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Editorial
Month january 31, edition 000743 collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul
Editorial is syndication of all daily- published newspaper Editorial at one place.
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THE PIONEER
1. FROM PROTEST TO ANARCHY
2. JOBLESS DESPITE GROWTH
3. GROPING IN THE DARK - BALBIR PUNJ
4. NATIONALISM IS ABOVE POLITICS - PRAFULL GORADIA
5. IS IT A CRIME TO WANT TO HOIST THE TRICOLOUR? - VANI TRIPATHI
6. INDIA UNDER UPA IS FACING SERIOUS GOVERNANCE DEFICIT - CP BHAMBHRI
MAIL TODAY
1. FALLING SENSEX SIGNALS WORRIES ON FISCAL FRONT
2. CHARGES THAT MERIT CONCERN
3. REPORT HAS FAILED THE TRUTH
4. BITE THE BULLET ON THOMAS - BY RAJEEV DHAVAN
THE TIMES OF INDIA
1. DAYS OF RAGE
2. IMPROVE OUR CITIES
3. THE STATE AND THE NATION - ARUN JAITLEY
4. 'THE RIGHT PEOPLE ARE THERE, NOW IT'S A MATTER OF TIME'
5. THE KIND ONES - MADHUMITA GUPTA
HINDUSTAN TIMES
1. DON'T LOWER THE BAR FURTHER
2. SNAKES IN THE GRASS
3. GOVT MUST PLUG THIS BLACK HOLE - PANKAJ VOHRA
4. HONK WHEN CRAZY - RUCHIR JOSHI
THE INDIAN EXPRESS
1. BITTER DREAMS
2. BILLS OF PASSAGE
3. ROAD FORWARD
4. REVOLUTIONARY ROADS - ALIA ALLANA
5. WHERE IS THE LOYAL OPPOSITION? - JAITHIRTH RAO
6. THE SCARS OF SUCCESS - VERNA YU
7. THE CURRENT OF AFFAIRS - SUDEEP PAUL
8. IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BRAND - VALSAN THAMPU
9. BREAKING OUT OF THE INPUT TRAP - YAMINI AIYAR
THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS
1. BAD START TO THE YEAR
2. MORE BLACK THAN WHITE
3. SIBAL BEGINS A CLEAN-UP - SUNIL JAIN
4. INDIA LOSES ITS LUSTRE - DEEPAK GOPINATH
THE HINDU
1. EGYPT SHAKES WEST ASIA
2. BRAZEN CRIMINALITY
3. A STARTER FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT? - VLADIMIR RADYUHIN
4. LESSONS FROM L'AFFAIRE THOMAS - R.K. RAGHAVAN
5. WHEN PAPERS WERE FILED FOR THE DEAD - JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
6. ARGENTINA: FIGHTING THE GROWING DRUG MENACE - ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
7. THE PROBLEMS OF FISHERFOLK NEED BETTER COVERAGE - S. VISWANATHAN
THE ASIAN AGE
1. AFTER CWG, WORLD CUP FIASCO IN THE MAKING
2. POLITICS OF PATRIOTISM - JAYANTHI NATARAJAN
DNA
1. NEW TELECOM POLICY PROMISES FAIR PLAY
2. THE ARAB WORLD MARKS POSITIVE CHANGES
3. SURMOUNT THE NEED TO BE POSSESSIVE - CHANDRIKA
4. NEED TO CONTROL BANK OFFICIALS WHO ARE ALSO FINANCIAL ADVISORS - MADAN SABNAVIS
5. THE PM IS RESPONSIBLE FOR APPOINTING PJ THOMAS - AMBERISH K DIWANJI
DAILY EXCELSIOR
1. PARADISE LOST, YET TO BE REGAINED
2. 'TEJAS' TO MEET DEFENCE REQUIREMENTS - BY SUBHASHIS MITTRA
3. RBI MEASURE IS INADEQUATEPRICE SPIRAL TO CONTINUE - BY NANTOO BANERJEE
4. FEWER INDIAN STUDENTS GOING TO AUSTRALIA - BY ASHOK B SHARMA
THE TRIBUNE
1. MONK OR CHINESE PLANT?
2. FIASCO AT EDEN GARDENS
3. TABLETS OF A NEW ERA
4. SUSTAINABLE INCLUSIVE GROWTH - BY S. S. JOHL
5. ATM STUDY CENTRES - BY CHARANDEEP SINGH
6. GLOBAL PROFITABILITY MAY FALL FROM $15.1 BILLION TO $9.1 BILLION - VIBHA SHARMA
7. INDIAN PASSENGER LOAD INCREASES - SHIV KUMAR
THE KASHMIR TIMES
1. NOT BY WORDS, BUT ACTION
2. INCREASING WILD ANIMAL ATTACKS
3. COURTING NUCLEAR TROUBLE IN MAHARASHTRA - PRAFUL BIDWAI
BUSINESS STANDARD
1. DEATH BY POLICY
2. HUNGER FOR IDEAS
3. THE RETURN OF MANUFACTURING - SANJAYA BARU
4. NOT A BLOOD HOUND - K P SHASHIDHARAN
5. CHINA'S SUPERPOWER SYNDROME - A V RAJWADE
6. THE COMMODITY CYCLE WILL STAY UP IN 2011 - MADAN SABNAVIS
MUMBAI MIRROR
1. DOUBTING THOMAS
THE ECONOMIC TIMES
1. WHERE ARE THE APPS?
2. ADRS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR FDI
3. KADHAI COLLEGES
4. INFRASTRUCTURE & GLOBAL REBALANCING - ALOK SHEEL
5. ADHOCRACY TO CONTAIN FOOD INFLATION
6. INFLATION WILL CRUSH MIDDLE CLASS - GOPAL VITTAL & RAJESH SHUKLA
7. CLARITY WITHIN AND TIME MANAGEMENT - K VIJAYARAGHAVAN
BUSINESS LINE
1. IT IS NOT THE MONEY…
2. THE PROBLEM IS THE PEOPLE - ASHOAK UPADHYAY
3. WHEN BANGKOK SCORES OVER MUMBAI
DECCAN CHRONICLE
1. 'INCLUSIVE GROWTH' DAVOS MANTRA TOO
2. POLITICS OF PATRIOTISM - BY JAYANTHI NATARAJAN
3. SERIOUS IN SINGAPORE, CASUAL IN AMERICA - BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
4. POEM'S FINE, MIND YOUR LANGUAGE TOO
5. EARN MONEY HONESTLY - BY J.S. NEKI
6. NO AXE TO GRIND - BY MAUREEN DOWD
THE STATESMAN
1. SHOWCASE SACKING
2. MEDICINE WITH FRONTIER
3. INIMITABLE USHA
4. POETRY & PATRIOTISM~II - ARGHA BANERJEE
THE TELEGRAPH
1. NEW FRIENDSHIP
2. TOOTH AND NAIL
3. WHY REVOLUTIONS OCCUR
4. SERIOUS BUSINESS
DECCAN HERALD
1. DOUBTING THOMAS
2. NATURAL PARTNERS
3. MANY BATTLES FOR DEOBAND
4. EGYPTIANS WONDER WHAT'S NEXT ANTHONY SHADID,NYT
5. THE VISITOR AT DAWN - SHIRLEY HEREFORD
OHERALDO
1. NO ONE ATTACKED THE CHURCHES?
2. A MUCH MALIGNED ARMY
THE SENTINEL
1. EASTERN HORIZON
2. DON'T MIX THE TWO - BHARAT JHUNJHUNWALA
3. A GREAT EFFORT TO PRESERVE OUR PRIDE
THE JERUSALEM POST
1. AN ORDERLY TRANSITION OF POWER IN EGYPT
2. MY WORD: BORDERLINE CRAZY - BY LIAT COLLINS
HAARETZ
1. THE ALTERNATIVE IS ISLAM - BY RON LESHEM
2. THE FUTURE OF LABOR - BY SHLOMO AVINERI
3. HOW TO PROMOTE STABILITY - BY MERAV MICHAELI
4. THE POWER OF THE PEOPLE
5. DOESN'T THE WEST BANK HAVE FACEBOOK? - BY AKIVA ELDAR
THE NEW YORK TIMES
1. WITHIN OUR MEANS
2. THE DEVIL WE KNOW - BY ROSS DOUTHAT
3. A CROSS OF RUBBER - BY PAUL KRUGMAN
4. DATE WITH A REVOLUTION - BY MANSOURA EZ-ELDIN
USA TODAY
1. OUR VIEW: FINANCIAL CRISIS REPORT LANDS WITH A PARTISAN THUD
2. A PILLAR OF REAGAN'S LEGACY: RELIGION - BY PAUL G. KENGOR
3. I SHARE OPRAH'S MOM'S SHAME AND PAIN - BY LORRAINE DUSKY
4. OPPOSING VIEW: FOLLOW THE WEAK MORTGAGES - BY PETER J. WALLISON
TIMES FREE PRESS
1. TIME TO SHARPEN BUDGET AX
2. 'MEDICAL CARE' OR 'HEALTH CARE'?
3. BIG BILL FOR FEDERAL DICTATION
4. TIME FOR U.S. TO REASSESS U.N.
HURRIYET DAILY NEWS
1. FROM THE BOSPHORUS - STRAIGHT: THE YOUNG WILL DECIDE WHAT'S NEXT
2. HOW DO GÜL AND ERDOĞAN DIFFER? - SEDAT ERGIN
3. THE RIGHT TO REVOLT - YUSUF KANLI
4. THE EGYPTIAN REVOLUTION? - GWYNNE DYER
5. HOUSES OF BRIC AND MIST - EMRE DELİVELİ
6. TURKEY'S DYNAMIC RESURGENCE IN THE NEW GLOBAL ERA - ZEYNEP DERELI & JEAN-PIERRE LEHMANN
THE NEWS
1. EGYPT SEETHES
2. THE ENDLESS FLOOD
3. A DATE TO REMEMBER - ASIF EZDI
4. LET'S NOT BE CYNICS - HUSSAIN H ZAIDI
5. NEWS UNPLUGGED - SANA BUCHA
6. SURRENDER IS NO OPTION - DR A Q KHAN
7. WHEN THERE IS NO BREAD - S IFTIKHAR MURSHED
8. WINTER WANES - CHRIS CORK
PAKISTAN OBSERVER
1. IMPACT OF NEW SBP POLICY
2. PREMIER'S RESOLVE TO SOLVE PEOPLE'S PROBLEMS
3. WHEN ARMY OFFICERS JOIN PROTESTORS – IN CAIRO
4. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN IHK - AIR CDRE KHALID IQBAL (R)
5. REKO DIQ & NATIO - NAL INTERESTALI ASHRAF KHAN
6. LIFTING BAN FROM INDIAN COMPANIES - DR RAJA MUHAMMAD KHAN
7. TERRORISM IN LAHORE - AFSHAIN AFZAL
8. REBELLION IN LAND OF THE PHARAOHS - FOUAD AJAMI
THE AUSTRALIYAN
1. WINNING ALL ROUND ON DOHA
2. WORLD WAITS TO SEE NEXT MOVE IN CAIRO'S MOMENT
THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
1. WONDER AND RISK OF PEOPLE POWER
2. ABUSERS PREY ON VICTORIA'S MOST VULNERABLE
3. KEEP ISLANDS AT BAY, NOT IN BAY
THE GUARDIAN
1. IN PRAISE OF ... THE ARCOLA THEATRE
2. TAXATION: SQUEEZING MIDDLE BRITAIN
3. EGYPT: DESERT STORM
THE JAPAN TIMES
1. BULLET-TRAIN INFORMATION GLITCH
2. SHORING UP THE 'BASIC' PENSION
3. FOOD INFLATION THREATENS CONGRESS COALITION - BY GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN
4. INDIA AIMS TO RAISE ITS PROFILE VIS-A-VIS CHINA BY 'LOOKING EAST' - BY HARSH V. PANT
5. CHINA'S DEMOCRATIC STEPS - BY STEVEN HILL
THE JAKARTA POST
1. END GAME FOR MUBARAK
2. PEOPLE VS CORRUPTION
3. RUMINATIONS ON CHINESE NEW YEAR IN INDONESIA - AIMEE DAWIS
4. STABLE, PROSPEROUS INDONESIA VITAL FOR AUSTRALIA (PART 1 OF 2) - GREG MORIARTY
5. COMMUNITY KEY TO SOLVING CLIMATE CRISIS - DOROTHY LAMTIUR MANALU
CHINA DAILY
1. FINE ART OF SPECULATION
2. WATER OUR FUTURE
3. HARMONIOUS RELATIONSHIP - BY LE YUCHENG (CHINA DAILY)
4. DEBATE: YEAR OF THE RABBIT
5. CURRENT-ACCOUNT SURPLUS WILL SHRINK - BY MARTIN FELDSTEIN (CHINA DAILY)
DAILY MIRROR
2. TROUBLING THE FISHING WATERS
3. BJP ATTEMPTS TO WOO TN VOTERS
4. CLIMATE CHANGE - IS IT ALREADY HAPPENING? - BY ASOKA ABEYGUNAWARDANA
GULF DAILY NEWS
1. LIMITED OPTIONS IN THE FACE OF TURMOIL - BY DR JAMES J ZOGBY PRESIDENT, ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE
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THE PIONEER
EDITORIAL
FROM PROTEST TO ANARCHY
EGYPT SINKS DEEPER INTO CHAOS AND DISORDER
Notwithstanding the hype and hoopla surrounding Egypt's 'Jasmine Revolution', as the trail-blazing Tunisia protest was labelled, it is imperative to take into cognisance the fact that future of the largest Arab country still hangs in the balance. Yes, the notion of an oppressed people overthrowing their decades-long oppressor is appealing but it's also time to get real: There is no guarantee that a new Government will not be corrupt, will provide jobs (and education and healthcare) and hold free and fair elections. Much like the rest of West Asia and North Africa, Egypt has a population that is young, educated and unemployed; an economy that is so reliant on American aid and oil money that it has no real industry to speak of, and its political space hasn't seen a credible Opposition ever. Unfortunately, it seems like the future of Egypt does not lie in the much-touted 'hands of the people'. In reality, it will still be the decisions of the Presidency, the Army and to a limited extent, the various Opposition parties that will shape the final course of the uprising. In a last ditch attempt to keep himself in power, President Hosni Mubarak, in an apparent move to appease the protesters, has fired his Cabinet and appointed a new Prime Minister. But far more interestingly, he has also appointed a Vice President — the former Director of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate, Mr Omar Soliman — for the first time in the 30 year that he has been in power. According to the Egyptian Constitution, the Vice-President takes over as President if the incumbent dies or resigns from office. Former Minister for Civil Aviation, Air Marshall Ahmed Mohamed Shafik, has been appointed the new Prime Minister. It is not entirely coincidental that both Mr Soliman and Mr Shafik have military backgrounds. Historically, the Army has been a powerful institution in Egypt — the July 1952 'Revolution' that laid the foundation of the Arab Republic of Egypt was essentially a coup and since then the military has been the bedrock of Egypt's governing system. The men are also trusted aides of Mr Mubarak and enjoy much credibility at home and abroad and are considered to be influential in the region.
Mr Mubarak obviously believes these changes will help defuse the crisis that stares him, Egypt and the region in the face. But they may prove to be too little to late. At the moment the situation is fluid and could take any turn as the protests continue across Egypt, most noticeably in the key cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez. What is also noteworthy is the fact that the protests are fast degenerating into anarchy and chaos with looters and arsonists running amok. The police have disappeared, the Army is there but is maintaining absolute restraint. The coming days could see further changes and a point may come when Mr Mubarak may have to consider stepping down and handing over power to the Army or to a successor regime. What exactly will be the nature of that interim arrangement is anybody's guess. Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood is watching from the margins of the protests, waiting for the tide to take a decisive turn before it steps into the arena. There are indications that the Muslim Brotherhood could be waiting for total collapse of order as that could enable its takeover.
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THE PIONEER
EDITORIAL
JOBLESS DESPITE GROWTH
UNEMPLOYMENT REMAINS A SERIOUS CONCERN
The world economy may have turned around from one of the worst economic recessions that left it scarred in 2009 but things still look far from being radiant as global unemployment remains at a record high for the third consecutive year. If Global Employment Trends 2011, published by International Labour Organisation, is anything to go by, then low job creation remains a major stumbling block in the global economic recovery. What should worry policy-makers is that in stark contrast to macro-economic recovery, unemployment remains quite high. According to the International Monetary Fund, the world economy, which has registered a five per cent growth in 2010, is likely to remain on track with an estimated 4.5 per cent global GDP growth in 2011. But what comes as a surprise is that the increase in GDP growth and investment has done little to improve job markets. The global unemployment rates, which rose from 5.6 per cent in 2007 to 6.3 per cent in 2009, dropped only marginally in 2010 to 6.2 per cent. This definitely remains a cause for concern as high incidence of unemployment indicates a fragile economic recovery. In essence, a slack job market reflects that productivity gains are not translating into real wage growth. Hence, it is essential to create jobs so that consumption and aggregate demand grow and push the growth trajectory up. The seriousness of the matter can be guaged by the fact that even business leaders from across the world participating at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos have agreed that increasing unemployment does not augur well for sustained economic recovery.
India, which has shown resilience in weathering the 2009 global meltdown and expects a steady economic growth of 8.5 per cent, has reasons to worry because the GET report says incidence of 'vulnerable employment' is highest in South Asia, including India. There are 580 million people in the region falling under the category although unemployment rate has been fairly stable, ranging between 4.3 and 4.5 per cent over the last three years. What should send alarm bells ringing is the fact that the Reserve Bank of India has witnessed a decline in FDI, which can be interpreted as a sign that all is not well with the country's growth potential. Hence, the Government must formulate strategies to not allow the job market to slow down and create fairer and better-functioning labour markets. Focusing on population control can be a good starting point because it is difficult for any Government, irrespective of sound policies, to create jobs keeping pace with unbridled population growth. Further, the Government should take steps to promote cottage and small-scale industries, extending loans to rural youth and women and enabling them to generate a sustainable income.
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THE PIONEER
COLUMN
GROPING IN THE DARK
BALBIR PUNJ
The Prime Minister is increasingly being perceived as someone who is in office but not in power. Nothing else explains his failure to act.
One can possibly dismiss senior BJP leader and NDA chairman LK Advani's comment that Mr Manmohan Singh is "the weakest Prime Minister we have ever had" as one prompted by his party's political stand. However, the same cannot be said when prominent citizens and business leaders make a similar assessment of this Government.
Doyens from the field of business, finance, judiciary and other fields have written an 'open letter' making a desperate appeal to the Prime Minister to start governing the country. The 'open letter' has urged Mr Singh to initiate urgent measures on issues such as tackling corruption, bridging the governance deficit and ensuring independence of "investigative agencies and law enforcement bodies" from the executive.
The 14 signatories include some of India's most eminent individuals — Mr Azim Premji of Wipro, Mr Ashok Ganguli, former chairman of Hindustan Unilever Limited and an MP now, former Reserve Bank of India Governors Bimal Jalan and N Narasimhan, former Supreme Court judges BN Srikrishna and Sam Variava, economist A Vaidyanathan and blue ribbon entrepreneurs like Mr Deepak Parekh, Ms Anu Aga, Mr Keshub Mahindra and Mr Jamshyd Godrej. Some of them are close to the Government or even members of the National Advisory Council headed by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
That such eminent persons should issue an open letter instead of taking their grievances directly to the Prime Minister and the NAC chairperson to whom they have easy access serves to underscore their decision to make the matter of governance deficit a public issue rather than whisper about it at top-level meetings. Although drafted in sober and under-stated language, the open letter's contents are loud and voluble to all.
When they say they are raising issues of tackling corruption and ensuring independence of investigative and law-enforcing agencies from the executive "in order to ensure citizens that corruption will be most severely dealt with", they indirectly mean that like most citizens of India they are not satisfied with what the Government has done so far. They have told the Prime Minister that the way these issues are being dealt with has failed to strengthen the confidence of the people. In other words, there is sizeable deficit in popular confidence in the UPA's governance.
Lest the Government fails to read the message, these eminent persons have added that they have been compelled to write an open letter because "several loud and outraged voices in the public domain (are) clamouring on these issues, which have deeply hurt the nation". The assertion that the people no longer believe in the sincerity of those in power in New Delhi could not have been more tellingly packaged — the understatement is louder than a shout.
Yet, that is not all. The open letter explicitly says that the institution of governance is facing a crisis because "widespread discretionary decision-making has been routinely subjected to extraneous influences". There are flip-flops on environmental issues that clearly seem to follow political criteria rather than facts.
In effect, this public statement is an expression of erosion of faith, if not lack of confidence, in the integrity and competence of the Government headed by Mr Manmohan Singh. It is a warning to the Union Government that the mandate it received in the summer of 2009 has eroded considerably and the onus for this lies with the Prime Minister. In other words, what these individuals who are not aligned with any political party are saying what Mr LK Advani has been pointing out for long — just that he has been more explicit in stating the point that is now being reiterated.
Despite public clamour for action, the response from Mr Manmohan Singh can be best described as timid. Take the Cabinet reshuffle, for instance. Instead of exercising his authority and determination to generate confidence among the people that he is serious about setting up a Government that performs, Mr Singh has indulged in the usual game of musical chairs with a vague promise that a larger game will follow the Budget session of Parliament.
As regards corruption, the Group of Ministers met on January 21 to discuss the issue and "asked the Cabinet Secretary to form two committees to analyse the various reports of expert committees available with the Government to tackle the menace". It also "discussed the latest draft of the Lokpal Bill." There could not have been a better example of evading the issue.
The rot runs deep. Recently the Supreme Court took the Union Government to task for its dogged refusal to reveal the names of those who have stashed away black money abroad. The Government is dragging its feet over taking up the offer from Germany to reveal the information it has extracted from the European principality of Lichtenstein about these funds. It gets the information under the double tax avoidance provisions that require the names to be kept secret.
As we have seen in the case of Pune-based horse breeder Hasan Ali, there is a deliberate attempt to not let the people know who are the culprits who have transferred money abroad secretly. It is entirely possible that there are names on the list that can cause discomfort to the Congress and its allies in the UPA, and this could be the reason why it is trying to keep the names a secret as long as possible.
During the Winter session of Parliament the Opposition expressed its 'no confidence' in the Government by refusing to let both the Houses function. And there are indications that the Budget session could also prove to be a washout. That could bring the administration to a halt if the Budget or demand for grants is not passed before March 31. Many others, besides the NDA, have flayed Mr Manmohan Singh for his inability to demonstrate decisive leadership. They are social activists, professionals and people from the media and business world. In fact, it suggests a consensus of sorts across the nation.
As the Budget session draws near, these 'loud and outraged voices', as the open letter has aptly described them, are bound to grow into a demand for the Prime Minister to perform or quit. Some suggest that the second step is exactly what some important individuals in the Congress want him to take. The next few weeks are going to be crucial.
punjbalbir@gmail.com
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THE PIONEER
OPED
NATIONALISM IS ABOVE POLITICS
PRAFULL GORADIA
What the Congress has chosen to ignore while joining Omar Abdullah in disallowing the hoisting of the Tricolour at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Republic Day by nationalist youth is that nationalism is the spirit that unites the people of this nation, it symbolises India's sovereignty. Tragically, politics has been allowed to triumph over nationalism and the nation will pay the price for this folly
The UPA Government supporting the Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir to prevent nationalist youth from hoisting the national flag at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on Republic Day amounted to political bankruptcy. On February 22, 1994, a Congress-led Government had a unanimous resolution passed by Parliament that Jammu & Kashmir, including Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, has been, is and shall be an integral part of India and any attempts to separate it from the rest of the country will be resisted by all necessary means.
Surprisingly, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as well as most of the media ridiculed the intention of the youth as mischief meant to disturb the peace in Jammu & Kashmir. All these people cannot be unpatriotic and hence the conclusion must be that there is widespread ignorance that the celebration of Republic Day is a reminder of the country's sovereignty. This year's Republic Day has shown that New Delhi does not consider the country to be sovereign. It concedes that the Government's writ does not run in Jammu & Kashmir. What if in the coming years other States follow the example?
Let us put on record that no country can remain integrally united without nationalism. True, 20th century Europe set a poor example with its extreme swings against and for nationalism. It was the same continent which innovated nationalism as a political ideology to replace monarchy, beginning with the French Revolution in 1789. Yet it was on the same continent where the Russian Revolution took place in 1917. It established a communist state which was the very anti-thesis of nationalism.
Karl Marx believed that the nation state was an instrument of exploitation of the poor in the hands of the rich. Little wonder that Leo Trotsky, the first Soviet Defence Minister, pursued the goal of world communist revolution as a priority over the welfare of the Soviet people. The Constitution, directed by VI Lenin, allowed any of the Soviet Republics to secede from the Union. After Lenin and Trotsky, Josef Stalin ensured the country's unity by diluting the Marxist prescription. His policy was 'socialism within one country', a mild version of nationalism. Since the break-up of the USSR in 1991, Russia has reverted to building a nationalist state.
The reaction to the Russian Revolution and the spread of communism in different parts of Europe led to the rise of Benito Mussolini in Italy and Adolf Hitler in Germany, both of whom proved to be maniacal. The European pendulum again swung after World War II and gradually the European Union has sought to replace the sovereignty of individual countries. The European Parliament at Brussels is progressively taking over, the effects of which on the nation states is yet to be fully seen.
The economic melt-down, however, is severe in several parts of Europe compared with the rest of the world. The economies of Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy are already facing serious financial crises. France is not far behind unless the current efforts at economic reform succeed. Implicitly, these countries hope that Germany will help rescue them. Had they been entirely self-dependent as before the European Union came into being, these nation states might have been much more alert. Some experts feel that the dilution of sovereignty could spell the decline of Europe.
Incidentally, it should be noted that in the absence of nationalism, the communist states led by the Soviet Union have collapsed. North Korea is the only country that has remained wedded to communism.
The point is that nationalism provides a unique bond similar to that provided by an extended joint family with common property. Take the national spirit out and a country or a society loses this bond and citizens tend to look upon everybody's business for the nation as nobody's business. Everyone continues to be ready to consume but no one is accountable for producing. Poland, which had between 1772 and 1795 disappeared from the map, emerged as an independent country again, only because the lamp of national spirit had not gone out.
Without an understanding of these historical factors, the Congress leaders as well as other self-styled leftists loosely talk about the virtues of pluralism. Unity in diversity is a contradiction. Yet, diversity being the reality of India, it is united by a common cultural thread. The Hindu ethos is a bond across the country, whether in Jammu & Kashmir or in Kerala, in Kamrup (Assam) or in Kathiawad (Gujarat).
The Abdullahs of Jammu & Kashmir are playing a game which the UPA leaders are unable to see through. They want autonomy but not independence because the former ensures enormous funding from the rest of the country. The State of Jammu & Kashmir pays no taxes. To that extent the separatists are more straightforward; they openly say that they want the State to break free of India.
Six decades is a short time in the history of a country and yet how is it that the Congress has conveniently forgotten that in 1947 the land was divided on the basis of religion? Mohammed Ali Jinnah said that Hindus and Muslims cannot live together and the latter voted almost wholesale for him and his Pakistan in 1946. Whether independence or autonomy, these are Kashmiri euphemisms for another partition. That is the impulse behind the assertion that the national flag being hoisted at Lal Chowk in Srinagar will disturb the peace in Jammu & Kashmir.
The Labour Party under Clement Attlee was socialist. Winston Churchill was a diehard nationalist who had fought Hitler and Mussolini tooth and nail. He expressed an apprehension on the eve of our independence. The way our country is being governed at present should make us pray that his apprehension does not come true. The apprehension was that Attlee was handing over India to men of straw of whom in a few years no trace would remain.
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THE PIONEER
OPED
IS IT A CRIME TO WANT TO HOIST THE TRICOLOUR?
BJYM ACTIVISTS WHO SET FORTH TO HOIST THE NATIONAL FLAG AT LAL CHOWK IN SRINAGAR WERE BRUTALLY ATTACKED BY THE POLICE, SAYS VANI TRIPATHI
The recent Ekta Yatra of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha to Jammu & Kashmir has been an extremely unfortunate experience as the behaviour meted out to those participating in the yatra by the police was not only aggressive but also un-constitutional.
The yatra, which started from Kolkata and went to Jammu&Kashmir where there was a clamp-down, has brought into focus two important places of Indian politics. If Kolkata is the birth place of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, then Jammu & Kashmir is where he died fighting for the State's full and final integration with the Union of India. It has also brought to the fore two paradigms of Indian politics.
The BJP has never come to power in any of these States. The State of West Bengal did resist the yatra, but did not do anything violent to stop it. But the Jammu & Kashmir Government came down heavily on the activists. Young BJYM workers, who were non-violent, were beaten up without any provocation. Being a witness to such police atrocities makes one feel angry and anguished at the state of affairs. The police acted as if it was trying to kill the activists.
The police tried their best to provoke the workers and resorted to lathi-charge. Had the activists got violent, they could have ended the operation within a short time. But thousands of BJP workers, despite the provocation kept their cool, remained peaceful and only shouted nationalist slogans like "Bharat mata ki jai". The police got frustrated and more aggressive. The clamp-down sustained for more than four hours till all activists were arrested.
Worse was the situation after the arrest. The BJP workers, including hundreds of women, were taken to a huge ground near the police station where there were no basic civic facilities. They were neither offered food nor water. It was the State BJP unit that got into action to provide basic amenities to thousands of workers from more than 10 States. The extreme non-cooperation from the State administration following the arrest only proves that they wanted to stop the yatra by exercising coercion.
Curiously, in the middle of the night, the police decided to open the doors of the prison compound and remove the cordon. However, no one came to declare the release orders. The incident serves to underscore that the police were playing a game. They wanted the workers to start leaving so that they could proclaim that arrested BJP workers had escaped from police custody. Only after angry protests by workers, a magistrate was brought, who declared the order.
Despite all coercion, however, several BJP workers quietly sneaked into Srinagar to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk on January 26. Though they managed to hoist the flag led by a woman worker of the party, they were badly beaten up by the security forces, verbally abused, whiplashed and subjected to third degree torture like petty criminals. Even women were not spared; they were manhandled.
The incident makes one ask a most pertinent question: Is it a crime in India to exercise one's national, constitutional right? Is it a crime to hoist the National Tricolour? Is it such a heinous crime that one will be beaten up and subjected to torture?
Such behaviour meted out to workers of a national political party is nothing but a shame for our democracy. Are we not fooling ourselves by saying that India is a Republic when political workers are beaten, abused, coerced and women manhandled?
The Government also tried to highjack the workers by changing the engine of the train from Karnataka. The leaders of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha were detained, treated shabbily and finally thrown out of the State in the middle of the night. Worse, the Prime Minister of the country was singing the same tune as the separatists. This shows the soft attitude of the Government towards people who want to separate the State of Jammu & Kashmir from India.
So who are we fooling by stating that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India?
The writer is a national secretary of the BJP.
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THE PIONEER
OPED
INDIA UNDER UPA IS FACING SERIOUS GOVERNANCE DEFICIT
THE ADVERSE IMPACT OF TWO CENTRES OF POWER AND A UNION GOVERNMENT THAT IS CLEARLY ADRIFT IS NOW VISIBLE, SAYS CP BHAMBHRI
It deserves to be clearly stated that India under the Congress-led UPA Government is facing serious governance deficit which is adversely affecting the country. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has failed to evolve appropriate policies to curb the rising food inflation, which has hit the common man hard. The Ministers have offered phoney excuses to escape their responsibilities. All assurances that the inflation will come down have proved to be wrong. The Congress looks clueless and directionless in dealing with the problem of rising food prices.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi have also failed to counter effectively the allegations of corruption and misrule. The Winter session of Parliament last year could not function properly because the Opposition was not satisfied with the Government's response on the issue of 2G Spectrum sale or swindling of money in the Commonwealth Games. The dust has still not settled. The issue of evasion of income tax and siphoning of black money out of India has complicated matters. The Supreme Court of India has pointed out that depositing national money of India in foreign banks amounts to 'loot of national wealth'. However, Minister for Finance Pranab Mukherjee in his Press conference on January 24 did not come forward with any concrete strategy to bring back the money, which is stashed away in foreign banks.
Why is the UPA Government incapable of responding to challenges facing the country? A few facts may be mentioned to substantiate the argument that the UPA Government has failed because of the 'dual leadership'. Ms Gandhi is not only the president of the Congress party, she is the supreme leader whose writ runs in the Government. Leaders of the party organisation and Congress Ministers in the Government are accountable to her. Ms Gandhi's complete control over party's organisational structure can be extremely helpful to the Congress-led Government if she acts as the eyes and ears of the party and provides feedback to the Government about the grievances of the people.
As president of the Congress, she is expected to act as a link between the party organisation and the Government. But Ms Gandhi, it seems, is not satisfied with such a passive role but wants to lead the party as well as the Government without being a formal office holder. The Prime Minister consults Ms Gandhi on all matters that fall in the domain of governance and for which he is solely responsible under the Constitution of India.
The party president can advise or make suggestions to the Prime Minister, but cannot act as an alternative source of making public policies in parliamentary system. The UPA Government is at loggerheads with Ms Gandhi's 'super Cabinet', the National Advisory Council, on a very important issue — of the modalities of implementation of the much-awaited Food Secuirty Bill.
The experts in the Government are not agreeing to the suggestions of NAC on the criterion of determining the rural and urban populations to be covered by this scheme. The public controversy between the Government and Ms Gandhi on public policy issues has not only sent wrong signals to the country, but has conveyed the message that NAC is a 'super Cabinet' and Ms Gandhi is the source of authority.
The NAC is also engaged in a tug of war with the Union Government on the issue of 'wages' paid under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. Ms Gandhi has suggested to the Union Government that under MNREGA minimum wages should be paid as 'laid down by the laws of the land'. But the Government has expressed its inability to oblige because according to Government calculations, the burden will be too heavy on the public exchequer. Ms Gandhi's suggestions to the Government on Food Secuirty Bill, minimum wages under MNREGA or the proposed amendments in the RTI Act gives the impression that it is not Mr Singh who is leading the Government, but Ms Gandhi is the real centre of power.
Further, Mr Rahul Gandhi's recommendations to the Government have far more weightage than the recommendations of any other Congress leader because he shines in the reflected glory of his mother. It is the prerogative of the Congress to decide whether it wants to make Mr Gandhi a Minister or even a Prime Minister, but he is harming the democratic system by participating in policy matters, which is not his responsibility as an ordinary MP.
Ms Gandhi to her credit has rejuvenated and revived the declining Congress party and the party leaders accept her undisputed supremacy in the organisation. However, her special status as Congress president must not impact the functioning of Congress-led Governments at the Centre and the States. Congress party should remember that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had publicly conveyed to Congress president JB Kripalani that he is not expected to meddle with the affairs of the Government. Jawaharlal Nehru also took on Purushotam Das Tandon, another Congress president, because he was not in tune with the thinking and ideological make-up of the party and it eventually led to Tandon's resignation.
The Prime Minister is the real leader of the country and there can be no 'dual' or 'triple' centres of power in a parliamentary democracy. If Mr Singh is perceived as 'passive' and Ms Gandhi is projected as the 'real source of power' of the Government, then it not only affects governance, it also harms the image of the Congress. That way neither is Ms Gandhi serving the interest of her party nor the interest of the UPA Government, where her party is the major stakeholder. Unless she amends her interfering attitude, the Government will become counter-productive and the Congress will have to pay the price in the next election.
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MAIL TODAY
COMMENT
FALLING SENSEX SIGNALS WORRIES ON FISCAL FRONT
STOCK markets are considered a leading indicator of economic activity for the very good reason that investors tend to discount today, what they expect to happen tomorrow.
By that reckoning, the future appears to be tough for the India growth story. Friday's fall on the bourses took benchmark stock indices like the BSE Sensex below key ' resistance' levels. This means that the trend line is now angling downwards and something out of the ordinary needs to happen to boost investor confidence in the markets once again.
That doesn't look like happening anytime in a hurry. Admittedly, the fundamentals still appear fairly sound. Growth is ticking along nicely at over 8.5 per cent for the current financial year and an estimated 9 per cent or higher for the next. Corporate results have been fairly good across the board and there has been a surge in hiring activity in India Inc., always a sign of positive expectations for the future.
Unfortunately, the rest of the picture — which the government has been resolutely ignoring — is not looking so pretty. Inflation, as the Reserve Bank of India admitted last week, is now beyond the ability of monetary policy alone — which the central bank regulates — to control. Despite seven interest rate hikes, prices are showing no signs of coming down. This is the government's job and it has so far failed to deliver.
Meanwhile, it is showing no signs of cutting the fiscal deficit, which is ballooning. Government expenditure now accounts for over 16 per cent of GDP and is growing twice as fast as private expenditure. Little of this is in productive areas, leading to widening gaps in investment and infrastructure. Clearly, the market is not optimistic about the government's ability to prune the deficit.
CHARGES THAT MERIT CONCERN
THERE is every reason to take seriously the stand taken by a member of the special investigation team that the Ishrat Jahan encounter may have been staged. Significantly, Satish Verma is not just an Indian Police Service officer, but one belonging to the Gujarat cadre. An earlier probe by a metropolitan magistrate, too, had said that the encounter was staged.
The evidence that the police officer has presented to back his claim is substantial. There has been a question mark over the genuineness of the encounter ever since it took place.
The policemen who executed it were involved in other such acts, being led by the infamous D. G. Vanzara, currently in jail for the Sohrabuddin Sheikh killing, allegedly also a fake encounter.
The high court should have heeded Verma's complaint that the other two police officers of the team were putting hurdles in the way of an impartial probe. It is perhaps not a coincidence that one of them— a Delhi Police official— was associated with the Batla House encounter in Delhi which evoked substantial outcry.
After Verma's affidavit on Friday, there is an even greater onus on the high court to ensure that the probe is completed impartially and the guilty, if there are any, be punished.
REPORT HAS FAILED THE TRUTH
THE report by the Justice B K Somashekara committee — appointed to probe into the attacks on churches and violence against the Christian community in Karnataka — appears to be ridden with holes.
The report conveniently puts the blame on Mahendra Kumar the former state president of the Bajrang Dal — without even naming the organisation. It is no coincidence that Mr Kumar is presently part of the opposition Janata Dal ( Secular).
The lack of coherence in the report is evident from its vague assertion that " no genuine Hindu was involved in the attacks", in spite of attributing the attacks to Hindu anger following the circulation of literature derogatory to the religion.
The possibility of governmental interference cannot be ruled out as the state government had threatened to wind up the commission after its interim report blamed the Sri Ram Sene and Bajrang Dal.
The final report contradicting the interim version is quaint, to say the least, and the committee has clearly failed to reveal the truth. Therefore the Christian community has little choice but to seek legal redress.
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MAIL TODAY
COLUMN
BITE THE BULLET ON THOMAS
BY RAJEEV DHAVAN
THE controversy about P. J. Thomas' appointment as Central Vigilance Commissioner ( CVC) cannot be brought to a dignified end. It is not necessary to emphasise that the CVC is an important post — an effective culmination to the clumsy steps taken after the Santhanam Committee Report of 1964. The Supreme Court in the Hawala case ( reported 1998) recreated the CVC in profiling this post as an independent post crucial to governance. This was statutorily achieved through the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 — apart from some monkey tricks by the bureaucracy to immunise investigation against them.
The Act of 2003 provides that the recommending authorities shall be the Prime Minister, home minister and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha ( Section 4). Thomas' appointment was made over the dissent of Sushma Swaraj who, allegedly, based her discomfiture on the fact that Thomas was an accused in the Kerala palmolein export case.
Suitability
The CVC and other vigilance commissioners ( VCs) have a single four- year term except that VCs can have a further single four year term as CVC ( Section 5). VCs and CVCs will not be eligible for any other post in the Union or states. The VCs and CVCs can resign if they want to ( Section 5). But they cannot be removed except by a special reference to the Supreme Court to prove their misbehaviour or incapacity ( Section 6). But if they are guilty of an offence of moral turpitude, insolvency, acceptance of paid office, or have financial or other interests prejudicial to their functions or accepting some other, become infirm of mind and body, they can be removed by the President ( Section 6). The powers of the commission are huge ( Section 8) including the much needed oversight of the CBI and the Prevention of Corruption Act cases.
The controversy: The CVC's post is much too important and independent a post for the wrong person to be appointed. What is the meaning of " wrong"? Here the Supreme Court has generally made a distinction between " eligibility" ( which is a narrow test) and " suitability" ( which is a wider test). The narrow " eligibility" test requires CVCs and VCs to simply be bureaucrats in an All India Service with experience and expertise in vigilance, policy making, police or other administration or, if in a public corporation with experience in insurance, banking, vigilance and investigation. If only the " eligibility" test was applied, just about any IAS, IPS and senior officers of public corporations would be eligible. The " eligibility" conditions are so narrow that discretion to appoint anybody is vast. There are some doubts that Thomas was brought to Delhi to make him eligible. Even so, Thomas's appointment cannot really be faulted on the narrow demands of the " eligibility" test.
This is what makes the " suitability" test crucial and important. Is he the right person for the job? Or, is all this now a political squabble triggered off by Public Interest Litigation ( PIL) vigilantes including my friend, the omnipresent Prashant Bhushan. The joker in the pack is the criminal proceedings pending against Thomas which Sushma Swaraj says was the issue on which she dissented at the recommendation meeting of which she was a party. Alas, it is stated on the interpretation of Attorney- General G. E. Vahanvati's arguments that our PM was not aware of this.
Sushma Swaraj says that she is willing to file an affidavit that the PM did know because she brought the issue up. Clearly, if the PM did not know, he should have known. If he did know, why was this not a relevant factor as far as " suitability" was concerned?
Judiciary
The court's power: The real question relates to the Supreme Court's ( SC) power to interfere. The SC is accused of excessive interference in everything. Chief Justice Kapadia feels that the Court's right to interfere must be grounded in law and not simply because it does not agree with the government and feels someone else would be more " suitable". The SC is in a mood of judicial restraint and may refuse to interfere.
But, that is yet to be seen. The SC can interfere on one ground for two reasons.
The ground is rooting out corruption that is essential to good governance which is not just the province of parliamentary control but part of the life and ' liberty' fundamental right provisions of Article 21. This raises the theoretical question as to whether Parliament or the courts should control " bad governance". Given the hawala, forest, police and sex discrimination cases, the controversy is stale because under the Constitution as it is interpreted today, both have a role.
But the SC's reasons for inquiry can be twofold: ( i) examining eligibility conditions under the writ of quo warranto ( a narrow inquiry) ( ii) examining the reasonableness of the decision ( a wider test which may stray into question of suitability to a limited extent). The ' remove- Thomas' lobby says that the lines between, " suitability" and " eligibility" are thin. But the more important consideration is: Was the ' charge against Thomas' a significant factor which should have been taken into account and given due weightage in the decision to appoint him CVC? If it has not been taken into account and given a due weightage, the very appointment is flawed, void and illegal. If not, Thomas's appointment is valid and he cannot be removed except by special complicated procedures.
Probity
Saving government's face: How does the government get out of this? Will the Court help the government? Thomas wants the government to fight. Once his appointment is declared valid, he is on a cushy wicket.
He has security of tenure for four years and can be removed if convicted or after a special presidential reference to the SC. At present the government supports Thomas, but for different reasons. The government's main interest ( other than Chidambaram's overtures) is to defend the PM and home minister to prove that they did not make a mistake. This is what makes this an issue of party politics. Why? India's badly run Parliamentary system is more interested in attacking the PM and those in power rather than force them into embarrassment and resignation. Such polarisation seems to take place on everything. The fact is that the PM and ministers do make mistakes.
They should admit them. But, they forbear because the Opposition will convert a peccadillo into a grave sin fit to preface resignation.
Statesmanship — admit and resign : In all this, questions of probity are lost. We should be interested in good governance rather than just a labyrinth of party politics.
The answer to the question whether a person accused of a scam should be CVC is that they should not be. Both
the government and Thomas seem to have made this a mooch kaa sawal ( a matter of prestige).
But it should not be.
Looking at the needs of good governance the answer should be simple. The PM and government should clearly admit they made a mistake. This would be the highest traditions of office. Likewise, Thomas should resign — not because he feels he is guilty but because it is in the public interest to do so.
Indian governance allows too many criminals accused of serious offences to hold office. It is time we cleaned up this practice in Parliament, politics and administration.
It is also time that the government learns to admit its mistakes.
The writer is a Supreme Court lawyer
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THE TIMES OF INDIA
COMMENT
DAYS OF RAGE
The Tunisian contagion appears to be spreading across the Arab world, with popular demonstrations against autocratic rulers breaking out in Egypt, Yemen and Jordan. Among these the Egyptian protests are undoubtedly the most important. That's not just because Egypt is a premier intellectual driving force in the Arab world, but also because the manifestations of popular anger in that country have taken on the dimensions of an uprising.
Whether ageing president Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt with an iron hand for the last three decades, weathers this particular storm remains to be seen. But what's not in doubt is that change is imminent across the Arab world. Egypt has already fulfilled many of the conditions of a successful uprising, the only question now is for how much time the old order will hold out. And if Tunisia and Egypt go, autocratic rulers in neighbouring countries can hardly sit easy. Demonstrators have gotten the better of police forces in the streets of Cairo, and the military has been called in to keep the peace. But there are signs of open fraternisation between soldiers and demonstrators, which suggest the old regime is fraying. And given that Egypt's intelligence apparatus has often been blamed for heavy-handed repression of dissent Mubarak's appointment of his intelligence chief as the vice-president, in response to the gathering protests, shows him to be dangerously out of touch.
A critical issue in the Middle East is how western powers respond to Egypt's uprising, given Mubarak's role as a western ally in the region. The problem is that through the second half of the 20th century the West has often pursued a Faustian bargain with the region's autocratic rulers, shoring them up for reasons of Cold War realpolitik or to gain access to its oil resources. That has undercut lip service paid to democratic rights, while the region's rulers too have used the Islamist bogey to undermine international support for democratic change.
But President Obama would do well to remember that the case for change he articulated so eloquently for America is an aspiration that's sweeping across the Arab world as well. And so far both the Tunisian and Egyptian movements have been about democratic rights and relief from economic distress rather than about religion. Obama struck the right balance when he said that the people of Egypt have democratic rights that are universal. The worst outcome now would be if western powers tried to impose cynical and shopworn 20th century style realpolitik on the Arab world, which is trying to grow into the 21st century.
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THE TIMES OF INDIA
COMMENT
IMPROVE OUR CITIES
The decay and haphazard development which scars our cities was addressed by Kamal Nath at Davos. But the recently anointed urban development minister must make the case in cabinet when he comes home from Davos, and do his utmost to reform urban development along the lines he has suggested.
Noting the failure of urban authorities such as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Nath proposed public-private partnerships rather than public monopolies for urban development. It's in our cities, rather than in our villages, that our collective futures will be decided.
Cities will generate 60% of GDP, 70% of jobs and house over 500 million Indians by 2020. Quality infrastructure attracts more investment and increases prosperity. Providing urbanites with adequate facilities needs to become a premier focus of policy.
A greater role for the private sector has to be complemented by devolution in financial matters. Funds for city development can be routed directly instead of through state governments, because states are not necessarily interested in their cities. Nor does a uniform set of criteria for the release of funds work in a country as diverse as ours. Nath proposes to reform both facets.
Such reform would build on the 74th amendment which empowered city dwellers by creating three new types of municipalities, and devolved to them greater functional and financial responsibility. The benefits have been dissipated by the states' unwillingness to enact reform and by problems at the grassroots pertaining to taxation and corruption. The Centre must ensure states implement the 74th amendment and adequately self-regulate. Ultimately, urbanites having been empowered, they will vote to hold city governments accountable.
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THE TIMES OF INDIA
TOP ARTICLE
THE STATE AND THE NATION
ARUN JAITLEY
Jammu & Kashmir is strategically located on the border of Pakistan. One-third of the state's territory is under Pakistani occupation. Kashmir is part of Pakistan's unfinished agenda since the partition of India. Pakistan, after initially snatching away a part of our territory, has consistently attempted to internationalise the issue. Its initial strategy of conventional war to occupy larger territory has failed. India's military strength was superior.
For two decades Pakistan resorted to proxy war through cross-border terrorism. The world started frowning upon terror tactics. India gained strength both in intelligence and security operations to crush terror. Pakistan's strategy did not work beyond a point. Through separatists in Kashmir it is now resorting to a strategy of stone-pelting while arguing that it is a peaceful protest.
Violence has always been the separatists' strategy. It invites police and security action. In clashes that follow, many innocents suffer. This results in curfews, hartals and disruption of normal life. Homes are searched and human dignity is compromised. Separatists feel, by adopting this strategy, they can create a wedge between the people and the Indian state. In a peaceful Kashmir, separatist leaders are reduced to becoming Friday speakers. In a stormy Kashmir they become mass leaders. Violence and disruption of life suits them, not the Indian state.
How did we reach this stage? Three historical mistakes were committed by our government immediately after independence. Firstly, when a natural migration after the partition was taking place, the then government did not allow resettlement of any refugee in J&K. Refugees who migrated from the PoK region have not been accorded the status of state subject till today. Secondly, Nehru's insistence on ascertaining the wishes of the people - a principle not adopted anywhere else in the country - resulted in the plebiscite resolution, the UN's resolution and the internationalisation of the issue.
Thirdly, grant of special status prevented J&K's economic development. It created a psychological barrier between the state and the rest of India. The state's political merger was complete with the signing of the instrument of accession. Accession to Indian law, however, was incomplete because of Article 370. The six-decade journey of separate status has not been towards fuller integration but towards separatism. Separate status created a faint hope of azadi in the minds of some. It prevented investments in the state. Even with its huge human resource potential and natural beauty, the state could never realise its economic potential. It did not gain from economic development in the last two decades.
Pakistan has aided separatists and terrorists. Violence, terrorism coupled with security actions harassed the Indian state and the people of J&K. The faint hope of azadi at times culminated in a realisable reality in the minds of separatists. None amongst Kashmir's people has considered whether azadi is realistically possible. Azadi's political content and the prospect of an 'azad' state's survival have never been seriously analysed. It was an idea of protest against India.
If separate status gave birth to this faint hope of azadi, mainstream parties, by advocating autonomy, pre-1953 status, self-rule and dual currency, aided and abetted this.
Under our constitutional scheme, J&K enjoys more executive and legislative powers than any other state in India. The Centre's jurisdiction is confined to security, defence, currency, foreign affairs, telecommunication and the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and Election Commission. None of the above-mentioned jurisdictions can ever be transferred to the state. J&K's current problems are due to the environment being created by separatists, terrorists and our western neighbour. The problems may be economic, employment-centric or those of regional imbalances. None has anything to do with inadequacy of power being vested in the state legislature or state government.
The whole object of some political parties is to weaken the political and constitutional relationship between the state and the nation. Special status already started this, with a relationship of modest strength. Autonomy, self-rule and azadi are all intended to weaken this relationship even more. It is for this reason symbols of India's national identity are objected to by the votaries of separatism. There was an objection to the army's presence in the state. Army cantonments are objected to. If yatris visit the Amarnath shrine, grant of land for basic toilet or lodging amenities was objected to. If a national political party endeavours to fly the national flag at a prominent market place in the state capital, it is considered provocative.
The tragedy of J&K is that the Nehruvian policy of this loose political and constitutional relationship between the state and the Centre was flawed. Votaries of this policy never accepted its disastrous consequences. They wish to further pursue it to loosen the relationship. Hence the present dichotomy. If somebody advocates segregation of the state from the Indian nation, it is free speech; if you fly the national flag, you will be arrested for breach of peace.
It is time governments and policy makers realise the consequences of what they have pursued for over six decades. Unquestionably to eliminate separatism we need to have the people of J&K on our side. Our policy has to be people-friendly, but not separatist-friendly. The state needs peace, prosperity, jobs and security. It does not need moves which strengthen the separatist psyche. Regrettably, the move to consider the unfurling of the national flag by the BJP youth wing representatives in the Valley as a possible breach of peace was psychological surrender to the psyche of the separatists.
The writer is a BJP MP and leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha.
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THE TIMES OF INDIA
Q&A
'THE RIGHT PEOPLE ARE THERE, NOW IT'S A MATTER OF TIME'
Anthony James Leggett , professor of physics at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, US, won the Nobel prize for physics in 2003 for his earlier work on superfluidity. Of late, he has done pioneering work in the exciting new field of quantum computing and cryptography exploring the boundary between the strange, counter-intuitive world of elementary particles and the 'classical' world that we perceive with our senses. He spoke to Subodh Varma recently in Kolkata where he was attending a conference on quantum entanglement organised by the S N Bose Institute for Basic Sciences:
What is your family background?
Well, on my father's side, my forebears were cobblers in a village in Hampshire, UK. But my paternal grandfather opted to become a greengrocer. My maternal grandmother, who was Irish, worked as a domestic servant since a young age. Both my father and my mother were the first in their families to get a university education. In fact they met at university. They became schoolteachers in London. I studied in the local school and then got a scholarship to Oxford. I was interested in academics but not in science. I took my first degree in arts from Balliol College, and then later a second degree in physics at Merton College. I taught in Sussex for some time and then shifted to the US semi-permanently in 1983. I have been at Champaign-Urbana since then.
What is the connection between superfluidity for which you got the Nobel and quantum entanglement?
It's a rather marginal connection really. In some superconductors and in Fermi superfluids like Helium-3, for instance, a Bose-Einstein condensate is formed between an entangled pair of particles. I developed an interest in quantum mechanics, especially entanglement in parallel.
What are you working on currently?
I'm trying to understand low temperature superconductivity as well as quantum computing and topological insulators, although i haven't contributed much to the latter field. There's another project of mine with an Indian collaborator from IIT, Kharagpur. It is concerned with low-temperature properties of glass, which is a neglected subject, but it is very important.
Is it correct that a new quantum age is beginning?
Certainly. There are a number of tasks that were earlier impossible to perform using classical means but they are possible now using quantum entanglement. Certain kinds of quantum cryptography are an example. Completely secure cryptography is now possible using quantum entanglement. Admittedly, there are other quantum mechanical schemes that don't involve entanglement but its use is particularly elegant. Even ideas like 'pseudotelepathy' and 'teleportation' are now beginning to take shape in reality, in the sense that people have done experiments and shown that these ideas work. And certainly quantum cryptography works in real life. People have used it to send election results and i would guess that it is being used quite seriously by the military.
What is your impression of India's role in this field?
There are individuals in India who have made substantial contributions to quantum mechanics in general and quantum entanglement in particular. Many Indians are working in the field, some on the theoretical front, like Professor Arvind of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali, and others on the experimental front, like Professor Anil Kumar of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. It is not the kind of field that requires huge resources for experimental equipment. My impression is that the Indian educational system is not that bad in selecting good people and giving them appropriate training. So, we can look forward to more contributions in the future. The right people are there, now it's a matter of time.
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THE TIMES OF INDIA
THE KIND ONES
MADHUMITA GUPTA
'Remove baby before folding' - on a pram. 'Warning: May contain nuts' - on a packet of nuts. 'Open packet, eat nuts' - yes, again on a packet of nuts. 'Do not use for drying pets' - in the manual for a microwave oven. 'For indoor and outdoor use only' - on a string of Chinese fairy lights, and so on and so forth.
Not one of these product warnings is a figment of my imagination, but before you start frothing at the mouth at them for taking us to be block-heads, look at their side of the picture. Mums and dads are busy beings, what if they forget? What if the people haven't paid attention to what they are buying? What if they don't know what to do with the packet? What if you can't stand to see your dripping pet shivering in the cold and try to dry him out in seconds? And what if you think the fairy lights are some sort of exotic Chinese neckpieces? You see?
Would you blame the fast food biggie's caution in printing a 'Hot contents inside' warning in big letters after burning its fingers by paying big bucks in damages in some of the 700 serious injuries its hot coffee had caused?
If not to avoid litigation, at times, the reason behind stating the obvious is pure milk of human kindness, a fellow feeling worth emulating.
Take the walnut pack which i bought yesterday. It had '100% Natural!' written on it in bright green. "Is there any other kind?" hubby sniggered. What he doesn't see is that how do you know if there isn't an artificial kind? How thoughtful of the company to let us know that the walnut we are consuming is natural. The sign on a popular hair colour box is the soul of concern for consumers; 'Do not use as an ice cream topping'. One could very well do that, especially when the model on the box looks good enough to eat! But the one which created a lump in my throat was this one on a hairdryer; 'Do not use while taking a shower'. Do you realise that the manufacturer foresaw our penchant for multi-tasking? He knew one might think of washing and drying hair together to save precious time if not life. Had there been a Nobel prize for 'Life-saver of the year', he would've been the top contender for it.
We really shouldn't overlook the far-sightedness of these noble souls. One gem on a disposable razor said, 'Do not use this product during an earthquake'. Could anybody but the composer of the warning foresee that an earthquake means a disaster, a disaster means TV crews and one has to look presentable on TV? Of course, shaving would and should be the first thing on a person's mind during an earthquake!
At times, preventing us from looking like fools may also be the reason behind the warnings. The other day i caught my elderly aunt staring glumly at a strip of sleeping pills with, 'Warning: May cause drowsiness' on it. Obvious? A first rate fool you'd feel if you took it for a good night's sleep and ended up only drowsy!
A current advertisement of a popular brand of chewing gum on TV shows people switching the moon on and off by flicking open or shut the 'new' flick-open pack. A line below says 'An imaginary interpretation'. And i, for one, find it perfectly logical - one doesn't know how many of the viewers may still believe in the rhyme they learnt at momma's knees, 'Chanda mama door ke', and try to do the same as the people in the advertisement.
My point is, look for the deep thought before condemning the caring souls.
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HINDUSTAN TIMES
OUR TAKE
DON'T LOWER THE BAR FURTHER
Vigilance certainly seems to have been the casualty in the appointment of the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) PJ Thomas as facts now reveal. It is passing strange that his role in the palmolein import case in Kerala for which the state sought sanction to prosecute from the Centre did not find mention in the facts before the selection committee. The case was a high-profile one of corruption and any association with it could not have passed unnoticed when appointing a high constitutional authority like the CVC.
The government's fond hope that Mr Thomas will do the right thing and conveniently go away seems misplaced with the beleaguered officer digging in his heels and proclaiming his innocence. It now appears that he might wait for the Supreme Court to take up the issue again on February 3. Whatever the outcome of the court proceedings, the damage to a government already on the ropes has been immense. Even more worrying is the manner in which the Congress party that heads the government is trying to wash its hands off the case by contending this is outside the purview of political parties. It is ironic that corruption has come to touch even the top corruption watchdog, a turn of events which can further undermine public confidence in these once inviolable institutions. Stories of back channel negotiations with officials and members of his family to get Mr Thomas to go quietly does even less credit to the government. Surely, this is not the way in which procedure should be conducted in this high office.
The question which will now be asked is whether those in government who seem to have pushed Mr Thomas's case, superseding at least one officer we now learn, thought that facts about his record would not come to light. Were there no other less controversial contenders for this post? Instead of attempting a clumsy cover-up, it would be best if the government were to lay its cards on the table and admit to lapses, if any. This comes at a time when corruption features in almost every sphere of life from fuel adulteration to land scams to the spectrum controversy. Irrespective of whether Mr Thomas is culpable in the allegations against him, this mess has certainly diminished the gravitas of his office. There are some tough questions to be answered and even tougher decisions to be made. But any hope that by dragging things along, this issue will fade away is misplaced. If nothing, people are more vigilant on allegations of official misconduct than ever before. And they are not likely to drop their guard in a hurry.
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HINDUSTAN TIMES
THE PUNDIT
SNAKES IN THE GRASS
If Sourav Ganguly's rather unceremonious exit from the Indian Premier League 4 was not damaging enough for Bengali confidence, this one is cause enough for a near fatal stroke. The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Saturday rejected the Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) request to give it a fresh deadline for Eden Gardens to host the India vs England World Cup match on February 27. The ICC took the decision after its venue consultant visited the 'Edayen', which is being renovated for the World Cup. The Eden Gardens has already missed the ICC deadline twice - November 30 and then January 15.
For many, this could be just another confirmation that the Kalmadi virus is spreading across the country at a steady and insidious pace. But for cricket crazy Bengalis, it's a loss beyond repair. There can be nothing more beautiful, better and bigger than the billiard board-green turf of the Eden Gardens and the viewing experience from the galleries. For the record, the Eden Gardens is not (okay, we can already hear someone shouting 'down with imperialism' somewhere) the biggest cricket stadium, it's behind the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia. Nevertheless, a World Cup in India and not a single India match in the Eden Gardens! It's better not to have the World Cup then, some would argue.
This is how we see the event unfolding - no news, absolutely no news, is bigger than the one on the Eden Gardens. Maybe fish prices will rise and fall according to the changing moods of the Kolkatans, but one thing is for sure: the last of the two remaining safari suit-wearing sports bosses of the country, Cricket Association of Bengal president Jagmohan Dalmiya, will not have it easy if the Eden doesn't get an India match. Maybe Kolkatans will do what ICC boss Sharad Pawar could not: send Dalmiya packing.
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HINDUSTAN TIMES
COLUMN
GOVT MUST PLUG THIS BLACK HOLE
With the Supreme Court directing the government to bring back black money stashed in foreign banks and also find its sources, the Centre finds itself in yet another complex situation. The government has so far pleaded helplessness in dealing with the issue in the absence of a legal framework but its detractors are insisting that it was lack of will which prevented the sensational disclosures.
The apex court's observations came close on the heels of a press conference convened by Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee where he said that the names of the defaulters in relation to information provided to the authorities by the German government could not be disclosed. He also said that the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement and the Exchange of Taxation Information Agreement were two instruments under which the Centre can obtain information and the government has already amended pacts with 23 countries.
Though the finance minister held his press conference at the behest of the prime minister to explain the government's standpoint, there are many who are also reading a deeper meaning into his statement given the power struggle within the Congress party. Knowing that Pranabda rarely makes a statement without taking a considered view, it is
being said that his proclamation that he knew the names (but could not disclose them) was meant to put some of his colleagues and detractors in Parliament and outside on notice.
It is common knowledge that the government has the names and had even informed the Supreme Court about the existence of such information in an affidavit. But for Pranabda to state it when he could have skirted the issue is being interpreted as a warning of sorts. There is already wide speculation over who figures in the list of those having foreign bank accounts. These names include those associated with the present regime and the previous one. And since Switzerland, where most of the black money is stashed, is not going to disclose the information, 'the names' may find their way into the public domain, though without proper authentication. If that happens, the government will find itself on the backfoot.
A fresh controversy has already erupted so far as the Bofors kickbacks are concerned and the Income Tax Tribunal's order has confirmed that there had been a pay-off. The government finds itself in a defensive position. The Quattrocchi angle will once again surface as the government refuses to learn from past mistakes that in order to end speculation, you have to get to the bottom of things. The reality is that in India with its culture and past, corpses (issues in this case) can only be cremated and not buried. If they are buried, they will
be exhumed from time to time to haunt those connected with the controversy.
The credibility of the government, thanks to the numerous scams, is so low that even if half-truths are spread, people tend to believe them. There is no attempt to address issues head-on and many matters that could have been sorted out to the satisfaction of all are being allowed to linger.
The black money issue has assumed serious proportions because people expect that the government will take steps to get it back and order action against those responsible. It is also being argued that in the case of some of the accounts, the government must move Swiss courts with evidence that the money parked in banks there was being used for terrorism purposes or other illegal activities. Under such circumstances, the confidentiality rules can be relaxed.
At the ground level, since the government has the names, raids must be conducted at the premises of the suspects based on information obtained from various sources, including the German government. Their businesses should be sealed and they must be held accountable. Otherwise, our democracy will be stuck at the crossroads. Between us.
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HINDUSTAN TIMES
HONK WHEN CRAZY
We don't need drugs, we don't need alcohol and we really don't need guns or rifles or other fun, lethally explosive devices. As a society, we don't need any of these things because we have, like, cars.
Our middle-class has millions of cars, and since we are a democracy that tries to be inclusive - at least about the important things - we've made sure that many members of our working classes, millions of them, are also settled behind the steering-wheels of buses and trucks. An overwhelming percentage of people driving internal combustion vehicles in this country are male. So, really, if you actually think about it, we don't even need penises, at least not for sexual pleasure. Because we have power-steering and the clutch and accelerator pedals that give us our thrills.
These kicks come to us in waves despite that entirely idiotic, obsolete thing that sticks out between clutch and accelerator, the kabab-mein-haddi, one that always gets in the way of our busy feet, the thing they call a brake, the one that's about as useful as an appendix or a sixth finger. Which is why only the weakest among us have ever learnt to step on that thing. For every smart Indian knows that the point of a car is to drive it fast - very, very fast no matter where you are - and surely not to slow it down or stop it.
Slowing down a car is just like slowing down the economy. So, yaar, why do it? Braking the car and bringing it to a stop feels like a total market crash. What are we, Wall Street or the City in London that we should, like, suffer crashes? We don't mind a few accidents here and there, but we over here don't like crashes.
If car production goes down or highway construction slows then that's a crash, a few hundred thousand people dying in road accidents is, well, an accident. Do you see what I mean? No? Never mind. Anyway, it's not right to make too many jokes about the Sardarji, so I'll tell you a Santa-Banta joke I recently got on SMS.
So, Banta was one night having marriage-relations with his wife. They were moving along happily when Banta suddenly froze. Then he resumed. Then he froze again. This got Bibbi-ji puzzled and angry. "Oy, ji, what you think you are doing!?!" She snapped. "Arrey chup karo ji," replies Banta, "I have seen this on computer when I'm downloading the porn. It is called buffering!"
The fact is that being in a traffic jam in this country, city or highway is like being trapped in a very bad porn site: you're surrounded by unmoving, plastic bodies of foreign design, if not manufacture; your money is burning like over-priced petrol; you're breathing in your own bad smoke; your palms are sweaty as you search for any gaps ahead while you are, simultaneously and constantly, straining your neck looking over your shoulder. And, at the end of it, when you get out of the freeze, you can only hit about 30kmph.
It's so frustrating, it's enough to make a man want to drive over someone.
Alternatively, say you're caught in the frozen buffering that is the parking at Khan Market, which could also be described as one large aneurism in the clogged veinous network of New Delhi traffic. Like a lethal blood-clot, it's something that could, did and will again burst through to cause fatal damage, in which direction you can't be sure.
Because, one of the things that we Indians are psychotic about is the 'look' or 'show' of our cars - we treat them as more sacrosanct, more precious than our most intimate bodily parts.
It's strange, this: on the one hand we treat our cars as an extension of our bodies and use them like we do our hands and shoulders, "Bhaisahab, thoda sa hatiye!" we say as we jump the queue and take up space and priority on the wrong side of the road, "Hatt bey, mujhe jaldi hai!" we say, as we nudge forward on red lights, jumping them at the last second before they turn green. We thrive on the crowd and the melee, but unlike our complete disregard of any Western concept of bodily space, we demand by some lunatic logic that another vehicle must not touch the delicate extension of our being, our four-wheeled petrol-persona, our pride and joy.
So much so, that if someone (as is inevitable in this constant pilgrim-rush of traffic) does scratch our door or knock a hole in our tail-light, we become homicidal.
We Indian men have the same reaction to minor accidents as we might have if someone was molesting our daughter or sister. We beat them up and we keep beating them up. When they get into their car to drive away we don't stop, we grab their steering wheel and we hang on, still trying to beat them up. When they stamp on the accelerator in panic and we get pulled under their car and when we then get our skull smashed, we call it 'road rage'.
Which is, of course, the wrong phrase. What we should be calling it is Parking Psychopathy or, if you like, Buffering-Bloodbath. It's very important to label actions correctly, especially actions that are about to become ever more common and frequent in the near future.
Ruchir Joshi is a writer, filmmaker and the editor of Electric Feather: The Tranquebar Book of Erotic Stories. The views expressed by the author are personal
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THE INDIAN EXPRESS
EDITORIAL
BITTER DREAMS
If there's a distinction between the emotion we feel when something dear is suddenly taken away from us and that we feel anticipating a loss, it's the suspension of belief that goes with holding on to the last vestiges of what may soon be no more. But what does it mean to hold on to a consumer perishable like chocolate? And where is the human animal that relishes chocolate that is also capable of putting away those bars as long as possible? Unless it's bad teeth — often a consequence of bad chocolate karma — or unwanted weight gain?
Unfortunately, there seems to be no end to doomsday forecasts at our historical moment. Something always appears to be approaching its endgame. For chocolate lovers, the bad news is from the Ivory Coast. The world's largest cocoa producer is in the midst of political unrest. However, the stand-off between a president who won't vacate office and another who's recognised internationally may finally elicit more than faint airings of displeasure in distant capitals. Why? Because the world's sustainable supplies of cocoa may soon be exhausted, as early as 2014. The Ivory Coast has become a no-go area for cocoa traders and new farmers cannot be trained. Although Ghana, the second largest cocoa producer, is witnessing a spurt in smuggled cocoa from its neighbour, the price is much higher.
If chocolatiers are to be believed, we may soon have to pay a king's ransom, with cocoa prices reportedly at their highest in 30 years. Some others argue that a manifold price rise is irrelevant as there simply isn't enough certified cocoa left. The EU, moreover, froze the assets of Ivory Coast's cocoa- and coffee-exporting ports on January 14, even as the Ivory Coast curbed cocoa exports. If the chocolate lover's nightmare is political turmoil in a cocoa superpower, will talk of a chocolate drought subside when that ends? Or is there no catcher left in the rye?
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THE INDIAN EXPRESS
EDITORIAL
BILLS OF PASSAGE
The Budget session of Parliament will begin on February 21, and this time around the legislative business that awaits both Houses is expectedly more packed than usual. Parliament lost the entire winter session to disruptions over the opposition's insistence on a joint parliamentary committee to look into telecom licences. This renders the task before the government ever more ambitious. Not yet two years into its term, the UPA cannot afford the atrophy in governance that comes with a deadlock in the legislature; and put another way, just over a year into its term, the UPA still has space and political opportunity to carry through game-changing legislation to turn around UPA-2's meagre record.
Naturally, a large number of pending bills have been carried over from the winter session. Plus, this year's budget exercise itself will require a great degree of political nuance, as the current inflationary scenario demands greater attention to the fiscal deficit. In addition, there are indications that the government is keen to take up legislation related to major financial sector reform. That was virtually on hold in the UPA's first government, given the Left's veto. The finance ministry is, for instance, keen to reintroduce the lapsed Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill. As reported in this newspaper, there are also moves to take up other bills on insurance and banking.
It is therefore critical that the two Houses of Parliament be freed from the daily threat of adjournment. No government and no major opposition party can emerge unscathed in such a scenario. Parliament needs to be divested of the sharp and polarising confrontation that's been seen over what is, in fact, a trifling matter of a JPC. At the very least, the homeopathic reshuffle in the council of ministers, and the prime minister's promise of a more substantive one after the budget session, must yield more skilful floor management by the Congress party. Any inability to have critical legislation passed transacted and to get Parliament back in its normal rhythms will impose a drag on the government that no amount of political firefighting can reverse.
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THE INDIAN EXPRESS
EDITORIAL
ROAD FORWARD
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal appears to have come around to the right way of thinking. On Saturday, he announced the broad details of the new policy for telecommunications spectrum that is being drawn up by the government, and said, in particular, that the age of free spectrum — or spectrum "bundled" with a licence — is over. The basis of the new plan, as Sibal laid it out, appears simple: a unified licence will be issued to operators, making them eligible to provide any of the many telecom services. The spectrum that the operator will need for whatever services it intends to provide will not come with the licence, however; the company will have to pay for that spectrum in what the minister assures us will be a "market-driven process."
This is, of course, the simple principle that should have been followed from the beginning.
Instead policy arbitariness at various points caused the playing field to be far from fair, and has caused the exchequer to lose a great deal of money — even though Sibal, on a previous occasion, argued eloquently that no money was lost. Regardless of that widely-disbelieved statement, though, it is nonetheless notable that Sibal is sticking to his guns as a well-known reformer and is beginning to push through what needs to be done to clean up this sector, and perhaps reverse some of the damage.
A reformist agenda, of course, should not stop here. Sibal has already indicated that he knows the direction in which his new ministry needs to go in order to clean up its act: moving quickly on those firms that benefited from A. Raja's lax regulation. A fortnight after assuming control last November, Sibal sent notices to 85 companies that the comptroller and auditor general had determined had gained licences while not even being eligible. The notices demanded the companies show good cause, within 60 days, as to why their licences not be cancelled. The necessary next step is to work on extending that investigation to the other beneficiaries of Raja's decisions. And also to ensure that all the firms who got 157 licences from Raja, including the 85 already put on notice, either pay a market-determined rate for the spectrum they received — or have their licences cancelled, so that their spectrum can be re-assigned, again at a market-linked price.
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THE INDIAN EXPRESS
COLUMN
REVOLUTIONARY ROADS
ALIA ALLANA
Amr al-Khatib updated his status on Facebook diligently. He informed his friends in Egypt, and those outside, of protest sites and developments. Then suddenly, late on Friday night, he disappeared. His status updates went silent, his protest pictures stopped, his telephone went dead. Amr had gone offline.
He is amongst the protestors now, walking along the Corniche in Alexandria, the road the skirts the Mediterranean, facing off with tanks, wiping his stinging eyes as teargas canisters are lobbed one after the other. He is one among the million who have taken to the street — the street that we have all been watching.
This revolt was televised.
Now in its sixth day, a fever rages in the minds of Egyptians. They defy curfews to chant, "Out, out, Mubarak we don't want you." Yet Hosni Mubarak, the Pharaoh, won't budge. Secure behind the doors of Abdeen Palace, protected by his army, he has responded with cosmetic changes. The cabinet has been dissolved. A new cabinet now takes shape — with his spymaster, his trusted confidant, his right hand man, Omar Suleiman, as vice president. Has he effectively cut his son out of the succession?
Will these changes pacify the street? Note that one of the protestors' central demands is the rejection of a political dynasty. Yet they continue to chant, "We don't want a new cabinet, we want you out." Those that have taken to the streets are mainly the under-30s that make up two-thirds of Egypt's 80 million. They are angry about inadequate housing, over the shortage of jobs — nine out of ten jobless people in Egypt are under 30.
Now they stand emboldened by the experience of Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution, finding an example and icon in the Tunisian "martyr" Mohammed Bouazizi. It is unfortunate that a young boy, his face and body covered in a white cloth, burnt and mummified, is what it took for the Arab world to ask for more freedoms. His death was a catalyst for change in Tunisia; and now the Egyptians are attempting to emulate their fellow North Africans.
But Egypt is no Tunisia. For one, it is the most populous part of the Middle East, a sort of barometer to events in the larger Arab world. They've said for centuries that what happens in Egypt affects the rest of the
Middle East. It is also a power of great strategic importance — both as the country that governs the Suez, the crucial transit point for America's warships and the world's cargo, and as an economic powerhouse.
Look closely at the protestors; look at their signs and slogans. They read, "freedom" or "out with the Pharaoh" but has anyone spotted a banner affiliated to a political party? Where is
Mohammed el-Baradei, who returned from Europe to join the protestors? Where is his party's flag? He was tipped as the man who could — but, under house arrest, with his party disunited, it seems he can't.
Then there's Muslim Brotherhood, the most powerful opposition. They have a parliamentary presence; and yet it is from their ranks that al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri emerged. Finally, on the sixth day of chaos, they have begun to urge their foot soldiers on the street — as looting and thuggery take hold. In the confusion, from a series of peaceful protests, Egypt's streets are beginning to host a law and order crisis. And the questions come: without Mubarak, is Egypt leaderless?
Meanwhile, as ever, conspiracy theories circle. Is it Mubarak's police creating a sense of lawlessness? Fighter jets circle, prisoners escape, and Al-Jazeera is off the air. Is the Pharaoh playing both good cop and bad cop?
The Arab world seems totally unprepared for any transition. Look, always, at the streets. Algerians too have taken to them, protesting Abdelaziz Bouteflika's military regime. In San'a, opposition to the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh mounts, and Yemenis are out in numbers for the first time in his 32-year dictatorship. These countries too, undemocratic, authoritarian and unyielding, will have to act.
For too long in the Arab world too much has been censored. Holocaust. Jews. Democracy. Certain words never factored into the teaching syllabus in Arab countries. History books had lines, whole chapters, blacked out with permanent markers.
Curious students held books up against the light; they could just barely make out what they weren't meant to have read.
Now they've read the fine print, they've seen the injustice, and, if not revolution, nothing less than reform will satisfy. The first: the lifting of the 30-year Emergency Law in Egypt. Remember: what happens in Egypt doesn't stay in Egypt. Change is coming to the Middle East.
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THE INDIAN EXPRESS
COLUMN
WHERE IS THE LOYAL OPPOSITION?
JAITHIRTH RAO
The Republic of India is running the risk of imitating the models of Weimar Germany and the numerous French republics where partisan polarisation took precedence over consensus on all matters, even those that were critical for the country. This is distinct from the Anglo-Saxon model where parties which vigorously oppose each other, yet nevertheless come together when it really counts.
In such an atmosphere, opposition tends to be constructive and sober, not destructive and poisonous. Consider the great financial crisis of 2008 — definitely the worst since 1929. The United States was on the very brink of another Great Depression. And yet, the country managed to step away from the vertiginous precipice. Not everything that was done was right. But all the political players understood that partisanship had to be put on the side. In the middle of a loud, bitter presidential political campaign, McCain and Obama took a day off to fly to Washington DC and endorse a course of action that President George W. Bush was proposing.
Neither of them fully agreed with the plan. Both were trying to distance themselves from someone who they saw as a discredited president. And yet they went along with him and in the process they definitely averted the catastrophic possibility of 30 per cent unemployment rates emerging. And let's not forget the fact that both McCain and Obama paid a price for their actions. Large sections of voters were angry that they were party to bailing out fat-cat bankers who were seen as having caused so much general misery.
President Obama is still paying the price for what he could have passed off as actions attributable to his predecessor. Hilary Clinton and Obama faced off against each other in a pretty brutal primary campaign. And yet when it was over and the proverbial dust had settled, Clinton joined Obama's cabinet as a loyal colleague.
The situation in India is very different. Political opposition is taken as an end in itself, and leads to disequilibrium situations which can be destructive — and not just to individual political parties. In recent times, one could argue that it is the BJP which started the chain of unprincipled opposition. During the NDA rule, the Congress gave support to the BJP on issues like insurance sector reform where the two were on the same page. The BJP has not reciprocated. Its opposition to the Indo-US nuclear treaty was the worst example of this.
Most BJP leaders would have conceded in private that the treaty was on balance in India's interests, and was taking forward the initiatives of the Vajpayee government. And yet, for short-term gains, they were willing to jettison a unique opportunity to get India out of the shadow of nuclear apartheid. There was every reason to believe that once President George W. Bush was out of office, this opportunity would not recur. Even this knowledge did not result in sober good sense prevailing.
In economic matters, the opposition of the BJP states to the GST which is a pro-growth, pro-poor measure remains both immature and inexplicable. The Congress has now responded with a similar non-constructive approach. Rather than apologising for the corruption scandals happening on their watch on the national scene, the UPA 2 dispensation is simply stating that BJP states also have their share of corruption. The novel idea that your opponent's crime justifies your own has no place in civilised jurisprudence, and yet this argument is being trotted out repeatedly.
What is worse is that the Congress seems to be working overtime to weaken the few autonomous institutions which have safeguarded our republic, and which have helped us to avoid the fate of neighbouring Myanmar or Pakistan. The violation of the accepted process of consensus in the appointment of a controversial person as the Central Vigilance Commissioner is being brazenly defended. It is almost as if there is a deliberate and conscious effort to destroy the credibility of this independent institution.
The covert and not so covert attempts to weaken the RBI and Sebi by creating a new executive-dominated council and by taking financial autonomy away from Sebi follow this same pattern. The recent attacks on the Comptroller and Auditor General once again take us back to the display of executive arrogance so characteristic of the Indira Gandhi days. The nation's hope that the Congress party will learn the right lessons from history, imitating Indira's strengths rather than her weaknesses, is being betrayed even as we speak.
The principle of destructive mutual opposition seems to prevail even inside the canopies of coalition politics. In Maharashtra, it is no secret that any measure proposed by the Congress will be opposed by the NCP and vice versa. We even have the strange situation of the long-promised bridge between the island city of Mumbai and the mainland being endlessly postponed merely because two different state agencies are involved — one supervised by a Congress minister and the other by his NCP colleague.
It seems that we do not need external adversaries. We are quite capable of paralysing ourselves into inaction with no help from the sinister "foreign hand".
As for the unproductive nature of the coalition politics derived from the Congress party's association with the Trinamool and the DMK, the less said the better. With friends like these, the Congress must much prefer open opponents like Karat and Advani! In the UK, despite many differences among their rank-and-file followers, Cameron and Clegg seem to be able to move on with politically difficult decisions. But learning from our erstwhile rulers does not seem to be to our liking. Many French politicians took the position in the 1930s that supporting the Germans was better than supporting the incumbent French prime minister. No wonder France collapsed ignominiously in 1940.
Let this be a warning to us. We live in a dangerous neighbourhood. It is incumbent upon us not to convert every issue into one of extreme partisanship. The Republic of India deserves our coming together on matters of common interest.
The writer divides his time between Mumbai, Lonavala and Bangalore jerry.rao@expressindia.com
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THE INDIAN EXPRESS
OPED
THE SCARS OF SUCCESS
VERNA YU
Have you been called stupid, ugly, useless or garbage by your parents? Were you ever caned, slapped or spanked? Were you barred from watching TV and made to practice music for hours?
Most of my Western friends were shocked when I told them I had been subjected to all of this as a child. Yet in Hong Kong there is nothing unusual about it — this is just normal parental discipline.
To those who were outraged by the strict disciplinarian Chinese parenting style touted by "Tiger mother" Amy Chua in her controversial new book, some perspective is necessary. Most Chinese parents have a Hobbesian view of the world: They see it as their job to toughen up their children and arm them with the skills necessary to survive in a competitive and brutish environment.
Like the typical Chinese parents described by Chua, my mother expected toughness from her children. In our household, lack of interest or aptitude was not an excuse for poor performance. If you failed, you simply had to work harder.
I was made to practice the piano for at least an hour a day, and when we were out of school, it was three hours. We were not allowed to watch TV, except for news. When I scored less than 90 in dictation (that is, getting two words wrong), I had to explain why I didn't do as well as before.
I didn't look forward to weekends or term breaks — they just meant more music practice and tedious long sessions of drilled academic learning and homework.
Did my mother's high-pressure approach work? In a way, yes. I have never been a top student, but my academic performance was always above-average. I went to a prestigious boarding school in England; I have two degrees and won a scholarship for a research fellowship at the University of Oxford. I passed a strict exam for piano studies with merit at age 14 and played a piano concerto with an orchestra at 17.
Early on, a sense of anxiety was instilled in me; if I didn't do well, I would be in big trouble. I always push myself to work at full capacity and never allow myself to give up, no matter how daunting the task.
Could this parenting approach yield stereotypically successful children?
At least in terms of academic and musical achievements, the answer appears to be yes. Just look at the Asian households that produce all those musical prodigies and math geniuses. But there is a downside as well. As someone who has survived this regime, I believe what often propels these Chinese kids to succeed is a deep sense of insecurity — that they are only worthy of love so long as they keep getting top marks.
Even as adults, the emotional scarring from the harsh words and name-calling never quite leaves you. Behind the determination of many young Chinese to excel is a deep-rooted anxiety that they will be ridiculed and shamed unless they succeed.
This parenting philosophy also fails to yield a genuine sense of confidence, and instead results in a sense of insecurity so damning that the child has to spend the rest of his life trying to prove himself to be a worthy person.
Many people I know who were brought up this way ended up having a strained relationship with their parents. Some might be successful in their careers but are angry that they never had the chance to discover who they are. The less successful ones never quite recover from low self-image.
Is it a good thing for our world to be full of emotionally insecure individuals or less brilliant but more contented people with an inner confidence?
As a tiger daughter, I think I know the answer.
The New York Times
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THE INDIAN EXPRESS
OPED
THE CURRENT OF AFFAIRS
SUDEEP PAUL
After the circus, at the safe distance of a week, we may reflect on the hopes and anxieties we've chosen to bring back with us. Foremost is the expansion of self-definition the Jaipur Literature Festival is attempting. Perhaps in trying to cloister the term "literature" — which we all do for reasons our own, in accordance with our affinities — everybody fails, and the bottom falls out.
Times and life around us are changing faster than we can key in words. Martin Amis worries about how the human brain is physically morphing with its current preoccupations — the way we read on a computer is changing our brain which is changing the way we read on a computer. Reality, which we never can quite capture in words our own, or our chosen literary masters', is our topmost concern (indeed, when was it not?).
Our present obsession with non-fictional, mostly journalistic, writing can be explained, and explained away, on the grounds of 9/11 and the resultant emphasis on "current affairs". However, it didn't begin there; and it's not quite untrue of the non-Western world either. The zippy journalist can get there and can be out with a book in a month, or a year, technically. The novelist won't get there for a full half-decade — Don deLillo's Falling Man took six years. The literary writer must endure the foment in her head, a typically long novelistic gestation period. But despite that delayed birth, we don't quite get to the novel's universal death.
In the 1960s, Philip Roth complained about how American reality was outpacing American fiction. Tongue-in-cheek but true as it was then, the 1960s seem a rickety stage carriage now. And yet, the novel didn't die in the last three centuries; it isn't dying now. It may not be possible to write a Humboldt's Gift any more, if you agree with Amis. Or it may be, some time in future, when things have slowed down again, if you would rather go with Richard Ford. Talk about the novel's impending death is less climate change (irreversible) and more inter-glacial (we take some melting, then carry on).
Nevertheless, we were entertained and enlightened by the likes of Rory Stewart, David Finkle, Jon Lee Anderson debating their reporting from war zones. What would you hold against a young, rock star-type (Stewart) who's been on both sides of the governance divide — governing in Iraq, preceded by his long wintry walk across an Afghanistan without a government, who's now a Westminster MP? Or Finkle, with his sincere humanitarian concern and human empathy for a crushed, over-theorised, little-understood people? Or Scotsman Ben MacIntyre, divulging the researching and writing of Operation Mincemeat, knocking audiences off their seats in the Durbar Hall with his slideshow and quips, discussing something that another speaker would have kept the humour out of? A vanishing British wit much like the people in his book, a species which vanished after World War II.
We are warned never to twist facts to suit our theories if non-fiction is what we make a living by. That too for purposes of archiving the documentation of reality; not for sales figures. Well, we at least know right from wrong. Not to make our living by, but our karmayoga.
But is it time to worry about the grip the social sciences are expanding around the literary fest's neck? A gala like Jaipur must perforce be thoroughly democratic, allowing every man, woman and maybe even child to walk in, without dispersing it into an über civic chaos like the Calcutta Book Fair. Yet, must vaulting ambition, exploding crowds, an extending range of speakers, invite with open arms JNU Sociology 101? That's not Christopher Bayly, or Gulzar. That's classroom Calmpose and EPW.
The rumour goes, next year, artists and art historians are promised. Bring them in. And maybe music — not the evening jive with the wine, but a couple of sessions on the purest, the mother of all art forms? In the beginning was music; behind everything is music.
A.C. Grayling, the god humanists everywhere pray to, doesn't come down every day. Just as another god, J.M. Coetzee, doesn't read his work on your front lawns for post-lunch lazying. Throttle not our quietening imagination; leave us our little aesthetic feast. Let this be the only fundamental query debated every year: do you write for yourself, giving not a damn about the audience (Amis & Co)? Or do you burn to tell a story (Henning Mankell)?
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THE INDIAN EXPRESS
OPED
IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BRAND
VALSAN THAMPU
Decades ago Sri Aurobindo, the visionary genius, commenting on the growing clamour for universalising education wrote that "there is not quite so universal an agreement... on what education is, or practically or ideally should be... We have in fact entered into an atmosphere of great and disconcerting confusion." If I had withheld the source, the readers would have assumed this to be an astute observation on the state of education today.
The founding fathers of St Stephen's College were committed first and foremost to the meaning and purpose of education, and only thereafter to the size and scale of its practice. The bane of the modern age, said Albert Einstein, is that means are pursued to the neglect of goals. The mechanism, in other words, overrides the meaning; the process eclipses the purpose. The founders of College had a clear idea what a Stephanian — the end-product of education — should be like — and, hence, how it should contribute to fostering a sane and wholesome society. To them — in the late '70s of the 19th century, as indeed to Swami Vivekananda later — education was all about man-making, the harmonious and holistic development of young persons, nurturing them to be responsible citizens "alike of heaven and of earth."
At a time when this institution is completing 130 years of its tryst with the destiny of India, it is with mixed feelings that I view the ever-growing enthusiasm for its educational sanctuary. As against the 12,000 applications for 400 seats in 2007, there were 28,000 in 2010. Perhaps we should be proud? Perhaps not!
It all depends on why young women and men are desperately keen to be on College's rolls. Is it because of the awesome Stephanian alumni network, ensconced wherever it really matters to be, such that it pays to bear St Stephens' stamp, amounting to immanent job-reservation in important places? Or is it the hype over the disproportionate representation of Stephanians in Parliament and the cabinet at the present time? Or, alternately, is it because the vision and practice of education pursued here is life-enriching and is, for that reason, to be preferred above all else?
Is St Stephen's, in other words, an invitation to engage with the soul of education, or is it a lurid label, a brandname, to be coveted? This is a crucial question as it affects day-to-day educational transactions; it will redefine our "heritage," honouring it or cheapening it, as the case may be.
Ironically, those who relate to an institution for its brand value erode its brand value. The reason is simple. Brand value is alien to the purpose of every great educational enterprise in history. This would degrade one's relationship with one's alma mater into one-way traffic, subverting character-building. It recasts students into parasites, and prevents them from developing into responsible, harmoniously developed citizens.
As St Stephen's completes 130 years of service to the nation, there is a need — indeed a duty — to be clear about the basics; for it is not only by what we do that we serve the nation. It is, even more fundamentally, by what we are.
To the founders, the teacher-student relationship was the soul of education. The importance that the character-smiths of the Stephanian tradition attached to this shaping principle of education is obvious from even the layout of the campus: 90 per cent of the infrastructure is residential! The academic and living spaces comprise a seamless whole. Educational experiences cannot be confined to classrooms. The campus, indeed the nation as a whole, is the nursery for human formation.
Second, the total growth of the person, not competition and success, is the raison d'être of learning. Joy is the hallmark of growth. Joy morphs into gratitude and enduring bonding. The fact that this indeed was the case in the Stephanian tradition is amply evident from (a) the stature of the alumni, which does not have to be argued (b) the deep bonding that they continue to experience with their alma mater. You can be only as attached to your college as you have grown on account of it. It is urgent to note this, as market forces, gatecrashing the sanctuary of education, today sideline the holistic growth and character-formation of students. Young women and men are extremely talented. They achieve a great deal. But will they be a blessing on the nation? And what will be the substance of their commitment to realising the India of our dreams?
Finally, its founders envisaged St Stephen's as a river of blessing, spreading on the surface of this sub continent, kindling dignity and hope, unity and brotherhood, competence and conscience, achievement and greatness. The best come to St Stephen's. We must send out the very best. They must be imbued with a sense of duty to serve as catalytic agents in the unfolding destiny of this great nation. St Stephen's is happy to welcome into its fold all who want to participate in the educational renaissance of India, which has to be as much a matter of the heart as it is of the head.
The writer is principal of St Stephen's College and a member of the National Integration Council
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THE INDIAN EXPRESS
OPED
BREAKING OUT OF THE INPUT TRAP
YAMINI AIYAR
The recently released Annual Survey of Education Report serves as an important reminder of India's greatest challenge: converting increased financial outlays to improved development outcomes. Since 2004, India's education budget has more than doubled, increasing from Rs 152,947 crore in 2004-05 to Rs. 372,813 crore in 2009-10. For the same period, ASER has tracked learning outcomes — and found that learning levels have remained depressingly stagnant. Nearly half the children in Standard 5 are still unable to read a Standard 2 text.
This outcome failure is not unique to education; nearly every social sector suffers the same fate. What explains the status quo?
The crux of the problem is well known: service delivery is governed by an incentive structure that privileges inputs — infrastructure creation — over quality and performance on actual outcomes. This input emphasis has created a target-driven, rule-book governed bureaucratic culture where quality problems are invariably reduced to input deficits addressed through guideline-driven expenditure.
Consequently, government infrastructure is simply not geared to deal with the more complex task of actually delivering services, and ensuring a minimum quality: making sure infrastructure is maintained and operational; trained staff are motivated and present. So deep is this problem that, not only do regular investments fail to yield results, but well-meaning reform efforts to improve quality also flounder.
Take the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). To improve health services, the scheme introduced a system for providing discretionary funds to district societies. The objective is to incentivise local innovation and ensure that spending matches local needs.
To facilitate expenditures the rule-book offers a "suggested" list of activities on which money can be spent.
A recent evaluation by the Planning Commission looked at the use of these funds in Bihar, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh and told a depressing story. The study found that funds, when spent, usually go towards fulfilling infrastructure needs at the health facilities. But more interestingly it also found that officials and society members expressed a clear preference for using funds for the rules' suggested items rather than exercising their discretion.
The Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP) is another example. Launched in 2003, it is an incentive scheme that offers a reward of up to Rs 50 lakh for panchayats that have achieved total sanitation. The NGP is a sincere effort by the government to move away from the earlier target-driven sanitation policy that emphasised building toilets — which were rarely used for its intended purpose — to one that focuses on changing people's behaviour toward toilet use, through local government innovation, awareness-raising and generating demand for better sanitary facilities in rural areas.
In its early years, the NGP managed to achieve some success. But the programme did not invest in building capacity and motivating implementation officials. As a result, the input approach has crept right back in. While there is no serious research, anecdotal evidence indicates that officers are driven by the desire to win awards, rather than through a sustained behaviour change. An increasing number of panchayats have not been able to maintain their total sanitation status.
So, how do we break the input trap to ensure improved outcomes from increased outlays? This is a difficult question to answer. If international experience is anything to go by, service delivery systems in most countries are locked in the input trap.
But there is some good news. Going back to elementary education, this year's ASER report highlights the case of Punjab, which has seen significant improvements in learning outcomes. This was a result of strong leadership that chose to break the input trap by focusing on learning goals and experimenting with changes in pedagogy. One simple innovation: grouping children according to their ability levels. Punjab focused on fostering leadership amongst teachers, thereby addressing the input problem.
Bihar too has experimented with, amongst other things, improving access to teaching materials. In 2008 the government launched a Rs 30-crore campaign for schools to buy textbooks over a two-month period. With political weight behind the programme, a traditionally slow bureaucracy managed to get money flowing at lightning speed and books were bought within two months.
Hyderabad city's district administration is yet another example. The administration is trying to improve education through stronger parent teacher-interaction — by mobilising school management committees to make school development plans. Motivating frontline officials to work with the committees is critical to this effort.
These experiences show that it is possible to break the input trap. Punjab and Bihar show that change is most effective when state governments take ownership, and are willing to innovate and experiment. Yet, ironically, the current architecture of service delivery is dominated by schemes that are Centrally-funded, Centrally-designed and Centrally-controlled.
Moving away from such a system to one where states are incentivised to take leadership and produce innovation is critical. But above all, these experiments demonstrate the importance of investing in building local leadership at the district, block and community level. As the NRHM and NGP experience shows, the success of a programme depends on local providers, their motivations and incentives. The guideline culture will only be broken when service providers are encouraged to take leadership, to ask questions and to act autonomously.
To ensure quality, increasing local autonomy needs to go hand in hand with regular performance monitoring and reporting on outcomes. This is how accountability for outcomes is ensured. Credible and easily accessible performance indicators generates public pressure for action on outcomes — and also enable providers to see the results of their choices, and thus encourage innovation.
For years now the government of India has promised outcome monitoring — from the outcomes budget in 2005 to the presidential speech in 2009, when the UPA promised to set up an independent evaluation office and prepare annual reports on social-sector performance. But these promises remain unfulfilled.
Rather than investing in new input-driven efforts, the UPA would do well to focus its energies on fulfilling these promises. Only then will outlays translate to outcomes.
The writer is with the Accountability Initiative, New Delhi
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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS
EDITORIAL
BAD START TO THE YEAR
If the collapse of the stock market in the first month of the year hasn't been bad enough, inflation levels don't look like they're going down in a hurry and, now, India Inc's bottom line growth is also slowing. Top line growth for a common sample of 611 firms (excluding banks and financial institutions) has fallen to 19.5% from 21% in the previous quarter and bottom line growth is also down. The growth in net profits at 17.6% for the December quarter is actually an overstatement since 'other income' grew at a faster pace as compared to the previous quarter (25% and 8.3%, respectively)—on an apples-to-apples basis, net profits for the sample firms grew 20.7% in the September quarter and this fell to 16.1% in December. The slowdown in India Inc's performance was, of course, always expected because of the high base effect coming into play, but the macro-environment has been deteriorating for a while with wholesale inflation ruling at 8.5% or more in 11 of the last 12 months.
What had not been factored in was the extent to which high prices of commodities could play spoilsport, the extent to which the government would be a helpless bystander, the slowdown due to environment-led issues, due to the stalemate in Parliament, and so on. So while it's not too much of a surprise that JSW Steel's margins have come crashing, it is a shock that order books at two of the country's biggest engineering firms have fallen by more than 25% year-on-year. Consumer giants like Hindustan Unilever haven't even been able to hold on to their bottom line, let alone grow it. Total expenditure has risen more than the top line, pushing down operating profit margins by nearly 90 basis points year-on-year. The recovery seen in the tech space has been reassuring but that apart, there's little to suggest that corporate profits are going to remain as robust in the near term.
Since they're buying neither coking coal nor palmolein, banks have done brisk business in the December 2010 quarter, turning in strong pre-provisioning profits, up more than 31% year-on-year for a clutch of 33 banks. The star performer is HDFC Bank, which seems to be able to hang on its margins and keep its loan book as clean as ever no matter what. But with interest rates set to move up further, the cost of funds can't stay at current levels, and if investment is slowing, who are banks going to lend to? While consumer demand remains fairly strong, watch out for some earnings downgrades.
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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS
EDITORIAL
MORE BLACK THAN WHITE
With the Supreme Court continuing to push the government on getting back black money stashed in overseas tax havens/banks, the buzz is that the government may just come up with another amnesty scheme for black money in the Budget. While doing so, it must keep in mind that, thanks to lower tax rates, using computerised tax-bases that talk to each other, and better-designed tax systems like VAT (and eventually the GST), compliance is up dramatically. Tax-to-GDP ratio rose from 15.7% in 1991-92 to 17.7% in 2007-08 before falling to 16.5% in 2009-10. Corporate tax-to-GDP is up from 1.6% in 2001-02 to 4.1% in 2009-10, individual income tax up from 1.4% to 2% and service tax from 0.1% to 0.9%—given the 57% share of services in overall GDP, this is the area to focus on (with its 28% share in GDP, industrial taxes or excise duties are 1.6% of GDP). Getting black money stashed overseas is important, but raising tax-to-GDP ratios is far more efficient, more so given the economy's growth in recent years. The most successful amnesty, VDIS-97, unearthed Rs 33,697 crore of black money, around 2.2% of that year's GDP. Raising the tax-to-GDP rates by just 0.5% will get that much today, and a lot more each year, given how GDP is growing.
Also keep in mind that amnesties turn off honest taxpayers.
VDIS-97, for instance, was designed to be full of holes, and the government never changed this despite front-page stories in the newspapers. The scheme allowed evaders to declare their wealth in bullion and to self-declare the purchase date. The scheme said that any bullion bought before April 1, 1987, would be valued as on that date. So, an evader could buy gold in 1997, say he bought it in 1960, and be asked to pay taxes on the basis of the gold's value on April 1, 1987. Since the value of gold rose by 84% between 1987 and 1997, this lowers tax rates on black money by 45%. The CAG pointed out huge undervaluation of jewellery and bullion in the range of Rs 7,277 crore to Rs 9,671 crore—a circular from the finance ministry directed taxmen to issue VDIS certificates even if they felt the declarations were 'unusual' in nature. Loopholes in valuing real estate allowed property in Kolkata and Mumbai to be declared as being worth Rs 5,530! With the amnesty scheme more black than white, the last thing we need is a repeat of it.
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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS
COLUMN
SIBAL BEGINS A CLEAN-UP
SUNIL JAIN
After an extraordinarily brazen defence of his predecessor's decision to hand out 122 licences (and another 35 'dual-technology' ones) in 2008 at 2001 prices, where he rubbished the CAG report on it by arguing there was a zero loss to the exchequer, telecom minister Kapil Sibal has finally begun operation clean-up. By announcing that all new 2G spectrum would be auctioned in the future, and that Raja's beneficiaries wouldn't get the next lot of 1.8 MHz of contracted spectrum for free, Sibal has also admitted that, in effect, the CAG was right all along. After all, the CAG argued the prices prevalent in 2001 could not be charged in 2008; that auctions were the only way to decide winners when just 122 licences had to be given to 573 applicants; the CAG's Rs 1,76,000 crore loss figure that both Sibal and Montek Singh Ahluwalia ridiculed was based on the Trai's view that 2G spectrum should be valued at least at the 3G rate (in some cases, it said, the value was 1.5 times)—it's a different matter the independent Trai will now come up with a new 2G-3G number …
Sibal's announcement, though more than welcome, is problematic since he hasn't made the mandatory consultation with Trai before announcing policy, but leave that aside since he is trying to limit the huge losses Raja caused the exchequer. If the Justice Shivraj Patil committee report, due this week, says Raja's process was illegal, or if the Court cancels the licences, we could even recover a large part of the loss Raja caused.
What is interesting is the huge contradiction between the minister's earlier and current stance, and the problems this is likely to cause.
l Auctions cause tariffs to rise: Sibal made much of how the idea was to keep tariffs low, how having auctions would raise tariffs for customers, he even quoted various government documents to show how raising revenues was not the government's top priority. When many argued tariffs were not determined by auction costs but by the level of competition, Sibal disagreed and said there wasn't enough competition. On Saturday, he said the opposite: "The stage has been reached when there is enough competition to warrant a market-driven process." Well, all 122 of Raja's beneficiaries (if you exclude the 35 dual-technology ones), have a market share of 5% three years after getting their licences! News agency PTI put out a story that most papers carried on Sunday, based on Sibal's old argument, saying tariffs would rise as a result of the new policy of auctions! Hoist with his own petard.
l Level-playing field: If we give the newcomers licences at auction prices that are higher than those paid by the older firms in the 2001 auctions, this will create an unlevel-playing field. This was always specious since someone buying land in 2008 can't get it at the same price paid by another person in 2001, and Sibal has done well to finally accept he was wrong. But, Tata Teleservices, one of Raja's beneficiaries, is using Sibal's old argument to ask why it has to pay a market price for the additional 1.8 MHz of spectrum when its licence says 6.2 MHz has to be given for free, something the Trai concurs with—the older telcos are being asked to pay for their 'extra' spectrum only beyond 6.2 MHz, so the level-playing-field argument requires that they also get 6.2 MHz free, or both should be asked to pay for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz. Sibal's going to have a hard time reconciling his new stance with the old one.
l PM's stand: When Sibal was against auctions, he said the press had got it wrong, the PM had never asked Raja to auction spectrum, never mind that everyone in the press has a copy of the PM's letter. Now that Sibal is in favour of auctions, can we know the latest official view on the PM's then official view?
l Government affidavit: Since the minister said the media had blown his remarks out of context when the Supreme Court expressed its unhappiness over his there-was-no-loss press conference, it's a good idea to focus on the most official document that expresses the government's current view—and that's the affidavit filed in the Court. The affidavit gives the old auctions-raise-tariffs and level-playing-field argument, and also says that all 573 applications for licences will be processed by the government and not just the 122 that Raja awarded—clearly this isn't going to be happening now. So is there a level-playing field between the 122 firms and those that are left?! The sooner the affidavit is junked, the better.
This, of course, is what happens when the government decides to find cute answers to each problem as and when it encounters them, instead of coming up with an honest and clean solution to the problem. Sibal didn't want to admit to the huge losses Raja cost the exchequer, so he said what he did, about tariffs, about level-playing fields. Now, when he's realised it isn't going to wash, he's moved to the sensible solution but since he's still not willing to admit to the loss, he has the unenviable task of reconciling all the half-truths and untruths told in the case so far.
Will it work? In all probability, though it depends on what the Supreme Court does since it has been the one driving the process, including getting the CBI to raid Raja and his friends and forcing the government to act. The BJP, for all its initial activism, has lost interest and is indulging in tokenism, perhaps because it feels its misdeeds will also be exposed or because it is harder to get its head around complex issues than it is to whip up sentiment on even immoral issues (but not illegal, its chief tells us!) like allowing Yeddyurappa to continue—2G is Bofors many times over, but understandably for a party which bases its legitimacy on the past going back to Lord Ram, it's natural to not want to deal with contemporary issues.
The older telcos are happy that Trai will oblige by coming up with a lower 2G-3G number and the recommendation that these firms be asked to renew their 2G licences at 3G rates (they'll start coming up for renewal after 4-5 years) has been put on the back-burner—makes you wonder if the 2G-costs-more-than-3G and renewal-at-3G prices was just aimed at softening up these firms when they protested Raja's largesse. Even if you assume 85 of the 157 licences issued by Raja are cancelled, this means Sibal is not moving on roughly half the licences and will allow them to gain from the 4.4 MHz they got virtually free. Unless of course the Justice Patil committee report, due later this week, says the entire Raja process was illegal, and all 157 licences are cancelled. We live in hope.
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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS
COLUMN
INDIA LOSES ITS LUSTRE
DEEPAK GOPINATH
The ongoing debate on whether RBI should have hiked interest rates 50 basis points instead of 25 basis points at its most recent policy meeting may be interesting, but misses the point. The reality is that international investors made up their minds about India long before January 25. Inflation and what policymakers do (or don't do) about it has been the primary focus of investors for several months now. Rising inflationary pressures have dampened emerging market equity performance and uncertainty about anti-inflation policies has been rising as price inflation of commodities from oil to coal to grains and softs continues to accelerate.
Given this context, investors' verdict on India has been resoundingly negative. Compared to its BRIC peers, Indian equity markets have spectacularly underperformed over the last two months, falling 5%. That compares with declines of 2.6% and 0.9% in China and Brazil, respectively, and a rise of 9.4% in Russia. RBI and the government are perceived not only as still being behind the curve on inflation, but they also didn't seem to care. Instead, policy overall is biased towards maintaining high levels of economic growth at all costs, setting the stage for a shift to a high growth/high inflation cycle that will depress equity markets in the near term.
How else can one explain the recent statement by the finance ministry's Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu that "we want to take steps to bring down inflation but we do not want to be so single minded in bringing down inflation that you have unemployment going up to 20%". Or the RBI governor Subbarao's repeated insistence that higher interest rates do not address the structural roots of food inflation, the driver of prices in this cycle. While technically correct, the explanation does little to mollify investors when the government remains unwilling to confront the causes of food inflation and invest in improving productivity of the agricultural sector. Or the business lobby's call for a softly, softly approach to inflation lest it choke off growth.
Or the government's unwillingness to roll back fiscal stimulus.
Now compare India's schizophrenic attitude towards inflation with that of Brazil, where inflation is 5.9%, well above the 4.5% target. Since taking office on January 1, Dilma Rousseff, Brazil's first ever female President, has gone out of her way to show how 'macho' she is on inflation, pledging in her inaugural speech to protect Brazil from the 'plague' of inflation and announcing cutbacks in government spending. On January 18, the Banco Central delivered and raised rates 50 basis points to 11.25%. This reassured investors that Brazil would do what it takes to keep inflation under control and sets up the possibility of a rally in equities once the turning point in the inflation cycle becomes clear.
Among the BRICs, the situation is Russia is the most favourable for equity investors. High oil prices are improving the government's fiscal position and will help bring about a modest decline in inflation from December's 8.7% level. That, combined with net capital inflows, will continue to sustain a rally in Russian equities over the near term.
The fact that China stands alongside India as one of the BRIC underperformers—Chinese equities have lost 2.6% since early December—is of scant comfort. China is also perplexing markets with its seeming lack of action on the inflation front, which is also largely being driven by rising food prices. But at 4.6% in December, Chinese inflation is much lower than India's 8.4%, and the government is taking concrete measures to boost food supply that will prevent the spikes in prices that can destabilise markets and negatively influence inflation expectations.
In India, on the other hand, there is little evidence of a comprehensive strategy to address structural supply bottlenecks that are responsible for food inflation. And, even as RBI only grudgingly raises interest rates, there is little support for fiscal consolidation à la Brazil. Instead, the Congress is likely to go the other way, and keep in place subsidies on diesel and nitrogen-based fertilisers and continue to increase social sector spending that it sees as a key to continued electoral support. (The Congress faces five state elections this summer.)
The crisis of confidence in Indian economic policymaking couldn't have come at a worse time. India's carefully cultivated image of a relatively transparent democracy, with strong, stable, reform-oriented leadership, has taken a beating in recent months. And with it has gone the political premium Indian equity markets have commanded in recent years. The recent series of political and corporate governance scandals have not only precipitated a political crisis, it has weakened the government's credibility and effectiveness. The recent half-hearted Cabinet shuffle only highlighted the leadership vacuum within the Congress-led government. The India brand will find it difficult to recover its mojo. And until then other emerging markets will take centrestage.
The author is global markets director of the research service, Trusted Sources
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THE HINDU
EDITORIAL
EGYPT SHAKES WEST ASIA
Defying a curfew and violent repression, the people of Egypt are refusing to back down until President Hosni Mubarak — the dictator who has ruled for 30 years — goes. They regard the concession he has made, the dismissal of his own Cabinet, as a contemptible joke. Hundreds of thousands have occupied central areas of Cairo and other major cities, and their ranks have swelled even as the tear gas has spread and the beatings have intensified. The ruling National Democratic Party's building has been burnt down; the state TV building and the Foreign Ministry have been attacked. Over 1,000 people were arrested in the first three days and a similar number have been injured in Cairo alone, with figures not yet known for Alexandria and other cities. Newspapers report over 100 deaths so far, but the protests show no diminution despite the closure of access to the Internet and mobile phone networks. The mass rage has many causes, from long-term structural unemployment through rising and apparently uncontrollable food prices to rampant corruption and the brutality of the notorious security agencies. Yet unlike the 1977 bread riots, which forced Anwar Sadat to restore a grain and fuel subsidy, the present and still largely leaderless protests are directed against the entire political structure in a country of great importance to the region and the rest of the world. Egypt's population of 80 million is far and away the biggest in North Africa and West Asia, and the country is the guardian of the Suez Canal.
Tunisia's brave people, who recently ended Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's 23-year rule, may well have inspired Egyptians. Another factor has been the influential role played by Al Jazeera — the standout voice of aggressive, independent journalism in the Arab world — in channelling popular discontent through the region. After an absurd attempt to blame the Ikhwanul Muslimeen or Muslim Brotherhood, the Mubarak regime turned to violence, with the police and semi-official thug militias using tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets against protesters. Tanks have also been deployed. Cables released by WikiLeaks show that the United States has had no illusions about the régime. Washington and its allies now stand thoroughly exposed for using aid of over $2 billion a year and silence over internal repression to turn Cairo into a crucial agent of their regional policy, particularly in suppressing demands for justice for the Palestinians. The Egyptian people's uprising is showing the world that this highly prized western ally is utterly devoid of legitimacy. That message will echo through every other dictatorship in the region. We are almost certainly witnessing a transformative moment in the modern history of West Asia.
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THE HINDU
EDITORIAL
BRAZEN CRIMINALITY
The grisly murder of Malegaon Additional District Collector Yeshwant Sonawane in Manmad, Maharashtra as he confronted a gang pilfering fuel from tanker trucks has sparked widespread outrage. More than 1.5 million State government employees struck work for a day, among many other protests. The atrocity draws attention once again to the scale of the great fuel robbery going on in this country. By one reckoning, 40 per cent of kerosene is stolen during transportation from depots to retail outlets. Estimates of the value of this organised racket, which also sees quite a bit of the kerosene used to adulterate diesel, exceed Rs.10,000 crore a year nationally. The fraud seems to be growing in direct correlation to the rise in fuel prices. However, official responses have mostly been weak-kneed, even after the murder of Indian Oil Corporation employee S. Manjunath in 2005. There is no satisfactory explanation for why the Petroleum Ministry gutted, instead of revamping, its own 2006 'marker' scheme aimed at curbing adulteration.
The scale of organised criminal gangs in this sector in Maharashtra is much larger than earlier understood — as the seizures and arrests in raids at more than 200 places reveal. Maharashtra's mafias in sand and milk are, by the very nature of those commodities, very much in the public eye. Organised crime in the petroleum trade is less easily seen. That could change with this horrible murder, as should official attitudes and responses to such racketeering. Hopefully, Maharashtra's law and order situation will also get the badly needed scrutiny. Several RTI activists and whistleblowers have been attacked and some of them murdered over the past three years. The State has also seen several atrocities against Dalits (of which Khairlanjee was just one that got any attention). A senior Member of Parliament from Marathwada stands charged with murder. In the present case of fuel diversion and adulteration, the opposition has alleged there is high political backing for the racket across the State. Generally speaking, if there is big money to be made in Maharashtra, there is a mafia that steps forward to make it. The crackdown that is on now and the arrest of all ten suspects in the murder of Mr. Sonawane are positive signs. The hope is that Union Petroleum Minister Jaipal Reddy's resolve to curb the adulteration menace will not prove short-lived. A great deal of work waits to be done on the ground, and a start can be made by acting on the Supreme Court's 2001 suggestion of an additional agency to carry out independent checks and actions in the fuel sector. Else Mr. Sonawane and others like him would have lost their lives in vain.
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THE HINDU
LEADER PAGE ARTICLES
A STARTER FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT?
WITH THE NEW START, MOSCOW AND WASHINGTON HAVE VOWED TO CARRY FORWARD THE DISARMAMENT AGENDA. BUT PROGRESS WILL NOT BE EASY.
VLADIMIR RADYUHIN
On January 26, the Federation Council, Upper House of the Russian Parliament, endorsed the New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty), a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty Moscow and Washington signed in April 2010. The U.S. Senate approved the pact last month. Over the next seven years the U.S. and Russia are to reduce the number of warheads they deploy on strategic nuclear delivery vehicles from 2,200 to 1,550, a reduction of about 30 per cent from the levels agreed upon in the 2002 Moscow Treaty.
The New START has been hailed as a landmark pact that revives the process of disarmament stalled in recent years. Experts in both countries believe that the U.S. and Russia could pursue much deeper cuts in the next round of negotiations without weakening either nation's ability to deter a nuclear attack on its territory. In a joint study published in the September/October issue of the Foreign Affairs, U.S. and Russian military experts said it would be safe for the two nuclear powers to cap their arsenal at 1,000 warheads before they ask other nations to join in reductions.
Washington and Moscow have indeed vowed to carry forward the disarmament agenda, but progress will be neither easy nor fast, given the clashing interpretations the treaty has been given in the U.S. and Russian ratification documents. Moreover, some differences are so deep that they may even derail the implementation of the New START.
The U.S. Senate adopted a 30-page ratification resolution that gave its reading of the treaty and set conditions for implementation. Some of them enraged Moscow. A three-line initial draft bill on the New START ratification prepared by the State Duma, Lower House of the Russian Parliament, swelled into a 10-page document and two separate declarations that countered point by point the U.S. Senate amendments, which "distort the sense of the treaty," according to Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
The main disagreement is over missile defence. Russia has strongly rejected the U.S. Senate's claim that "the New START Treaty does not impose any limitations on the deployment of missile defences" and that the preamble, which asserts the linkage between offensive and defensive strategic weapons, "does not impose a legal obligation on the Parties."
The ratification law approved by the Russian Parliament reaffirms the linkage as also the country's right to withdraw from the New START if the U.S. or "any other state or a group of states" (read the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) deploys missile defences "capable of substantially reducing the effectiveness of Russia's strategic nuclear forces."
The risk that the U.S. missile defence plans may actually wreck the New START may not be very big, as the treaty is to be fully implemented by 2017, whereas the U.S., according to President Barack Obama's Phased Adaptive Approach to missile defences in Europe, will not begin to deploy SM-3 interceptors capable of shooting down Russian long-range missiles till 2018. But if the U.S. acts on its plans to build a global missile shield, Russia will most likely refuse to slash its nuclear arsenals beyond the New START level.
"Either we reach agreement on ballistic missile defence … or another round of the arms race will take place," Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev said in his state-of-the-nation address last November.
Russia and NATO, at a landmark summit in Lisbon in November, agreed to discuss ways of joining their efforts at building a common missile shield in Europe and to prepare "a comprehensive Joint Analysis of the future framework for missile defence cooperation" by June 2011. However, Russians fear this "cooperation" pledge may be little more than another U.S. ruse to allay European concerns that a unilateral missile shield would antagonise Russia. Earlier this month, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen ruled out a joint missile defence system with Russia, saying the alliance favoured building "two independent but coordinated systems" that would share information. Russia's NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin effectively rejected this information-sharing plan as it would be "aimed at deterring Russia's nuclear potential under the guise of protection against Iranian missiles." Moscow has proposed developing an integral European ballistic missile defence belt divided into the Russian and NATO sectors of responsibility.
As the Russian Parliament gathered to ratify the New START, Mr. Medvedev warned the U.S. against trying to hoodwink Russia over missile defences.
"We have two options," he said, "Either we … agree with NATO on designing an integrated system of anti-missile defence or, if we fail to reach agreement, we will subsequently be forced to make an entire series of unpleasant decisions on the deployment of an offensive nuclear missile group."
Mr. Medvedev's warning apparently refers to Russia's threats to station short-range nuclear-tipped missiles along NATO borders and deploy its newest RS-24 "Yars" long-range missiles, whose multiple warheads can streak to targets at an altitude of less than 100 km, which puts them out of reach of U.S. missile interceptors. This could trigger a new arms race.
Another focal point of disagreement is the New START's provision concerning non-nuclear strategic weapons such as "hypersonic manoeuvrable vehicles" and space-based weapons. The U.S. Senate claimed that the New START does not affect U.S. plans to create a global strike capability using strategic delivery vehicles equipped with non-nuclear warheads. "Nothing in the New START Treaty prohibits deployments of strategic-range non-nuclear weapon systems," the ratification resolution stated.
This claim is a glaring overstatement. The New START does impose restrictions on non-nuclear strategic weapons if only because it makes no distinction between nuclear and non-nuclear warheads installed on strategic missiles. The limit of 1,550 warheads allowed for either side under the treaty includes both nuclear and non-nuclear weapons. This is what makes the New START different from previous Russian-American pacts and a major success for Russian diplomacy in the light of the U.S.' current focus on non-nuclear strategic systems.
In a further constraint on the development of new strategic systems, the New START says such systems would be discussed by a Bilateral Consultative Commission "before this new kind of offensive weapons is deployed." The Russian Parliament said that should the U.S. ignore this provision and go ahead with deploying new strategic weapons, Russia could walk away from the New START.
The U.S. and Russian legislators also set forth contrasting positions on further arms reductions. The U.S. Senate, in its ratification resolution, committed the President to starting negotiations with Russia on tactical nuclear weapons within a year of the New START going into effect. Even though neither side has disclosed its stockpiles of tactical nukes, Russia is believed to have 2,050 weapons and the U.S. about 500, half of them deployed in Europe.
The U.S. idea of discussing tactical nuclear weapons in isolation from other security issues is a non-starter for Moscow. The U.S. tactical nukes in Europe have a strategic dimension for Russia as it would take an F/A-18 Hornet fighter a mere 15 minutes to deliver a handful of them to Central Russia. The Russian Parliament urged the U.S. to remove its tactical nuclear weapons from Europe to its own territory and dismantle the infrastructure for their re-deployment. Russia has made it clear any future talks on tactical nukes must be linked with NATO's overwhelming superiority in conventional forces in Europe.
Speaking at the ratification debate in the Russian Parliament, Mr. Lavrov said that post-START negotiations must address all factors affecting strategic stability — the U.S. plans to develop non-nuclear strategic weapons, deploy space-based arms, and build a global missile shield as well as NATO's superiority in conventional weapons in Europe.
"Follow-up talks can be launched only if all these circumstances are factored in in their totality and once we are satisfied that the Americans are implementing the New START," Mr. Lavrov told Russian legislators during the debate.
Widely differing interpretations of the New START and deep suspicions over Washington's defence plans make Moscow extremely cautious in embarking on further arms reductions talks.
"I am convinced that before talking about any further steps in the sphere of nuclear disarmament it is necessary to fulfil the new START agreement," Mr. Lavrov told reporters.
Only "then will be it be clear what additional steps should be taken to strengthen global security and global stability," Russia's top diplomat added.
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THE HINDU
OPED
LESSONS FROM L'AFFAIRE THOMAS
THE CHOICE OF THE CVC WAS MADE ONLY TO PROVE THE POINT THAT ULTIMATELY IT IS THE RULING CLIQUE THAT PREVAILS IN SUCH MATTERS, WHATEVER NOISE THE OPPOSITION MAY GENERATE IN PROTEST.
R.K. RAGHAVAN
At a time when the whole nation is exercised about how to tackle corruption in the delivery of public services and the management of precious public funds, the Central Vigilance Commission is the last body that should have got embroiled in a major controversy. In my view, the Commission has been deliberately sabotaged by a few small-minded people in the establishment. Not that P.J. Thomas could have greatly helped the ruling coalition to cover up any dubious decision. From my knowledge (that dates back to the halcyon days of a decade ago), the organisation has been a mere paper tiger, yet another adjunct to the Executive. It is meant mainly to accommodate superannuated civil servants, defeating the original purpose of providing meat to the crusade against corruption among public servants.
Even if it is stating the obvious, Mr. Thomas's choice was downright tendentious. It was made only to prove the point that ultimately it is the ruling clique that prevails in such matters, whatever noise the Opposition may generate in protest. Otherwise, I do not think that Mr. Thomas — even if he were to choose to act arbitrarily — could have helped much to suppress vital facts concerning the 2G scam, which the Opposition suspects is the motive behind his installation. Persons in the background who constitute extra-constitutional centres of power, who may have driven hard to bring in Mr. Thomas, must be squirming in their seats. They should reflect whether he was worth the fight, particularly now that he has decided to be stubborn and hold on to the job come what may. This is one area where two basic principles of management, due diligence and cost-benefit analysis, would have persuaded those who call the shots in the ruling group not to root for Mr. Thomas, even long after the scam of his installation had been uncovered.
There are several issues surrounding Mr. Thomas's appointment that only a person who has served in government can appreciate and explain lucidly to the layperson — who is anxious to educate himself but is woefully short of facts. There is a process of empanelling senior officers for Government of India positions in the various Ministries and field offices, such as Joint Secretary and those above that level, from among officers found suitable to hold these important slots. This is a clinical drill by which the unsuitable ones (from the point of view of both ability and integrity) are eliminated, and those whose Personal Files, which carry their annual appraisal, reveal that they have had a uniformly good record of service without any recent blemish, are chosen. This scrutiny definitely makes sure that there is nothing that impinges on an officer's personal integrity when he or she is empanelled. The pendency of departmental action or criminal proceedings, and even a reporting officer's snide remark touching on the honesty of the officer reported on, is good enough to keep an official out of such a panel. When this is the yardstick for even routine and inconsequential jobs, however high the person may be in the hierarchy, it is a travesty of sorts for the government to take the implied stand that a charge sheet in the infamous palmoelin case did not make Mr. Thomas ineligible to be the CVC. It is a sensitive assignment, at least on paper. I am almost certain that the Supreme Court is not amused, and that it will have a lot to say on the ludicrous defence of an appointment that is totally indefensible.
Apart from the empanelment of officers found fit to hold jobs of and above the level of Joint Secretary in the Government of India, short-listing is done for posts such as that of the CBI Director, heads of the Central Police Organisations, and members of the Central Vigilance Commission. The object of such a panel — which will normally contain three names for each position — is to give the Executive enough flexibility to choose a person, who, in its opinion, is the most suitable of the lot.
This is an unexceptionable arrangement. But this is where subjectivity enters the process. While the names are arranged in the order of merit by the select group (normally, but not always, comprising the Cabinet Secretary and the Secretaries of the relevant Ministries) that is entrusted with the job of preparing the panels, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC), which takes the final decision, is not bound to choose the person who tops the list. (The ACC includes the Prime Minister and the Minister concerned.)
The names in the reckoning are invariably leaked, generating (read, encouraging) lobbying and a rat-race before the crucial decision is made. Very often there is mud-slinging aimed at the lawful and most eligible claimants to a job by their rivals. The one who ultimately gets the nod is made to feel obliged for what is considered a 'favour' done to him or her by the Executive. This is the flip side to the device of empanelment, which was originally conceived to ensure that only the best and the honest got into vital positions in government.
I am sure that Justice J.S. Verma, one of our most illustrious judges who gave the forthright hawala judgment in 1997 that defined the parameters for the composition of the Central Vigilance Commission and the appointment of CBI Director, must be a disillusioned man. However, there is no alternative to the mode of creating panels for the top jobs, as it is the lesser evil compared to arbitrary appointments by a government that does not set much score by traditional values. One is tempted to recall the pre- hawala judgment days when the CBI Director was changed as frequently as one changed a shirt. The longevity of a Director in those eminently forgettable days was just a few months, compared to the present tenure of two years. Admittedly, a fixed tenure does not necessarily bring in total independence. But at least it gives some courage to a feisty incumbent to stand up to it when faced with unreasonable, and sometimes downright illegal, demands made on him or her by an unscrupulous government.
When the Supreme Court laid down in 1997 that the Leader of the Opposition should be involved in the process of choosing a CVC, it would not have dreamt that the country would reach a stage of incivility where the views of the former would be totally brushed aside and a choice imposed on the nation. Consensus was implied, but definitely not steamrolling of the kind that has been witnessed in Mr. Thomas's case.
When it gave the hawala ruling, the Supreme Court rightly believed that at this dizzy level of authority, responsibility and accountability, grace and public spirit, would prevail over narrow political considerations. Sadly, that belief has been totally belied. In making such a vital choice, a brute majority cannot rule over dissent in a democracy such as ours, whatever the motive behind such dissent.
The Attorney-General's admission that the facts of Mr. Thomas's involvement in the palmoelin case were not placed before the selection committee compounds the impropriety of ignoring the Leader of the Opposition. The failure to place all the relevant facts before the committee is shocking, and makes the civil servants who were responsible for preparing papers for the discussions culpable. However, I am not willing to buy any theory that this was a mere slip-up and not an act of dishonesty. I am also intrigued over why Sushma Swaraj was not more explicit when she opposed Mr. Thomas's appointment. Only the affidavit that she has now threatened to file before the Supreme Court can throw light on this aspect.
I am sure some heads in government are going to roll. My only anxiety is that some straightforward civil servant in the Department of Personnel and Training should not be made the scapegoat. I do not rule out this possibility, knowing as I do how governments operate on the basis of political expediency rather than considerations of civil service morale. The Supreme Court is certainly watching closely, much to the discomfiture of those who had erred, that too unpardonably.
(The writer is a former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.)
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THE HINDU
WHEN PAPERS WERE FILED FOR THE DEAD
IN THE BRONX, A DEAD MAN WAS PRESENTED AS A CANDIDATE FOR STATE SENATE IN 2010.
JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ
Dead people have a history, much of it apocryphal, of mucking up elections. There is the story of an Ohio man dead for two decades who voted in the 2004 election, and the tale of a woman from Guam who donated thousands, from the grave, to the Tea Party.
But in the Bronx, it is a dead man who was presented as a candidate for state Senate in 2010 who has perplexed local officials.
The man, Raphael M. Klapper, an ophthalmologist and an immigrant from Poland, died in May at age 85 of complications from pancreatic cancer. Six months later, he was listed on the ballot as the Conservative Party candidate in the 31st District.
Klapper, who lived in Riverdale, never expressed an interest in running for office, family members say. But by the time polls closed, he had collected 828 votes, or about 2 per cent of the total without knocking on any doors or delivering a single speech. Adriano G. Espaillat, a Democrat, won the seat with nearly 40,000 votes. "The whole thing is bizarre," said Klapper's son Jeffrey, who, it should be said, ran twice for office. "We're not exactly sure what happened."
Election officials, similarly baffled, have asked the Manhattan district attorney to investigate.
Though the rolls of the deceased have long been a trove for schemers searching for votes, nobody seems to know why anyone would want to put up a dead man for election. But in the weeks after Klapper's death, Conservative Party officials gathered 38 signatures, enough to nominate him for the Senate seat.
In a district representing northern Manhattan and a small part of the Bronx, where conservative voters are about as rare as tumbleweeds, the nomination did not stand out.
The paperwork sailed through, and the Board of Elections sent Klapper a notice in July confirming his candidacy. His widow, Erika, consumed with other things, did not pay close attention to the mail. Nobody seemed to notice when Klapper failed to show up at a candidates' forum in late October at the Riverdale YM-YWHA.
William Newmark, chairman of the Conservative Party in the Bronx, described the episode as a "real fluke." He said Klapper's name had been suggested by a party member, whom he declined to identify. He said that he did not know Klapper had died until he got a call from a Board of Elections official about two months before Election Day, and that he assumed the board would remove Klapper's name from the ballot. "When the guy died, I was totally shocked," Mr. Newmark said. "Why in the world would I put the person on the ballot? How does it benefit me? It's ludicrous."
Mr. Newmark said he had met Klapper once, at a fundraiser in 2008, and had no reason to check in with him before the party began gathering signatures in June. Officials at the Board of Elections said the party should have more closely monitored the gathering of signatures and immediately reported Klapper's death. The board never received his death certificate, said a spokeswoman, Valerie Vazquez.
When Klapper's relatives saw his name on the ballot, they were irate. Later, they discovered a stack of letters at Erika Klapper's home threatening penalties for his failure to make the necessary financial disclosures. Erika Klapper contacted the chairman of the Conservative Party of New York State, Michael R. Long, who notified the Manhattan district attorney.
"There is no reason in the world you would put a person on a petition without their knowledge," Mr. Long said. "I thought somebody was playing a game with the party, or in fact involved in some kind of identity theft."
The district attorney's office would not say whether it was investigating. Mr. Long said investigators from the office had asked him if anyone had been paid to gather signatures, and that he told them no. Election law experts said any investigation would focus on whether anyone who had been involved in the effort knew that Klapper was dead and what he or she had intended to accomplish.
"If nobody knew he was dead, they just made a mistake," said Jerry H. Goldfeder, an election lawyer. "But," he added, "it's hard to believe that no one knew he was dead." Klapper was one of five people on the ballot for the Senate seat, which was previously held by Eric T. Schneiderman, now the state attorney general. Espaillat, who ultimately won the seat, said he could now claim the "dubious honour of being the only state Senator who beat a deceased opponent."
"All I can do is extend my condolences to Klapper's family and urge the Board of Elections to stop putting dead people on the ballot," Espaillat said.
Klapper was a physician for more than 50 years, with an office on the Upper West Side. He came to the United States in 1952 to escape the post-war chaos of Poland, and fell in love with medicine after reading the Sinclair Lewis novel Arrowsmith, which centres on the travails of a Midwestern doctor.
Klapper's politics had a conservative bent, his family said, but he was not a natural fit for the Conservative Party; members from the Bronx had persuaded him to join. Though he enjoyed bantering about taxes with friends, he never signalled any interest in pursuing public office, family members said. His son Jeffrey, however, was a Conservative Party candidate for the state Assembly in 2008. The younger Klapper, who works for a nursing home, got about 400 more votes than were cast two years later for his dead father.
— New York Times News Service
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THE HINDU
ARGENTINA: FIGHTING THE GROWING DRUG MENACE
ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO
A major cocaine bust in Spain is highlighting the growing drug-trafficking ties between Argentina and Europe and causing headaches for the government of Argentina's President, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
Spanish authorities in Barcelona seized an executive jet from Argentina this month that was carrying about 2,000 pounds of cocaine. An Argentine company specialising in private medical transfers, Medical Jet, was operating the plane, which was being flown by pilots whose fathers were generals during Argentina's bloody dictatorship.
Investigators in Spain and Argentina have remained tight-lipped about the inquiry, but questions have swirled around the possible involvement of Argentine military officials and politicians who flew on Medical Jet, and deeper connections to Colombian and Mexican drug cartels.
Arturo Puricelli, Argentina's Defence Minister, has expressed concern about the possible involvement of the air force, saying on Wednesday in a radio interview that he would push for an investigation. "There is great indignation about the case within the air force."
The Argentine judge Alejandro Catania is investigating 18 air force officials for possible involvement in the drug shipment, the Argentine news media reported. He declined to comment on the case. The seized drug cargo was only the most recent of dozens of cocaine shipments to Spain originating in Argentina since 2006, experts on organised crime in Argentina and Spain said.
"Argentina has become a producer and exporter of cocaine over the past five years, and Europe is looking to Argentina for cocaine," said Claudio Izaguirre, president of the Argentine Anti-Drugs Association, a nongovernmental group in Buenos Aires.
Most of the drugs from Argentina seized by Spanish authorities have been camouflaged in cargo ships with myriad exports.
In the most recent case, the plane bound from Buenos Aires to Barcelona stopped over in Cape Verde for refuelling. Interior Minister Florencio Randazzo previously insisted that the drugs had been loaded there, not in Argentina. But Security Minister Nilda Garre acknowledged last week that airport controls "had relaxed a bit" and that she was rethinking whether the drugs could have been loaded in Argentina.
(Charles Newbery contributed reporting from Pinamar, Argentina, and Andres Cala from Barcelona, Spain.)
New York Times News Service
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THE HINDU
THE PROBLEMS OF FISHERFOLK NEED BETTER COVERAGE
S. VISWANATHAN
A recent newspaper report noted that the Union Government had gazetted the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification 2011 and received strong criticism from organisations that work for protecting coastal ecosystems and fight for the rights and welfare of fisherfolk. About 20 organisations working in the field of protecting fishermen's rights and lawyers backing them have taken strong exception to the notification. This is on the ground that the new notification, gazetted on January 6, 2011, will cause widespread destruction to the livelihood of the fishing communities and will badly affect the other coastal poor as well. The critics also fear that coastal ecosystems that provide protection to 25 crore people living in coastal areas from natural disasters such as floods and tsunamis may also get damaged owing to the changes proposed.
The 2004 tsunami experience
On reading this, my thoughts went back to the nightmare of the Asian tsunami of December 2004, which hit the Indian coast and devastated the lives, livelihood, and property of many thousands of families.
Needless to say, fisherfolk were the worst affected. As a journalist who toured most of the affected areas for about two weeks in Tamil Nadu for Frontline coverage, I could learn a lot about the coverage of massive disasters of this kind. My interactions with the affected people, especially fisherfolk, enriched my knowledge about the life, work, and plight of the poor and their extreme vulnerability to any kind of setback. I learnt that coverage had to be not just extensive, but also highly nuanced and sensitive, particularly because it had a bearing on the lives and livelihoods of large communities such as fishermen who have an age-old culture and tradition of their own.
Journalism, I felt, should respect their sentiments and traditions.
Even when, after the initial trauma, they could comprehend the magnitude of the loss they had suffered, I found many of them positive about their future. They seemed keener on going back to the sea than in getting immediate benefits. "Food we need, but we would love to resume fishing and earn our daily bread," one of their leaders told me. Such was their spirit, even at this, the most painful moment of their lives. The tsunami, this leader noted, had swallowed one-third of the sea-faring fishermen in the village but the survivors should resume fishing, and the government should provide full subsidies to buy catamarans, to begin with. "That would help the fishing community come out of the crisis." ( Frontline, January 28, 2005).
Many influential newspapers and news magazines, and some television channels did extremely well in educating their readers and viewers on various aspects of the lives of fisherfolk and the livelihood issues that confronted them every day. They also focused on the extreme insecurity of these poverty-stricken people. Scientists, most importantly Professor M.S. Swaminathan, threw light on the need to protect the ecosystems of the coast and explained how mangroves could minimise the impact of such disasters.
Environmentalist Vandana Shiva declared in an interview: "The first lesson [from the tsunami] is about development in coastal regions. Respect for the fragility and vulnerability of coastal ecosystems has been sacrificed for hotels and holiday resorts, shrimp farms and refineries. Mangroves and coral reefs have been relentlessly destroyed, taking away the protective barriers." ("Lessons for Life," The Guardian, January 12, 2005). Recalling a study of the 1999 Orissa cyclone that killed 30,000 people, she pointed out that the destruction was much more severe where the mangroves had been cut down for shrimp farms and an oil refinery. Ms Shiva also recalled how the people's movement against industrial shrimp farming had resulted in a court order to shut down the farms within 500 metres of the coastline and how "the shrimp industry tried to undo environmental protection laws by seeking exemption from the government." The fisherfolk and their supporters today are particularly apprehensive about the intent and interests behind the central government's alleged undermining of the 1991 Notification. It was seen as the first major progressive legislation to protect the rights that fishermen won after many a struggle; it related to their livelihood, personal security, dwelling places, free access to the sea, the parking of boats, and so on. Even more disturbing to them was the government's other action of legalising about 23 amendments that sought to "dilute" the 1991 Notification, amendments that were opposed by the fishermen and their representatives during consultations organised by the government. The fears that these changes would make the notification ineffective in protecting the fisher people's rights do not appear to be ill-founded.
After Dalits and the tribal people, it is the fisherfolk who constitute perhaps the most neglected community in India. They account for about 15 million households. At least 7.5 million enterprising fishermen venture into the deep sea at odd hours and contribute substantially to the food basket of the country. Yet most of them eke out a miserable, insecure life. The activities prohibited by the CRZ Notification 1991 in its original form, but sought to be created in the new notification, include the setting up of new industries and expanding existing ones, any construction activity between the High Tide Line (HTL) and the Low Tide Line (LTL), setting up and expanding fish processing units, land acclamation, mining of sand and rocks, building industrial, commercial and entertainment units, and so on. In short, the motive behind the CRZ Notification has been diluted to make it more and more commercial and profit-oriented, pushing the rights and needs of the fisher-people back.
The CRZ Notification 1991 was a specialised legal instrument for governing development activities throughout the coastal stretches. As a guiding document, the CRZ Notification remains relevant, particularly at this stage of rehabilitating the victims of the 2005 tsunami. The function of the notification as an environmental protocol for human actions in a sensitive region is evident from the principal legislation from which it draws its powers — the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and the relevant rules.
The Act substantially empowers the Government of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to take actions "for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and preventing, controlling and abating environmental pollution." This includes the promulgation of specified notifications for the purpose.
The CRZ Notification is issued under Section 3(1) and Section 3(2)(v) of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986. These clauses outline the powers of the central government to protect and improve the quality of the environment and take preventive measures to control and abate environmental pollution. This includes the power to delineate areas where anthropogenic activities can be regulated and restricted. The importance given to the notification is clear from the fact that considerable powers are vested with the agencies responsible for its implementation.
Attempts to dilute CRZ Notification
The Coastal Regulation Zone comprises the coastal stretches of seas, bays, estuaries, creeks, rivers and backwaters, which are influenced by tidal action (in the landward side) up to 500 metres from the HTL and the land between the LTL and the HTL. The 500-metre CRZ boundary is drawn at a radial distance (as the crow flies) uniformly from the HTL and runs parallel to the coast.
Yet another change: the 2011 Notification added provisions that degrade or dilute the powers of the National Coastal Zone Management Authority and States Coastal Managements Authority constituted under the Supreme Court of India's orders in 1996. This, the fisher people's lawyers contend, is in violation of the Supreme Court's verdict.
In the wake of the tsunami, the news media could sense the growing attempts to dilute the CRZ Notification 1991. The way rehabilitation was sought to be done gave enough indication that big business, real estate interests, hoteliers and the like had their own plans to enter the field in an aggressive way. In other words, the post-tsunami scenario was approached as an unprecedented opportunity to change the face of coastal India. Fisherfolk who could not be persuaded to vacate their houses were forced to accept houses in far off places. Hundreds of households were given houses in many places far away from the sea despite objections that it would be highly expensive for them to go to sea and back and that the shifting would affect their school-going children.
Today much of the press and television seems to treat real life problems and issues of mass deprivation such as these in disappointingly low key. This raises a key question for Indian journalism. Is informative, detailed, nuanced, and sensitive coverage of the conditions in which the losers in the development game live and work relevant only when a big crisis like a tsunami overwhelms them? Does the social responsibility of journalism mean that in normal times coverage of 'rising India' can be wholly or mostly celebratory or 'positive'? I should think not.
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THE ASIAN AGE
EDITORIAL
AFTER CWG, WORLD CUP FIASCO IN THE MAKING
Sir, I agree with the views expressed by Suresh Singh Katoch in his letter Sporting events suffer because of corruption (January 30). India faced criticism due to mismanagement in the Commonwealth Games and now the cricket stadium at Eden Gardens is not ready to host World Cup matches. In a fresh blow to Eden Gardens' hope of hosting a World Cup match, the ICC's central inspection committee has sent a letter recommending that the remaining matches be also shifted out of Kolkata's Eden Gardens. Earlier, the ICC had recommended shifting of the India-England tie, citing that renovation of Eden Gardens was far from complete. Why was the stadium not prepared in time? Clearly, it is corruption that has put India's reputation at stake.
Shoma Das
Via email
Take severe action to rein in oil mafia
Sir, The gruesome murder of additional district collector Yashwant Sonawane by the oil mafia is shocking. Equally disturbing is the fact that no action was taken when Sonawane had reported against Popat Shinde, his alleged killer, months back. Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan visited the late Sonawane's family to offer his condolences and had announced a compensation of `25 lakh for his family. Mr Chavan said "This cannot happen in Maharashtra, we will stop this." I hope Mr Chavan keeps his promise.
Pranjal Vaidya
Via email
Paes, bhupathi should keep playing as a team
Sir, American twins Bob and Mike Bryan defeated Indian tennis stars Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes in the Australian Open doubles final (Oz Open eludes Lee, Hesh again, January 30). The Bryans claimed their 10th Grand Slam title together and their fifth Australian Open in six years. The pair of Bhupathi and Paes has won many titles for India, but due to some misunderstandings they parted ways in 2002. Although they have lost, it's good to see the Indian pair back in the field.
Unnayan Agarwal
Salt Lake, Kolkata
Sir, The Australian Open men's doubles finals brought mixed emotions for fans of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi. While the Grand Slam title eluded Paes and Bhupathi, it was a fabulous start for the Indian pair who re-united after nine years. Lee-Hesh could not stop Mike and Bob Bryan and lost 3-6 4-6 to the top seeded American twins. I hope that the thirdseeded Indian pair takes a cue from this and keep playing together.
Uttarayan Dutta
Via email
BJP tried to breach peace in kashmir
Sir, Arun Nehru, in his article An unholy nexus (January 30), is right in saying that the BJP's Ekta Yatra was unjustified. Since Independence, little has changed in the Kashmir Valley. The BJP leaders should have respected the orders passed by the Jammu and Kashmir government. It was unfortunate that the BJP leaders deliberately caused a breach of the peace. Its effort to push a political agenda would have certainly affected peace and law and order in Jammu and Kashmir.
M. Lavanya
Via email
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THE ASIAN AGE
OPINION
POLITICS OF PATRIOTISM
From the time I was a small child, I remember climbing onto the terrace of my grandfather's house every morning and saluting as some member of the staff unfurled and hoisted the national flag. In the evening it was our solemn duty to see that the flag was lowered at 6 pm or sunset, only to be hoisted again the next day. In later years, we always had functions at school on Republic Day and all children stood in attention while the national flag was hoisted. Political life in the Congress has always begun with the hoisting of the national flag at the party headquarters in the national capital and all state capitals, and for all of us who are MPs, office-bearers or senior members usually spend the whole day driving to hundreds of villages hoisting the national flag at roadside junctions, schools, party offices and marketplaces. We sing the national anthem and talk about the glory of our nation to the assembled crowd.
This is a way of life in the Indian National Congress. We are the party that fought for the Independence of this great country, when other parties who are so vocal today either did not exist or even supported our colonial masters, the British. Our nationalism runs in our genes and in our blood and is a part of our lives. We don't need to wear it on our sleeve, or far worse, politicise nationalism and use it as a divisive tool to try and gain some cheap electoral gain by polarising people of different religions.
So far as I am aware the Indian National Congress is perhaps the only party where all workers gather at the party office on Republic Day and hoist the national flag. I am not aware if any other parties actually follow this practice. However, this is not ground for doubt or criticism. The fact of the matter is that nationalism and patriotism are or ought to be deeply felt and held values, which may easily be manifested in a variety of ways and hoisting the flag is our way. Others may well have different ways to express their patriotism.
In the last few days, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suddenly discovered unique patriotism and heroically set off to hoist the national flag at the Lal Chowk in Srinagar. The roadshow was allegedly by the yuva morcha, but it was constantly "inspired" by rousing speeches from senior BJP leader L.K. Advani and in the last lap led by Leaders of the Opposition in Parliament Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj. As the crowd of BJP workers set off from Kolkata the impression a lay person would have received was that they were setting off to conquer enemy territory, not that they were going to what is indisputably a part of India, a state ruled by a democratically elected government, with a chief minister with whose party the BJP had been in coalition just a few short years ago.
The BJP and its leaders did not care that by singling out the Kashmir Valley for flag-hoisting, they were actually giving credence to the claim of separatists who assert until today that Kashmir never acceded to the Indian Union. They did not care that when a huge crowd of emotionally-charged young men converge upon a critical and sensitive area like Lal Chowk, the law and order situation is bound to be affected badly and the crowd is likely to over-react and get out of control. They did not care that the stone-pelters who had created so much trouble in the Valley have now finally brought under control and the hard-won peace in the Valley would be brutally shattered by their confrontational display of nationalism.
Every right-thinking Indian would like to ask the BJP some simple questions. If they wanted to exhibit their new-found enthusiasm to hoist the national flag, why could they not do it in Lucknow, Patna, Bhopal or Bengaluru ? Or in their own homes? Did the national flag fly on Republic Day in the homes of BJP leaders and workers? The answer is a resounding no. It is equally true that they only chose Srinagar in order to stir up a political controversy and try and polarise citizens on religious lines.
Next, why did the BJP not feel this patriotism in those six years when it was running the Union government in Delhi ? Was it not necessary, in their view, to hoist the flag at Lal Chowk during those six years? Except for one time in 1992 when Murli Manohar Joshi tried to hoist the national flag at Lal Chowk, the BJP has never attempted to go to Srinagar to unfurl the national flag. Obviously this newly-discovered enthusiasm has to be attributed to ulterior and extraneous reasons and certainly not to any genuine nationalism.
Assuming that every yuva morcha worker of the BJP was seized by a fierce desire to see the national flag fly in Lal Chowk, as opposed to their own homes or party offices or cities, what prevented them from attending the official function at Srinagar where the democratically-elected chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir unfurled the national flag? They could have participated whole-heartedly in the official function, loudly sung the national anthem and showed their patriotism. There was absolutely no need for them to engage in a competitive display of nationalism with the government of the state, thereby allowing the separatists to have the last laugh.
It is commendable that the government acted firmly to stop this misadventure, despite meaningless provocative remarks from BJP leaders. It is important for us to remember at this time that Mr Advani, who was present at the demolition of the Babri Masjid, later declared that he was agonised over the incident, which had actually occurred because the karsevaks had gone out of control. This came after he had led the most disruptive, violent and communal rathyatra, which destroyed communal harmony in our country. Had the BJP been allowed to have its way at Lal Chowk the consequences would have been equally disastrous. In the face of the depressing downward spiral of the BJP's political activity, the nation can only appeal to BJP leaders to function with a modicum of responsibility, the very least that is expected of a constructive Opposition.
Jayanthi Natarajan is a Congress MP in the Rajya Sabha and AICC spokesperson.
The views expressed in this column are her own.
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DNA
NEW TELECOM POLICY PROMISES FAIR PLAY
The key point in the new telecom policy announced by Union minister Kapil Sibal on Saturday is that of delinking operating licences from spectrum allotment.
This was perhaps inevitable because the controversy around 2G spectrum allocation during his predecessor A Raja's tenure was that licensee had hold of spectrum as well, which then could be bartered with a third party.
This was at the heart of the scandal, when licencees leveraged their share of spectrum in attracting investors for their venture which was manifold over what they paid the government in the first-come-first-served system. This leverage did not change significantly in the 3G spectrum auction except that it fetched a higher market price in the bidding process.
In the new framework, the two-in-one allotment gives way to separate payments for the licence and for spectrum. The Telecom Authority of India (Trai) will announce the price mechanism for spectrum, which will be reckoned at market rates. Further, the spectrum allocation would not be on the basis of a one-time payment. It is to be a revenue-sharing arrangement.
Sibal has said that this new shift in policy will pave the way for a level playing field and that it will also encourage competition. The existing operators and those waiting to get in fear that this would mean that their operating costs would go up and that they cannot peg their services at a low tariff anymore. It is true that competition will keep prices on an even keel because Indian consumers are hyper-price-sensitive. It would also mean that tariffs will have to be rational and there cannot be ruinous cut-throat competition.
Whatever may be the economic nitty-gritty of the policy, the big picture issue is that the phenomenal telecom revolution based on the nearly 700 million mobile telephone subscriber base should remain intact, and governmental intervention should only help in its further growth. That is a reasonable expectation. It can only be sustained if the rules are fair. Sibal promises the new changes will ensure fairness. The success of the new policy will be judged on that basis alone. This would not, however, put a lid on the clandestine and murky dealings that unfolded through the backchannels, involving politicians, industrialists, lobbyists and journalists and created a political stink — the 2G spectrum allocation scam — that has reached the skies. There are enough people around to spoil a good party.
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DNA
EDITORIAL
THE ARAB WORLD MARKS POSITIVE CHANGES
It started as the 'Jasmine Revolution' on December 17, 2010, in Tunisia and led to the rapid departure of its president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
This movement is now spreading across the region as people in what is known as the "Arab world" have been taking to the streets, protesting bad governance and corruption and demanding a change of government. Yemen followed Tunisia but the biggest upheavals are now being seen in Egypt.
For the past week, the largest Arab state has seen massive groups of people gathering in the streets demanding the removal of Hosni Mubarak, who has ruled the country for almost 30 years. At first stunned by the enormity of the protests, Mubarak took time to react but then acted as expected — sent the military out, leaving at least 30 dead and shut down the internet. However, he has not been able to ignore public anger — he has sacked the government and promised reforms.
Also knocking on his door is Nobel laureate Mohammed El Baradei, who has expressed his willingness to lead Egypt. Baradei is under house arrest but his presence constitutes a real threat — he is well-respected and forward-looking and acceptable to the world.
The Western world finds itself in a quandary here. While promoting democracy at home and paying lip service to the concept elsewhere, it has supported the most terrible dictators and despotic states in order to fulfill selfish interests. Mubarak was useful to the US in the Israel-Palestine conflict. So although the world is pushing Mubarak to reform more, it will be interesting to see how far it will go. Similarly, in spite of the fundamentalism and rigidity of Saudi Arabia, it remained a key US ally because of oil.
Now, however, as people clamour for democracy in some of the world's most oppressed countries, the test has to be passed by everyone. The globe is much smaller than it used to be and once freedom is tasted by the people, it becomes addictive. If lack of freedom and governance are the issues which rile people, then administrations can only hold sway by terrible oppression — which may no longer be possible. Already, the ripples of these people's revolutions are frightening despots everywhere from Libya to Saudi Arabia.
It is too early to paint a happy end. But when there is movement, there is change, and that has to be welcomed.
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DNA
COLUMN
SURMOUNT THE NEED TO BE POSSESSIVE
CHANDRIKA
The minute we forge a relationship with the world, we label it with one word — mine.And then, we cling — to people, places, property, all of which we proclaim as ours! Kahlil Gibran said, "Your children are not your own, they are the sons and daughters of life's longing for itself". But how can we grant that? Especially as we believe that our family and friends are our extension? And we have proprietary rights over them?
The Buddha went further. "This house is mine, these sons are mine, the fool deludes himself and thinks, when he himself is not his own". In a world where each insignificant individual dreams of claiming the planet, this is a moot point. We own nothing, least of all our own selves. We are only custodians, even of our identity, not its owners.
Diogenes, the Greek philosopher, sometimes went to outrageous lengths to teach King Alexander a lesson. Once, he entered the royal gardens and plucking an apple, began munching on it. Arrested for stealing, he was brought before the king. "How dare you pilfer fruits from my trees?" Alexander yelled. Diogenes gave him a thoughtful glance and replied, "Your majesty, the seed for the tree was dropped by a bird. It grew on the earth, watered by the rains, nourished by the sun, assisted by the winds. Tell me, which of these do you own — the bird, the earth, the clouds, the sun or the winds? If they do not belong to you, how then can the fruit?"
It is said that when Guru Nanak as a lad would help his father in his grocery shop, his calculations were found wanting on many occasions. His father tried to glean the cause and secretly observed the boy. He noticed that Nanak could count up to twelve quite well. But when he came to the number thirteen, which in Hindi was pronounced as 'terah', he would stop. Then, dancing in ecstasy, he would call out to God, "All things are yours. What can I claim as mine?" For, the word 'terah' had another meaning — 'yours'. Enlightenment requires only one shift — the replacement of 'mine' with 'yours'.
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DNA
COLUMN
NEED TO CONTROL BANK OFFICIALS WHO ARE ALSO FINANCIAL ADVISORS
MADAN SABNAVIS
The Citibank fraud, wherein investors at a branch in Gurgaon were duped, is a wake-up call for individuals who often find themselves in a similar situation when dealing with financial intermediaries.
Thus, while the legal processes will hopefully address the concerns of customers affected by this particular fraud, there is also a need to do some house cleaning as far as buying and selling of financial products is concerned.
Ask yourself how often have you, as an individual banking customer, found yourself accosted in a bank branch and made to do things that you did not intend to? To give an example, when you go to open a fixed deposit or renew the same with a bank — normally a private sector bank — the manager will give you a sales pitch and convince you to move your funds to an insurance scheme, which gives a higher assured return compared with a bank deposit. The manager shows a photocopy of a scheme, which is not on the website of the insurance company, and the standard explanation is that the scheme has just been brought in and is meant only for special customers for a very short period. This has been my personal experience when I had visited a large new private sector bank branch in Mumbai.
There are two concerns here: First, the bank official has stringent targets to meet by way of cross-selling products of related businesses, for which he gets a commission. Insurance, with its commission to sellers, makes more sense than a plain vanilla fixed deposit. The bank too earns more by way of commissions, and hence this is a good business. Second, one is not sure if this money can be diverted to something else, especially when you are asked to give a blank cheque. This was also the case at Citibank.
The housekeeping should begin with the regulator laying down rules for banks to ensure that customers are not misled. Prior to reforms, when there were only two products offered by banks — deposits and loans — everything was straight. The new system resembles a supermarket where there are lots of products and a customer may not always understand all of them. For instance, platinum credit and debit cards are issued by banks when your balance exceeds a limit without your concurrence or just by pressing the star button on your phone. Clearly, banks are going overboard in pursuing numbers.
Bank officials, who serve as wealth advisors, need to be controlled. To begin with, they need to have the qualification to provide such advice. Second, to avoid conflict of interest, their bonuses should not be linked to business generated. Third, advice should be provided only when solicited and not in an obtrusive manner. Fourth, there should be an audit on the processes followed when selling products such as cards or home loans, where banks tend to be aggressive. Fifth, there should be utmost transparency when it comes to the terms of contracting any product with the customer. The charges should be highlighted and not be in fine print.
It is in this context that one needs to commend the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for doing away with the high commissions that were being paid by funds to agents, which did lead to questionable selling to the public. While some have been critical of this action as being responsible for lowering the interest in mutual funds, from the point of view of customers, it has helped. Those who believe in the worth of an agent continue to use them while the rest either deal on their own or have opted out of the market. This move has addressed the issue of customers being guided by agents into buying funds that offered the highest upfront commissions.
This is probably also a signal for the insurance sector.Commissions are paid on an ongoing basis and there is incentive to sell those schemes that offer the highest returns to the agents. The result is that of the Rs100 being put in by the customer, there could be the case of just Rs70-85 being invested by the insurance company with the trailing commissions being as high as 5-7%. These agents target high value customers to meet their own 'targets' and hence rarely encourage you to go in for single premium schemes that give a commission of just 2%, but where the balance of your funds are invested by the company.
Investor education is extremely important and it is the job of the regulator to carry out this exercise. At present, most of these products are urban-centric, as intermediaries see a lot of untapped potential here, and the ticket size is large. But, at some point of time, there will be a need to look at the rural areas, where the customers are less savvy. In the absence of such awareness and audit, we could run into the same rut as we have done on the lending side in the case of, say, microfinance. It would be better to tackle the issue right away.
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DNA
COLUMN
THE PM IS RESPONSIBLE FOR APPOINTING PJ THOMAS
AMBERISH K DIWANJI
By the time you read this, chief vigilance commissioner PJ Thomas may have resigned. If not, the common expectation is that he will do so in a day or two. If he does not… then frankly, what else can be expected from a person like him? The resignation is just another insult heaped upon the UPA government, coming as it does after the CWG scam, the 2G spectrum allocation scandal, food inflation in double figures … the list is long.
Yet, in all these scams, nothing implicates prime minister Manmohan Singh as directly as the appointment of the then telecom secretary PJ Thomas as CVC. The PM, home minister P Chidambaram, and leader of the opposition Sushma Swaraj, had to decide on the new CVC. The irony is hard to miss: Swaraj flatly refused to endorse Thomas while Singh and Chidambaram rooted for him. Surely these two men, rated as among the most brilliant in the cabinet, should have known better than to back a man who had a impaired history. Thomas was then being probed by the CBI for his role in the Kerala palmolein oil import case, and it would have been evident to a blind person that as a key secretary then, even if he might be proved innocent of any wrongdoing, there was no way that he was above suspicion.
Worse, at the time he was picked to be CVC, Thomas was the telecom secretary, working as the number two man in the ministry headed by A Raja, who stands accused of causing India's worst scam till date. The telecom minister was already under a cloud for the manner in which he sold the 2G spectrum, causing a notional loss to the exchequer of Rs1.76 lakh crore (no one believes Sibal when he says the loss suffered was zero!). Is it possible that Thomas was unaware of what Raja was doing? Why didn't he speak up? Why didn't he, as secretary with certain powers, refuse to allow the sale? True, that may not have stopped Raja from his misdeeds, but at least it would have made evident that the telecom minister was committing misdemeanours and might have brought about intervention from others.
Yet, using the power of brute majority, Singh and Chidambaram overrode Swaraj's arguments and appointed Thomas. Was it the UPA's way of showing that they cared two hoots for the opposition parties (and leaders)?
Hedrick Smith, in his book, The Power Game: How Washington Works, wrote that invariably, US presidents foundered in their second terms. Whether it was Nixon with Watergate or Clinton with Monica Lewinsky, presidents who actually had little to lose since they would not be standing for re-election, actually messed up much more in their subsequent terms. India too has witnessed a similar phenomenon: Nehru blundered from 1957 onwards leading to the China war, and Indira messed up her second term with the JP movement and Emergency.
Manmohan Singh started his second term with what appears to have been a winning hand: a decimated opposition and no troublesome Left as an ally. Alas, he frittered away the goodwill the country had for him. While in many cases, he might get away with the lame excuse that he was not directly involved or that as a coalition government, the Congress (and therefore, he) had its compulsions, as far as appointing a besmirched Thomas as CVC goes, he is directly responsible. He and Chidambaran decided on that, despite all the evidence pointing to the contrary. What, one wonders, will be his excuse this time?
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DAILY EXCELSIOR
EDITORIAL
PARADISE LOST, YET TO BE REGAINED
Not everybody is possibly as lucky as English poet John Milton has been more than three centuries ago. In his life-time he was able to follow up his epic poem Paradise Lost to write Paradise Regained. He had thus succeeded in a way in reversing --- figuratively speaking --- his earlier sense of loss; it needs to be made clear that his second exercise was in terms of giving new dimensions to his intellectual prowess without compromising with his genius which was unconcealed. There is no end to a composer's flight of imagination. What has happened in our case in this State is something to the contrary. We have suffered a setback from which no immediate recovery is in sight. No less creative and definitely equipped with better tools our film producers from the tinsel world of Bollywood continue to be hesitant to wholeheartedly resume their date with the paradise on the earth --- the Kashmir Valley. The link snapped by the vicious tussle of the gun is flimsy at this point in time. It is high time that they pondered over their missing enthusiasm in this regard. It is true that as the inhabitants of the State we have to take the major blame. What is this if not our failure that we have not succeeded in prevailing over a handful of misguided persons among us that they should not set their own house on fire? They have picked up the latest guns, gone on a shooting spree and committed a sort of hara-kiri. By now, they themselves have gone through tremendous amount of self-inflicted torture: killing of some of the finest sons of the soil, fratricidal wars and bestowing a sort of legitimacy on violence in the land which has otherwise been nurtured by the likes of Sheikh Nooruddin Noorani. Habba Khatoon and Lal Ded. Some of them have retraced their steps but not before inflicting severe damage. There are others who have realised, even though belatedly, that they have been caught in a maze of their own making. They want to retrieve the bliss but are clueless about how to do so.
A grim fall-out is that on the current reckoning the gun appears to have come to stay for long in our midst. Its mere mention is enough to scare away the people who spend billions of rupees to make a movie and their stars whose faces are not only worth billions but they also move billions of their fans. Arguably, they are face to face with the gun even on their home turf: Mumbai has been the target of big terrorist strikes more than once. Nevertheless they have not lost the advantage totally in the country's film capital. They can shoot the movies there according to their will. And, if they require something like the Valley as a backdrop they can always recreate it given the technical skills at their disposal. They are moreover encouraged by naturally gifted other states as well as foreign countries to use them as locations for their ventures. There are countries that are well aware of the tremendous appeal of Hindi films and the growing penchant in India for travel to explore unexplored venues. Their leaders know that if their picturesque spots get highlighted the cost of their hospitality to Bollywood's dream merchants would be more than compensated. It is talent, glamour, tourism, entertainment and business all combined under one roof. In sharp contrast, the film producers don't find it still possible to click their cameras openly, for instance, in the Mughal Gardens in Srinagar. They do require more than just an ordinary security bandobast. Restrictions on their natural flavour dampen their interest for translating their script into a celluloid beauty. It is galling for those among them who have captured the Valley's beauty with gay abandon in the past only to find that they have to bear with certain serious curbs on their freedom from invisible quarters. Just to cite an example, the manner of the shooting of Priyanka Chopra-starrer Sat Khoon Maaf recently is not the same thing as was Shammi Kapoor's Kashmir Ki Kali in the bygone era. Very rightly it is said that our movie-makers, like the other sections of society, should contribute towards the restoration of normalcy.
To say that they are not at all doing so will not be fair. After all, they have made a number of films keeping in view the Valley's trauma. It is true that they may have worked in their studios or in other states. Who can ever forget Roja in this genre? Off and on they have tried to come in a big way to the Valley---- Mission Kashmir certainly being a notable venture with a relevant appeal. At a different level 3 Idiots has strengthened the perception about Leh being an idyllic land beyond the Himalayas. One hopes that Leh gets its due at the hands of film makers. The challenge for us at the moment is to restore the Valley's status as a bewitching stage of love and fun. In fairness, all chief ministers regardless of their political affiliations have made efforts to lure back Bollywood to its one-time favourite haunt. This shows that there is a deeply entrenched feeling that we should not go on losing on this count. Together we need to put our heads together in order to find a solution. Those who hold the purse strings know that their hard-earned cash is not a bottomless pit. They have the urge but they need the correct environment to express it. It is for us to provide that not only through the uniformed men (which successive governments have been prepared to do) but also by our orderly behaviour. Our State has quite a few veterans who have done proud to us in the highly competitive Mumbai. Several youngsters have been striving to emulate them. Mukesh Rishi of this city (a familiar face on the big screen as a character actor and villain), Sanjay Suri (of Jhankar Beats fame) and Aamir Bashir (his brilliant performance in A Wednesday overshadowed by a superb Jimmy Shergill) have proved that we have rich talent in our midst. Undeniably it will get better recognition if the Bollywood-State connection is not only restored but also placed on a firm footing.
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DAILY EXCELSIOR
EDITORIAL
'TEJAS' TO MEET DEFENCE REQUIREMENTS
BY SUBHASHIS MITTRA
The maiden test flight of the most advanced 'Tejas' aircraft has brought the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme ''very close'' to the Initial Operations Clearance. It is the ninth test vehicle to join the flight line to undertake development flight trials of the LCA Tejas towards operational clearance for induction in the IAF by the end of the year.
The IOC paves the way for the IAF to get the fighter aircraft, the first in June. It will have four LCAs with it by the end of the year to put them under several flying missions for attaining the Final Operational Clearance (FOC), which will be the last hurdle before the LCA joins operational squadron service.
"Successful, copy book maiden test flight of Limited Series Production-3 (LSP-3) is significant on many counts,'' the DRDO said in a statement.
Tejas is a lightweight multi-role jet fighter. It is a tailless, compound delta wing design powered by a single engine. Originally known as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)- a designation which continues in popular usage- the aircraft was officially named "Tejas'' by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 4 May 2003.
As India joined a select group of nations manufacturing warplanes with the home-grown Light Combat Aircraft moving a step closer to its induction into the Indian Air Force 27 years after the project was initiated, Defence Minister A K Antony said, ''This is only the semi-finals. The LCA will enhance national security and build the country's own fighter aircraft capabilities.''
The LSP-3 is the quantum jump in terms of the equipment fit on the aircraft and is almost the final configuration including the new air-data computers, multi-mode radar, new communication and navigation equipment and radar warning receiver.
Tejas is expected to fill a crucial gap in India's defence requirements and future variants. Hopefully, it will be of export quality, providing cost-effective air power to the smaller, cash strapped nations of the world.
The flight took off from HAL airport in Bangalore and all the flight's objectives were met within the duration of 52 minutes. ''With this flight the total number of test flights accumulated across nine test vehicles of Tejas programme has reached 1,350 and has logged about 800 hrs of flight,'' the DRDO said.
The aircraft, with an investment of over Rs 14,500 crore, has been developed by DRDO's Aeronautical Development Agency after battling technology denial regimes and sanctions for nearly three decades.
''After crossing a number of challenges and accomplishing a significant series of milestones including weapon delivery, in over 1500 sorties, the country is poised for a major turning point with the declaration of the IOC,'' Antony said.
The IAF has plans to induct a total of around 200 planes of which orders for the initial 40 have already been placed by the IAF.
The aircraft, which costs between Rs 180 crore to Rs 200 crore per piece, is presently powered by American GE-F-404 engine and the advanced GE-414 engines have been chosen for powering the LCA Mk II aircraft, which are likely to be developed by 2014.
The development of the aircraft, primarily to replace the ageing Russian MiG-21 and MiG-27s, was affected by the US sanctions in 1998 after the Pokharan nuclear test. The technology denial had led to delay in importing some items and developing alternative equipment, since vendor identification and development to production cycle took time.
On increasing the indigenous content of the LCA, DRDO chief V K Saraswat said, ''At present, the aircraft has 60 per cent indigenous content but by the time it gets its FOC, it will have 75 per cent indigenous equipment on board.''
Asked if the DRDO would go for achieving a 100 per cent indigenous aircraft, he said, ''There is nothing like 100 per cent indigenous one. Even the shirt worn by you is not indigenous.
''It will not be correct and cost effective on our part to attempt 100 per cent indigenisation. Because then you will make an aircraft which will be costliest aircraft with largest infrastructure,'' he said.
But, at the same time, IAF Chief Air Chief Marshal P V Naik has said that the indigenously manufactured Light Combat Aircraft would be an advanced version of the MiG 21 fighters, which have been the mainstay of the force and are on their way to be phased out in the near future.
''Considering the technologies involved, it (LCA Mk II) will be a MiG 21 ++ aircraft and it will render yeoman service to the IAF,'' was his assessment of the aircraft.
''This means first in endurance, second in performance, third in load carrying, fourth is the number of weapons it can deliver. Fifth is the weight with which it can navigate with and the vintage of the aircraft or avionics and sixth is radar.'' It would be just short of Swedish Gripen NG single engine aircraft.
The Russian - origin MiG 21s started being inducted into the IAF in the 1960s and despite their old technology, continue to be in operation till date and are expected to be phased out by the IAF in the near future.
On the role to be played by the LCAs in the IAF, experts said an air force requires high, medium and low end aircraft to perform its tasks and the indigenous fighter would be used to fill in the gaps at the ''medium and low'' level.
IAF has placed orders for 40 LCAs in IOC mode and is expected to procure another 160 LCA Mk II later in the decade.
Though the induction of Tejas marks a watershed moment for the country's military hardware capability, the larger objective ought to be proactive policy so that heightened defence research and procurement positively impact and genuinely benefit the Indian economy. (PTI)
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DAILY EXCELSIOR
EDITORIAL
RBI MEASURE IS INADEQUATEPRICE SPIRAL TO CONTINUE
BY NANTOO BANERJEE
Soft options are not particularly effective to take hard issues head on. But, that is exactly the way it has been with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) II Government, a captive of various vested interests, whose please-all policy seems to have forgotten the poor and the common man in the process. For instance, the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) latest 0.25 per cent bank (repo) rate increase provides a clear signal that the country's central bank has given up on fighting inflation. It suggests, if anything, the RBI's near capitulation to the wishes of the government, big business, foreign financial institutions (FIIs) and stock market on the inflation management issue.
For the Government, maintaining a high economic growth holds a bigger priority than controlling inflation. The big business is always against interest rate hikes. FIIs thrive under low interest, low corporate tax regime. Stock markets all over the world are against high interest rate regimen which drives away public funds from speculative stocks to more secured bank fixed deposits. The common man's plight in a situation of high inflation as it is being witnessed in India for more than a year has rarely been a cause of concern of these vested interests. These groups have been exerting a vice like grip on the country's central bank to prevent it from taking any hard measure that would flush out surplus liquidity from the system and cause their discomfort.
This explains why all the official and media hypes over a possible one per cent bank rate hike to rein in the continuing runaway food and general price inflation situation ended in a whimper as the central bank left the cash reserve ratio (CRR) and statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) untouched at six per cent and 24 per cent, respectively, until the next financial year. The CRR calls for the proportion of deposits that banks are required to set aside. The SLR signifies that banks liquidity position will not be under any extra pressure following higher bank deposits which are expected to be generated by a higher savings rate. The reverse repo rate, the interest the RBI pays banks for deposits, goes up also by 0.25 per cent to 5.5 per cent.
These measures may push up the interest rates now being offered by banks on fixed deposits for short durations - say, between 400 days and 600 days -- by 0.25 per cent to 0.50 per cent to 8.75 per cent to 9.50 per cent. Fixed deposits from senior citizens attract an extra interest rate of 0.50-0.75 per cent. Different banks offer different interest rates on fixed deposits and term loans. The present deposit rates are certainly not attractive enough to suck up a good chunk of extra liquidity with the middle class and upper middle class, the biggest consumer segment in the market, from the shopping arcades to bank lockers. The general and food price inflation rates at retail markets are ruling at much higher levels than commercial banks' savings rates on fixed deposits. Thus, the RBI's half hearted inflation control measure is unlikely to yield the intended reduction in the money supply with the public or contraction of general demand of goods and services for middle-class consumption.
A 0.50 to one per cent increase in car loans or housing loans under the current market situation will have little on-ground impact on the demand for either luxury goods and services or things like housing, passenger cars and motor bikes, blended scotch whiskey, beer and wine, air travel, computers and laptops, fizzy drinks and, of course, processed foods. Without any hike in the bank rate, the prices of construction materials, white goods and brown goods, capital goods, airfares, oil and lubricants, readymade garments, electricity charges and wood and metal products have appreciated by 10 to 20 per cent in the last three months alone. The higher prices have not adversely impacted their sales. Prices are soaring. And, so are the demands. It's a peculiar situation. The middle-class is loaded with such large amounts of surplus money that the sudden hike in domestic airfares by 100 to 150 per cent in most sectors, less than two months ago, has shown no adverse impact on the air travel by this large fund-flush section of consumers.
The increasing demand for processed foods is driving away a lot of common consumption items such as wheat, rice, pulses, vegetable fats, spices and fresh vegetables like potato, onion, bananas, copra, garlic and ginger, from the common man's daily meal menu to malls, supermarkets, big stores, restaurants and fast-food shops for the consumption of the cash surplus middle-class and their high spending children. In the last three years, the prices of some of the food articles, vegetables and fruits have gone up by almost 200 per cent.
Thus, the fear is that the inflation rates are likely to continue to the disadvantage of the majority of the country's population who are cash-starved, under-employed and under-paid in the absence of a strong monetary control measure by the RBI. In a similar inflationary situation in the early part of the 1980s, the RBI had opted for a double digit bank rate. The term lending rates of commercial banks varied between 15 and 18 per cent. The overdraft rates were as high as 20 to 22 per cent. Large companies, in both the public and private sector, were forced to raise short-term public deposits at 12 to 14 per cent. There were others which issued equity and preference shares, bonds and debentures to minimize their credit exposure with banks.
The RBI's tight money policy coupled with some pragmatic fiscal measures by the Government kept the price inflation of wage goods under control. While, the industrial growth in 1986-87 was still around 10 per cent and agricultural growth was in the negative due to two successive years of drought, the common man managed to survive. India's middle-class was much smaller in number then. Industry was less free to pursue with profit motives before social expectations. The stock market was controlled by local investors and the Unit Trust of India (UTI) and not highly opportunistic FIIs. The Government was still willing to see some virtue in socialistic principles. The rich were extra-taxed, both for income and for luxury consumption. The poor were encouraged to save more. India did not boast billionaires, then. Paradoxically, some the country's economy managers in the 1980s are also at the helm of the present Government.
Thanks to the western-style economic reform embraced by the country since 1992, India's economic management is no longer under the exclusive control of the Government and statutory institutions such as the RBI. The hard truth is that a large part of India's economy is now being controlled - indirectly, but emphatically -- by foreign entities and institutions such as FIIs, multinational corporations, foreign banks, international credit rating agencies, bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements, regional trade blocks like Saarc and Asean, the World Trade Organisation and the Group of 20. It may sound odd, if not quite harsh, India will have to live with the current economic reality and high inflation, even if it means making a sacrifice of the interest of the poor and common man for the prosperity of the rich and the middle class. (IPA )
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DAILY EXCELSIOR
FEWER INDIAN STUDENTS GOING TO AUSTRALIA
BY ASHOK B SHARMA
The Indian Government may draw some satisfaction that the incidences of attack on Indian migrants have declined and also bank on Australian Government's assurances, but the recent figures tell a different story of a sharp decline in Indian migration, particularly due to the fear factor.
At present there are around 400,000 persons of Indian descent in Australia which is over two per cent of the Australian population. Indian community is Australia's fourth biggest migrant community, and students are a significant proportion of that. But in the year 2010 there was a sharp decline of about 30 per cent in the Indian students' migration to Australia. Indian students generally head for higher education to Australia.
In the year 2009 approximately 120,000 Indian students had enrolled in Australian educational institutions. But enrolment is one and actual commencement is another, as the Australian government calls it. According to the figures of the Australian Ministry of Education the actual commencements in 2009 were 67,974. In 2010, between January and November 2010 the enrolments were 100,236 and the actual commencements were 42,447. So, approximately there has been a dip of 30 per cent.
Migration of Indian students to Australia was on the increase till the series of recent violent attacks. Much of this increase took place in the vocational education sector. The incidences of violent attacks are no doubt the main reason for the decline in migration of Indian students to Australia. Some, however, attribute it to the education becoming costly in Australia due to the Australian dollar firming up to the level of almost one to one with the US dollar.
India and Australia have worked in close concert to tackle this issue. A series of steps are being taken by Australia on whether it is more policing, whether it is more patrolling, whether it is audit of educational institutions, whether it is review of visa procedures, establishment of helpline, counseling. But much of the responsibility of maintaining law and order rests with the provincial Governments in Australia.
The Indian Government has also taken quite a few measures to address the concern. It has introduced Bills in Parliament seeking to punish those who have provided false or misleading information to student and make it mandatory for all education agents to register themselves. It has proposed that all Indian students proceeding abroad for studies enter their details with the government. The Government has recently introduced the Indian Community Welfare Fund to provide financial assistance to Indian citizens in need and this has been used to assist several needy citizens and students in Australia.
The issue of violent attacks of Indian students was raised by the Indian Minister of External Affairs, SM Krishna with the Australian Foreign Minister, Kevin Rudd during recent visit to Australia, this month.
Both Krishna and Rudd in their joint statement of January 20, 2011 welcomed the Council of Australian Governments' International Students Strategy for Australia, launched in October 2010, and progress with implementation of recommendations from the Baird Review of the Education Services for Overseas Students Act to improve further the experience of international students in Australia. This includes strengthening students' consumer protection rights and cooperation between the two countries to support the regulation of education agents.
The next meeting of India-Australia Joint Working Group on Education and Training is expected to be held in Australia in April 2011 and the annual dialogue of the minister of the both the countries on education will be hosted in India in September 2011. These two meetings will take stock of the situation. This will also pave the way for setting up of the Australia-India Education Council.
The changes in the skilled migration programme had significantly impacted on Indian students already studying in Australia, many of whom had taken heavy loans to pursue their studies. Krishna raised this issue with Rudd and requested consideration of Indian students who had come to Australia under the old rules being placed in a special category that allowed them to fulfill the demand that existed in Australia for their skills.
Rudd noted the components of the February 8, 2010 changes to skilled migration in Australia and highlighted the generous transition arrangements for most holders of international student visas at the time of the changes. Rudd also noted Australia's review of its student visa program, announced in December 2010 and expected to be completed in mid-2011.
Issues of concern for Indian students are security, availability of accommodation and other support services, transport concession, greater financial assistance, regulation of rogue agents and dodgy institutions and introduction of effective orientation and assimilation processes both in India and Australia.
Krishna also discussed the issue of safety and security of Indian stidents in Australia with the new Premier of Victoria Province, Ted Baillieu who had made the law and order situation in Melbourne as one of the major issues of his election campaign. Baillieu had reportedly assured him that the safety and security of the Indian community will continue to be addressed pro-actively and that he had already initiated moves to increase the number of police and guards on the transport system, introduce tougher sentencing, improve the system of compensating victims of crime.
The India- Australia relationship is underpinned by diverse and growing people-to-people links. The Indian community in Australia, particularly those in higher jobs, are making a most valuable contribution to building Australian society. Cultural and artistic links continue apace. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations has been increasingly supporting these links. In November 2010, it sponsored a Rajasthani folk music and dance troupe to visit 9 cities in Australia including towns hitherto not covered such as Townsville and Ballarat. 2012 has been designated as the Year of Australia in India. But despite all these efforts and gestures, unfortunately, the misery of Indian students in Australia still continue. (IPA)
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THE TRIBUNE
EDITORIAL
MONK OR CHINESE PLANT?
KARMAPA MONEY POINTS TO BIG MISCHIEF
The recovery of foreign exchange worth more than Rs 6 crore from the monastery of Tibetan spiritual leader Karmapa Ugyen Trinley Dorje has quite understandably caused a stir. The followers of the 17th Karmapa, who is touted as a possible successor to the Dalai Lama, claim that the money came through donations by his followers, but the security agencies are not convinced. They have reasons to suspect that the Karmapa may be a Chinese agent sent here deliberately to create another power centre among Tibetans. The discovery of a huge sum in Chinese currency yuan has particularly brought to limelight the questions which have been asked ever since the Karmapa "escaped" from Tibet in the year 2000. He had claimed that he had hoodwinked Chinese authorities by going into exclusion and reaching Nepal. Intelligence agencies are of the view that such smooth passage could not have been possible without the support of Chinese border troops.
The money seizure needs to be seen in the backdrop of Beijing's larger plan to gain control over monasteries in India and downgrade the stature of the Dalai Lama among Tibetans. For the past several months, the Chinese have been distributing pamphlets among the locals in Arunachal Pradesh that since the Tawang monastery there pays tribute to Lhasa, which is in China, Tawang must be recognised as Chinese territory. They also aim to build a monastery in Dharamsala with a stature similar to the Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, which was the seat of the 16th Karmapa in exile, but has been kept out of bounds for Karmapa Trinley Dorje on the suspicion that he may be a Chinese prop.
All these suspicions will have to be thoroughly investigated by the Himachal Pradesh Police. If the money is traced back to the Chinese, then it is an extremely serious matter. But even otherwise, it comprises a gross violation of foreign exchange laws. The allegedly benami land deals of the Karmapa also call for a foolproof investigation.
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EDITORIAL
FIASCO AT EDEN GARDENS
NEGLIGENCE COMPOUNDED BY POLITICS
The fiasco surrounding the International Cricket Council cancelling the impending India-England World Cup match at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, marks an avoidable embarrassment for the Board of Control for Cricket in India and is a first in the history of Indian cricket. While there have been instances of matches being called off due to unplayable pitch conditions, as was the case at the Ferozshah Kotla in New Delhi in December, 2009, to have a match being cancelled for the stadium not being complete in the stipulated time is something unheard of. Last-minute efforts by ICC President Sharad Pawar and Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee have apparently failed and the most likely alternative venue may be Bangalore.
BCCI is an extremely cash-rich organisation and the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) has also done well, thanks to the enterprise shown by Jagmohan Dalmiya over the years. That is what makes this situation even more surprising. The original date for completion of this stadium, and Wankhede in Mumbai, along with three stadia in Sri Lanka, was December 30, 2010. However, all five venues were given an extension till January 25, 2011. But according to the ICC, an inspection of Eden recently showed that the venue would not be ready in time, forcing the cancellation.
While it must be emphasized that the sanctity of a deadline must be respected, there are also undertones of a political game being played between the BCCI authorities and Dalmiya, who has been at odds with the body for a long time now. If it is true as is being suggested that none of the other four venues (which have been cleared) were in any better shape than Eden, it smacks of politics. Whatever be the final outcome, there can be little doubt that the Eden episode has left a bad taste for which the BCCI and the CAB cannot be absolved of blame.
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EDITORIAL
TABLETS OF A NEW ERA
LOCAL CONTENT WILL OPTIMISE EXPERIENCE
The latest in technology is the tablet, a portable personal computer that uses a touchscreen as a primary input device. Modern tablet PCs are essentially bigger than mobile phones and smaller than laptops. The electronic tablets have become the latest and the most convenient way of accessing the wide world beyond the physical reach of the users. In many cases, the tablet is like a laptop without the bulk, with Internet connectivity and many freebees thrown in, including phones and cameras. In a year since iPad was launched, millions of such devices have been sold throughout the world. The official launch of iPad in India signals a new interest from the company that has sold most of the tablet computers in the world and set the standard for others.
It is not just the device but the entire eco-system built around it that has made it such a success. There are thousands of applications built for users of these devices, which provide information, entertainment, utility and even road directions. While Apple is the market leader with its remarkably intuitive and smooth interface, it was a closed tightly-controlled system. It is increasingly being challenged by the Android operating system, made freely available by Google, and adopted by most of the tablet PC makers. Windows has not made a significant impact as yet, and RIMs BlackBerry tablet, with its own operating system, is not yet available to customers.
Tablets are more suitable for users who receive information than those who input it. Not surprisingly, they are an overwhelming majority. For users in India, there is a paucity of local content available, both in English as well as local languages. There is, thus, an urgent need to generate subject matter suitable for a new generation of IT-savvy users. The Indian consumer responds well to anything that he feels has utility. The tablets, which are e-book readers, multimedia platforms and browsers, too, are an ideal platform with which users can enrich themselves even as they stay connected. The tablets are here, we must make full use of their capabilities.
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THE TRIBUNE
COLUMN
SUSTAINABLE INCLUSIVE GROWTH
NEED TO FOCUS ON RURAL ECONOMY
BY S. S. JOHL
The classical growth model states that the agriculture sector is the prime mover of overall economic growth and development of the agrarian economy through the process of generating wage goods (capital) and surplus labour as the sector moves on a higher production curve through the medium of improved production technology and management efficiency. Here overall factor productivity improves to generate surpluses of agricultural commodities for the market. There are also an improvement in productivity per worker through the modernisation of production technology and better management techniques and skills. The labour employed in the sector is also rendered surplus successively.
As a result, when the capital and labour move to the secondary and tertiary sectors, that stimulates growth in these sectors, and the economy is put on a higher growth path. No doubt, the capital investment mobilised from outside does provide exogenous stimulation, but in an agrarian economy the role of agricultural growth in providing a solid base to the growth process of the economy cannot be denied. In India, more than two-thirds of the population is directly dependent on agriculture. With the growth of this sector lagging behind the overall economic growth of the country, the exclusiveness of this large segment of the population increases from the development process.
It is, therefore, essential that the agriculture/rural sector must register a matching growth to make the growth and development of the country inclusive in its nature. Further, substantive growth must take place in rain-fed areas for the sake of inclusiveness, because the poorest sections of the rural population live in these areas. Growth in these areas on a sustainable basis reduces the yearly fluctuations in the over all agricultural production of the country.
No doubt, in the agriculture sector in India, productivity levels per unit of land have gone up owing to the improved production technologies, adoption of high yielding varieties of crops and higher use of inputs such as fertilisers, pesticides, water, power, machinery and labour, productivity per worker trapped in the agricultural/ rural sector has remained low due to various natural and man-made constraints. Sufficient surplus labour has not, therefore, moved out of this sector due to the non-availability of matching off-farm gainful employment opportunities. In developed countries and also in many developing countries, farm workers are getting older while young people are moving out. In developed countries, even the overall growth of population is going negative.
In India, in spite of substantive development of the secondary (industrial) and tertiary (services) sectors of the economy matching gainful employment opportunities have not been generated to absorb the surplus labour moving out of the agricultural/rural sector. Hence, whatever labour moves out that ends up in slums in the urban areas, where the people live under unhygienic conditions, with no clean drinking water, sewerage or power facilities. For instance, Ludhiana in Punjab alone has 180 such colonies, where it is difficult to find even a few matriculate youth who can be trained for employability.
On the other hand, the agriculture sector cannot fully absorb the rural labour and farming population gainfully in agriculture. Except during the planting and harvest seasons, farm workers remain underemployed or suffer disguised unemployment. All this is evident from the decreasing size of the operation holdings. For instance, in 1980-81, average operational farm size in India was 1.81 hectare, down from 2.30 hectare in 1970-71. In Punjab, the average operational size of the land holdings was 2.89 hectare while in Haryana it was 3.78 hectare in 1970-71.
In 2001, this was reduced to 1.33 hectare in India and 2.32 hectares in Haryana. It is only in Punjab that the holding size increased to 4.03 hectares due to reverse tenancy and large number of village youth moving out to foreign lands. In rest of the country, the holding size has decreases continuously. Further, the farm size distribution shows that in 1981, farms below two hectares were 74 per cent of the total farms in India. The percentage of farms in this category increased to 81.8 per cent in 2001.
This shows that in spite of all the programmes and projects as well as development of industrial and services sectors and overall accelerated growth of the economy, the pressure of population on land in the agriculture sector is increasing, especially in the rain-fed areas. Consequently, the economic development of the country is bypassing these segments of the economy.
It needs to be realised that the income problems of farmers and rural populations cannot be resolved within the agriculture sector alone. First, the rural economy would need to be diversified and second, the agricultural production pattern would require to be diversified and third, within the production system cropping pattern would need to be diversified. It is only then the rural and agricultural economy would move on a higher growth path that would fuel the inclusive higher growth of the economy. Planners and policy makers, therefore, must realise that the agrarian economy of India cannot achieve the objective of inclusive higher growth without diversifying the rural economy and within that. the agricultural economy of the country.
In order to diversify the rural economy, industrial and services sectors, small and clean units and ancillaries should be encouraged to shift to rural areas. The affluent, if any, from these units must be treated on their premises without polluting underground water and disturbing the healthy ecology of the area. For this purpose, if need be, capital subsidies should be given to such units. Further, substantive tax concessions should be given to such units for at least 10 years to begin with. Necessary condition should be that these units would employ at least 80 per cent of their employees from the local population within the radius of say 10 kilometers. This would help turn the small farmers into part-time farmers. This would increase rural incomes and capital would flow to agriculture for mechanisation and other improvements.
The extent system of industry and services concentrated in cities does not attract the rural youth due to paltry wages and the system, therefore, creates innumerable slums with migratory labourers, leaving the rural youth unemployed that creates socio-economic problems in the rural areas leading to drug addiction and suicides. This model would certainly help create gainful employment opportunities at the place and overall growth in these areas would become effectively inclusive in its very nature. However, all this can happen if our political leaders take to development through rational policies.
The writer, a former Vice-Chancellor of Punjabi University, Patiala, is a well-known agricultural economist.
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THE TRIBUNE
ARTICLE
ATM STUDY CENTRES
BY CHARANDEEP SINGH
I was always a one-night wonder in correlation to my exams during my university days in Patiala. So the evening before my exams was the most crucial one. It was May of 2002 and the electricity cuts in Punjab were at their horrific best.
As usual I whiled away the time during the day with the hope that the evening and the night are all mine. When I was all set for a rocking night of studies, there stuck what I would like to call a "natural calamity", the power grid had tripped and as a result the power supply had fizzled out.
With it also fizzled out my feeling of being the rock-star as I was the only one left looking vulnerable with everyone around me appearing confident as most of them were through with their syllabus. Even the candles brought from the market couldn't do the needful, because with every flicker tears clouded my eyes as a testimony to my weak eyesight. I was aghast in despair, and told myself that I was all set for a repeat of this examination after one year.
In those days I was reading a book called The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz, and one of the suggested remedies was that when one was in despair one should take a long walk in fresh air. I was walking in the inner circular road of the university in my contemplative and sad mood when I saw the newly installed ATM of a bank radiating light brilliantly. It was, perhaps, air cooled too.
My grey cells worked. But to study there, I needed an ATM card. Someone patted my back. He was Mr Marwaha, a newly-appointed lecturer of the department. I immediately asked him: "Sir, do you have an ATM card?" He replied in the affirmative. I took the card from him, ran towards my hostel, picked up my study material and sat on the floor of the ATM crosslegged.
I sat at my ingenious place of study the whole night, did my revision and even managed to catch 40 winks in the air-cooled cell.
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THE TRIBUNE
OPED
GLOBAL PROFITABILITY MAY FALL FROM $15.1 BILLION TO $9.1 BILLION
EVEN AS INDIA EMERGES AS AN EXCITING AND GROWING MARKET, AIRLINES WILL HAVE TO SCRAMBLE TO PROVIDE SERVICE AT LOW PRICES TO ATTRACT MORE PASSENGERS.
AIRLINES EXPANDING IN TURBULENT CONDITIONS
VIBHA SHARMA
For the closely-linked global business that aviation is, the year 2011 will be challenging. IATA, international trade body representing major world's carriers, predicts global profitability to fall from $15.1 billion to $9.1 billion in 2011, a 1.5 per cent margin on revenues of $598 billion.
Driving this deterioration in profitability are these factors: IATA estimates oil price at $84 per barrel in 2011, up from $79 in 2010. This will add $17 billion to costs, bringing the fuel bill to $156 billion. With oil nearing $90 per barrel, this appears to be a rather conservative estimate.
Globally, GDP growth is predicted to fall from 3.5 per cent to 2.6 per cent in 2011. And topping it all is over-capacity. While capacity will grow by 6.1 per cent, demand is likely to increase only by 5.3 per cent. Therefore, there is a clear mismatch.
In all, while 2010 witnessed "better-than-expected profits but had nothing for shareholders", profits are expected to deteriorate in 2011, warns IATA.
This is the ground reality as Indian aviation companies go shopping for planes. The industry added 10 per cent capacity last year. However, the capacity was outpaced by an 18 per cent increase in passenger traffic, leading to a shortage of seats and inflated fares in the festive period.
Each airline now has ambitious expansion plans for the country's fast-growing aviation market.
The industry, which has a combined fleet of 419 aircraft, is expected to add 50 more aircraft in 2011, for which it will require 5,000 additional personnel, including 500-700 pilots and 1,200-1,500 cabin crew.
The national carrier Air India, plans to double the size of its fleet over five years, even while it struggles to cut costs and reduce losses. The airline, with a current fleet size of 135, plans to lease 107 aircraft by the end of 2015. IndiGo recently placed order for 180 Airbus A-320 passenger jetliners-the largest single order that evoked collective gasps on the basis of sheer figures involved. Another low-cost carrier, SpiceJet, has also placed an order for 30 Boeing jets and 30 turboprop aircraft from Bombardier
The airlines are trying to return to expansion mode to meet growing demand. However, the question is: How will they get those extra passengers to fill that additional capacity, especially with key costs, including operational costs, heading north?
Indian Airlines have just about managed to emerge from two years of turbulence due to surging costs, excess capacity and intense competition.
The airline industry, more than any other business, is not just sensitive to global economy but circumstances as well, e.g., when Europe froze, business got affected everywhere, including India. This is why the years ahead may turn out to be extremely challenging for Indian carriers as they try to balance ambitions of individual growth with competitive airfares to lure travellers. In fact, keeping airfares in control will be the biggest challenge, both for airlines and the government.
Last year, when airfares spun out of control, public and media outrage forced former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel to intervene. The biggest challenge before new Aviation Minister Vayalar Ravi, apart from competing with his predecessor's suave image, will be to ward off inherent craving of airlines for "predatory pricing" without hurting their financial prospects, apart from making national carrier Air India profitable
Industry sources, however, maintain that there is no way the government can curb airlines on fares because there is no sector mechanism to stop them. Faced with rising ATF prices and other expenses, airlines have no other option. "The government has business interfering in a liberalised sector," is what they say.
Indian carriers are gripped with challenges that are also impacting the industry across the globe-high ATF prices, rising labour costs, shortage of skilled labour, excess capacity, huge debt burden and intense price competition. It also has to deal with spiralling inflation back home.
The comfort zone for domestic flyers except in business class is between Rs 3,500 and Rs 5,500, and airlines know this well. No matter how good the service you provide is, an airline is chosen on the basis of fares, aviation expert AN Hanfee says.
Today, flying has become more expensive for passengers, thanks to development fees levied at airports. The fare gap between full and low cost is almost non-existent. If airlines want more people to fly, they will have to somehow keep costs down, even with high ATF and other flying related expenditure. With the government watching, the airlines' biggest challenge will be to manage the growth and rationalise airfares to attract new flyers.
There is a strong case for giving jet fuel declared goods status, attracting a sales tax of 3 per cent, but the issue continues to be in a limbo. States are reluctant to lower sales tax rates on ATF, as they stand to lose revenue without any immediate offsetting benefit.
Indian carriers also have to deal with serious legacy problems. The combined loss of Indian airlines shrank in 2010, but their huge debt burden remains a matter of concern, IATA Director-General Giovanni Bisignani says.
Fortunately, India is the leader in the world's most interesting region — Asia Pacific. Indian aviation market will grow to 150 million passengers by 2015 from the current 72 million. India is a big market with 42 million domestic passengers, 34 million international passengers and an enormous potential for growth. The current capacity is 117 million seats per year, 0.1 seats for each of the 1.2 billion population. In comparison, the US has 3.5 seats per person.
Indian spending power is set to triple over the next two decades, fuelling continued rapid growth. The good news is that the private airlines have started reporting profits, or at least shrinking losses. "In the face of major challenges, Air India's position is also improving. However, Indian carriers will still lose an estimated $0.4 billion this year. Also, I am concerned about their $13-billion debt. In a market as rich in potential as India, this precarious financial situation indicates that structural weaknesses must be addressed," Bisignani explains.
The government's Rs 2000 crore bailout is linked to performance on some key parameters. Air India's wage cost is estimated to be 17 per cent of its overall operating costs. The airline had drawn a plan to cut wages by Rs 500 crore, but was able to achieve only Rs 100 crore saving on this account.
Estimates put AI's wage bill at around Rs 3,600 crore a year. It has 125 aircraft in operation. In comparison, Jet Airways, with 107 aircraft and 12,000-odd employees, has a wage bill of about Rs 1,200 crore. AI, in fact, is not just overstaffed it also overpays its staff.
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THE TRIBUNE
OPED
INDIAN PASSENGER LOAD INCREASES
SHIV KUMAR
After suffering from the impact of the recession for more than two years, India's aviation sector is poised to show a turnaround. Major airlines like Air India, Jet Airways, Kingfisher, Indigo and Spice Jet have reported healthy increases in passenger load which has increased by more than 18 per cent by the end of 2010 over the corresponding period of the previous year.
The aviation sector has crossed a milestone, ferrying 520.1 lakh passengers in 2010 as against 438.4 lakh passengers in the previous year, according to data available from the Union Civil Aviation Ministry.
The last quarter of 2010 saw the highest number of people flying by air. According to data available from the Director-General of Civil Aviation, the number of air passengers during this period amounted to 147.1 lakh passengers as against 119.8 lakh passengers in 2009.
On the whole, the aviation sector has turned bullish with IndiGo placing the single largest order for jets in the history of commercial aviation when it ordered 180 A-320 aircraft from Airbus Industrie. The Rs 70,000-crore order will be executed over the next decade. The airline has also increased its market share in the month of December tying with Kingfisher for the Number 2 spot with a market share of 18.6 per cent. Jet Airways continues to hog the top spot while national flag carrier Air India is pushed to the fourth position.
With the surge in passenger growth, India's major airlines are expected to return to profitability in the first quarter of this year, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. However, analysts say it would be a while before India's major airlines return to the pink of health. The country's three major airlines - Air India, Kingfisher and Jet Airways - have a combined debt of around US $13.5 billion, much of which was incurred for expansion before the 2007-08 recession.
While Air India is depending on the government to bail it out, the private players will have to take recourse to the market. Jet Airways with debt amounting to nearly Rs 12,000 crore would have to raise fresh rounds of capital, according to analysts. And so will Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines. The liquor baron's aviation foray would be requiring funds for working capital apart from purchasing new aircraft for growing the business, according to brokerage houses.
As a result the airlines are going slow on capacity expansion, even though there are signs that passenger growth will balloon over the next several quarters. In all, they will add just 50 aircraft this year to the combined total capacity of 419 aircraft. Some of the aircraft being added will be smaller airplanes like the Bombardier Q400 jets being deployed by SpiceJet. These 78 seaters will be deployed in smaller towns, where the budget carrier is seen expanding this year.
India's biggest airline Jet Airways, which has a 26 per cent market share, will be expanding aggressively in the global market, according to a grapevine. It will be unveiling new services to cities like Paris, the Middle-East and South East Asia using its Boeing 777 aircraft, say sources. Another private airline, IndiGo, will also launch its international operations in this year. To facilitate its global foray, the airline will be adding 16 more aircraft to its fleet of 32 in 2011 alone.
Meanwhile, all the airlines are showing signs of solid growth, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. According to the latest data available, Jet Airways along with Jetlite ended November 2010 as the country's largest carrier handling 1.3 million passengers. Kingfisher came behind handling 932,000 passengers while IndiGo, with 8,43,000 passengers, took the third spot. India's flag carrier Air India took the fourth spot with 8,36,000 passengers.
The airlines are also packing in more passengers to increase profitability. According to CAPA IndiGo's load factor, or the number of seats filled in the average flight, rose to 91 per cent in November 2010, while SpiceJet, Kingfisher, GoAir and JetLite also reported load factors in excess of 80 per cent. However, Air India was a laggard with a load factor of just 76.9 per cent.
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THE KASHMIR TIMES
EDITORIAL
NOT BY WORDS, BUT ACTION
OMAR ABDULLAH'S MANTRA OF 'VIOLENCE FREE' SUMMER IS DISTRESSING
The state administration lead by chief minister Omar Abdullah needs to learn that rhetoric alone cannot bring peace to Kashmir where politics and issues are far too complex, complicated and historical. Rather boastful phrases can only further exacerbate the situation. Following the footsteps of chief minister, bureaucrats in his administration and ministers in his cabinet have begun parroting that they would not allow violence on the streets of Kashmir this coming summer. Rather than publicly making such resolutions, which have the potential of sounding dangerously provocative also, it would be better for the government to get its act together, which seems to be nowhere in sight. The young chief minister could have drawn lessons from the recent flag hoisting controversy and how it was mis-handled by his more strongly worded vocal reaction, provoking and enabling the BJP to garner more support for its Ekta yatra, which was a virtual non-issue. That the BJP's sinister communal designs were all too well known and that his government did what was deemed necessary in view of the precarious law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir is hardly disputable but his rhetoric could easily have been avoided to pave way for a much less controversial end of the BJP's ill-conceived march. Two years ago when he took over the reins of administration and was seen as a young dynamic politician who could bring about a change in Kashmir's politics, he started on a promising note that he did not believe in words but actions. Ever since, all one has seen is noises, much of which have not even gone down too well with the different constituencies of the state, and virtually no action, either in easing the situation or on the road to development and accountability. His sole contribution appears to be an amended Right to Information Act and the much over delayed appointment of chief information commissioner. However, one still needs to see whether the implementation of the law would finally yield results.
There is much more that Omar's state administration would have to think of before assuming the optimism of a violence free Kashmir. While governance needs to be improved by inducing in the much needed elements of accountability and transparency as also greater focus on development issues, an equal amount of emphasis also needs to be induced for tackling the alienation and anger of the masses, which has subsided in the past few months. The atmosphere at the moment is congenial for the state administration to begin making amends, after having miserably failed last summer to contain anger or the spiraling violence that led to 112 deaths. The signs however so far do not spell any optimism. The Omar Abdullah government may have to begin first of all with understanding and analysing last summer's situation fairly, without any prejudice and realise that a negative role played by the police and security forces in handling a situation is responsible mainly for flaring up a situation which could have been easily contained and controlled to a great extent. The manner in which his government has acted on the cases of brutal murders by police and CRPF during the street battles, with abject refusal to even lodge the basic FIRs in these cases and by dragging feet on the only official probe in 17 deaths does not give any indication of any right kind of moves. To begin a process of fairly probing these cases and pinning the blame is the task at hand for the state government before it begins sketching a rosy picture to fool itself. Though the political dispute of Kashmir lies at the core of last summer's agitation, the protests were sparked and fuelled by a vicious cycle of violence, human rights abuse and deaths. The government's role is not only to ensure that these are stopped in the future but also to investigate the killings that took place. Much of the onus also lies on the Centre, both in dealing with human rights situation and also resolving the political dispute through a process of negotiations. A well informed chief minister, however, can very well fill in the gap by pursuing this case with the Centre, not by rhetoric but through closed door meeting and constant parleys with the central government. Unnecessary words need to be discarded totally. Action based on a well informed opinion would be more suitable.
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THE KASHMIR TIMES
EDITORIAL
INCREASING WILD ANIMAL ATTACKS
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES NEED TO BE TAKEN UP WHILE MAINTAINING ECOLOGICAL BALANCE
The recent attacks on humans by the leopards and bears from the wild in various parts of Jammu and Kashmir leading to killing of wild animals in reaction from the people should act as a pointer to the shrinking space of wildlife. In fact the increasing number of attacks of the wild animals on the people living in the isolated villages and in areas in close proximity of the forests are attributed to encroachment of forest lands by the rising population in J&K. These cases of attacks are restricted to parts of J&K alone but in the entire country wherever the people are living in close proximity of the forests and wildlife enclosures. Every day, unfortunately, there are reports of conflict between the people and wildlife animals. Apart from this there are also reports of poaching of wild animals by the unscrupulous people involved in the smuggling of their skins and bones for medicinal purposes in different countries of the world. These activities are going on under the very nose of the forest department, which is charged with the responsibility of protecting the wild animals and also preserve the wild live enclosures besides relocation of the habitat which has been encroached upon by the people. There have been discussions on account of removal of encroachments from the forest areas but no action appears to have been taken on the ground to prevent recurrence of such incidents of attacks by the wild animals. In fact many forest officials have been found to be conniving with the smugglers in killing and selling the animal skins and bones to the traders. Moreover, development activities like carving out of roads and construction of new residential colonies are also putting a lot of pressure on the forests lands and their resources. This is not helping in maintenance of wildlife habitat in various parts of the country particularly in J&K. In order to maintain ecological balance and protect the habitat of the wildlife it is necessary that steps are taken to ensure minimum damage to forest resources in a state like J&K which is blessed with natural resources. Apart from this, the encroachment on forest lands needs to be prevented for avoiding conflict with the wildlife so that precious human lives are not lost in the process. It will be in the fitness of things to ensure development which is consonance with the maintenance of ecological balance.
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THE KASHMIR TIMES
EDITORIAL
COURTING NUCLEAR TROUBLE IN MAHARASHTRA
SCRAP THE JAITAPUR REACTORS!
PRAFUL BIDWAI
Imagine a stunningly beautiful ecosystem with virgin rainforests, a great mountain range, and immense diversity of plant and animal life, where two great rivers originate. Add to this a flourishing farming, horticultural and fisheries economy. And you have the Jaitapur-Madban region in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district, on the Konkan coast in the Western Ghats.
This segment of the Satyadri mountains is the source of the Krishna and Godavari. It's also the home of the world's most famous mango, the Alphonso (hapus), and grows chikoos, cashew, pineapple and coconut too, whose high yield