12

AN ECSTASY
I have one or two passwords for everything, if you
figured them out you could probably take over my life
INTERNET MEME

As India goes digital fast, its vulnerabilities

also grow at a worrying pace

he hacking of the social media accounts of Rahul Gandhi,

Vijay Mallya, Barkha Dutt and Ravish Kumar within just a
few days draws attention to larger cyber vulnerability in
India. With demonetisation pushing Indians to adopt e-platforms at
great pace, this vulnerability is also growing fast. Government
must show that it takes cybercrimes as seriously as digitising India,
which means not just passing tough laws but also implementing
them strictly. Pursue and punish the criminals whether it is the
hacking of a Twitter account or digital fraud of a few hundred
rupees. Dont be complacent about the minor infractions because
that will embolden major security breaches.
This October as many as 3.2 million Indian debit cards were
reported to have been compromised in a big breach of financial
data. Even as that investigation
continues, demonetisation has sent
e-banking and e-wallets on the up and
up with inadequate digital literacy to
cope with this shift. When even
long-time email users still keep
clicking away at links from unknown
and dangerous sources, its certain
that many of the small vendors
signing up for Paytm or FreeCharge
or MobiKwik today dont really
know how to safeguard themselves
against data fraud. Government has to do a bigger and better job of
educating them about how to stay safe in this brave new world.
These are attractive conditions for cyber criminals. The countrys
nodal agency to deal with cyber security threats CERT-In has
warned that at present micro ATMs and point of sale terminals are
particularly vulnerable to hackers. All this is on top of pre-existing
laxity in basic safeguards like strong unique passwords, being
careful about using public WiFi and securing home WiFi, encrypting
important data, and downloading only authorised software.
Besides how demonetisation has now put digital and
e-transactions on steroids, the security of the enormous amount of
citizen information collected by government is a worry. Huge
databases like Aadhaar must be kept hugely safe. Yet the right to
privacy still hasnt been enacted into a distinct law. In the long run
expanding and securing the countrys digital infrastructure should
deliver smarter e-governance and a better business environment.
But the only way India will get there is if its tough on cybercrimes
and steadfast in building digital literacy.

Dont Waste Time

Political fallout of demonetisation should
not be allowed to hold up GST

ST Council, the platform of union and state finance ministers tasked with making recommendations on tax rates and
laws, was unable to iron out differences last week on the second leg of goods and services tax legislation. It means that the winter session of Parliament, which ends this week, will have been wasted. If finance minister Arun Jaitleys aim of rolling out the new tax
by April 2017 is to be met, the last window will be the budget session
of Parliament scheduled to begin early next year. In the interim,
Centre and states have to find ways to narrow differences.
GST is the most ambitious economic reform on the governments
agenda. Almost the entire economy will
benefit by the decision to dismantle fiscal
barriers between states and integrate
India economically. But this move towards
integration has often been checked by
trust deficit between the government of
the day and opposition. In this context,
demonetisation now threatens to be a deal
breaker. Given the fact that many Indian
states will benefit from the transition to
GST, they should refrain from stalling it when the Constitution has
already been amended to enable it.
The amendment has an inbuilt deadline, mid-September 2017.
That makes it imperative for both sides to walk the extra mile to
reach a consensus. While demonetisation as a political issue
should not stall GST roll out, the extent to which an economic
slowdown induced by it affects potential tax revenue is relevant.
Here the Centre needs to go the extra distance to reassure states.
Both sides must remember that GST roll out will create an audit
trail which will eventually result in better tax compliance. Dont
allow politics to hold it up.

THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

War On Black Money

A thought for today

Check Cyber Crime

OF IDEAS

Demonetisation is a courageous reform that will bring substantive benefits

Jagdish Bhagwati, Pravin Krishna,
Suresh Sundaresan

n November 8 Prime Minister

Narendra Modi delivered a
surprise reform to the nation:
the government declared that
the high-denomination 500
and 1000 rupee notes, which constituted
more than 85% of currency outstanding in
value, would be invalid as legal tender and
could only be deposited into bank accounts
until the end of the year.
This is a courageous and substantive
economic reform that, despite the
significant transition costs, has the
potential to generate large future benefits.
India is largely a cash-driven economy,
though a rapidly growing percentage of
the population is becoming tech savvy.
A shadow economy reliant on cash
transactions and evading taxes, especially
on high value transactions such as real
estate purchases, gold, and intrinsically
illegal activity, has taken deep and highly
persistent root. Counterfeiting of Indian
rupee notes and their subsequent use in
funding of terrorist activities has also
been an important concern.
While the pernicious effects of a large
black economy and tax avoidance have
been well recognised, no tangible policy
action has been taken until now. Modis
radical move to invalidate the high denomination notes, in which the black economy
primarily transacts, is a daring step.
Economically and politically powerful
constituencies with considerable stake in
the shadow economy have been upended.
Undertaking this reform has required the
political courage to impose predictable
transition costs on the economy to lay the
foundation for sustained future benefits
the converse of what one normally
expects from ones politicians.
Some economists have advanced a
criticism that this initiative is an
abrogation of contract and trust in the
currency. This is incorrect, as the policy
allows for the exchange of old notes for
new notes. Although the process is
inconvenient, and subjects many households to hardships, it forces the cash from

the black economy to be deposited into the

banking system, potentially increasing
transparency and expanding the tax base
and revenues to the government from
taxes and surcharges.
Inevitably, the Indian economy will
move towards digitisation of economic
transactions, with cash currency playing
a relatively minor role. The argument
that the policy is anti-poor is suspect as a
significant fraction of the taxes and
surcharges that will be collected from the
reform initiative is to be allocated to
social programmes.
Finally, it has been argued that the
action is despotic. On the contrary, this
action has been taken by duly elected
officials within the framework of a
democracy. To be effective, the policy
required an element of surprise. Given
this surprise factor and the magnitude
of the reform, the rollout of the policy
has generated predictable hardships.
The shortage of new currency notes
and limits on withdrawals has led to

Policy makers must manage

the transition process
efficiently and with empathy,
to ensure sustained support
from the common man
considerable anxiety about wage and
pension payments, and cash financing of
even routine household expenditures.
The frequent changes in rules during the
past month, over how money deposited
into accounts will be taxed, how much
money may be withdrawn and which
exemptions would apply, for instance,
have led to unnecessary confusion.
Nevertheless, there has been an
impressive level of support at the grass
roots level for this reform, as evidenced by
the absence of any rioting, looting or acts
of mass protest. But the policy makers
must manage this transition process

Jagdish Bhagwati is University Professor

at Columbia University. Pravin Krishna
is Professor of International Economics at
Johns Hopkins University. Suresh Sundaresan
is Professor of Finance at Columbia
Business School

As President-elect Trump waits in the wings, China

gains momentum in Asia and Russia in Europe
Sreeram Chaulia

The impeachment of President Park Geunhye by South

Koreas parliament over a
spiralling corruption scandal is
not only a domestic political
earthquake but also an unsettling
geopolitical development in Asia.
Due to its pivotal geographical
location and role as a lynchpin
for security and balance of power
in Asia, turmoil in South Koreas
internal affairs has wide ramifications for the region.
Since entering the Blue House
in Seoul in 2013, Parks foreign policy posture had benefited the US
and dismayed China. Like her late
father, the Cold War-era military
dictator Park Chung-Hee, Park
adopted uncompromising opposition towards North Korea. She
steered her nation strategically
much closer to Washington and
Tokyo with an eye to sustaining
pressure on the bellicose and
secretive regime of Kim Jong-un.
Parks hardline attitude towards trigger-happy Pyongyang
angered Beijing, which believed
she had been roped into the
American game plan of containment of China. The culmination
of Parks enhanced military
coordination with the Barack
Obama administration came

earlier this year when she decided

to deploy the Terminal High
Altitude Area Defense (THAAD)
anti-missile system in South
Korea as a shield against adventurism of the mercurial Kim. She
also overcame historical animosities to sign a military intelligence
sharing pact with Japan.
Beijing interpreted these steps
as American tricks to surround
China and constrain its assertive
foreign policy. Chinas stateowned media vented spleen at
Park as a Western accomplice who

Given Trumps
conservative ideological
credentials and
apparent isolationism,
he himself is an exhibit
for the decline of the
liberal West
had no hesitation about undermining regional stability and flagrantly damaging the security interests of neighbouring powers.
However, in the absence of a
credible Chinese counter-offer of
tamping down North Korean
belligerence, Park saw no
alternative to deepening strategic
links to Washington and Tokyo.
Unwilling to sit down and
negotiate with Kim and alarmed
at his provocative spree of

nuclear and missile tests, she held

a skeptical assessment of China
as the facilitator whose generosity
Kim was exploiting to bypass UN
sanctions and endanger the whole
of Northeast Asia.
Now that Park has been ousted
due to the political fracas at home,
Beijing will breathe a sigh of relief.
In the increasingly likely event of
fresh elections being called, the
top contenders to next rule South
Korea are relatively dovish
towards North Korea and also
keen on avoiding Seouls excessive
tilt towards Washington by advancing friendship with Beijing.
Earlier this year, the US lost
the confidence of treaty ally
Philippines after the rise of the
controversial crime-busting and
human rights-abusing President
Rodrigo Duterte. The government
of corruption-plagued Prime
Minister Najib Razak in Malaysia

too has swung towards China

by signing a historic defence
agreement and denouncing
former colonial powers (code
for the West) for lecturing
countries they once exploited
on how to conduct their own
internal affairs.
The military leadership in
another traditionally pro-Western
nation, Thailand, has also inked
naval accords with China as a
deliberate snub to the US, which
has critiqued the anti-democratic
regime of Prime Minister,
General Prayut Chan-o-cha.
The drift is clear in East Asia. It is
becoming Chinese in orientation
and alienated from America.
The situation has a parallel to
Russia in Europe. Like Beijing,
Moscow has lately enjoyed
geopolitical success in eastern
Europe, where pro-Kremlin
friendly regimes have emerged

dilbert

in Moldova and Bulgaria with

support from President Vladimir
Putin. Far-right populists are the
flavour of the times throughout
Europe and they are openly
Putinist and derisive of Western
liberal values.
Speculation is rife in the West
about Russia willfully skewing
elections,
referendums
and
public opinion in America and
Europe through a barrage of
fake news, cyberattacks and
propaganda. China may not be
conducting such covert operations in the Indo-Pacific, but it is
dangling economic and military
carrots to key nations and subtly
fanning the flames of discontent
against American liberalism and
military power projection.
Can President-elect Donald
Trump reverse the Chinese
momentum in Asia? Given his
conservative ideological credentials and apparent isolationism, he
himself is an exhibit for the
decline of the liberal West and the
concurrent ascent of illiberal China and Russia. Yet, the unpredictability that he brings to the White
House will keep Beijing guessing.
The only certainty in this
period of massive flux is that
China, which had earlier lost
ground in Asia through its
aggressive behavior over territorial disputes, can afford a smile.
The writer is an international
affairs expert

Sacredspace
How Do I Know?

Stuff your visa

How do I know that love

of life is not a delusion after all?
How do I know that he who
dreads to die is as a child who
has lost the way and cannot find
his way home? How do I know
that the dead repent of having
previously clung to life?

I said after finding myself in a dank, cheerless

and colourless room as number 43
Bikram Vohra

When you get to my age there is nothing exciting about

travelling to countries that dont particularly want you to
come and packing your self-esteem as a number waiting to be
called so you can get the visa.
Although the Indian passport does have the President
kindly suggesting to the world at large to let you pass without
let or hindrance that warm sentiment does not fly in many places and you are
likely to find yourself nervously consigned to a steel chair in some dank,
colourless room clutching a regiment of documents and affidavits and sipping
water to wet your dry, nerve ridden lips.
So when i was invited to one such country to give a talk, that country having
decided in their spasm of wisdom that i would make a reasonable speaker i
found myself in a dank, cheerless and colourless room as number 43. This was
my first interview in 45 years.
It must be such a fun job to interrogate aspirants and make them squirm
and feel like doggie poop while you decide whether they can enter your country.
Like do you have ties to your present place of location. Yes, one wife of 37 years,
two daughters, two sons in law, four grandchildren and a partridge in
a pear tree.
Do you have any contacts with any terror group? Like if i had id
tell you, brother.
Do you have any relatives in our country, this question asked with lashings of
suspicion. Yes, hordes, last seen in 1993 purely by chance and having never corresponded with them these 24 years our association would be a slender thread at best.
How do we know you will leave the country on time and not slip into the
system? Say what? You might decide to settle down and become an illegal, we
have to be careful. Careful of a 68 year old guy giving a speech.
Now he is making little squiggles on a pad and then this pompous little
twerp of a petty bureaucrat asks me if i have any evidence of speeches given in
different forums before. By now i want to go home and it is getting very trying
and i am feeling terribly soiled so i say sorry, this is my maiden speech, first
time ever, hope i dont get stage fright. He says, hmmm, leave your passport and
well get back to you. And i say, you know what, you go give the speech.

efficiently and with empathy, to ensure

sustained support from the common man.
As per the Income Tax Amendment Act
of November 28, 2016, the government will
tax unaccounted income deposits at 50%
and will only prosecute those who, upon
investigation, are found to have engaged in
illegal or criminal activity. This move is
hoped to motivate the transfer of wealth
from the black economy to the banks.
Several recent developments suggest
that the demonetisation drive may well
yield significant benefits.
First, around 80% of the currency in
higher denominations has now been
deposited back into bank accounts. Since
individual deposits will now be matched
with their tax returns and unaccounted
deposits will be taxed, this will yield a
windfall for the government permitting
large increases in social expenditures.
Second, we already see an impressive
switch into digital transactions. Thus,
this one-time demonetisation itself
could have long-term beneficial impact
by nudging reluctant consumers into
e-payments, whose transparency will
ensure greater tax compliance and a
higher permanent tax base.
Third, the governments action taken
will put a major dent in counterfeiting.
With the new notes being much less prone
to counterfeiting, social benefits will be
earned immediately.
In any other time, one would have to be
unreasonably idealistic to expect, from
politicians, a major economic reform,
which offers substantive benefits in
the future, but comes with significant
political costs in the transition period
immediately following the reform.
India, however, seems to have voted
in a prime minister who is prepared to
take on political risk in his efforts to
fulfill his commitment to root out
corruption and has promised even
more. We await his next steps.

Chuang Tse

Practice Is So Important For Body And Mind

Girish Deshpande

he other day i read an interview of

a successful Indian tennis player.
Answering a question on why a
training routine is so important even
practising during off-season by playing
the same shots over and over again he
said it was to develop muscle memory.
In the interview, he further revealed that
memory of such kind acquired by the
muscle or a set of muscles in playing a
certain kind of shot comes in handy in
cliff-hanger situations of a close game,
when there is no time to think and
respond, but simply react.
Muscle memory
Rather than the players brain
memory, he would rely on the built-in
memory of the muscle that would
subconsciously follow a particular
swing with ease to play that shot. Such
muscle memory is developed over the
years by practising the same shot tens

of thousands of times. No wonder it is

said that practice makes perfect!
This is about practice in the physical
realm and in this case, it is to do with
sports, a highly physical activity. This got
me contemplating on what it would be
like to develop the memory of our mind in
the spiritual context. Isnt this what
practitioners of all traditions do
or are supposed to do in their
meditation sessions? Indeed, yes.
In Buddhist practices, Three
Wisdom Tools are handy to the
seeker. They are: listening to the
teachings (also reading the
teachings), contemplating on
them and finally meditating on
them. While the first tool is
self-explanatory, to contemplate
is basically to debate the subject
within ourselves using the intellect to
derive conclusively and finally meditate
on the outcome thus concluded in order
to make it our mind stream. This sounds

easy but practitioners spend a lifetime

over it! And yet our mind is merely a
feather in a storm, gullible to the
omnipresence of powerful seductive
phenomena around us, attracting and
distracting us, all the time.
From skin to marrow
A proverb in Tibetan says: It takes
six times of thorough study and
practice, for dharma to travel
from skin to the bone marrow.
Clearly the emphasis is on the
dogged pursuit of our practice.
It is the repetitiveness of such
meditative sessions, over and
over again, that builds our
mind memory, that not only
builds moment-to-moment
awareness, making us mindful
and thoughtful, but also
reminds us to be aware of something or
do something at a designated time in the
future (Pali: sati, Sanskrit: smrti,
Tib: trenpa).

the

speaking
tree

With this, we can offer a response to a

situation quite different from our
habitual patterns and painful habits. On
the subject of how and why were able to
control reactions and emotions during
meditation, yet fail to do so in real life
situations, Dzongzar Khyentse Rinpoche
says, In meditation we notice but dont
do anything about them. In other
situations we dont do anything about
them because we simply dont notice.
Building our minds memory helps
close the gap between noticing and
doing. If meditative sessions can be
compared to laboratory trials or
practice sessions, live situations are
field trials or real matches.
O seeker! Let there be no difference
between the two!
(The author is an ordained
Ngakpa and follows the Palyul School
of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan
Buddhism).
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