(SNP) to power in 2011. This implied that a sizeable
number of people in Scotland wanted to leave
Britain, and British Prime Minister David Cameron
had little choice but to give them a clear vote.
Cameron could go down in history as the PM who
presided over the end of the 300-year-old union,
but when the referendum was announced in late
2012, everyone thought it was a good idea. Why
would they leave, anyway?
But with the yes campaign gaining ground,
the unthinkable might occur, and it has to be asked:
What happens if Scotland votes yes? Shock and
horror and casualties all around. A huge
constitutional logjam lasting years. Actual
independence would come only in 2016; in between,
there is the British general election in May 2015, in
which Scots would still vote and send 59 members
of parliament to London. In the current parliament,
41 are Labour MPs and only one is from the ruling
Conservative Party. If Labour comes to power, its
government could fall in May 2016, when Scottish
MPs leave, forcing new polls. More crucially, would
this lame duck government have the legitimacy to
negotiate the terms of separation? If not, who
would? In any case, Camerons career is probably
BRITAIN ON THE BRINK
[34] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014
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over, as perhaps of Labour leader Ed Miliband.
SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Alex
Salmond has all the romance of a freedom fighter.
He says he will keep the queen and the pound
sterling, and never hassles himself with facts. Well,
the queen looks unlikely and the pound impossible.
There will be no currency union with England and
a one-sided use of the pound means free Scotland
will have no freedom to run its monetary policy
and, indeed, its economy. Then there is the certainty
of massive flight of capital and business to England.
Welfare and borrowing costs will be crippling, and
a future like Greece or Spain in deep debt looms.
Also, once Scotland leaves the UK, entry into
the EU is not automatic and would take years, if
at all. It also cannot be part of Nato, as the
resolution to become nuclear-free means the new
Scotland will be a liability. With a mere 50 lakh
people, Scotland would be in the same league as
Slovakia and Croatia, but without the lovely
sunshine. While adrift, it will still need to build
every state institution from scratch, which will cost
billions.
So why do they want to leave? Its about history
and kicking the Tories. Salmond has sold freedom
as a lollipop, a sweet to be enjoyed on its own
merit. He represents the socialist heart of Scotland
that has always dreamed of freedom from England,
the land of Tories who practise the nasty capitalism
of private healthcare and inherited wealth. Bile was
brewing from Margaret Thatchers era in the 1980s
and the betrayal of socialist values by Labours
Tony Blair pushed the Scots to the edge. When the
Tories came to power in 2010, many in Scotland
just snapped.
Even if its a no, Britain lives but not as we
know it. More powers in areas of taxation and
spending are already coming Scotlands way if it
stays. But other nations within the UK especially
England, which has over 80 per cent of the six
crore population are bound to ask for freedom
from Scotland. In the current system, Scottish MPs
vote on English legislation but not the other way
round. That and a lot more has to change. A loose
union turns looser.
Source: I ndian Express
In a recent landmark order in Bhim Singh vs
Union of India, the Supreme Court directed the
fast-tracking of criminal cases, and the release of
undertrial prisoners who had completed at least
half their maximum prison term pursuant to Section
436A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
Bringing attention to the plight of those languishing
in prison while awaiting trial, the courts order
coincides with the Narendra Modi governments
mandate to decongest prisons by releasing
undertrials.
While laudable, these measures reiterate
previous judicial directives (SC Legal Aid
Committee vs UoI; Rama Murthy vs State of
Karnataka) and Law Commission reports (78th and
239th). Releasing undertrials is a short-term
solution; as explained below, it does not address
the underlying causes for the high proportion of
undertrials in India.
Pre-trial detention is a real problem. More than
66 per cent of Indias prisoners are undertrials,
which is over twice the global average of 32 per
cent. Of these 2,54,857 undertrials, more than 2,000
have been in prison for over five years.
Overburdened by the flood of arrestees (nearly 75
lakh were arrested in 2012, according to the
National Crime Records Bureau), prisons have
experienced an increase in the number of
undertrials and overcrowding. The average
occupancy rate in Indias prisons is 112.2 per cent,
with the situation particularly dire in states such
as Chhattisgarh (252.6 per cent) and Delhi (193.8
per cent).
Unfortunately, reforms have favoured
measurable quick fixes fast-track courts and
greater judge-population/ police-population ratios
without attempting to understand the high
incidence of pre-trial detention. This can be
explained by, first, criminal justice functionaries
(police, prosecutors, judges and prison officials),
who are often overworked, understaffed and
underpaid; second, the socio-economic profile of
the undertrials, which affects their ability to post
bail; and finally, an ineffective legal aid system.
First, India has one of the lowest police-
population ratios, of 131.1 officers per 1,00,000
population (against the UN norms of 222).
Corruption is also an endemic problem; in 2013,
Transparency International found that 62 per cent
people reported paying bribes during their
interactions with the police. Misaligned incentives
to arrest persons (for example, to demonstrate the
progress of investigations) have resulted in 60 per
cent of all arrests being unnecessary or
ON TRIAL, THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014 [35]
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unjustified.
Prosecutors lack basic facilities, such as access
to legal databases, research and administrative
assistants. The Delhi High Court, in a March 2014
order, noted that prosecutors laptop allowances
exclude payment for internet facilities and legal
databases; they do not have exclusive office space
in courts and lose files because of insufficient file
space. As the court observed, one of the
predominant cause(s) for delay in disposal of
criminal case is due to shortage of public
prosecutors.
India has around 15 judges per million
population, despite the 2002 Supreme Court order,
in All India Judges Association, directing an
increase to 50 judges per million by 2007. But the
bigger problem is the backlog of more than three
crore cases, with the SC itself currently hearing
64,000 cases. Delays in the conclusion of trials often
result in pre-trial detention being used a punitive
measure, causing denial of bail. They also spawn
informal justice measures, such as plea-bargaining
or jail adalats, where fewer procedural safeguards
nudge the accused to plead guilty to escape
detention in lieu of the time already served.
Prison officials are one of the most important,
and often the most neglected, part of the criminal
justice system. They regularly review the legal
status of undertrials to determine whether they
have spent enough time in custody to warrant
release under Section 436A. Unfortunately, on
average, only 66.3 per cent of the sanctioned posts
are filled, with Bihar having only 21.1 per cent of
the sanctioned prison official strength.
Second, the inability to post bail arises partly
due to the profile of undertrials. Some two-thirds
are SCs/ STs/ OBCs and three-fourths are illiterate
or have studied till below Class X. Low education
levels and economic activity mean lower incomes,
making it harder to afford bail.
Third, the ineffectiveness of the existing legal
aid system prevents these undertrials from being
able to access statutory and constitutionally
guaranteed legal aid. Poverty and low legal literacy
makes many undertrials ignorant about the benefits
afforded by Section 436A and their right to legal
aid. Further, inadequate coordination among the
legal services authorities and prison officials results
in a failure to identify those requiring legal aid.
What are the solutions? Unfortunately, there
are no easy answers. Simply sanctioning an increase
in the judge-population ratio does not account for
the existing reality of 4,564 judicial vacancies. Nor
does it consider the work these criminal justice
functionaries are doing; police officers often spend
their time on law and order and VIP security,
instead of criminal investigation. Thus, there are
three officers for every protected person, but only
one officer for 761 common citizens. Similarly, fast-
track courts do not resolve the underlying structural
problems since they function within the same
procedural framework as regular courts.
Reforms should be oriented towards bringing
criminal justice functionaries together and starting
a conversation. Instead of merely announcing new
initiatives, emphasis should be on ensuring the
implementation of existing provisions, such as
regularising the functioning of the Undertrial and
Periodic Review Committees. Finally, efforts should
focus on improving data collection and digitisation,
and on mapping the existing reform landscape to
prevent duplication of work.
The SC order and the government decision are
steps in the right direction. Nevertheless, a lot more
needs to be done to mainstream the prison reform
agenda to ensure that our undertrial prison
population is commensurate with, or below, the
global average.
Source: I ndian Express
Jawaharlal Nehru hoped that his legacy would
be 40 crore people capable of ruling themselves. As
the unrealistic expectations from the first 100 days
of the NDA calm down, Id like to make the case
that the government should take the long view and
try to create a legacy that makes an impact: four
lakh civil servants who are effective, accountable
and bold. A more efficient and adventurous state
would need radical changes to the policy on human
capital architecture. Currently, this policy ensures
that our non-elected senior policymakers are mostly
permanent, close to retirement, and share thought
worlds.
Legacies are complicated concepts and its
probably useful to revisit two views of history. The
first view, summed up by Thomas Carlyle, believes
that the history of the world is the biography of
great men. The second view, championed by Leo
Tolstoy, believes that there is no such thing as great
men, only great times. For me, the second view is
CHANGING TEAM STATE
[36] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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too fatalistic, because leaders like Gandhi, Abraham
Lincoln, Akbar and Ranjit Singh clearly bent the
arc of history. But accomplishing great things is a
team sport. The leaders mentioned above wouldnt
have accomplished what they did without what
historian Doris Kearns Goodwin calls a team of
rivals; Nehru, Sardar Patel and Abul Kalam Azad
for Gandhi, Edward Bates, Salmon Chase and
William Seward for Lincoln, Todar Mal, Man Singh,
and Birbal for Akbar, Zorawar Singh, Hari Singh
Nalwa and Fakeer Azizuddin for Ranjit Singh.
Nehrus legacy, redeemed not wholly or in full
measure but very substantially, did lead to a nation
that governs itself. But, according to biographer S.
Gopal, Nehru regretted not being able to dismantle
the administrative system set up by the British. It
is a system for centralisation, control and
suppressing innovation that is inappropriate for
todays wicked problems.
It may be useful to learn from technology
companies in Silicon Valley, the hub of using
adventurous, innovative and curious human capital
to solve wicked problems. Their first genius is
realising that the team you choose is the company
you create: an A team with a B opportunity is
preferred over a B team with an A opportunity.
Their second genius is a bias for youth: wicked
problems need a fresh set of eyes not crushed by
history or how things are done. The French
statesman, Georges Clemenceau, once said that war
was too important to be left to generals, and the
third genius of the Silicon Valley companies is
ensuring that hyper-intelligent engineers are
complemented by narrative-creating marketers and
tight-fisted financial controllers. Their final genius
lies in leadership transition, as companies shift from
the hormonal exuberance of adolescence to the
cruising speed of adulthood. Founders step back,
or are forced to step back, and are replaced by
adult supervision. All four have interesting
implications but first lets look at the case for less
permanence, higher diversity and more youth.
The rationale for a permanent civil service is
that it ensures a non-politically aligned cadre with
an institutional memory. But does the de jure square
with the de facto? Are they really independent?
Organisation memory is not only oversold most
civil servants dont even meet their successors to
hand over responsibility but its desirability is
also questionable when you want radical change.
Younger leaders would tackle timidity; longer
tenures allow appointees to take more risk. Youth
has more time to recover from mistakes and younger
people are still idealistic. The case for diversity is
best illustrated anecdotally for instance, Nandan
Nilekani got Aadhaar going because of his decades
in technology. The research clearly shows that
effective problem-solving synthesises diverse
thought worlds.
What does this entail? It needs combining the
various administrative reform commission
recommendations with the Seventh Pay
Commission. Replacing todays objective but
ineffective performance management 95 per cent
are rated outstanding with sharper and earlier
differentiation. Figuring out how to give top jobs
to 45-year-olds rather than 58-year-olds. Filling all
posts above joint secretary level from a UPSC
shortlist based on open advertisements. Emulating
the lieutenant colonel threshold of the army, so
that most civil servants retire early or peak as joint
secretary equivalents if they are not shortlisted for
moving up. Appointing 25 per cent of our
ambassadors from outside the IFS and having direct
political appointees make up 10 per cent of the
secretaries. Reducing the number and size of
Central ministries two-thirds of IAS officers in
Delhi work on state subjects. Barring career civil
servants from regulatory posts for five years after
retirement. Creating parliamentary oversight or
confirmation for 40 key political appointments. Of
course, all political appointees, like the Roman
general, Cincinnatus, who was summoned from
his farm to deal with an enemy attack but returned
to the plough once his duty was done, would have
tenures that were co-terminus with the
government. All governors, political appointees,
heads of IRDA, Sebi, Trai, NDMA, CCI, Cerc etc,
would resign before a new government is sworn
in. Does US policymaking really suffer when more
than 4,000 people resign from public policy roles
as a new president takes over in Washington? Not
all resignations are accepted but its wonderful that
they are offered.
This government has a policy window
described by political scientist John Kingdon as that
moment when the three streams, problems, policy
and politics, converge. It also clearly believes, like
Thomas Hobbes, that the state is an important
antidote to nasty, brutish and short lives. Pundits
are already speculating whether this governments
first term will be remembered as BJP1, NDA2 or
UPA3. But it must pay no attention to the weather
of the moment and remember that Hobbes named
the state Leviathan after a biblical monster. And
that re-election and making history lie in
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept., 2014 [37]
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policy outcomes that need radical surgery to the
architecture of Indias four lakh-strong non-elected
policymaking Leviathan.
Source: I ndian Express
The visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping is an
important event. Unlike other countries, which
want to cooperate with us because they have
business interests here, China wants to cooperate
and compete with us at the same time. China and
India are civilisations, and this fact lends complexity
to diplomacy and trade.
Personally, Xis visit brings back memories of
an earlier event. Then Chinese President Jiang
Zemin visited India in 1996, and I was the Indian
minister-in-attendance. Jiang was a technocrat. Like
most high-level leaders of the socialist world, he
was well informed about societal developments. He
asked me what I thought of Francis Fukuyama. I
told him Fukuyama had got it all wrong. How
could history come to an end just when it was
China and Indias turn to take centrestage? At his
farewell press conference, Jiang mentioned that he
had discussed cultural matters and chaos theory
with me.
Simply put, foreign policy is an attempt to
extend the national pursuit of certain objectives to
the global plane. The Chinese, like others, are very
focused on this. In August 1982, I was asked to be
deputy leader of the first large official delegation
to China since the early-Sixties. P.N. Haksar had
written a non-paper with a senior Chinese colleague
after a series of meetings in hill stations in India
and China. It argued that trade and contact
between Indian and Chinese people should resume.
This first delegation comprised social scientists, led
by G. Parthasarathy, who, apart from being a
formidable diplomat, was the first vice chancellor
of Jawaharlal Nehru University and was the
chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science
Research (ICSSR) at the time. Back then, I was on
deputation to Delhi, but my parent institution, the
Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social
Research at Thaltej, had just become a national
ICSSR institute on the centenary of Sardar Patels
birth.
When we reached Beijing, we were told that
the great Deng Xiaoping would meet us for 10
minutes. This was a great honour and the meeting
in the famous Great Hall of the People was quite
an event. Deng began with we are now opening,
but you already know them, referring to Western
countries. Our experience is that the richer they
are, the meaner they are, so we want to cooperate
with you. He then told us about the developmental
trajectory he expected China to trace. And that is
indeed the way China developed. That country has
travelled a lot since then. My point is that China
and India are not just nation states, they are
civilisations, and we have to learn to compete and
cooperate in spite of our conflicts.
While on a visit to western China, I observed
that red chillies, which came from Gondal, were in
great demand in local supermarkets. In fact, I later
learnt that sometimes the Chinese buy the entire
crop. In western China, even though religion is not
favoured by the socialist government, there was a
Buddhist revival. So, there is a high demand for
vegetarian food. But vegetarian Chinese food of
the Sichuan variety requires a great deal of chilli.
I told my hosts that with the Sardar Sarovar project,
we could meet any agricultural demand. The scope
for cooperation between economies growing at more
than 6 per cent per year (it is to be hoped India
does so) is limitless.
We need to understand the explosion of small-
scale industry in China. It is competitive, not
because of subsidies but because of the countrys
solid infrastructure. A Chinese business that
competes with small-scale firms in India pays a
pittance for regular and assured power supply.
Chinas highways, used to carry its exports to
markets, are first rate, too. In fact, what we need
to learn from China is not the art of running a
small firm well, but the art of supporting a small
business.
At the beginning of this century, I was asked to
project India 2020 for the United Nations, taking
sustainability concerns on board. A colleague in
China was to do the same. The Goldman Sachs
numbers only came later. Since our income levels
would reach a quarter of those in the US by 2020,
the spread of energy-consuming technology like air
conditioners was inevitable. But we also pointed
out that the world would end if we did not worry
about sustainability. China was already burning
two billion tonnes of coal, our projected demand
for 2020, at the beginning of this century. But this
cannot go on. Not because there isnt enough coal
but because our lungs wont be able to take it.
China and India should show the world what they
can do together.
Source: I ndian Express
HINDI-CHINI 2.0
[38] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept., 2014
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In its presentation to the G-20, the IMF boldly
proclaims the following: In India, more efforts are
needed to continue reducing stubbornly high
inflation and the large fiscal deficit Sustainably
lowering inflation will also require further increases
in the policy rate. And RBI Governor Raghuram
Rajan strongly hinted that it was too early to cut
rates because of persistently high inflation and
that he would not cut rates until the battle against
inflation was won.
As is perhaps customary for the IMF, little
evidence is provided for their extravagant
conclusions; and as alluded to in the earlier article
(Where monetary policy is irrelevant, IE, September
13), scant proof has been provided by the RBI
about the causes and/ or the persistence of high
inflation in India. Lot of talk, yes. Evidence and
reasoned argument, no.
There is little doubt that inflation in India has
been high and equally little doubt that inflation is
now in a steady decline. The question remains: what
has monetary policy, specifically in the form of a
repo rate cut or raise, got to do with either
increasing or declining inflation in India?
In the September 13 article, I had pointed to a
structural cause for persistently high inflation in
India over the last eight years or so high
procurement prices (or minimum support prices,
MSP) for foodgrains. Between 2006-12, the MSP
rose at an average of 12.1 per cent for all food
crops, including rice and wheat. To put this in
perspective, farm prices in 2012 were double their
level in 2005. Average non-food CPI inflation
during this time period was at a much-lower
annual rate of 8 per cent. Procurement prices act
with a one-year lag and, given that these prices
have risen at an average of less than 5 per cent
over the last two years, it appears that this
structural cause for persistently high inflation has
a considerably diminished presence today.
What are the other causes of inflation that the
RBI/ IMF might be thinking about (might is the
operative word because, try as I might, I havent
found an explanation from them about either the
cause of the high inflation or the recent decline,
especially in 2014)?
For long, central bankers had us believe that
monetary policy (either money supply growth or
short-term repo rates) could affect both growth and
inflation, as evidenced by the discussion of the
Phillips curve, that is, output-inflation trade-offs.
This thinking has the following history. Money
supply growth as a cause of either inflation or
output was dispensed with in the 1980s in the US,
and a decade or so later in West Europe and Japan.
The Phillips curve stopped being operational in
the 1980s. Regarding interest rate policy, the
evidence seems to be that it matters somewhat for
output, but not at all for inflation. How else do
you explain the desperation with which Western
central bankers are trying to increase the stubbornly
persistent low inflation rate in their economies?
If monetary policy is ineffective as a weapon
against inflation in both developed and developing
economies (the September 13 article documented
this ineffectiveness for India), what are the
gentlemen at the RBI and IMF collectively smoking?
Their argument is that you need a tighter monetary
policy to bring down inflation. But if (a) monetary
policy does not affect inflation, and (b) for structural
reasons (read MSP), inflation has declined, then a
tightening will yield as much inflation reduction as
loosening would increase it, that is, zilch. On the
other hand, monetary policy can and does affect
output without affecting inflation. So why not cut
rates?
One can only speculate on the reasons behind
the traditional, outdated thinking at both the RBI
and IMF. Perhaps, they fear a return of these
outdated inflation drivers. Fiscal deficits are often
thought to be a cause of high inflation, but precious
little evidence exists (scratch that, no empirical
evidence exists) that explains any of the twists, or
turns, of inflation in India. In any case, fiscal
deficits are trending down. We could talk oil prices,
but they are down significantly this year. Of course,
such prices could go up again, but given a slowing
world economy and with the US today as the
largest oil producer, the oil inflation forecast is as
likely to go awry as the prediction that Scotland
would secede from Great Britain.
No matter where one turns, including both the
RBI and the IMF, the recommendation for a more
stable economy (higher growth and lower inflation)
is that India must address supply-side bottlenecks
in infrastructure. As India has begun to do
whether it be labour laws, ease of doing business,
land acquisition concerns, or tax bottlenecks. This
will help growth and inflation.
There is another explanation. Many analysts
RBI, WE HAVE A PROBLEM
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept., 2014 [39]
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believe that inflation is cyclical, not structural, and
this perhaps causes them (and the RBI/ IMF?) to
miss the macro forest for the micro trees. As
inflation has steadily declined in India, the experts
have revised their forecasts down, but say it is only
a matter of time before cyclical factors kick in to
generate higher inflation. But wait a minute: India
had the highest inflation in the last six years, and
yet had the lowest GDP growth rate. So, why
should an improvement in real activity generate
inflation?
Let us look at all the accumulated evidence on
the trend of inflation in India since 2000. You judge
for yourself whether inflation is a big threat to India
today, as opposed to a year ago. The table presents
estimates for several indicators of inflation
according to two different methods year-on-year
preferred by the RBI, and SAAR, preferred by most
analysts and central bankers outside of India. It
covers four sub-periods over the last 14 years.
No matter what the indicator, inflation is
significantly down in 2014. The RBI has a CPI target
of 8 per cent for December 2014; it is likely that
that figure will be closer to 7 per cent. Non-food
CPI for the first eight months of 2014 is registering
7.2 per cent inflation, down from an average 9.2
per cent in 2009-13. Both WPI and core WPI
(SAAR) are registering a low 4 per cent rate.
The RBI, like the US Federal Reserve, has a
mandate for both growth and price stability. To
be sure, it makes sense that policy change only
occur once one is sure that inflation is under
control. But how does one know when the eureka
moment is? As a central banker, one needs to be
cautious. However, does the RBI, and for that
matter IMF bureaucrats, realise that there is a cost
to the economy of delaying a rate cut and hence
holding back growth? Possibly a large cost, since
the economy in question has been operating
considerably below par for the last three years.
Maybe, as some argue, a rate cut is not really that
important because supply-side problems are the
major ailment of the Indian economy. If true, then
why not cut rates, since rates dont matter anyway
and they might just help!
Source: I ndian Express
The centre has held. By a 10-point margin
larger than expected on a vast 86 per cent
turnout, Scotland voted to stay in its troubled
marriage to the United Kingdom. As David
Cameron put it, the vote was a triumph for
democratic politics, offering a peaceful model for
prospective secessionists across Europe and the
world. But though the panicked doom-and-gloom
scenarios over the fate of the pound and the queen
have been rendered irrelevant, the no vote will
reverberate almost as noisily across the UK as a
yes would have.
This victory for the union cannot be read as a
vote for no change. Last week, when a YouGov
poll put yes ahead for the first time, all
Westminster politicians, from Cameron to Labour
leader Ed Miliband, scurried north to vow to
devolve more powers to Edinburgh. A sidelined
Gordon Brown, who preceded Cameron as British
PM, emerged as an unlikely hero for the unionists.
But the race was never expected to get so close,
and Cameron faces an insurrection from those
within his party who believe that the cost of the
no vote is too high.
He must now negotiate a tricky middle ground
between the emergency sweeteners he and Brown
promised the Scots and disgruntled Tory
backbenchers, while addressing the question of
devolution in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
He came out swinging on Friday morning,
honouring Browns timetable for a detailed
devolution package though clarifying that
constitutional reforms would take place only after
the next general election, and alongside similar
measures in England. Cameron also threw down
the gauntlet to the Labour opposition by addressing
the so-called West Lothian question: Should Scottish
MPs at Westminster continue to vote on devolved
issues as they affect England when English MPs
have no such say at Holyrood? Fashioning
constitutional change is bound to be an exercise
rife with difficulties, not least of which is reconciling
different ideas of what devolution in areas like tax,
spending and welfare should look like.
But Cameron must cobble together a consensus
quickly, as a restive Scotland (and England, and
Wales) demand more from a London elite
increasingly seen to be out of touch. The vein of
frustration the SNP and the yes campaign tapped
into has not been exorcised.
Source: I ndian Express
AND THE NOES HAVE IT
[40] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept., 2014
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Are democracies collapsing in Asia? Out of the
four that wilted recently, three are Muslim majority.
Thailand went under when the Thai army, inured
to the job, took over. Bangladesh, after holding
elections in January this year, is trying to digest a
three-fourths parliamentary majority of the winning
party in a famously polarised electorate.
Afghanistan too held its unique election this year.
After rumours of rigging, its two front-running
politicians fell apart. Was the polling free of
Afghanistans notorious ethnic north-south divide?
Most observers thought it was. In the second-round
run-off in August, it emerged that it was not.
In Pakistan, allegations of rigging after the May
2013 polls were muffled. But a year later, they rose
to a crescendo in the middle of an ill-concealed
recrudescence of the states old disease: a bad civil-
military equation. The media was polarised this
time, not the political parties, but with the same
effect. Regional contagion was proved when
contestants referred to the Bangladesh option,
which means the army takes over.
Thailands political party in government under
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was a regular
winner in elections no one called fake. However,
violent street agitation brought her government
down. Disturbance was allowed long enough, with
accompanying economic damage to a national
economy second only to Indonesias in the region,
before the army stepped in and reflexively
announced a period of caretaker governance.
Bangladesh is hounded by violence emanating
from its political bisection between two charismatic
women, secular Sheikh Hasina Wajed and
rightwing Khaleda Zia, one the daughter of the
founder of the nation, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,
and the other the wife of a general named Ziaur
Rahman who took over soon after martial law was
declared.
Bangladesh is subject to extreme passions,
which the South Asian man is a martyr to. One
half of the country hates Pakistan, which is normal,
according to the narrative of its genesis: a difficult
birth made tougher by Pakistan. The other half
hates India because of its upper riparian
meanness. The January election was boycotted and
there was violence in response to Hasinas hanging
of a Jamaat-e-Islami leader in December.
In a way, India is in the works in all botched
South Asian elections. Bangladesh swishes right
and left between India and Pakistan and Hasina is
hardly loved in Pakistan for killing a Jamaat leader.
The country has become considerably radical
Islamic, which Hasina should have realised; her
worry-beads should have told her. India is
involved once again if you consider that Nawaz
Sharif in Islamabad got on the wrong side of the
GHQ because of his new India policy and then got
snagged in the dharna politics he cant crush
under an edict of restraint from you know who.
And in Afghanistan, the election is in trouble
because the next Indo-Pakistan proxy war is going
to be fought there after the US-Nato withdrawal
later this year. The north-south polarisation of
Afghanistan has been worsened by a swing of more
than a million votes away from the half-Tajik, half-
Pakhtun Abdullah Abdullah to his Pakhtun rival
Ashraf Ghani in the second-round run-off. The
election suddenly went ethnic, the apologists say.
Is democracy in trouble? Bangladesh came into
being through a revolt because democracy had been
bent out of shape by Pakistani generals. But how
can you explain the rise of the generals in
Bangladesh? They proved more lethal because the
political parties they spawned proved more
durable.
Ironically, a jihadi Pakistan has turned to a
democratic consensus with unrealistic vengeance.
People want democracy, and its two-party political
culture is determined to hold on to it, despite a
strong GHQ understandably beefy because of the
war against terror and the national narrative
against India. Pakistanis openly admire India for
holding on to democracy: columnists refer enviously
to the civilised way the Indian politicians accept
election results after losing.
Democracy may be losing out in the way it is
being defined these days. There was a time when
the world, reeling under periods of utopian
despotism, accepted it as remedial dystopia. We all
grew up in South Asia saying it is not perfect, but
it is the best thing to have. If it goes wrong, have
more of it, we said. Democracy went uncontested
when presented as a leftwing package of equality
as mentioned in our constitutions. Then economics
walked in and wrecked the landscape of low
growth and red tape. Everybody embraced
capitalism and poverty alleviation became the
new slogan.
But Muslims of the world changed after
STATE AND UTOPIA
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nationalist dictatorships collapsed in the Middle
East. Instead of advancing to dystopian democracy,
Muslims mixed it with the equality enjoined by
religion, based on a city-state direct-rule utopia.
Capitalism, predicated on inequality, spoiled the
debate even more.
High growth alleviates poverty but gives us its
rich-poor gap. When you are poor, you are OK;
after becoming middle class, you agitate for equality.
You talk of Sweden, as Imran Khan does, without
looking into what social security has done to
northern European economies. (Yet, Thomas Piketty
challenges Francis Fukuyama, who ended history,
by positing liberal-capitalist democracy as the
final paradigm.)
The other uncomfortable fact is the existence of
states in the West where capitalism is supposed to
have trounced the Marxist dream. High growth in
South Asia doesnt result in the state becoming like
your mother: maa kay jaisi. It cant subsidise; it
cant afford deficits that spread inflation and kill
the rupee.
Under dictatorship, there is no news about
corruption. The attack on democracy comes from
two directions: from those who are fed up with
corruption and those who want utopia. You get
into more trouble if you have democracy, but it is
not secular-liberal. The modern state tries to be
liberal by not insisting on goodness; it punishes
only badness. There is no coercion to be good as
long you are not bad.Articles 62 and 63 in the
constitution of Pakistan want you to be good.
Goodness is defined on the basis of religious rituals.
In the Khyber tribal agency, a warlord called
Mangal Bagh coerces you into being good by
burning your house if you dont say namaz five
times a day in a mosque.This is the amr (enforce
good) of Islamic law. The other tenet, called nahi
(forbid bad), is democratic and modern, but
becomes discriminatory when the law of evidence
is applied to women and non-Muslims. Pakistan
has both amr and nahi. It cant protest much
about the democracy it cant have.
It is often said democracy has its variations.
Some variations simply dont let it work. Absent its
modern essentials, democracy tends to wobble.
Capitalism bothers people because it is based on
inequality. Leftwing ideologues want to tax the
rich and subsidise the poor, which often doesnt
work.
Afghanistan and Pakistan will have more
trouble with religion. Watch Iraq after Saddam
Hussein. Pakistan has internalised it; Kabul too will
follow suit after democracy settles down there. In
Pakistan, challengers Imran Khan and Tahirul
Qadri say what Pakistan has is not democracy.
Both actually attack the economy. What they
promise is utopia.
Democracy is in trouble in Bangladesh, Pakistan
and Afghanistan in varying degrees, threatening
Bangladesh with dysfunction like the other two.
All three happen to be Muslim states.
Source: I ndian Express
TUNE into one of Saudi Arabias television
channels and you are likely to find a stuffy report
praising the government or a sheikh spinning a
dreary sermon. Little wonder that so many Saudis
turn to YouTube and other online broadcasters for
light relief. That has led to the emergence of new
media companies, mainly in the more liberal coastal
city of Jeddah, dedicated to amusing the kingdoms
growing population.
In the glassy offices of UTURN Entertainment,
one such firm, men and abaya-clad women play
table-football and squeeze putty between
commissioning and recording videos for their
YouTube channel. It airs a variety of shows, from
cookery and religious programmes to talk shows
and dramas about relationships between men and
women. UTURN Entertainment now has over
300,000 subscribersnot surprising, seeing that a
recent survey found that Saudis watch an average
of seven YouTube videos a day.
Online videos are not the only fad. There are so
many Twitter users among the 60% of Saudis who
use the internet that the country has the worlds
highest penetration of the microblog; the number
of users rose by 45% between 2012 and 2013. About
8m of the countrys 31m people use Facebook. E-
mail is already pass. If I send my students an
assignment, I have to tweet to tell them to check
their inboxes! says a university professor in the
eastern city of Dhahran.
The youthfulness of the population helps explain
the popularity of social media. The largest number
of users are aged 26 to 34. The countrys repressive
nature means many use Twitter, often
anonymously, as a way to vent their frustrations.
And the social peculiarities of Saudi Arabia account
A VIRTUAL REVOLUTION
[42] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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for the particularly insatiable appetite of its young
for all things virtual. Unrelated men and women
are forbidden to mix freely and fun is scarce, since
cinemas and alcohol are banned.
Some reckon this makes the virtual world a
socially progressive force, pushing the boundaries.
It is for some. Yet Saudi conservatives and the ruling
family have clambered onto the social-media
bandwagon as quickly as the liberals, and perhaps
in greater numbers. The five most-followed Twitter
accounts are those of clerics. In a patriarchal society
where women must still get permission from a male
guardian to travel, go to the doctor or apply for
university, an overwhelming 87% of Saudi users of
social media are men. Jihadists fighting in Syria
tend to use social media to publish and recruit to
their cause.
On balance, however, social media are a force
for modernity, albeit at the snails pace preferred
by Saudi Arabias establishment. The rulers cant
hide anything any more, says a student in Riyadh.
For example, when Middle East Respiratory
Syndrome, a deadly virus, broke out in the kingdom
earlier this year, the government felt obliged to issue
frequent updates, perhaps under pressure from the
chatter flying around on Twitter and Facebook.
The kingdoms ageing rulers will remain loth to
confirm rumours such as those about infighting in
the royal family as the next generation of princes
jostle for power. And they will continue to clamp
down as hard as they can against increasing
political dissent.
On June 25th a court sentenced Fawzan al-
Harbi, the founder of a human-rights group, to
seven years in jail for disseminating information
harmful to public order, citing a law against
cyber-crime passed in 2007. The government also
uses online activity to gather intelligence. Earlier in
June Human Rights Watch, a New York-based
lobby, said it had tracked spyware being used by
the authorities in Qatif, an eastern province
populated by the minority Shia, who have long
faced discrimination. For good or ill, the kingdoms
appetite for social media knows no bounds.
Source: The Economist
On October 27 1995, around 60,000 Canadians
from across the country made their way to Place
du Canada in downtown Montreal to call for
Quebecois to vote No to a sovereign Quebec.
Three days later Quebec residents voted by a wafer
thin majority to remain in Canada: 50.6 per cent
to 49.4 per cent.
Organisers of a rally that took place in Trafalgar
Square, London, this week, will be hoping that the
gathering of several thousands from across the
country (certainly no way close to the numbers
who gathered in Montreal) will spur those crucial
undecided Scots to vote to remain in the United
Kingdom on Thursday.
From 28 per cent in late September 2012, the
Yes to independence campaign has gained
ground rapidly some, including an early
September poll for the Sunday Times, have even
put them slightly ahead of the pro-union Better
Together campaign. Three of the most recent
surveys from the weekend put the No campaign
ahead, but only just, while one for the Sunday
Telegraph gives the Yes campaign an eight point
lead (54 per cent to 46).
Economy in focus
Emotions abound in the discussion evident
in everything from the heated televised political
debates that took place between the leaders of the
Yes and No campaigns, to the heckling of
politicians, to protests outside the offices of the
BBCs Glasgow offices to protest supposed bias in
favour of the Yes campaign. However, the factor
likely to dominate particularly in the mind of
the still undecided is the economy, and whether
the Yes campaign has managed to do a good
enough job making the economic and business case
for change.
The economic case for an independent Scotland
has, by and large, been drowned out by the huge
attention given to its pitfalls, as viewed by pro-
unionists.
Those arguments have largely hinged around
the uncertainties that would be created for a new
state much of whose architecture and substance
would have to be thrashed out with politicians in
Westminster in the event of a yes vote. What
currency an independent Scotland would use has
been at the centre of the debate. Entering a currency
union with the rest of the UK, is something
Westminster has repeatedly rejected, while the
SCOTLANDS TRYST WITH DESTINY
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option of using the pound or pegging to it would
leave it bound by interest rate and policy decisions
made in London.
Other options such as joining the euro, or
creating a currency of its own also leave much
room for uncertainty. In any case, pro-unionists
argue, it would be unlikely that the Bank of
England would be willing to bailout Scottish banks
in the event of a future banking crisis.
The economic and regulatory uncertainty that
would be inevitable around the creation of a new
currency has also triggered numerous warnings
about a loss of business from across sectors. The
Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB have both
warned that they would shift headquarters south
of the border (though operations would largely
remain the same), while members of Scotlands
shipbuilding industry have raised alarm bells about
what would happen to the sector, given projections
of lower defence spending and naval procurement
in an independent state.
Scotlands ability to live up to the welfare
pledges made by many of the parties and groups
supporting independence including the SNP and
the Radical Independence Campaign have also
been questioned by those who question its capacity
to create a Nordic-style oil economy. Sir Ian Wood,
a Scottish oil tycoon, has warned that the SNPs
claims of oil reserves amounting to 24 billion barrels
are overestimates and the true figure is closer to 15
to 16.6 billion barrels; by 2050 production would
be down to around 250,000 barrels a day.
Oil and beyond
The conclusion of the pro-unionists is stark. In
a widely circulated report published last week, a
Deutsche Bank economist concluded that a vote
for independence would be a political and
economic mistake as large as Winston Churchills
decision in 1925 to return the pound to the Gold
Standard or the failure of the Federal Reserve to
provide sufficient liquidity to the US banking system,
which we now know brought on the Great
Depression in the US.
Yet, despite the steady stream of negativity
particularly about the economic potential of an
independent Scotland, the Yes campaign has
continued to gain momentum and with good
reason.
The economic case against it is far from made.
Just as there is no assurance that a Scotland would
be able to enter a currency union with the rest of
the United Kingdom, there is no certainty that this
couldnt happen following negotiations with
Westminster. Many within the Yes campaign
question whether, at the end of the day, the Bank
of England would allow a bank (albeit a Scottish
one) using its currency to fail, with major
repercussions for the UK too.
The country is also far less dependent on oil
revenues than many suggest: oil accounts for some
10 per cent of tax revenues against over a quarter
for oil states, with industries from food and
beverage to manufacturing and financial services
accounting for a sizable chunk of revenues.
According to the latest figures from the Scottish
government, exports (including those to the rest of
the UK) amounted to just under 74 billion in 2012,
excluding oil and gas revenues. Besides, claims of
dwindling reserves seem to go against the huge
investment made in recent years by oil companies,
including BP, and BG.
But perhaps the biggest question the No
campaign has failed to tackle are the possibilities
for investment and growth under an independent
Scotland. In the late 1970s the British Labour
government infamously deliberated over but failed
to introduce an oil fund something that has
proved immensely beneficial to other European oil
producers such as Norway, which has the worlds
largest sovereign wealth fund, with over $600
billion in assets.
Among the proposals of the SNP is the
introduction of such a fund once the initial fiscal
challenges have been met with the potential to
invest in domestic infrastructure and growth, as
well as make overseas investments.
Scotland, by contrast, has so far seen limited
benefits of the profits reaped from North Sea oil,
being part of a union where much investment into
infrastructure has been frittered away into London
and the South East of England. (It is noteworthy
that a number of business people including Nat
Puri, an Indian-origin businessman, are backing
independence in the hope it will lead to a re-
balancing of the UK economy away from London).
Writing in the Scotsman newspaper earlier this
week, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz warned against
the fear-mongering and arcane monetary issues
that seems to have taken hold of the debate and
urged Scots to focus on the meatier and more
crucial question of whether an independent
Scotland would be better able to deliver the
increasingly different aspirations Scotland had to
[44] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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the rest of the UK, such as its continued
commitment to free education (domestic students
do not pay tuition fees in Scotland, unlike south of
the border), a less restrictive immigration policy,
and a less unforgiving welfare system.
Whether the potential for such change, or the
uncertainty surrounding those arcane issues,
dominate will become apparent in the next 48
hours.
Source: Business Line
Industry has been clamouring for core labour
law reforms. The demand is for flexibility in terms
of freedom to hire contract labour, the freedom to
retrench workers and close down undertakings
without prior government endorsement, and the
freedom to introduce technological changes that
involve loss of employment. Further, they want a
liberal labour inspection system and a rational and
modern system of records compliance.
The employers may have a case, at least with
some of the demands. But there are other
compelling issues which hurt industrial relations
governance at the plant level, the resolution of
which would also enhance the competitiveness of
the firms. The employers seem to have forgotten
this in their quest for labour flexibility. One core
issue is the absence of a central law providing for
a mechanism to determine the collective bargaining
agent.
If there are multiple trade unions fighting for
their respective rights it could lead to the worsening
of industrial relations governance, even if the
employer enjoys labour flexibility. This has been
demonstrated by recent industrial conflicts. It is
well known that trade unions, under certain
conditions, could in fact contribute to the
enhancement of productive efficiency and reduce
transaction and monitoring costs. The World Bank
has endorsed this recently. To the ILO, trade unions
are fundamental to a decent and just workplace.
To be sure, there are union bads as there are
inefficient and fraudulent firms.
Archaic laws
As archaic as any other labour law is the Trade
Unions Act, 1926. Cast in the colonial period and
constructed along the lines of the then prevailing
British law it merely provides for voluntary
registration of trade unions, affords certain kinds
of protection and regulates rather severely the
internal affairs of the trade unions.
With a rather liberal eligibility condition of seven
members for formation of a trade union and given
the splintered nature of Indian society and polity,
these fostered an unbearable multiplicity of trade
unions resulting in intra-union splits. It took exactly
75 years to cure this malady! In 2001, the law was
amended to raise the eligibility conditions for the
formation of trade unions.
The protective clauses of the law were rendered
technically superfluous once the Constitution
established the fundamental right of association.
What was more essential was to provide for
mechanisms for recognition of trade unions by
the employers, lest even a minority trade union
shake the foundations of business.
Missed opportunities
While Bombay Province enacted the
controversial Bombay Industrial Relations Act in
1946, the Central Government let slip a couple of
opportunities to legislate for union recognition in
1947 and 1950. Maharashtra again led the labour
movement by enacting, in 1971, the Maharashtra
Recognition of Trade Unions and Prevention of
Unfair Labour Practices Act. Meanwhile, violent
industrial conflicts broke out in Bombay (as it was
called then) and Tamil Nadu, casting their baleful
shadow on industrial relations for many years to
come. Labour relations in Tamil Nadu took a turn
for the worse as labour wings associated with the
ruling party sought to superimpose themselves on
industry with the connivance of the ruling party.
The long and bloody Bombay textile strike in the
1980s rendered around 0.2 million workers
unemployed.
Yet, the Central Government remained unfazed,
blaming trade unions for not coming to an
agreement on how to determine the bargaining
agent. In other words, the contention was over the
method to be used to determine the primary union,
namely the membership verification method, the
check-off method (where each member individually
sends letters to the management to deduct
membership fees in favour of a particular union)
and the secret ballot method. The dominance of
Intuc and the long rule of its political mentor, the
Congress, helped sustain the stalemate. State-level
THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH LABOUR LAWS
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laws and a voluntary code of discipline were
considered sufficient to deal with this issue. Several
commissions and committees (re)visited these issues,
in vain.
Thanks to the fact that Labour is in the
Concurrent List of the Constitution, several State
governments such as Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Kerala and Bihar, have legislated rules and
regulations for the determination of a collective
bargaining agent. The long industrial conflict in
MRFs plant in Tiruvallur in Tamil Nadu in 2009
over recognition of the trade union further exposed
the inadequacies in the Central law and revealed
imbalances in the legal structure on trade unions.
An irrational position
Strangely enough, Central/state government
cite the need for labour flexibility to attract foreign
investment, without addressing the elephant in the
room, as it were: the absence of norms to define
which trade union is entitled to make it to the
negotiating table. Hence, foreign firms complain
that they need a clear cut industrial relations
framework at the firm level.
It is another matter that India, unlike its
neighbours in South Asia, has not ratified the
Fundamental ILO Conventions on freedom of
association and the right to collective bargaining
even after 65 years of their adoption. The
indifference on the part of employers and trade
unions on this issue is striking. Trade unions, if
only to make themselves attractive in these adverse
times, should demand legal mechanisms to set their
house(s) in order.
The Government, the employers and the trade
unions need to apply their minds on this crucial, in
fact basic issue of union recognition, before they
consider other reform measures.
Source: Business Line
The RBI acknowledges that the Commissions
report is well researched and there is great merit in
the overall approach, but it sees a number of
lacunae. The RBI is of the view that there is a need
to tweak a number of recommendations.
The broad approach of the monetary policy
process set out by the FSLRC is in accord with the
RBIs thinking. It is here that the Urjit Patel report
on the strengthening the monetary policy
framework needs serious consideration.
The monetary policy objectives need to be clearly
set out, and once these objectives are set out, the
RBI should have instrument freedom.
It is essential that the medium-term objectives
are set out by the Government, in consultation with
the RBI, endorsed by Parliament and put out in
the public domain.
Where the RBI differs from the FSLRC relates
to the composition of the Monetary Policy
Committee (MPC). The Commission envisages a
seven-member MPC consisting of two RBI
executives and five external members appointed
by the Government.
The FSLRC fails to appreciate the difference
between executive responsibility and external
advice. The Patel Committee recommends a five-
member MPC with three executives and two
external advisers; this puts executive responsibility
where it should be.
Financial redressal authority
While the FSLRC prefers a single financial
regulatory architecture, the RBI is of the view that
sectoral regulators could acquire information quickly
and adapt regulation.
The RBI feels that the consumer protection units
in sectoral regulators should be first strengthened
before moving over to a single FRA.
The bane of the entire financial sector is that
violation of customer rights does not invite punitive
action against offending financial institutions. Any
significant improvement in consumer protection is
contingent on a change in the mindset of the
regulators which should have zero tolerance for
infringements.
The RBI is in sympathy with the FSLRC
approach on the Resolution Corporation for dealing
with failing firms at the least cost to the exchequer.
The FSLRC envisages that the Deposit Insurance
Agency would be subsumed under the Resolution
Corporation.
Two issues arise here. First, pressures to provide
deposit insurance to non-bank entities will be
difficult to resist. Second, who will finance the
deposit insurance agency if there are large losses?
At the present time, the RBI fills the gap. The
ability of the Government to meet these losses is in
doubt.
NO NEED FOR A FINANCIAL SUPER-REGULATOR
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Further, unlike in the case of the US where the
Resolution Trust acquired real estate assets at a
sharp discount, in the Indian case, by the time the
Resolution Corporation acquires the troubled units,
the failing firms would be empty shells a case of
profits being private and losses being public.
The RBI has reservations on the FSLRCs
recommendation that there should be one regulator
instead of the present multiple sectoral regulators
(of course at this stage the FSLRC has recommended
that the banking regulator should be separate).
According to the RBI, the FSLRC
recommendation is inadequately substantiated as
regards costs and benefits. While the Commission
emphasises the synergies of bringing together some
regulators, it does not focus on the synergies lost
by dismantling certain regulators.
The RBI s reservations
The RBI sees inconsistencies in some of the
FSLRCs recommendations. While the FSLRC
envisages regulation of organised trading of
financial products being centralised with one
regulatory agency, non-banking financial companies
(NBFCs), which perform bank-like activities, are to
be regulated by a regulator other than the banking
regulator. Further, the RBI points out that the
Commission proposes to entrust an agency with
responsibility but the powers to exercise the tools
necessary for discharging responsibility would be
with another agency.
A case in point is that the RBI is charged with
managing the internal and external value of the
rupee, yet the Commission recommends that control
over inward capital, particularly debt flows, be
taken away from the RBI.
There are strong reasons for regulation of debt-
oriented capital inflows, regulation of money and
government securities remaining with the Central
bank. These issues have been underweighted by
the FSLRC.
The RBI stresses that leaving the objective of
monetary policy to repeated review precludes the
Central bank from acquiring credibility. The RBI
feels that such objectives should be clearly set out
in the Act and approved by Parliament.
J udicial oversight
The FSLRC unleashes an attack on regulators
by calling them mini states with powers of the
legislature, executive and judiciary. This is reflective
of the predilection of the then powers in the
Government which had been running an open
vendetta against the RBI.
The RBI is of the view that submitting
everything the regulator does framing of
regulations, policy decisions and the decision-
making process to legal oversight, carries the
danger of depriving the regulator of its inherent
powers.
The elaborate point-by-point examination of the
Commissions report in the RBI annual report
should be given close attention by the Government.
The FSLRC report is the handmaiden of the
erstwhile governments open hostility to the RBI.
The new government would do well not to carry
this baggage. Financial legislative reforms need to
be undertaken after due parliamentary process. As
to the way forward on financial sector legislative
reforms, all one can say is that one should not start
from the obviously flawed FSLRC report.
Source: Business Line
The revival of manufacturing in India, coupled
with increased exports of finished goods, will be a
game-changer for Indias economic and social
development. Given the declining trend in Chinas
export competitiveness on account of currency
appreciation and labour cost inflation, its cost
advantage appears to have shrunk. India, in fact,
is already one of the most competitive
manufacturing nations in the world today. In the
Global Manufacturing Competitiveness Index
published by Deloitte in 2013, India is placed as
the fourth most competitive nation in the world,
behind China, Germany and the US. But the share
of the manufacturing sector of Indias GDP has
stagnated at around 15 per cent.
The National Manufacturing Policy proposed
by the previous government yet to be taken up
for implementation had set its agenda to increase
the sectoral share of manufacturing in GDP to at
least 25 per cent by 2022; increase the rate of job
creation to 100 million additional jobs by 2022; and
enhance global competitiveness, domestic value
addition, technological depth and environmental
sustainability of growth.
To achieve these objectives, India needs to invest
around $1.5 trillion by 2022 in the manufacturing
MINE IT, USE IT, DONT EXPORT IT
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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sector. Given that the cost of overall input factors
of production, namely, land, labour, capital, key
raw materials and so on is continually on the
increase, it will be extremely difficult to attract
necessary investments unless availability of key raw
materials such as gas, coal and iron ore are ensured
at the right price.
It is not out of place here to mention also that
in the National Mineral Policy of 2008, India had
recognised that a country should utilise its
comparative advantage and give priority to import
substitutes, value addition and export, in that order.
This is, of course, a fairly standard policy being
followed by various countries in order to boost
investments in manufacturing to create
employment.
Steel power
One of the prime movers of the manufacturing
sector is steel. With strong backward and forward
linkages, the steel industry is a visible engine of
economic growth as well as of employment
generation and also a powerful symbol of quality
of life and economic prosperity. Most developed
nations, during the course of their progress, have
relied heavily on their own domestic steel industry
to meet the requirements of rapid industrial
advancement and for building physical
infrastructure.
World steel production has already exceeded
1.6 billion tonnes. This phenomenal increase has
been led by China, accounting for over 47 per cent
of world steel output. China is not just the largest
producer, but it is also its largest consumer of steel,
followed by the US and India. With a production
base of over 81 million tonnes in 2013, India
currently is the fourth largest steel producer in the
world, after China, Japan and the US. The Indian
steel industry is growing fast, despite a temporary
slowdown.
Indias per capita steel consumption is around
60 kg, which is not only very low, but also much
lower than the international average of over 215
kg. This indicates a huge gap in prosperity levels,
though it also reflects a huge potential for the
growth in steel consumption. Realising the
enormous potential, the high level committee on
manufacturing has decided to plan ambitiously for
crude steel capacity of 300 million tonnes by 2025-
26.
Needless to say, the availability of iron ore at
affordable prices and on short delivery schedules
are key to the viability and sustainability of the
industry. The current capacity utilisation figure for
the steel industry in India has fallen to 77 per cent
as against around 92 per cent in well-performing
steel plants of the world. The import of iron ore
cannot be justified, even if iron ore prices fall
internationally, because of the requirement of
foreign exchange which will always be in short
supply in view of the heavy dependence of the
Indian economy on the import of oil and gas.
Need for reforms
All these make it clear that the Government
needs to come up with reforms that will help in
reducing red-tape in brownfield and greenfield
expansion of steel plants as well as in mining
operations and in granting environmental
clearances. More importantly, it needs to ensure
the availability of critical raw materials to the
domestic industry.
India can actually be a steel manufacturing hub
provided the competitive advantage of iron ore is
appropriately leveraged. It is ironical that many
steel units which made value addition within the
country with large investments, creating
employment, contributing substantial revenue to the
exchequer and saving precious foreign exchange,
are actually suffering due to lack of iron ore.
As iron ore exports were earlier allowed
virtually freely from India, high grade iron ore,
except from a few captive mines, were exported in
large quantities, thus leaving low grade ores to the
domestic steel industry, particularly in Karnataka
and Goa.
This negatively impacted the productivity of
steel plants, besides causing an additional financial
burden in the form of extra cost of processing low
grade iron ore through repeated stages of
beneficiation.
Conserving natural resources
Most countries have regarded natural resources
as strategic for the development of the country and
have exercised abundant caution in the exports of
minerals. Indonesia has restrained the export of
unprocessed minerals. It also brought in the concept
of domestic market obligation, making it mandatory
for mining companies to meet the domestic market
requirement first, before exporting.
In 2001, China was the second largest global
exporter after Australia. Subsequently, the Chinese
government restricted exports in favour of satisfying
domestic demand. It implemented a law to restrict
[48] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014
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the export volume of coal, and abolished VAT from
13 per cent in 2004 to 0 per cent in 2006.
When countries around the world are
conserving their natural mineral resources to secure
their future and are also emphasising value
addition, exports from India of a vital national
wealth like iron ore would not be prudent. It is of
paramount importance that the Central and State
governments take steps to conserve natural
resources and formulate and implement robust
policies to revive manufacturing in India.
Source: Business Line
Shortly after the issue was decided, British
Prime Minister David Cameron told his countrymen
in a televised address that the question of Scotlands
independence had been settled for a generation.
There will be, he stressed, no re-runs. That may
be somewhat premature, given the powerful
emotions unleashed by the issue and the
extraordinary debate over the question of
nationalism and identity witnessed in the run-up
to the referendum. However, the fact remains that
Scottish voters have convincingly voted against
independence from Britain. Given the immense
voter turnout nearly 85 per cent the
referendum was indicative of the closeness with
which the ordinary people of Scotland identified
with the issue. For a small country an
independent Scotlands population would have
been about the size of Singapores 1.6 million
votes for independence is substantial and indicative
of the deep divide within Scottish society. The vote
may have been won by the pro-unity faction, but
it would be disingenuous to claim that this has
settled the issue once and for all.
At a time when issues of national and ethnic
identity, and the desire for self-determination have
resulted in bloody conflict around the world,
Scotlands remarkably civilised debate, and the
peaceful and democratic vote on such an emotive
issue, hold many lessons for the rest of the world.
For the people caught in the middle of the war in
Ukraine or Syria and Iraq or South Sudan, Scotland
has shown that there is another way to address
the question. For democratic societies everywhere,
the Scottish referendum also underscores the
strength of the democratic process. The result shows
that given adequate information, sufficient
mobilisation and the freedom to exercise their choice
without fear, people will end up making rational
and pragmatic choices. The result will also be
cheered by stock and currency markets, as well as
UK industry, which had been fearful of a Yes
vote.
There is a larger lesson here for India as well.
Why, after all, did independence become an issue
after three centuries of union? More than the
immediate pushes and pulls of anger against
being ruled by a government they largely didnt
vote for or a revolt against imposed austerity or a
dismantling of their welfare state the reason the
independence issue caught the imagination of so
many Scots is that it offered the possibility of an
alternative future, one which they could have a
bigger hand in determining. This is not so different
from the reasons which have propelled the demand
for independent statehood in Telangana or
Gorkhaland. The very least Scotlands vote should
do is set us thinking about an alternative way to
handle such issues.
Source: Business Line
Long after President Xi Jinping has flown back
to Beijing, there will remain a host of prickly issues
that senior ministers and diplomats on both sides
will need to bang heads over. During President
Xis 48-hour whistle-stop through Ahmedabad and
Delhi, the climate-controlled atmospherics, the
fastidiously choreographed diplomatic pas de deux
on Sabarmati, the thunderous rhetoric and the
flurry of MoUs made for good optics. But action is
always a poor substitute for achievement.
One of the visible thorns in the blossoming
relationship is border uncertainty and both
President Xi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi
did reiterate a need to settle it. But beyond the
omnipresent irritation of a virtual border, it is in
Indias interest to resolve numerous pending geo-
economic issues with China.
Shifts and moves
Start with World Trade Organisation (WTO)
first. India invited universal censure after blocking
safe passage of Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA)
AN AYE FOR UNITY
TIME TO PUT SUBSTANCE BEFORE STYLE
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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at WTOs General Council meeting in Geneva on
July 31, 2014. However, Chinas unprincipled floor-
crossing on that day was truly shocking, after
having supported Indias stand in many multilateral
fora (such as G-33, G-20) and in bilateral meetings.
Chinas mercurial shift could be understandable
if India was found to be acting irrationally. But, on
closer analysis, it seems Indias actions were
justified. Having agreed at the Bali ministerial to
approve TFA, on condition that developing
countries not be penalised for food security
imperatives till a permanent solution is formalised
by 2017, India discovered that all discussions
thereafter were focused on only TFA. This was
contrary to the post-Bali work programme and gave
India (and some other developing countries)
grounds to believe that once TFA was out of the
way, rich countries didn't care much for the Doha
Development Agenda, including food security
measures.
But, there are some other valid reasons for
Indias principled action. For one, India has a
sovereign right to provide food security for its
citizens, just as US has the right to buy and
stockpile crude oil to provide its citizens with energy
security. Two, TFA will cause a spike in
infrastructure costs for poor countries; the rich
nations were to provide budgetary assistance to
help them tide over this unplanned expense, but
the amount finalised is too low and the modalities
are still vague.
Finally, benefits from TFA are ambiguous, with
most gains likely to go to the developed world.
Chinas sovereign objectives are somewhat
aligned with India on this issue, particularly since
it too has to provide food at reasonable prices for
large sections of its population. Also, China has
been a signatory to all the food security negotiations
by G-33, a grouping of developing countries with
convergent trade issues.
A change of heart?
While its not known if Modi-Xi talks included
Chinas breach of trust, the joint statement issued
by both governments was patently anodyne: As
developing countries, India and China have
common interests on several issues of global
importance like climate change, Doha Development
Round of WTO, energy and food security, reform
of the international financial institutions and global
governance. This is reflected in close cooperation
and coordination between the two sides within the
BRICS, G-20 and other fora.
One reason for Chinas change of heart could
be Indias lackadaisical communications strategy;
also, Indias parleys could have conveyed a message
that its interested in cherry-picking only food
stockpiling from a multitude of other development
issues. This might have even influenced some of
the other large emerging nations, such as Brazil
and South Africa, to isolate India.
But theres another significant development.
There's probably a radical shift in how China views
itself: as a world superpower and a trade behemoth,
competing with the developed countries. Hence, in
keeping with this new-found status, TFA makes
more sense rather than hankering for food security.
While China is indeed a trade colossus, India needs
to keep in mind this change in Chinas self-
perception when negotiating with President Xis
men in future.
The border incursion, intriguingly timed to
coincide with President Xis visit, is a reminder of
Chinas foreign policy dualism: an extended hand
of economic friendship to mask the ugly face of
geographic expansionism.
The second issue is climate change and India
would do well to keep the new Chinese psyche in
mind in future multilateral deliberations.
On the surface, both India and China seem to
be on the same page. Apart from a common
historical stand, both President Xi and PM Modi
have also excused themselves from the UN Climate
Summit on September 23.
But thats where the similarities end. China has
already signed a separate climate change agreement
with US. While these agreements reduce the climate
policy distance between the two superpowers, there
are still some sticking points. While China and US
agree that that rich countries must provide
developing nations with wherewithal to upgrade
technology, the divergence is whether the old labels
of developing or developed need to be
upgraded.
In essence, the rest of the worlds identity
including Indias is hostage to progress of talks
between two superpowers. The initiative seems to
be slipping away from Indias grasp; a climate
change strategy is required before the big climate
summit in Paris next year. While Chinas stand may
be driven by thickening smog over its cities, India
may have to fashion its own position consistent with
its economy and stage of development.
[50] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Myriad issues
There are many other unresolved issues on the
table using renminbi as a alternative currency,
Indias membership in multilateral institutions (such
as Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank) and
groupings (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, for
example), discussions on how to take the BRICS
Bank ahead, enhanced market access for Indian
goods and services, are just some of them.
The lessons for Modi are clear: with China what
you see is never what you get. Modi will have to
take every opportunity to create an independent
policy space for india, even if that requires striking
trade and investment deals with Japan, USA, EU,
Russia or Australia.
Source: Business Line
There has been a recent surge in banks selling
off their distressed assets to asset reconstruction
companies (ARCs). There is a general perception
that this has been spurred mainly by the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) relaxing some provisioning
norms.
But this is open to question. Banks are better
equipped in terms of manpower, knowledge of the
borrower and knowledge of security (assets). On
the other hand, ARCs deal with the borrowers for
the first time.
Restructuring of loans, on the condition that
the promoters infuse some capital, can be done
without banks incurring much loss. Banks can
recover the losses later once the company turns
around and/or the economic conditions improve.
That has been the time-tested practice in the
country. But none of the public sector lenders are
seen doing this nowadays.
The fear factor
What I observe is that on account of the fear
psychosis of an investigation later on by an outside
agency, the banks prefer to adopt ARC route. It
was expected that all ARCs will have sufficient
funds to takeover bad debts and they will develop
a mechanism to resolve the same within a shorter
timeframe (currently, the time is 8 years, which is
too long). The aim was to protect the interests of
banks, ARCs and other stakeholders.
However, the majority of ARCs are interested
in getting assigned debt that is backed by
substantial fixed assets. At the same time, banks
are also keen to retain such assets as they expect to
recover more from such borrowers themselves.
That way, both of them are fighting for the same
asset class.
Unfortunately, ARCs are supported mostly by
real estate barons, whose main aim is to grab real
estate assets rather than initiating any purposeful
restructuring or recycling of assets.
So, ARCs should be told that once they get the
debt assigned from banks, they should reappraise
and re-examine the viability of the project with a
reasonable internal rate of return , over a period of
10-15 years. If the unit is found viable, the lenders
should evolve a proper monitoring mechanism by
appointing financial experts. This will help recycle
the NPAs.
Once the project is reappraised, the assets
should be classified as standard and the borrower
and the banks that were not part of the earlier
lenders group should also be given an opportunity
for further funding (the company and promoter
should keep on reinvesting the proceeds of the
business).
Help at hand
This will go a long way in creating competition
and further reducing bad debts. Besides, these steps
will help create more employment opportunities
and revenue for the Government.
This process will save ARCs from becoming
bankrupt due to lack of enough liquidity and/or
their inability to resolve NPAs apace.
The State Bank of India chairmans observations
in favour of entrusting the management of
industries to outside agencies with full powers, as
was suggested in the case of Bhushan Steel, to
supervise the day-to-day operations till the
promoter-directors infuse substantial stake into the
company, is appreciable.
Instead of the bank appointing a nominee, the
chairman or MD of the bank be appointed as the
chairman of a sick company to run its operations.
That will be a real test and this would protect the
interests of all stakeholders, as in the case of Satyam
Computers.
Till such time, the existing promoters should
not be allowed to access bank funds for any other
ventures. This will create a deterrent. Therefore,
an enabling provision has to be made in the
FOCUS ON REVIVAL OF UNITS, NOT ASSET-STRIPPING
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014 [51]
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Companies Act, Sarfaesi Act and ARC Act that
as soon as the assets are assigned in favour of ARC,
the existing board and shareholders powers are
suspended and will be revived only when the
promoter directors bring in substantial funding.
At that juncture, ARCs should reassess the
viability of the project after considering substantial
reduction in debt. In other words, if such portion
of the debt is scaled down, if reasonable IRR
concept is introduced, the purpose of revival of the
unit is beneficial, rather than ARCs looking for fixed
assets as real estate ventures.
For this, a framework for ARCs has to be
stipulated. ARCs should be encouraged to engage
professionals not only for resolution of bad debts,
but also for running the units.
This will really serve the intention of the
Government for the revival of sick units as well as
resolving the problem of bad debts. The resolution
of bad debts itself should not start from the day it
becomes a NPA, but it should be monitored during
the implementation of the project.
After initiating these efforts, ARCs and banks
should invite expression of interest for takeover of
these assets as a going concern.
This will also create huge value for the assets of
the defaulting company.
Till such time, promoters should not be allowed
to interfere. This will also give an opportunity to
make good all the sacrifices made by the banks
and the Government.
Recent guidelines of the RBI which insist on
takeout financing route will also help the cause of
revival of sick units.
Source: Business Line
A natural disaster is a lesson in philosophy, in
a way. It offers new insights on life and living. The
Gujarat earthquake of 2001 was one such. So
transformative was its outcome that it changed the
political and socio-demographic contours of the
state in ways unimaginable, as Edward Simpson,
anthropologist at the School of Oriental and African
Studies, University of London, describes this in his
book, The Political Biography of an Earthquake:
Aftermath and Amnesia in Gujarat, India, which
was released in India recently. In an e-chat with
BusinessLine, Simpson spoke about the quake and
its politics. Excerpts:
Why this book?
I had conducted research in Gujarat before the
earthquake. At the time of the tragedy in 2001, my
attention was drawn to the safety and plight of
my friends in the region. I think it is fair to say that
then Gujarat was a very different place. Things
have changed, quite dramatically. The research I
went on to do was often led by the trials and
tribulations of my friends. For some, the earthquake
changed everything; for others, very little changed.
Both groups, however, had to endure the utter
disruption of the aftermath. Back then, amid the
grief and the shock, people were angry, there were
protests and endless discussion about the delays
and inequalities of post-earthquake reconstruction.
Now, it is difficult to recreate that time in our
imagination. The towns of the region have almost
changed beyond recognition. People expect and
want different things. Although rather
impressionistic, I sense that people are more mobile.
There are improved roads, infrastructure and then
of course there is the industry, and the pollution
and new kinds of population that has come along
with it. I hope in some small way that the book I
have written is a record of this remarkable
transformation.
This book is a long-term study of what
happened after a catastrophic natural disaster. I
am an anthropologist, so my research was among
the people affected by the disaster and not primarily
on the agencies who worked first with first relief
and then rehabilitation. I encourage the reader to
think as broadly as possible about what aftermath
is. If we look at the evidence from Gujarat, we can
see that earthquakes can be used to push particular
kinds of future, politics and ways of being.
The shock of an earthquake can be used to
bring about industrial revolutions, or land grabs,
proletariats can be created, and new forms of
culture and politics can be encouraged to emerge.
I discuss at length in the book how people have
played with history, promoted certain historical
figures over others, attempted to flatten older
regional distinctions within Gujarat, and bring new
gods and temples to people.
DISRUPTION IS NEEDED AFTER DISASTERS
[52] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Why a political biography?
Many people I know in Gujarat have a deep
interest in politics. This has always impressed me
about them and it has influenced the ways in which
I have seen Western Gujarat transform.
It is well known that electoral turnout in India
is high; however, it is less often discussed how
impressive the general knowledge of ordinary
people is about the local political scene is. I think
people I know there saw the aftermath of the
earthquake as a political problem perhaps more
than they saw it as a logistical one. I have used
political in the title to capture some of this spirit,
and but also to point to the fact that
humanitarianism, planning and such other
operations also are a kind of politics, and never
value neutral no matter what those engaged in
such activities may claim.
How has the Gujarat quake affected the peoples
and the governments outlook towards life and
administration?
The earthquake brought neoliberal
governmental reforms into western Gujarat in
rapid, and dramatic ways. Public-private
partnerships (PPPs) were visible, perhaps for the
first time. New agencies with new titles initially
confused people. I think it is fair to say that the
transition to the new forms of government,
although necessarily hasty, was poorly explained,
and this became the source of much confusion and
then in turn anger in western Gujarat. A great
deal of money was available to ensure that
buildings were safer, and the population density of
the major urban centres was much reduced.
Unquestionably, many parts of the region are both
safer and more accessible now than they were
before. However, the sheer complexity of
reconstructing, retrofitting and imposing new
building rules on the urban areas inevitably meant
that some shortcuts were taken. A price will be
paid for this in the future.
It might seem a strong claim, but I think the
aftermath, by which I mean the key reconstruction
period of five or six years, left a greater mark on
the outlook of people than the disaster itself. The
disaster was a disaster, it was short, ruthless and
brutal. The aftermath in contrast was long, difficult
and exhausting. For those who lived in towns like
Bhuj and Anjar, it is difficult to convey how much
they suffered at that time. The noise, dust and
uncertainty was incredible. But, gradually, I think,
hope shone through.
It has become obvious to me that people
understand this earthquake and its consequences
in such utterly different ways. They will draw their
own conclusions from what I have written,
regardless of what I conclude. I think this is an
important lesson. You and I will not see the same
things in earthquake; neither will a local person
see the same as the state. Trying to understand
how and why this is the case and what it means
for our interaction and mutual confusion is a
positive way of improving conditions in the
aftermath of future disasters.
I have also learnt that disruption is necessary
in the aftermath of a catastrophic natural disaster.
No amount of post-disaster management will do
away with disruption altogether. Therefore,
disruption must be used creatively as a way of
engaging the many agencies, institutions and ideas
that come together in an aftermath. I have also
learnt that people have a great deal of creativity,
resilience, and enthusiasm for life.
These positive attributes were generally not
capitalised on in the aftermath of this earthquake.
The aftermath of an earthquake is a long process,
and should be treated as such from the outset.
Auditing policy and the relationship between new
emergency policies and older policies should be a
core part of any reconstruction programme. The
confusion caused by a number of contradictory
policies in Gujarat led to a considerable amount of
anger and anguish, which could easily have been
avoided.
Youve titled a chapter, interestingly, Hyperbolic
Capitalism. Does this phrase explain the growth
of Gujarat (which is disputed by many ) in the
past decade?
I used the word hyperbolic because the rate of
growth in some parts of the region affected by the
earthquake was tremendous. A frontier mentality
emerged, and industry of various kinds appeared
across the region. Factories were put up at a
tremendous rate. People descended on the region
to profiteer. A friend joked it had become like the
wild west of cowboy films. Im not an economist,
and neither has this been the focus of my study,
but on the whole people I know well in Gujarat
are generally much better off now than they were
before. How much of that would have happened
anyway, is impossible to work out. But growth for
growths sake, the saying goes, has the same
mentality as a cancer. Economic growth is of course
the buzzword of the moment, but what about
quality of life, what about the longer-term
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consequences of such rapid industrialisation for the
environment, and the social conditions of those
who live there? These are secondary concerns, and
they should not be. I sensed a great deal of
excitement in the aftermath of the earthquake about
the coming of industry, towards the end of this
research I also sensed something of a sadness at
the realisation that industry had changed the world
and the changes were not always good.
Usually, tragedies unite people, cutting across
caste and other differences. But you witnessed a
different story.
The people who worked in the initial weeks
after the aftermath have talked about the spirit of
collective help that prevailed at the time. A few
journalists, unsurprisingly, went in search of stories
of inequality and discrimination. Such practices
were probably not difficult to find, given that most
societies are also extremely discriminatory even in
normal times.
The longer-term consequences of the
reconstruction programme have, however, been
more divisive, not deliberately, but in their mostly
unintended consequences. In urban areas I think it
fair to say that social class played a greater role in
the redistribution of people than then caste. Not
always so, but often. Then there is the endless
question about Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat.
There was deliberate exclusion at times, of this there
is no doubt.
But in the longer term, housing reconstruction
and the reconfiguration of urban areas has led to
a greater distinction between the two populations.
This is complicated, and not simply a product of
the discriminatory policies of the State. I want to
be clear on this. Soon after the earthquake a good
friend of mine, a Muslim, built himself a new house
in a suburb outside Bhuj. He lived there quite
happily, without receiving compensation money
from the state. Then, the widespread violence of
2002 left him and his family feeling vulnerable and
isolated in the suburb. In addition, the State
announced its compensation policies. Being a
sensible man, he realised if he returned to his old
house he could claim compensation. Therefore, he
along with many other Muslims abandoned their
new houses and moved back to their old
neighbourhood and have remained there ever since.
The term ghettoisation is often used now in
academic literature about the ways Muslims inhabit
urban space in Gujarat, but it should be clear that
there are at least as many push factors as there are
pulls.
You talk about how, after the reconstruction
process was over, villages were adopted. And
some of these were divided based on caste.
In this book, I have tried to make it clear the
post-earthquake reconstruction is a long process
and should be understood as such from the outset.
At first, the village adoption scheme, which was in
effect a PPP, led to the reconstruction of villages at
a very rapid rate. However, many people thought
that the houses built were inappropriate, often being
grid-like structures, concrete boxes grafted onto
hillsides, and unbefitting the cultural sophistication
of life in rural India. However, the longer-term
nature of this research has shown that many, not
all, of these villages are now inhabited highly
successfully by people. Who have made these
villages their own. Places that once appeared a bit
like concentration camps are now often vibrant and
prospering.
Much of the reconstruction process adopted a
participatory planning approach. The sensible idea
is that you involve people in decision-making about
the future. However, when this was managed
badly, as it often was, in relation to village adoption
this often meant villages dividing along caste lines,
unable to come to a collective decision.
Disasters offer regimes fertile avenues for testing
and applying authoritarian systems, because the
people are will be in a state of vulnerability at the
time. Was this the case in Gujarat?
Narendra Modi came to power in the name of
the earthquake. For some years, his reputation was
closely connected to the ways in which post-
earthquake reconstruction was handled. He visited
the region a tremendous number of times. The story
that was allowed to emerge nationally and
internationally about earthquake reconstruction
was always one of success. And, if the measure of
success is infrastructure and industrialisation then
unquestionably he was successful. However, if we
use other measures then the story appears less like
a success.
You discuss the socially divisive intervention by
organisations like BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha.
Was this a general trend or an exception at that
time?
I have used the word intervention to capture
the spirit in which people in the region experienced
those who came to help. The humanitarians, who
probably mostly thought they were working for
the good of humanity, brought ideas which were
quite alien to the local population. Im not just
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thinking here of foreign NGOs, but of Indian
organisations which through the structure of the
PPP public-private partnership could and did
impose their ideas on local people while
constructing villages.
The country is grappling with yet another
natural disaster the J&K floods as we speak.
What are the lessons from the Gujarat quake on
disaster preparedness?
PPPs were a speedy solution to rural
construction. However, they carried with them all
sorts of discriminatory politics and imposition.
Confusions and contradictions in policy caused
deep anxiety and insecurity amongst people who
would already have suffered terribly. The language
policy could have been much softer.
I suppose the broader question raised by post-
earthquake reconstruction in the book is one of the
future. At the moment, the focus is on growth,
industrialisation, and infrastructure. But, the
fundamental design of this economy is fossil fuel
based. Coal=electricity, and an economic
system=petro mobility of both labour and capital.
Is this sustainable as other institutions and countries
worry about sustainability? The book ends by
saying proper hope is a gift. But thats not easy
to come by. Especially to those who are stricken by
such tragedies. Your comments.
Some of Europes great 18th-century thinkers
were encouraged to consider what hope meant in
the aftermath of the earthquake which happened
at Lisbon in 1755. It struck me while doing this
research in Gujarat that many people there were
asking very similar questions. Similarly, they
reflected on the cause and origins of the earthquake
and why it affected them in particular ways. Hope
is an interesting commodity or spirit or emotion.
Learning how to work with and gift hope, alongside
material succour, is a neglected part of the
humanitarian project. Hope gives direction,
enthusiasm, and expectation. These qualities it
seems to me were discouraged in Gujarat by a
manufactured state of confusion, where things were
sometimes so ludicrous and hopeless.
Source: Business Line
The winds have changed for the Indian
economy and it is a good time to upgrade the
national approach to growth. Business confidence
has bounced back, industrial output is up and the
new government is promising pro-growth policies.
India is at the cusp of remaking its economy in the
post-slump world.
However, the world has changed during the
past few years. Globalisation has lost its momentum,
as the developed and the emerging economies lick
their wounds after battling the financial and fiscal
crises. Export-led growth of the leading emerging
economies has been stunted and the competition
for global investment and trade has expanded.
Indias global brand has also diminished due to
policy contortions on FDI, retrospective taxation
and clearances for projects.
Time to adapt
In fact, India has received a strong reminder to
adapt to the changed economic conditions from
the latest Global Competitiveness Index (GCI). India
has slipped 11 places during the past year and is
now ranked half way down the ranking of 144
economies, 43 places below China. This is quite a
drop from the 49th rank India got in 2009.
Indias competitiveness has suffered on several
counts, but the most on institutional quality and
market efficiency. While Indias global competitors
have made it easier to do business and embraced
foreign capital, India seems to have lost its way..
Indias navel-gazing is evident from its 121st place
in the global ranking on technology readiness. A
key reason for that is tardy investment in digital
connectivity, which is a key productivity driver in
the modern world. However, the most striking
reminder from the GCI report is that India ranks
98th on health and primary education parameter
and that the life expectancy in India is second-
shortest in Asia, after Myanmar. This should serve
as a wake-up call to India .
If one were to focus on the healthcare sector,
India continues to carry on with obvious anomalies.
Despite having a huge public health programme,
the majority of Indians are desperately short of
acceptable medical care. Private healthcare remains
fragmented and divided between the extremes of
shoddy and cheap and excellent but expensive.
India is producing about 50,000 generic doctors a
year but less than 15,000 specialists, making the
specialists rare and expensive. The hospital sector
is growing but the supply of nurses and technicians
is lagging, as regulations restrict those functions to
CHANGING TIMES
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mere tasks and disallow career growth. India
urgently needs to respond to create a healthcare
ecosystem where universal healthcare can become
a reality and not just remain a slogan.
Education and skill development is another area
for fundamental policy and investment action. It
has to be a priority given Indias demographics.
With the majority of the population being young,
it is a once-in-history opportunity for the country
to upgrade almost entire population at one go.
Unfettered investment, and not pious sentiments,
is going to build the pipeline of informed, articulate
and skilled students from the primary to the
university levels. India cannot afford to end up
with millions of semi-educated and semi-skilled
people just because of qualms about profits.
There are many more areas where India can
reinvent itself . Physical and digital infrastructure,
smart urbanization, agricultures industrialization
and liberalization, technology adoption and
development, open and participative governance
are among the areas where India needs to change
.
The past decades economic boom-bust has
taught us that if change is not managed, the change
will hurt.
Source: Business Line
A debate on the need to repeal obsolete laws
has been set in motion in India with the government
appointing a committee to look into the matter.
Even our erstwhile coloniser, Great Britain, initiated
the process of repealing 38 such laws last year,
which were passed between the years 1849 and
1942, pertaining to the construction and
maintenance of the Indian Railways. Meanwhile,
our own post-independence efforts to weed out
obsolete laws, through a process of spring cleaning,
remain pending.
An area that requires immediate attention in
this regard is conflicting laws regulating citizenship.
Take for instance the colonial-era laws, The Passport
(Entry into India) Act, 1920, The Registration of
Foreigners Act, 1939, and The Foreigners Act, 1946.
Even though Parliament has since enacted The
Passports Act, 1967, The Citizenship Act, 1955,
and created the Overseas Citizenship of India
scheme in 2005, we continue to rely on these archaic
pieces of legislation. Most of these laws enacted
during colonial rule are redundant and do not stand
the test of the principles of natural justice. They
also confer unfettered, arbitrary and draconian
powers on government authorities and need to be
taken off the statute book.
A comprehensive law
The Passports Act, 1967, is a comprehensive
law relating to the issue of passports and travel
documents. It provides statutory safeguards in
procedures involving the variation, impounding and
revocation of passports, with rights of appeal to
aggrieved persons with regards to offences and
penalties levied under this Act. However, the
simultaneous existence of the Passport (Entry into
India) Act, 1920 and The Foreigners Act, 1946,
conferring absolute and unlimited powers to remove
or summarily deport a person from India without
following the due process of law, are anathema to
a democratic country and an anti-thesis to the rule
of law. Powers of house arrest, detention, solitary
confinement and summary removal from India
under these Acts clearly infringe upon the
fundamental rights of life and personal liberty
guaranteed under the Constitution. Therefore, these
British-era laws are completely misplaced in this
day and age.
The Central government has the exclusive
jurisdiction to determine whether a person, who
was a citizen of India, has lost that citizenship by
having voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a
foreign State as per Section 9(2) of The
Citizenship Act, 1955, read with Rule 30 of The
Citizenship Rules, 1956. Further, under Section 9(2)
and Rule 30 above, mere proof of the fact that the
person has obtained a passport from a foreign
country is not sufficient to sustain an order for
deportation or prosecution unless there has been a
decision by the Central government under Section
9(2) of the Act. Moreover, the enquiry by the
Central government under Section 9(2) of the Act
is a quasi-judicial enquiry. This proposition of law
is well settled by the following judgments of the
Supreme Court : State of A.P. vs. Abdul Khader
AIR (1961) SC 1467; Government of A.P. vs. Syed
Md. AIR (1962) SC 1778 and State of U.P. vs.
Rehmatullah AIR (1971) SC 1382. Thus, this
process of determination of nationality is well
settled in law.
With an estimated 21,90,9875 non-resident
Indians spread across over 200 countries (Ministry
WHY ARCHAIC CITIZENSHIP LAWS MUST GO
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of Overseas Indian Affairs statistics), there have
been compromises in the area of dual nationality,
which is otherwise prohibited under Article (9) of
the Constitution and Section (9) of the Citizenship
Act, 1955. The categories Persons of Indian
Origin (PIO) and Overseas Citizen of India
(OCI) were carved out to confer limited benefits
on persons of Indian origin. Therefore, PIOs and
OCIs now enjoy limited rights in India and can
enjoy residence rights here without any visa,
registration, sanction or other permissions.
Moreover, under Article (5), every person who is
domiciled, born or whose parents were born in
India, or who has been ordinarily resident in India
for not less than five years preceding the
commencement of the Constitution, shall be a
citizen of India. Hence, inherent rights flow to those
whose nationality is determined by law.
Under the 1946 Act, disputes relating to
questions of determination of nationality when a
foreigner is recognised as a national of more than
one country or it is uncertain as to what nationality
is to be ascribed to a foreigner, such person may be
treated as the national of the country with which
he appears to be most closely connected. The 1920
and 1946 Acts permit the removal or the
deportation of a person from India without
providing any forum or procedure for
determination of the question of the nationality of
the foreigner or giving any statutory rights in this
process. There are no tribunals available to
determine these questions as of now. However, the
Citizenship Act, 1955, and the Citizenship Rules,
2009, prescribe that if any question arises as to
whether, when or how any person had acquired
the citizenship of another country, the Central
government shall first determine such questions.
The Supreme Court interpreting these provisions
has held that a person could not be ordered to be
deported or removed from India unless the Central
government takes a conscious decision upon
holding a quasi-judicial enquiry that a person has
ceased to be an Indian citizen. A foreign passport
simply will not label a person as a foreigner, and
determination of his nationality is his fundamental
right. It is time Parliament reconciles this concept
of freedom, personal liberty and natural justice with
the determination of nationality.
Debatable question
Given the social circumstances today when
emigration is common, international Indians qualify
to be PIOs or OCIs. If they wish to reconnect with
their homeland, they should not be categorised as
foreigners by invoking the colonial provisions of
the 1920 and 1946 Acts. The Citizenship Act, 1955,
itself creates harmony. The retention of a foreign
passport today cannot lead to deportation and
summary removal from India. Why then do we
need to retain the colonial enactments which were
brought in to regulate the entry of foreigners into
India in circumstances prevailing in 1946? This is
a serious issue which must be addressed in
Parliament.
Today, persons of Indian origin face problems
due to marital disputes with spouses of foreign
origin or nationality issues arising out of foreign
domiciles. The desirable approach, therefore, would
be to create appropriate forums or authorities
within the legal system that would address such
issues by granting opportunities for hearing and
redressal. Accordingly, deportation or removal of
a person to a foreign jurisdiction would be an abject
surrender to a foreign dominion. Having resolved
to be a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic
Republic, we in India are capable and competent
of adjudicating our nationality issues to provide
redressal for persons of Indian origin. Our post-
independence laws provide the solutions which our
vibrant judiciary interprets to protect fundamental
freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution. Hence,
pre-independence laws in conflict with rights today
must be revoked.
Source: The Hindu
From Kathmandu to Kabul and Dhaka to Delhi,
there is growing recognition that regional
cooperation in South Asia would remain incomplete
unless a culture of respect for the basic rights and
fundamental freedoms of the regions peoples is
fostered through legal guarantees and effective
enforcement. The South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries meeting
in November in Nepal should take a hard look at
infusing vigour and vitality into this inter-
governmental forum.
There are already several civil society initiatives
which emphasise the linkages between peace and
democracy, such as the South Asia Forum for
Human Rights (SAFHR) and the Pakistan-India
Peoples Forum for Peace and Democracy (PIPFPD).
WRITING SAARCS INCOMPLETE CHAPTER
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But across national borders, lawyers, activists and
the intelligentsia are making common cause for the
establishment of a formal regional human rights
body, on the lines of similar institutions in existence
in other parts of the world.
The latest expression of the need for a cross-
country formal body is evident in the Delhi
Declaration issued at the end of the recent national
consultation under the aegis of the Regional
Initiative for a South Asia Human Rights
Mechanism (RISAHRM). More than 100
participants drawn from among neighbouring
countries and 20 Indian States proclaimed, We
resolve to work towards a comprehensive inter-
state human rights mechanism. The declaration
further goes on to affirm, We the people of South
Asia dedicate ourselves in the immediate and
interim to the establishment of a credible, Peoples/
Citizens South Asia Human Rights Council.
Encouraging initiatives
Similar in spirit was the Lahore Declaration in
June 2014. It called upon the governments of
SAARC to include in the agenda of the November
2014 Kathmandu Summit a discussion on an inter-
state rights mechanism. The articulation of support
for a regional institution since 2010 onwards has
received strong backing from the RISAHRM and
the Asian Forum for Human Rights and
Development.
In its nearly three-decade history, efforts to
foreground the principles of human rights in the
SAARC discourse have been marginal. There have,
however, been noteworthy departures in the right
direction. These are the two SAARC Conventions
of 2002 to combat trafficking in women and
children and to strengthen regional mechanisms to
promote the welfare of children. The adoption of a
social charter in 2004 echoes a broader commitment
to advance the socio-economic conditions of the
populations in the region. The 2011 SAARC Charter
of Democracy aims to counter the threat of military
takeovers that has remained a blot on the region.
Together, these steps although at best pious
pronouncements are an acknowledgement of
the many formidable common challenges that
hamper peace and prosperity among the people of
South Asia, who make up nearly a quarter of the
global population.
Addressing the anomaly
The absence of a common human rights
mechanism for South Asia must be regarded a
serious anomaly considering that each of the seven
countries forswear a commitment to democracy and
the rule of law. All the states of South Asia have
ratified the two main United Nations covenants on
civil, political, economic and social rights besides
the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Significantly, with the exception of Pakistan, all
the other countries of the region have functioning,
legally established human rights institutions with
quasi-judicial authority to investigate, if not punish,
violations.
The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on
Human Rights (AICHR) is the latest among several
regional mechanisms, although its mandate is
merely advisory and to promote public awareness
on critical issues.
The 2004 Arab Charter on Human Rights, for
the Arab League, is enforced by an elected
committee of independent experts, which is
empowered to scrutinise periodic reports submitted
by member states. The Arab Summit in 2013 even
agreed in principle to establish an Arab court on
human rights. The Organization of African Unity
(OAU), now the African Union, in 1981, adopted
the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights
which led to the establishment of the African Court,
with jurisdiction over the member states.
A more robust framework to monitor and
enforce human rights obtains in the American states
and in the European continent. The Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights adopted the 1969
American Convention on Human Rights, which is
enforced by the Inter-American Court of Human
Rights. The Council of Europe, which is made up
of all the European countries including Russia and
Turkey, is arguably the most vibrant international
body of its kind. The European Convention on
Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is
enforced by the Strasbourg-based European Court
of Human Rights.
An opportunity in store
An important inference from the international
experience is that the effectiveness of the
enforcement of human rights is relative to the vastly
dissimilar stages in the evolution of democratic
institutions in different regions. Routine violations
of individual liberties by repressive regimes, and
the exploitation of natural wealth in Africa and
the Americas overriding the interests of their
populations, is stark evidence of the need to
[58] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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strengthen the monitoring and enforcement of
democratic rights. The total absence of a regional
mechanism in South Asia falls in an altogether
separate category. The Kathmandu summit of the
SAARC in November presents an opportunity to
build on earlier initiatives that can potentially alter
this scenario.
The consensus in the Delhi national consultation
in August 2014 was for the establishment of a
human rights mechanism within the overall
framework of the SAARC. Apt was the reasoning
and emphasis that lasting change could be brought
about only through effective law enforcement,
which was ultimately the responsibility of
governments. The most passionate articulation of
this position was from Hina Jilani, former United
Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-
General on human rights defenders and chair of
the South Asians for Human Rights. Miloon
Kothari, former U.N. Special Rapporteur on
adequate housing and Sima Samar, Chairperson
of the Afghan Independent Human Rights
Commission (AIHRC) were no less emphatic on
the responsibility of states to their peoples. That is
all the more acute in respect of the leadership of
the nuclear neighbours Pakistan and India, with
the wounds of Partition and the subsequent wars
still festering.
Source: The Hindu
The decision of the Union Minister of Science
and Technology to tap the talent pool of about
6,000 scientists from institutions and centres that
come under the umbrella of the Department of
Science and Technology, the Ministry of Earth
Sciences and the Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research to give lectures to school and college
students is a good initiative. Scientists dedicating
12 hours a year each to engage with students to
impart scientific knowledge and inculcate a
scientific temper in them is bound to go a long
way in attracting young talent to science and
grooming them. This is a much-needed step as
India, like several other countries, faces an alarming
situation of steadily decreasing numbers of school
students opting for science, and a lack of long-
term interest among those who have chosen it.
While the intent behind the initiative is good, a
coordinated approach by different Ministries would
be more effective in achieving the goal. Not
involving scientists from the 32 institutions of the
Indian Council of Medical Research and similar
nodal bodies is unjustified. The lapse becomes all
the more glaring as the outreach programmes are
to be made mandatory and scientists performance
is to be evaluated once every three years. As it
stands, the initiative could cause resentment among
the 6,000 scientists as their counterparts in
institutions that come under other nodal agencies
face no such compulsions. The government should
act swiftly to ensure that all the scientists working
in government institutions become involved in
student outreach programmes. The metrics of their
performance can be used to reward them while
assessing their research proposals and promotions.
Several institutions and individuals in the U.S.
engage in student outreach programmes and India
has a great deal to learn from their experience. We
should make sure that as we belatedly embark on
this ambitious goal, we conscientiously avoid
committing the same mistakes that have been seen
elsewhere. The first and foremost pitfall to be
avoided is compelling scientists to teach science by
replacing teachers. Teaching should be made active
rather than passive. Excellent results can be
achieved when scientists guide students and
teachers to do real science that is open-ended,
inquiry-based and driven by a sense of exploration
which only scientists are best-equipped to offer.
This will foster critical thinking and imagination
and impart skills of scientific investigation. Also, it
will arouse childrens curiosity and set off a series
of questions prior to, during and after a project.
Information and knowledge thus gained remain
indelible, and science becomes fun. The Indian
Space Research Organisations work of guiding
students from a handful of engineering colleges to
build satellites, which were eventually launched, is
one of the best examples of imaginative student
outreach programmes.
Source: The Hindu
More than 300 years after the Act of Union
bound Scotland and Wales to Britain in 1707, the
Scottish people are going to decide if they want
out of the United Kingdom, or remain within it
OUTREACH PLANS FOR SCIENTISTS
A VOTE TO WATCH IN SCOTLAND
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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but under expanded powers of self-rule. The
September 18 referendum in which nearly 4.3
million Scottish residents will answer the question
Should Scotland be an independent country?
will mark a historic turning point regardless of
whether the vote is yes or no.
From just a 25 per cent approval rating in a
poll taken soon after the closing ceremony of the
London Olympic Games in 2012, the Yes
campaign has built its constituency steadily,
reaching 39 per cent in August this year. By
September, Yes support jumped to 49 per cent,
and is at present neck-to-neck with No. An ICM/
Guardian poll says 42 per cent will vote no to 40
per cent for yes, with 17 per cent undecided yet.
The undecided will clinch the outcome of the
referendum. Survey data suggest that the 65-plus
and 16-24 age groups are polling for the Union,
and the poor for independence, as they have
nothing to lose.
Consequences of Yes and No
The Yes campaign comprises the Scottish
National Party (SNP), Labour for Independence,
the Green Party, the Scottish Lefts Radical
Independence Campaign, and many independent
campaign organisations such as Common Weal,
the National Collective, Women for Independence
and Lawyers for Independence. Its supporters
include celebrities like Sir Sean Connery and fellow
Hollywood actor Alan Cumming, film director Ken
Loach, Scotlands national poet Liz Lochhead, and
comedian Frankie Boyle.
The No campaign includes the official
Conservative/Lib-Dem/Labour Better Together
coalition, along with Unionist groups, and the
United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). It has
a large celebrity backing including author J. K.
Rowling, and a majority of newspapers and media.
In the event of a Yes vote, a new country
will emerge from a democratic process that has
few parallels in recent times. While the contours of
the alternative political paradigm envisaged by the
campaign and its workability in an independent
Scotland are still hazy, the campaign has won
popular support for a sharp critique of Westminster
policy and governance. A Yes vote will have
profound implications for movements for autonomy
and independence throughout Europe and
beyond.
The consequences of a No vote will be
transformative too. The major political parties
backing the Better Together campaign have
promised substantial devolution with the Labour
Party, which has lost a big section of its support in
Scotland to the pro-Independence side, offering to
devolve income tax, social security and the work
programme, not just for Scotland but for Wales as
well.
Writing in the Sunday Observer, Labour Party
leader Ed Miliband acknowledged the thirst for
democratic and economic change that has been
heard from the people of Scotland, that will lead
to change throughout Britain after 18 September.
He said that Scottish Labour has set out a clear
timetable for further devolution of income tax,
social security and the work programme, not just
for Scotland but for Wales as well.
What are the factors that underline the
spectacular increase in the support for the Yes
campaign?
The Yes campaigns salient feature is its
transformation from being a movement solely of
Scottish nationalism to one that is characterised by
a demand for genuine and radical social
democracy. The debate on self-determination is
happening at a time of deep economic crisis. The
erosion of incomes, of jobs, and of health and
housing benefits lie at the heart of popular
discontent. Scotlands current problems started
with the devastating impact of Margaret Thatchers
economic policy, which intensified a decline in
manufacturing and heavy industry from the late
1970s. The New Labour government essentially
continued that policy, which was subsequently
inherited by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat
coalition.
This Scottish debate of discontent will thunder
all across the U.K. in Manchester and
Birmingham and the Northeast, said Gerry Hassan,
author of Caledonian Dreaming: the Quest for a
Different Scotland. People are disgusted with the
food banks and the poverty, the excesses of the
rich, and the inequalities in Scotland, where 432
private individuals own over half of all private
land.
The Red Paper on Scotland 2014 argues that
Scotlands manufacturing economy, level of
research and development, retail trade, financial
sector, and the historically large public sector are
shrinking at a pace faster than seen in the wider
British economy. Most measures for poverty and
that for life expectancy have been consistently worse
than the British average, probably reflecting the
[60] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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prevalence of long-term unemployment, low pay
in work and casualised employment, coupled with
a sense of hopelessness and powerlessness.
It is not surprising therefore that First Minister
of Scotland Alex Salmonds offer of free and
universal childcare, free university education, better
pensions, withdrawal of the hated bedroom tax,
ending the manufacture of weapons of mass
destruction, and keeping the National Health
Scheme in the public sector has found widespread
response, especially as it comes with assurances
that Scotland will have the economic resources to
underwrite these subsidies.
His promises on welfare, however, sit rather
uncomfortably with the Scottish National Partys
economic policy perspective, which advocates
cutting public expenditure, promoting deregulation,
lowering taxation on high net worth individuals,
and reducing corporation tax to attract companies
from elsewhere.
For the present, however, this contradiction has
been papered over, and the SNP has adopted the
agenda for independence set by the strong Left
presence in the Yes block. The socialist left on
the Yes platform sees the referendum as an
opportunity to craft a Scottish road to socialism
through the creation of a welfare state. Alex
Mosson, a Labour for Independence member, is
representative of this swathe of opinion. The former
shipyard worker and Lord Provost (the equivalent
of Mayor) of Glasgow from 1999 to 2003, said,
We are a small country but with the ability and
skills to create a fairer and more just society.
We will undo the privatisation of the NHS
and give healthcare at the point of need. And we
dont want to be part of illegal wars. Despite
differences with the SNP, Left groups in the Yes
campaign believe the party and its leader Alex
Salmond must be given the chance to deliver.
Joanna Cherry Q.C., a lawyer activist in the Yes
campaign, argues that the SNP is a very broad
church of disparate groups. Mr. Salmond, she told
The Hindu, has promised to involve people from
all parties and walks of life in the negotiations for
a new Scotland if Yes wins. The Scottish
government has produced an interim constitution
to guide us through the stage of negotiations, she
said. There will be broad representation, including
people from the No camp, in the constitutional
convention set up to draft a constitution.
Pitfalls in Scotland
The positive momentum generated by the Yes
campaign its spread, organisation and
earnestness of purpose, is winning hearts and
minds, and perhaps even the race. The heady
atmosphere of expectations created by the pro-
Independence campaign combined with popular
disenchantment with the three mainstream parties
has, however, masked some of the sobering realities
of the independence option. These concerns
highlight the pitfalls of a small country with a
radical social welfare agenda going it alone in the
new global order.
The big decline in the last three decades in
Scotlands industrial economy, with employment
dropping from 650,000 to 179,000 in 2012, was
accompanied by a massive shift in Scotlands
manufacturing base from Scottish and rest of UK
ownership to overseas ownership, according to
the Red Paper on Scotland. If this has been the
impact of globalisation thus far, it has been argued,
a strong and politically reconstructed union would
be better positioned to resist the pressure of global
capital than a state weakened by a split.
In any event, for the Better Together campaign
to win, it will have to gain ground among young,
newly enfranchised voters and voters of working
age. It will have to go beyond the idea that size
matters the bigger the union the better in
the era of globalisation. It will have to persuade
the Scottish people that the U.K. of the future will
be, for Scotland, a different entity from the
Thatcher-era Westminster.
Source: The Hindu
My first visit to this ancient and magic land
was 17 years ago, a time when the Indian economy
was undergoing reform and beginning to show new
vitality in growth. The market was booming in
Mumbai, the economic centre. Bangalore was
becoming increasingly famous as Indias Silicon
Valley. And Bollywood movies and yoga were
popular throughout the world. Its people were full
of expectations and the ancient civilisation was
rejuvenated.
Now 17 years later, I am about to once again
visit India, an enchanting and beautiful land that
has captured world attention. India is an emerging
economy and a big developing country. It is Asias
TOWARDS AN ASIAN CENTURY OF PROSPERITY
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third largest economy and the worlds second
largest exporter of software and agriculture
products. A member of the United Nations, the
G20, the BRICS and other organisations, India is
playing an increasingly important role in the
regional and international arena. The Story of
India has spread far and wide. With the new
government coming into office, a new wave of
reform and development has been sweeping across
India, greatly boosting the confidence of the Indian
people and attracting keen international interest in
its opportunities.
Progress in relations
Relations between China and India have made
significant progress in the new century. The
strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and
prosperity has been established. China has become
Indias largest trading partner, with their bilateral
trade volume increasing from less than US$3 billion
early this century to nearly US$70 billion. Mutual
visits reached 8,20,000 last year. We have had close
coordination and cooperation on climate change,
food security, energy security and other global
issues and upheld the common interests of our two
countries as well as the developing world as a
whole. Progress has been made in the negotiations
on the boundary question, and the two sides have
worked together to maintain peace and tranquillity
in the border area. China-India relations have
become one of the most dynamic and promising
bilateral relations in the 21st century.
Our bilateral relations have reached where they
are today as a result of the following efforts: we
have deepened mutual trust by strengthening
strategic dialogue and enhancing political
confidence; we have brought more benefits to each
other by expanding the areas of cooperation and
making the pie of common interests bigger; we have
forged closer friendship by encouraging more
people-to-people exchanges and cementing popular
support for our bilateral relations; and we have
treated each other with sincerity by respecting and
accommodating each others concerns and properly
managing problems and differences.
Crucial stage of reform
Both China and India are now in a crucial stage
of reform and development. The Chinese people
are committed to realising the Chinese dream of
great national renewal. We are deepening reform
in all sectors. The goal has been set to improve and
develop the socialist system with Chinese
characteristics and advance the modernisation of
national governance system and capability. A total
of over 330 major reform measures covering 15
areas have been announced and their
implementation is well underway.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modis
leadership, the new Indian government has
identified ten priority areas including providing a
clean and efficient administration and improving
infrastructure. It is committed to building a united,
strong and modern India Shreshtha Bharat. The
Indian people are endeavouring to achieve their
development targets for the new era. China and
India are both faced with historic opportunities,
and our respective dreams of national renewal are
very much aligned with each other. We need to
connect our development strategies more closely
and jointly pursue our common dream of national
strength and prosperity.
As emerging markets, each with its own
strengths, we need to become closer development
partners who draw upon each others strengths
and work together for common development. With
rich experience in infrastructure building and
manufacturing, China is ready to contribute to
Indias development in these areas. India is
advanced in IT and pharmaceutical industries, and
Indian companies are welcome to seek business
opportunities in the Chinese market. The
combination of the worlds factory and the
worlds back office will produce the most
competitive production base and the most attractive
consumer market.
As the two engines of the Asian economy, we
need to become cooperation partners spearheading
growth. I believe that the combination of Chinas
energy plus Indias wisdom will release massive
potential. We need to jointly develop the BCIM
Economic Corridor, discuss the initiatives of the
Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century
Maritime Silk Road, and lead the sustainable growth
of the Asian economy.
As two important forces in a world that moves
towards multipolarity, we need to become global
partners having strategic coordination. According
to Prime Minister Modi, China and India are two
bodies, one spirit. I appreciate this comment.
Despite their distinctive features, the Chinese
Dragon and the Indian Elephant both cherish
peace, equity and justice. We need to work together
to carry forward the Five Principles of Peaceful
Coexistence (the Panchsheel), make the
international order more fair and reasonable, and
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improve the mechanism and rules of international
governance, so as to make them better respond to
the trend of the times and meet the common needs
of the international community.
As Deng Xiaoping puts it, no genuine Asian
century would come without the development of
China, India and other developing countries. We
are ready to shoulder this mission of our times and
work actively to enhance friendship between China
and India. I look forward to an in-depth exchange
of views with Indian leaders on our bilateral
relations during the visit, and to injecting new
vitality to our strategic and cooperative partnership
for peace and prosperity.
I am confident that as long as China and India
work together, the Asian century of prosperity and
renewal will surely arrive at an early date.
Source: The Hindu
The Supreme Court has dismissed a few writ
petitions challenging the constitutional validity of
the Constitution (99th Amendment) Bill and the
National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill,
2014 (NJAC Bill). The judgment is correct, but not
for the reason that the Bills are faultless. The Bills
are yet to attain the status of law as defined under
Article 13 of the Constitution. A premature
opposition to the legislative move is antithetical to
the facets of deliberative democracy. Article 111 of
the Constitution empowers the President to return
the Bills for reconsideration, which implies the
possibility for modifications. Article 368 says an
amendment of the Constitution could be done
generally when a Bill is passed by a majority of
not less than two thirds of the members present
and voting in each House. Proviso to Article 368(2)
clarifies that in certain cases, ratification by the
legislatures of at least one half of the states is
mandatory. The Union judiciary and the High
Courts in the States come within the ambit of this
proviso. This would mean that in a federal system,
despite the clearance by Parliament, States do have
a say in any attempt for a major constitutional
amendment concerning the judiciary. It is therefore
incorrect to think that the Bills mark an end in
themselves. As such, there is scope for further
debate and a need for it.
A failed experiment
The collegium is not just a failed experiment,
but has also been undemocratic. Therefore, the real
issue is whether the proposed amendment by way
of Article 124A, B and C would really democratise
the method of appointment. It is erroneous to
conceive the issue of judicial appointment as a tussle
between the executive and the judiciary for a final
say in the process of selection to the higher judiciary.
The present Bill is designed in such a way that
both the judiciary and the executive have a role in
the process. It is generally perceived that just two
members can veto the majority decision in the NJAC
and therefore the mechanism is defective. I would,
however, say that this is a scientific device to oust
the ineligible provided the system is fair and
transparent.
But the system is not supposed to be
transparent, going by the text of the proposed
amendment. Functionally and structurally, the
NJAC would perpetuate many of the basic deficits
and perils of the collegium in a different manner.
A secret process without any benchmark that does
not even accept the need for assessment of inter se
merit would be constitutionally legitimised. No
discussions, no notifications, no applications, no
interviews, no consultations and ultimately no
democratisation either in the process or in the
institution. Openness and transparency are the sine
qua non for any fair method of selection.
Conceptual flaws
There is a serious conceptual flaw with the
present legislative design. An uncomfortable
dichotomy between the constitutional provision and
statutory scheme emerges through the new move.
While the 99th Constitution Amendment Act
would create space for the new NJAC, its
composition and voting pattern are designed not
by the amended Constitution, but by a statute,
namely the NJAC Act. This would indicate that
even the sole advantage of the NJAC i.e., the
requirement for support of five out of the six
members for a valid selection is vulnerable to
statutory amendment by a simple majority in
Parliament. Thus, even without a constitutional
amendment, the limited virtues of the proposed
NJAC would be taken away.
Federalism is a basic feature of the Indian
Constitution as held by the Supreme Court in S.R.
Bommai (1994). On account of the NJAC, it is not
the basic feature of judicial independence that is
FEDERALISM IN JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS
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endangered, as is widely misconceived. The
judiciary and the executive at the centre will
annihilate even the limited role for the States in the
selection process in the High Courts. Going by the
text of Article 217 of the Constitution, even after
its alteration by the Supreme Court in the Second
Judges case (1993) and Third Judges case (1998),
the Governor of the State and the collegium at the
High Court level have a participative role in
selection of judges in the High Courts. In the system
now proposed, the NJAC or the President of India
is not bound by the recommendation of the Chief
Justices of the High Courts or the Governors. Section
6(4) of the NJAC Bill envisages consultation with
senior-most judges and eminent advocates in the
High Courts. But their opinion is not binding on
the NJAC. Section 6(7) says the views of the
Governor will be elicited but, again, those are not
binding. Thus those at the Centre, through the
NJAC, will select the High Court Judges, despite
their lack of familiarity with the institutions of High
Courts and lack of State-level mechanism for an
open system for assessment of individual merit. This
nullifies the constitutionally guaranteed federal
traits in the realm of judicial appointments.
The illustrative case of the U.K. needs to be
emphasised in the Indian scenario, for it shows
how the federalist values are incorporated both in
the structure of the Commission and in the
procedures adopted. The Constitutional Reforms
Act (CRA), 2005 in the U.K. was substantially
altered by way of the Amendment in 2013. At
present, there is a 15-member Commission doing
the job of selection of judges to the higher judiciary
and tribunals. Selection commences with an open
vacancy notification.
It is again a paradox that despite the promise
for equality of opportunity in public employment
guaranteed under Articles 14 and 16 of the
Constitution, an eligible person in India cannot
apply for judgeship in higher judiciary. Nor is there
any system of open nomination. In the U.K., the
concept of equal opportunity is not alien to judicial
appointments. The notification is followed by a
series of statutory consultations. The criteria for
appointment as a Supreme Court judge are
indicated in Sections 50 to 52 of the statute. The
Appointment Commission has a participative,
representative and a democratic character. England
and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are
properly represented in the process of consultation.
Federalism is, therefore, not just a matter of
Centre-State relation. It is, on the other hand, a
device to ensure participative role for the
representatives of the States constituting the nation,
in the decision-making process. The larger the body,
the greater the democratic content. In a vast country
like ours, a six-member committee is undemocratic
due to its centralist features. Even the laymen are
part of the Commission in the U.K. It is no more
an employment generation scheme. Continued and
repeated consultations and screening in the British
system ensure that no ineligible hand is inducted
to the higher judiciary. The only valid criticism
against the method in the U.K is that selection
becomes a time-consuming process. But there is no
allegation of judicial corruption. Nor is there
allegation of sycophancy or nepotism. India too
can afford such procedural fairness, for the same
would ensure a clean judiciary, which is a
constitutional imperative for any working
democracy. But the Bills in their present form are
conceptually sterile and incapable of bringing in
radical reforms. This situation calls for dynamic
legislative activism at all levels.
Source: The Hindu
The Narendra Modi government has launched
an ambitious programme for both rural and urban
development. In his budget speech, Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley said, The Prime Minister has
a vision of developing one hundred smart cities
as satellite towns of larger cities by modernising
the existing mid-sized cities. To provide the
necessary focus to this critical activity, I have
provided a sum of Rs. 7,060 crore in the current
fiscal. For rural areas, Mr. Modi in his
Independence Day speech urged each Member of
Parliament to make one village of his or her
constituency a model village by 2016. After 2016,
two more villages should be selected and after 2019,
at least five model villages must be established by
each MP in his/her area.
These are wise programmes, but if they are
launched without due diligence, they may end up
in enormous wastage of national resources. Here
are some thoughts on how these programmes can
be made effective.
An urban India
It should be clearly understood that it is an
DEVELOPING MODEL VILLAGE CLUSTERS
[64] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept., 2014
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iron law of economics (without a single exception)
that as countries get richer, the share of agriculture
in GDP, employment and land use declines over
time. If India aims at achieving affluence over the
coming decades, it must be prepared for massive
urbanisation. Our statistical analysis shows that in
an affluent India, by 2050, more than 80 per cent
of the population will be in cities. Rural population
will decline from about 833 million in 2011 to about
260 million in 2050, while in urban areas, the
population will increase from 377 million in 2011
to about 1,200 million in 2050. Thus, India in the
future will live in towns and cities and not in
villages. The choice before India is whether it will
let urbanisation proceed in an unplanned manner
as it has been doing until now or plan in advance
and create smart towns and cities.
For rural development, one often hears of
providing urban facilities to rural areas. The word
Rurban is often bandied about. However, it
should be understood that modern urban areas
require many complex facilities which cannot be
made available in a very small scale. In India, with
6 lakh villages, the average population of a village
is only about 1,000. It is generally difficult even to
provide basic facilities for health and education in
rural areas as teachers and doctors are simply not
willing to live in these villages without adequate
facilities for their families. Creating model villages
is thus going to be difficult. As villagers get educated
and leave for towns, the so-called model villages
may become half-deserted.
Model village clusters
One possible solution is to build model village
clusters similar to what was done in Chitrakoot in
Madhya Pradesh. In this approach, for 100 or so
villages in each tehsil, a central town with a
population of about 50,000 will be created with
urban facilities. This town will accommodate
teachers, doctors, agricultural extension workers,
agro-industries, etc. These will be created on the
lines of Special Economic Zones with their own
modern rules on land, labour, transport, education,
health, etc. The town will be managed by rural
communities that it will be serving along with
representatives of the urban community in the new
town. The towns infrastructure will be developed
along the principles of sound urban development
before the inflow of residents begins.
Where will the funding for urban development
come from? As has been the case in China, it will
come from the capital gains due to land conversion
accruing to the new urban authorities rather than
landowners. The landowners will be compensated
handsomely. Compensation will be two-three times
the value of their land through a combination of
lump sum payment and annuities and with
guaranteed employment for all stakeholders. The
value of land will be determined not by the so-
called market value which is difficult to
determine partly because of paucity of land
transactions and partly because of the black money
in many of these transactions but by the present
value of income stream generated from the land
concerned. Assuming a rate of time discount of 5
per cent per year and increase in land productivity
of 2.5 per cent per year becomes a robust method
for determining the value of land for compensation.
When the land is converted to urban usage with
horizontal growth allowing buildings of 10-15
floors, its value will increase by 15-20 times.
Assuming that half of the land acquired will be
auctioned to the private developers at market prices,
the town authorities will earn handsome capital
gains which should be sufficient to develop the
necessary infrastructure with all modern amenities.
The town thus developed will serve the cluster of
villages and provide jobs for many migrants from
the villages.
Thus the Prime Minister should urge
parliamentarians to develop such model village
clusters, one every year, so that in 10 years time,
the entire country can be covered.
Self-financing of smart cities
The same principle can apply to the
development of smart cities. These cities will be
smart not only in terms of Information and
Communications Technology but also in the design
of urban physical and social infrastructure and
modern policy regime on business climate and
governance. These cities would, for example, allow
FDI in retail which will not displace any
shopkeepers but become a magnet for new
inhabitants.
The economic base of these cities will be hubs
for knowledge production and knowledge
marketing. Starting with 100 such smart cities in
the next five years, some 800 such cities may be
built over the next 40 years covering all the district
towns. The principle of land conversion and
auctions for part of the land acquired will be the
same as in the village clusters mentioned above.
The infrastructure development of these smart cities
will thus be largely self-financed through capital
gains from land conversion and they would emerge
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept., 2014 [65]
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as model cities which will accommodate nearly 400
million new urbanites between now and 2050.
Thus, both the ideas of rural development and of
urban development are basically sound but they
need some forward planning to be effective.
Source: The Hindu
Court proceedings are generally held in open
courtrooms to ensure transparency under the
maxim, not only must justice be done, it must
also be seen to be done. The recent trend of in-
camera trial has evolved contrary to this maxim to
ensure confidentiality and to lessen the trauma and
stigma caused to a victim. It also provides protection
from voyeuristic intrusion by the media.
A judge is duty-bound to maintain the delicate
balance between the rights of an accused for a fair
trial and the rights of a victim for protection against
the violation of her dignity. Closed-door proceedings
place an additional responsibility on the presiding
judge to ensure this, as these proceedings are not
open to public scrutiny. Within this constraint, the
innovative survivor support programme of Majlis
in Mumbai provides a ringside view of rape trials.
It becomes an important social responsibility to share
these insights with a wider readership in the hope
of letting in a breath of fresh air within these
cloistered spaces.
Double trauma
Apart from the actual incident of rape, what
rape victims fear the most is the courtroom ordeal.
What comes to mind is a slogan coined during the
anti-rape campaign in the early 1980s in the context
of the acquittal of two policemen. They were
charged with the rape of a 16-year-old tribal girl,
who was poor, in a police station, and had termed
her a liar as there were no marks of injury on her
body. She was raped twice, first by the police and
then by the courts. This still holds true for many
victims, despite the introduction of statutory
changes and positive rulings of the Supreme Court.
Within the hostile environment of a criminal court,
the victim looks up to the judge to get the wrinkles
out of what is a gruelling process. It is the sensitivity
displayed by the judge which alone can save the
situation.
On this subject, trial court judges try to pass
the buck on to defence lawyers saying that it is
they who need to be sensitised. However, it is
entirely up to the judge to take control of the
situation. A confident judge well-versed in statutory
provisions and positive rulings will be in a
commanding position to maintain the dignity and
decorum of the court; only those who lack in
confidence will allow themselves to be cowed down
by the intimidating tactics of defence lawyers.
I ssue of victims past
As an example, let me discuss the case of 16-
year-old K, a victim of gang rape which happened
in the pre-amendment era. She was dragged out of
her paying guest accommodation in a slum to a
vacant room down the street and brutally raped
by five men until she fell unconscious. The first
information report (FIR) could be lodged after about
a month, and after the Herculean efforts of a social
worker. The plea by the defence was that K was
the daughter of a sex worker. And as she had a
boyfriend, she herself was of questionable character.
This background provided ample scope for her
humiliating cross-examination by five astute
lawyers. However, the presiding judge remained
firm, relying on the path-breaking Supreme Court
ruling in Gurmit Singh (1996), and did not permit
any questions regarding the victims past sexual
history.
In that case, while overturning the verdict of
the two lower courts, which had acquitted the
accused in a case of the gang rape of a 16-year-old
schoolchild who had been kidnapped from her
examination centre, the Supreme Court had ruled:
Even in cases where there is some acceptable
material on record to show that the victim was
habituated to sexual intercourse, no such inference
like the victim is a girl of loose moral character is
permissible to be drawn from that circumstance
alone. No stigma, like the one as cast in the present
case can be cast against such a witness, for after
all, it is the accused and not the victim of sex crime
who is on trial in the court.
The trial court judge ruled that questions
regarding the credibility of the witness, or her past
sexual history can no longer be entertained after
this ruling. She further commented that it was not
a case of a complaint of sexual assault arising out
of a love affair, but was a case of gang rape. The
FOR A VICTIM-CENTRIC APPROACH
[66] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept., 2014
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judge ensured that the deposition of the victim was
concluded on the same day, even if it meant a
sitting beyond the court timings. The case finally
ended in a conviction, despite the lapses.
On child victims
Let us contrast this with the case of an eight-
year-old who lived in a lower class tenement, and
sexually abused by a neighbour, a 26-year-old man.
The incident lasted barely 10 minutes as the child
heard her mother calling out to her and began to
scream. The girl experienced great trauma and
could not describe the incident even to her mother
for two days.
During the trial, the child was cross-examined
by a reputed criminal lawyer over three court dates,
where her parents and she had to travel a distance
of two hours each way. The busy lawyer either
came late or pleaded his inability to complete the
cross-examination as he had other matters to attend
to. The court gave in to his request, disregarding
the hardship being caused to the family of meagre
means. The trial was in the designated Special
Court, constituted under the Protection of Children
from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, which
stipulates special child-friendly trial procedures.
Throughout her deposition, the child, of a small
build, was precariously perched on the ledge of
the witness box, so that the presiding judge could
see her and listen to her scared and muffled voice.
This case too ended in conviction. The manner in
which the two trials were conducted shows that
there is a world of difference.
The Sakshi Guidelines (2004) stipulate that in
cases concerning children, the defence lawyer must
first submit the questions in writing to the judge,
and the judge, at his/her discretion, ask only those
questions which are relevant to the incident. But
these guidelines are seldom followed.
We have also witnessed shocking instances of
judges, under the compulsion of having to complete
the trial within the stipulated time frame, and in
the absence of the defence lawyer, asking the
accused to come forward and conduct the cross-
examination. This is in total violation of the
stipulation that the victim should not ever be made
to face the accused during her deposition, and that
a screen or a one-way mirror should be installed to
shield her from the intimidating gaze of the
accused.
Monitoring courts
Due to the presumption that a victim of sexual
abuse would feel more at ease deposing before a
lady judge, there is a stipulation that, as far as
possible, only lady judges should be assigned to
special courts. However, the belief that all lady
judges are equally sensitive to victims, and that as
a class, lady judges are more sensitive to victims of
sexual crimes than men is not substantiated. It is
not biology which determines sensitivity. Judges
assigned to these courts must be specially exposed
not only to statutory provisions but also to the
mandatory protective measures that are required
to be diligently followed before their assignment to
these courts.
There is also a need to monitor the functioning
of these courts and provide mechanisms of redress,
in case of lapses. Closed-door trials cannot be
construed as sacrosanct spaces beyond the scope
of a social audit. Campaigners who were
instrumental in bringing about these changes
cannot abdicate their responsibility once the statute
is enacted. The enactments are only the beginning
of a long-drawn and challenging process.
Sessions courts are formidable and intimidating
spaces meant for the police, criminals and their
lawyers. To turn them into child-friendly spaces
would require special ingenuity which those in
charge of structuring these spaces usually lack. They
need to be stripped of their high podiums, musty
air and black coats and the space needs to be
redesigned from the perspective of victims,
especially children and those with disabilities.
Within their limitations, some judges have been
using simple measures such as the setting up of a
temporary screen or placing a cupboard in a
manner so as to shield the victim during the
deposition and allowing frequent breaks during the
gruelling process of cross-examination. (We have
come across instances where victims have fainted
during the deposition.) Some judges also permit
the victim to enter from the entrance meant for
judges and allow them to wait in their own
chambers until the matter is called out. These are
small but significant gestures which will help ease
the trauma of the victim.
While Delhi has successfully set up special courts
for vulnerable witnesses, for the rest of the country,
this is still a far cry.
Source: The Hindu
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014 [67]
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It is a very German discussion that has been
occupying the media of Europes largest economy
for the last few months. It started with a cover
story in the leading news magazine Der Spiegel
that called on policymakers to Stop Putin. Now.
The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine
Zeitung (FAZ) followed suit with an op-ed
demanding a new double-track-decision that
would show Europes economic, political and
military readiness to retaliate against Russia.
In a largely pacifist country, this air of
hawkishness that brings back memories of the Cold
War could not pass uncontradicted. Garbor
Steingart, Editor-in-Chief of the business weekly
Das Handelsblatt rubbished these articles as
mental conscription calls, an accusation that led
FAZ to speculate about the amount of pressure
Mr. Steingart might face from the German business
lobby: Be nice to Putin, whatever he does,
otherwise our economy will be in trouble.
A policy review
The debate shows in a nutshell what is currently
at stake in the Ukraine: the future of European
foreign policy. The crisis not only reveals the
centrifugal forces that are always at work within
the European Union (EU): different economic
interests and political cultures of its member states
versus a growing need to speak and act as a unified
player. It also shows a deep sense of insecurity of
what a European foreign policy should be. But
every crisis carries with it the seed of a chance.
And this one is pushing the EU in the right
direction.
More than two decades after the end of the
Cold War, it is clear to everybody that Europe
cannot afford to remain divided and indecisive in
a conflict at its own doorstep. The shooting down
in July of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over the
Ukraine, widely believed to be by Russia-backed
rebels, brought back memories of war to a
continent that liked to believe that the age of wars
in this part of the world is over.
Pictures of rotting bodies in the badlands of
the Ukraine all 298 passengers died did not
only prove the contrary. In an Open Letter to
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Foreign
Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 21 German
intellectuals from across the political spectrum
claim: The German government resists persistently
to talk about Russias war against the Ukraine. But
every realistic policy has to call a spade a spade.
The EU must not leave any doubt that the
aggression against a state, with which it has an
association agreement will come at a high political
and economic price.
In the Netherlands, from where most of the
victims of the ill-fated flight originated, the incident
triggered a serious policy review: from business-
oriented pussyfooting vis--vis Mr. Putin towards
a more resolute stance against Russia. Like many
other European countries, the Netherlands depends
on Russian oil and gas imports for much of its
energy needs and has one of the highest trade
deficits with Russia. For Italy and Germany too,
Russia is an important commercial partner and gas
supplier.
Thats one part of the problem. The other is
that the relationship between the EU and Russia
has not delivered on the promise of a genuine
partnership that seemed to be possible after the fall
of the Berlin Wall in 1989. One might call that
hope for an age of peace, prosperity and democracy
as naive, but it has shaped public opinion in Europe
after the Cold War at a large scale.
Instead, Vladimir Putin, who was once called a
flawless democrat by former German Chancellor
Gerhard Schreder, has proven an unpredictable
neighbour, to say the least. In a drive to secure his
own fragile power basis at home, he seems to be
determined to bring the Ukraine back into Russias
orbit, at any cost. And here, the misunderstanding
begins.
British journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
believes that Mr. Putin is obsessed with an
imaginary threat from an ageing, pacifist Europe
in slow decline. But that underestimates the
attractiveness of the European model that is obvious
to everybody in its vicinity. And it underestimates
the pull that a value-based foreign policy approach
has for those who are lacking the freedoms and
possibilities that the European Union promises.
Obviously, it has given incentives for political
change in the Ukraine. The majority of the people
in the Ukraine want a European-style democracy,
rule of law and free market economy. The Kremlin
has understood very well that this is a threat to
Putins authoritarian and corrupt regime, says
Doris Heimann, a German correspondent in
Moscow, who has covered Eastern Europe for more
NEITHER WARMONGERS NOR WIMPS
[68] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept., 2014
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than two decades.
While Mr. Putin might satisfy the demand for
a strong Russian posture at home, he has little to
offer even to his own people in the long run.
Andrew Kuchins, Director of the Russia and
Eurasia Program, Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC,
believes that Mr. Putin, like his Soviet predecessors,
might have decided to avoid necessary economic
reforms because they could destroy his
authoritarian system. While prospects of a positive
economic development in Russia seem to be bleak,
former communist countries that joined the EU,
like Poland, are flourishing economically.
The European right
Europe therefore needs to take a closer look at
the implications of its value-based foreign policy.
The EU has taken the right decision to impose strict
economic sanctions on Russia as a reaction to the
Crimean crisis. Under the leadership of Ms. Merkel,
Europe stands united in a major security crisis for
the first time and it proves those critics wrong who
prematurely assumed that a shaken EU makes no
real effort to confront Russia over Ukraine.
It should be added here that the European
extreme right that has gained influence especially
the French National Front and even the German
Euro-critical party AfD (Alternative fr
Deutschland) count among the staunch
supporters of Mr. Putin. And it is clear why: both
Mr. Putin and the populist parties of the right want
to weaken the European Union, for different
reasons. But so far, their influence remains limited.
The buck does not stop here. As Mr. Steinmeier
put it, sanctions alone are no policy. But what
is? This is the background of Germanys heated
discussion about warmongering or
appeasement that rings so much like 1980s
rhetoric.
Economic sanctions can only be one part of an
overall strategy towards Russia. The role of the
military is another element that needs to be reflected
on. While the European public is largely pacifist as
a result of two devastating wars in the 20th century,
policymakers must be aware that European
values become an empty phrase if nothing follows
in case of their violation.
Will Europe stand by and watch how a state
is being destroyed that has opted for European
values? This is the question the signatories of the
Open Letter to Ms. Merkel ask. They suggest an
expansion of the sanctions against Russia and large-
scale financial support for the Ukraine. But do not
mention the military.
That is the crux of European foreign policy at
the moment. In the European Unions world,
things such as balance of power and armed
intervention are simply not on the table, although
individual member states such as France continue
to undertake military interventions on their own,
writes Kathleen McNamara.
In Germany, things are even more complicated
because national interest hardly counts as a
relevant element of foreign policy. Therefore, every
action has to be justified on moral grounds. The
problem of German security policy is that it neither
asks itself what German interests are nor does it
explain these interests to the people, writes Alan
Posener, correspondent at the conservative daily,
Die Welt.
As a result, everybody who suggests an element
of military deterrence in a European strategy
towards Moscow, risks being labelled as
warmongering. That does not only weaken
Europes position, but also ignores the fact that
European continent is still heavily militarised.
Other frozen conflictsApart from Russias
aggression against the Ukraine and Mr. Putins plan
for a neo-imperialist Novorossiya (New Russia),
there are several frozen conflicts in South Eastern
Europe and the Caucasus that remain unresolved
and represent a continuing risk of military conflict:
South Ossetia, Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh,
Transnistria, to name just a few. At the same time,
thousands of nuclear weapons are still central to
the security arrangements of the continent.
The Ukraine, under the Budapest Memorandum
on Security Assurances of 1994, gave up the worlds
third largest nuclear weapons stockpile that it had
inherited from the Soviet Union. The memorandum
that was signed by the United States, the United
Kingdom and the Russian Federation included
security assurances against threats or the use of
force against the territorial integrity or political
independence of Ukraine. Europe sees the invasion
of Crimea and Russias interference in the Ukraine
as a breach of international law and Russias
obligations of the Budapest Memorandum.
It is therefore more than justified that a
discussion has started about a military component
in the EUs strategy vis--vis Russia. The Nato
Summit on September 4-5 in Wales discussed a
plan of how to free the Baltic States Estonia,
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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Sept. to 21
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Sept., 2014 [69]
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Latvia and Lithuania as well as the Eastern
European countries such as Poland and Romania
from the fear of being threatened or even attacked
by Russia.
For everybody who lived in Germany before
and after the fall of the Berlin wall, this is a mind-
boggling return of the enemy in the East. As
German President Joachim Gauck put it in a much
debated speech at the Munich Security Conference
earlier this year, Germany still believes that it is
surrounded by friends.
But this might not be the case anymore. Russia
cannot be seen as our strategic partner anymore,
writes Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich
Security Conference and asks: When, if not now,
is the right time to take steps towards a European
Defence Union?
Given this psychological situation of the German
public and the strong economical interests in the
German business community, one cannot expect
that German foreign policy will be coming-of-age
overnight. Neither will the European Union start
acting as the United States of Europe any time
soon. But driven by the dramatic events in the
Ukraine, a far-reaching process has started, in
Germany and in other European countries. For this
time, the EU is on the right path.
Source: The Hindu
Redressing gender imbalances in employment
could remedy the current climate of sluggish global
economic recovery, the Labour Ministers of the
Group of 20 countries were advised last week. This
is perhaps the single most significant theme in the
four joint reports issued by the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development, the
World Bank Group and the International Labour
Organisation ahead of a meeting in Melbourne. One
of them dwells on the implications of the unfolding
demographic transition ageing and fall in fertility
rates. Whereas shrinkage in the size of the
workforce on account of ageing may vary
depending on the time of superannuation, declining
fertility would invariably result in reductions in the
number of new entrants to labour markets. The
economic case for womens participation in the
workforce could not have been stronger, the report
contends. Female employment rates the share of
employed women to the total number of women in
the working age population in the bloc have
seen a steady rise, reaching 60 per cent in 2012.
However, there are variations of more than 10
percentage points in 15 of the 20 countries. These
range from 7 percentage points in Canada to over
50 points in India and Saudi Arabia. The proportion
of youth who are not in education, employment or
training, at 10 per cent in many countries, is a
matter of concern for Indias women.
Recovery in the G20 is also threatened because,
with over 100 million people unemployed and 447
million living on less than $2 a day, consumption
and investment are constrained, argues a second
report. These concerns are important not merely in
instrumental terms; they reflect underlying informal
conditions of employment and the low quality of
jobs which run counter to inclusive growth, shows
a third study. Further, the G20 countries account
for about 70 per cent (1.3 million) of global deaths
from occupational diseases and 221,000 fatal
accidents annually. Recurrent industrial mishaps
in India, China, Turkey and other emerging
economies in the bloc underpin the sharp
discrepancies in compliance with international
safety standards. Addressing each of these
challenging scenarios acquires urgency; not in the
least, against the backdrop of the G20 target to
reorient policies to realise a 2 per cent addition to
overall gross domestic product in the next five
years. As the forum brings together the governments
of nearly two-thirds of the worlds population, its
wide-ranging initiatives could potentially transform
the global response to the most pressing challenges
of this century. The meeting of G20 Finance
Ministers that is coming up this weekend at Cairns
cannot afford to dilute the focus. As such, G20
leaders, who are set to meet in Brisbane in
November, should strive to impart greater
momentum to the changes.
Source: The Hindu
The revival of the issue of toilets in schools has
brought to the fore a discussion that has for long
existed among educationists, with varying positions
occupying centre stage at different times. A couple
CRIPPLING COST OF DISPARITIES
THE LINK BETWEEN SANITATION AND SCHOOLING
[70] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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of decades ago, when the deplorable state of
education began to be noticed, the importance of
toilets was highlighted, and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
(SSA) the governments flagship programme for
universalisation of elementary education
included a specific provision for separate toilets for
girls and boys. But soon after, a shift in focus to
learning outcomes made toilets a dirty word as far
as education was concerned, so much so that the
emphasis on infrastructure, and toilets in particular,
was held almost responsible for taking attention
away from learning. Arguments were made that
no correlation could be found between the presence
of toilets and learning levels of children in school;
therefore toilets were an unnecessary expense.
Others claimed that since most poor rural children
did not have toilets at home, they would not miss
them in school either. What they needed was
education, not toilets. The lack of sanitary habits
among people who are not used to toilets and the
issue of who would keep the toilets clean have also
been part of the ongoing debate.
The need for functional toilets
So, where do we stand on these issues today
and what can we expect from the Human Resource
Development Ministry as it tries to fulfil Narendra
Modis promises made on Independence Day?
Perhaps a good place to start is by looking at some
facts related to the provisioning of toilets, their use
and cleanliness, and where the responsibility for
the availability and functioning of toilets lies.
As mandated by the Right to Education Act,
all children are required to spend six hours in school
every day. During this period they would want to
use the toilets. Irrespective of how and where they
relieve themselves when at home, if the school does
not have a functional toilet, they will need to go
outside the school for their bio-breaks. The reality
is that if they do leave the school, they are unlikely
to return. Or if they are not allowed to leave, which
is often the case for fear of the outcome mentioned
above, they could end up soiling their clothes, for
which they are likely to be penalised. A quick look
at the complaints received by the National
Commission for Protection of Child Rights (during
2010-2011, for instance) reveals that many
complaints of corporal punishment were made
because of this reason. Corporal punishment, like
lack of toilets for girls, is a reason for dropouts.
In addition to all children needing toilets in
schools, the teachers also need them. They are
required to spend even longer hours in school to
complete non-teaching work as well as prepare for
classes. The lack of adequate toilets often
necessitates the locking of toilets by teachers for
their exclusive use. Among poor working conditions
for teachers in schools, the lack of toilets is one,
and probably contributes to teachers less than
desired rate of attendance.
Despite the Act specifying separate toilets for
boys and girls in each school, data from the District
Information System for Education, 2013, shows that
10 per cent of elementary schools (nearly 2 lakh
schools) still do not have functional toilets. In fact,
in 2004, a civil writ petition (No (S) 631) was filed
against the Delhi administration for the lack of
toilets in schools, which resulted in the Supreme
Court asking each State to submit affidavits on the
status of toilets in their respective States. In early
2012, 18 State governments told the apex court in
written affidavits signed by the highest-ranking
bureaucrat in each of these States that they had
met the requirement for toilets in accordance with
RTE norms, or would do so by March 2012. In
addition to the fact that this does not square up
with the official data, if these 18 States have indeed
met the norms as submitted in court, does it mean
we can expect no further action on toilets in their
jurisdictions?
There is, in fact, a great deal of ambiguity on
whose responsibility it is to ensure functional toilets
with adequate water facility in schools. Is it the
HRD Ministry or the Ministry of Rural Development
(MoRD) or the Ministry of Drinking Water and
Sanitation (MDWS) or all three?
The SSA has a provision for construction of
toilets which ranges from Rs. 50,000 per toilet
(Himachal Pradesh) to Rs. 70,000 per toilet
(Jharkhand). The provision of sanitation facilities,
however, is the responsibility of the MDWS. As a
result, one finds a peculiar situation where scores
of schools have constructed toilets but without
sanitation facilities or water supply. Their use, if at
all, is naturally limited. What is not clear is who is
responsible for ensuring convergence between these
Ministries.
Minister for Rural Development and Drinking
Water and Sanitation Nitin Gadkari recently
announced that toilets would be delinked from the
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Act. He announced that the amount
allocated for the construction of individual toilets
would be increased from Rs.10,000 to Rs. 15,000,
for school toilets from Rs. 35,000 to Rs. 54,000,
apart from an increase in the amount for
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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construction of anganwadi toilets and community
toilets. Does this mean these toilets will be provided
water supply too? At the end of the day, if
functional toilets do not exist in any given school,
who will be held to account?
Keeping toilets clean
Finally, there is the issue of keeping toilets clean.
At present there is no provision in SSA for the
cleaning of toilets. In fact, during a review of the
SSA framework a couple of years ago, this issue
was raised and hotly debated. But it was decided
that in the interest of educating children about
hygiene and sanitation, no other provision should
be made. Instead, the children and teachers should
be encouraged to keep the toilets clean. The reality,
as we all know, is that teachers do not involve
themselves in this enterprise. As a result, the toilets
are either cleaned or not cleaned by children or
more precisely, they are cleaned by Dalit children
because they can be coerced into doing what other
children will refuse to do. If a clean and hygienic
environment is to be provided, some children
should not have to create it for others.
If Mr. Modi and the HRD Ministry are serious
about toilets in schools, they will need to do a more
comprehensive rethink of all that it involves. In
addition to an adequate provision of funds cleaning,
sanitation training, maintenance of toilets and other
things, the issue of fixing accountability must be
addressed. Else we will keep visiting the basic issues
over and over again, reformulating strategies and
recommissioning funds.
Source: The Hindu
Xi Jinpings visit was billed as the third by a
Chinese President. This may be right in a technical
sense; not so from a historical perspective. Mr. Xi
is actually the fourth Chinese President to visit
India. The first was Chiang Kai-Shek, President of
the Republic of China.
Chiang visited India in early 1942 soon after
Japan entered the Second World War. As the Tokyo
typhoon swept Southeast Asia, India became vital
for Chinas survival. Chiang travelled to India
seeking to persuade the Indian National Congress
to fully support the British war effort. His long
meetings with Nehru and with Gandhi did not
yield much. And Chiang returned with little more
than the spinning wheel that Gandhi had gifted to
his wife.
I ndias strategic role
Yet the visits by Presidents Chiang and Mr. Xi
have more in common than the Gandhian spinning
wheel. For one thing, they underscore Indias
importance in any Asian security architecture. In
the 1940s, when the hegemon in Asia Britain
was knocked off its perch by a rising power, India
played a pivotal strategic role in stopping Japan in
its tracks. Today the situation is very different. Yet,
as Chinas swaggering rise rattles its neighbours,
India is seen as a key player in ensuring a balanced
regional order.
Further, both the visits point to the strategic
quadrangle of China, Japan, India and the United
States. In 1942, China sought American assistance
in enabling India to hold Japan at bay. Now it is
India and Japan that are working together against
any unilateral Chinese attempt to rewrite the rules
of the game in Asia. And the Americans are keenly
backing their moves.
These wider considerations clearly underpin Mr.
Xis desire to woo India. At any rate, his visit may
turn out to be rather more successful than the
maiden foray by Chiang. From Chinas standpoint,
India now appears an attractive destination for
investment. Prime Minister Modi has given
unprecedented political salience to infrastructure
and industry. So, the Chinese are well placed to
play to their strengths. From Indias standpoint,
attracting Chinese investment is imperative for
reviving growth. Besides, its deepening ties with
Japan, Australia and Vietnam have opened up more
room for manoeuvre in Asia.
I n commerce, testing the waters
Yet, for a range of reasons, it may be prudent
to temper expectations. First, China is not rushing
to open its coffers to India. Prior to the visit,
Chinese officials had claimed that Mr. Xi would
commit to invest at least $100 billion. But the five-
year plan inked by the two sides envisages $20
billion of Chinese investment. Clearly, Beijing is
waiting to see if New Delhi can walk the talk. This
is not surprising. Outside of Gujarat, Chinas
experience with big ticket investments has not been
encouraging. This is precisely why the Prime
Minister received Mr. Xi in Ahmedabad. Moreover,
China unlike Japan does not have long
TALKING TRADE AND PEACE WITH CHINA
[72] Weekly Current Affairs 15
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experience of working in India.
Nevertheless, Chinas inclination to test the
waters implies that Indias trade deficit may not be
adequately offset by capital inflows. To be sure,
the Chinese have also agreed to improve market
access for Indian firms. But it remains to be seen
whether they will deliver on this. The economic
imbalance between India and China, then, may
not be set right anytime soon.
Second, Mr. Modi appears lukewarm to Mr.
Xis ambitious plans for building multiple silk
roads. Although India has finally agreed to
consider the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar
(BCIM) Corridor, it is unlikely to move with alacrity.
Indias own backward linkages from the Northeast
leave much to be desired. In such a situation, going
ahead with a corridor connecting the Northeast
with these countries will be seen as working
mainly to Chinas advantage. Nor does the
proposed maritime silk road connecting Chinas
coastline with various hubs in the Indian Ocean
have much traction in New Delhi.
Placing these proposals in the ice pail is not
good idea, however. India must realise that these
routes will come up irrespective of its participation.
Countries across the region are drooling at the
prospect of big infrastructure and cheap Chinese
finance. Sri Lanka and the Maldives have lapped
up Mr. Xis plans for a maritime silk road. India,
too, could benefit much from joining these ventures.
For instance, the upgradation of our coastal
infrastructure would considerably aid our
emergence as a serious maritime not just naval
power. Concerns about Chinese presence in the
Indian Ocean can be overdone. In the past three
years, New Delhi has put in place practical
arrangements for maritime security with Sri Lanka
and the Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius.
Border incursions and claims
Finally, there is the disputed boundary which
cast a shadow on the summit. The Prime Minister
rightly observed that peace and stability along the
borders was crucial to realising the enormous
economic potential of Sino-Indian relations. But his
call for the resumption of talks on clarifying the
Line of Actual Control (LAC) was off-beam. This
can hardly help prevent incursions.
The LAC is supposed to divide the areas that
are under Indian and Chinese control since the
end of the 1962 war. The line, however, was not
mutually agreed upon by the two sides. This was
because the war ended with a unilateral ceasefire
and the subsequent withdrawal by China. In the
Ladakh sector, the question of where exactly
Chinese forces stood after the war remains
contested. The areas where Chinese incursions
occur are claimed by both sides as lying on their
side of the LAC. In the Arunachal Pradesh sector,
the Chinese treat the McMahon Line as the LAC.
But they challenge Indias claim that the Line should
follow the watershed or the highest line of
mountains. They point out that the coordinates of
the McMahon Line as set out in the Simla
Conference of 1914 depart at places from the
watershed. These grey areas south of the
watershed are the places where Chinese
incursions occur in this sector.
Given these differing notions of the LAC, any
exercise in clarification is unlikely to succeed. We
can only agree to disagree. The good thing is that
we know the areas of disagreement. Whats more,
both sides will continue to intrude into these areas.
At one level, this is tactical jockeying. Chumar, for
instance, is the only place along the LAC in Ladakh
which the Chinese cannot directly access. Hence,
the spurt in Chinese probing near Chumar.
Demchok is one of two mutually agreed disputed
areas, but that does not stop India from going
ahead with its activities. At another level,
incursions are essential for both sides to keep
alive their territorial claims.
Towards settlement
Indeed, the only way to put an end to
incursions is to settle the boundary dispute. It is
worth recalling that under Prime Minister A.B.
Vajpayee, India had initially insisted on talks to
clarify the LAC. By 2003, however, the government
came round to the sensible view that these would
not help and that it was essential to kick-start
negotiations on the boundary by appointing special
representatives. The subsequent agreement of 2005
provides an ideal basis for settlement by mutual
concessions. It acknowledges Indias concerns over
places like Tawang by tacitly agreeing that settled
areas are not up for bargaining. It takes Chinas
demands into account by suggesting that the
watershed principle may not be ironclad.
All along, a settlement has proved elusive owing
to political concerns. Governments in both India
and China have baulked at the prospect of selling
a deal to their domestic audiences. Having
insistently laid claims to Arunachal Pradesh, Beijing
is concerned about dropping them for good. Indian
Weekly Current Affairs 15
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governments, for their part, have paled at the
thought of pushing through a constitutional
amendment one that will require two-thirds
majority in both Houses as well as ratification by
50 per cent of the State legislatures. The problem is
not just of numbers. Even governments with
commanding majorities such as those led by Nehru,
Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi have hesitated to
grasp the nettle owing mainly to opposition from
within their own party and concerns about adverse
political fall out.
In the run-up to the summit, Mr. Modi and Mr.
Xi were projected as powerful and decisive leaders.
As such, they should be ideally placed to take a
serious crack at resolving the boundary dispute.
Mr. Modi is supposedly free of the baggage that
weighed on the Congress party. He is certainly
capable of making a persuasive public case for a
settlement. Instead of going down the rabbit-hole
of LAC clarification, the government should move
boldly to settle the boundary dispute with China.
Source: The Hindu

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