EDITORIAL 30.06.11

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Editorial

month june 30, edition 000872, 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. REJOICE, ALL IS WELL!
2. BLOSSOMING ROMANCE
3. CHINA'S BOON, INDIA'S BANE - GAUTAM MUKHERJEE
4. CHANGING POWER EQUATION - ASHLEY J TELLIS
5. INDIAN COMPANIES INVEST ABROAD - SHIVAJI SARKAR
6. NEW STRATEGIC REALITIES EMERGING IN ASIA - CP BHAMBHRI

THE TIMES OF INDIA

1. BREAK THE SILENCE
2. THAT'S A SPORT
3. A NEED TO BE FIGHTING FIT - PRAKASH SINGHPRAKASH SINGH
4. BONDING WITH THE BEST
5. WOMEN CAN DO BETTER - AJAY VAISHNAVAJAY VAISHNAV
6. AIR APPARENT - BACHI KARKARIABACHI KARKARIA

HINDUSTAN TIMES

1. DON'T SLIP ON THE OIL SLICK
2. A BORDERLINE CASE
3. SOME TOUGH TALKING
4. UP THE GARDEN PATH - KAPIL SIBAL
5. MAKING AN ASS'S MILK OF US - V GANGADHAR,
6. SHUT UP, LISTEN TO ME  - JASON STANLEY

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

1. GROUND RULES
2. ROOMS AT THE TOP
3. BREAKING THE SILENCE
4. THE REGULATORS STRIKE BACK - MK VENU
5. CORE CONCERN - HARSH V. PANT
6. PARTY GAMESMANSHIP - SUHAS PALSHIKAR
7. THE CORPORATE VOTE - MANOJCG
8. THE ANTI-DEMOCRACY DEMOCRATS
9. THE EDGE OF THE ATLANTIC

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

1. PM FAILS TO IMPRESS
2. IMF GETS A NEW BOSS
3. WHY AUSTERITY ALONE RISKS A DISASTER - MARTIN WOLF
4. DON'T CARRY CSR OVERBOARD - MADAN SABNAVIS

THE HINDU

1. A CLEAN CHIT FOR NOW
2. OLD FEARS IN THAI ELECTION
3. CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS AND HEALTH  - K.S. JACOB
4. THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF 'HONEY BABY'  - PRAVEEN SWAMI
5. UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE: THE BARRIERS AND THE WAY FORWARD  - DILEEP MAVALANKAR
6. A CLOSE CALL FOR SPACE STATION CREW MEMBERS - KENNETH CHANG
7. DEVICE TO MONITOR TROOPS' MEDICAL STATUS

THE ASIAN AGE

1. WILL COURTS DRIVE A NEW LAND POLICY?
2. THE SUMMER OF 2014 - SRINATH RAGHAVAN
3. LOOK WHO'S WATCHING - SIDHARTH BHATIA

DAILY EXCELSIOR

1. OIC'S KASHMIR TANTRUM
2. HOW THE LOKPAL BILL CAN BE IMPROVED - BY PRAFUL BIDWAI
3. ECO-SYSTEM, LIFE AND DEVELOPMENT - BY KABUL SINGH RAJPUT

THE TRIBUNE

1. REAL ISSUE IN AFGHANISTAN
2. COMPENSATION FOR RAPE?
3. IT'S NOT CRICKET
4. INFLATION IS BACK - BY JAYSHREE SENGUPTA
5. NO FIDDLING WITH DRUGS - BY JUPINDERJIT SINGH
6. MIND OVER MATTER - THE OMEGA WAVE

BUSINESS STANDARD

1. A POVERTY OF STATISTICS
2. WASTING FOOD
3. WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THE US ECONOMY? - MARTIN FELDSTEIN
4. CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF A CLASSIC - RAJEEV ANANTARAM
5. A SLOWDOWN IN PROTECTIONISM?  - RUCHI SHARMA
6. THE OTHER GROWTH STORY - INDICUS ANALYTICS

BUSINESS LINE

1. CLASHING VIEWS ON FARM LAND
2. BIOTECH CRUCIAL FOR FOOD SECURITY - RAM KAUNDINYA
3. DIDI IS RIDING A TIGER NOW - RAGHUVIR SRINIVASAN

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

1. WINDS OF CHANGE
2. CORRUPTION POLITICS
3. SAAS-BAHU, SPLITSVILLA
4. SPEAKING PM. AND NOW A DOING ONE?
5. FINDING METRO MAN  - VIKAS DHOOT
6. MANMOHAN SINGH, EASY TARGET  - T K ARUN

MUMBAI MIRROR

1. THIS ONE IS FOR MALA SEN

DECCAN CHRONICAL

1. WILL COURTS DRIVE A NEW LAND POLICY?
2. THE SUMMER OF 2014
3. IT'S SCIENCE, BUT NOT NECESSARILY RIGHT
4. LOOK WHO'S WATCHING
5. TAKE OFF THE BLINDFOLDS

THE STATESMAN

1. IS IT REALLY NECESSARY ?
2. EXIT SUKANTA !
3. SAD DIAGNOSIS
4. USA'S OUTWARD MARCH - SALMAN HAIDAR
5. OUT OF STEAM  - KULDIP NAYAR 
6. FLY BY HUMOUR  - PK KARAYI
7. CAUGHT IN A CURIOUS WEB  - BIBEKANANDA RAY

THE TELEGRAPH

1. SMALL PRINT
2. GETTING REAL
3. ON ANOTHER PLANE  
4. READY TO REJOICE  - SUDIPTA BHATTACHARJEE
5. A REAL CAUSE OF CONCERN

HAARETZ

1. ISRAEL MUST PUT AN END TO HUMAN TRAFFICKING
2. ISRAEL HAS BECOME A SOCIETY OF FORCE AND VIOLENCE - BY GIDEON LEVY
3. OY JERUSALEM  - BY NERI LIVNEH
4. LOVE IN CHAINS  - BY AMALIA ROSENBLUM

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

1. A WARRIOR, A POET, A SCHOLAR
2. DAVID JUDSON
3. WILL TURKEY RISK FIGHTING WITH SYRIA? - NIHAT ALI ÖZCAN
4. EMPOWERING WOMEN TO SAVE THE FUTURE - ERSU ABLAK
5. ZERO PROBLEMS A LA TURCA: NOT JUST GOOD, BUT GOOD FOR YOU - PINAR TREMBLAY
6. WHAT DOES AL-ASSAD RELY UPON? - SAMI KOHEN
7. MORTALITY AND POLITICS - GWYNNE DYER

THE NEWYORK TIMES

1. THE CLOUD DARKENS
2. THEY SAID THEY WANTED A DEAL
3. REDUCING UNJUST COCAINE SENTENCES
4. SMARTER WELFARE-TO-WORK PLANS
5. YET AGAIN IN SUDAN - BY NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
6. G.O.P. VS. WORLD - BY DAVID GREENBERG
7. FIRE UP THE GRILL, NOT THE ATMOSPHERE - BY BRIAN PALMER
8. DEMOCRACY'S CRADLE, ROCKING THE WORLD - BY MARK MAZOWER

THE NEWS

1. KASHMIR EQUATION
2. STATE OF THE STATE  - IKRAM SEHGAL
3. WARLORDS AS MEDIA MOGULS  - FAROOQ SULEHRIA
4. TOGETHER WE MUST  - RABIA ALAVI
5. FINAL DEVOLUTION
6. THE KABUL ATTACK
7. LOWER COURTS AND SUPERHEROES  - UMER GILLANI
8. LIVING ON THE EDGE OF CIVILISATION  - KAMILA HYAT
9. DEVELOPING A PROCESS

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

1. DEVOLUTION MAY BE COMPLETED EXPEDITIOUSLY
2. OIC RIGHTLY CHANGES ITS NAME
3. FATE OF AF-PAK, INDIA TOO INTERLINKED
4. US EXIT STRATEGY - LT COL ZAHEERUL HASSAN (R)
5. DEFENDING FOOD SECURITY - SHAUKAT MASOOD ZAFAR
6. KARACHI'S KILLING FIELDS - BURHANUDDIN HASAN
7. CYBER CRIME - SARA EHSAN
8. CHINESE FINANCE COMES OF AGE - HOWARD DAVIES

THE AUSTRALIYAN

1. BUILDING ON OUR CHINA LUCK
2. PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE SHOULD NOT BE BEYOND US
3. HAPPINESS IS A LAND CALLED OZ

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

1. GREEN LIGHTS FLASHING RED
2. RELOCATION PLAN IN NEED OF LEGS
3. STATE NEEDS ANSWERS ON $3 BILLION POKIES LOSS
4. CLASSIFICATION REFORM NO EASY TASK

THE GUARDIAN

1. IN PRAISE OF … CHEQUES
2. PUBLIC SECTOR PENSIONS: AFTER THE STRIKE, THE SETTLEMENT
3. GREECE AND AUSTERITY: BRUSSELS V THE PEOPLE

THE JAPAN TIMES

1. HOPE AND RECONSTRUCTION
2. HONG KONG'S VALUES SET IT APART

THE JAKARTA POST

1. IN SBY WE TRUST?
2. WOMEN CAN TAKE IT ALL, BUT HUSBANDS MUST HELP OUT - CAROLYN BAYTION-SUNARYO
3. PANCASILA AND INDONESIA'S FOREIGN POLICY – YAYAN G.H. MULYANA
4. LESSONS LEARNED AT THE SCS WORKSHOP PROCESS ( PART 3 OF 3 ) - HASJIM DJALAL
5. VIEW POINT: WHY DISOBEDIENCE IS DEVOUT – EVEN FOR WIVES! - JULIA SURYAKUSUMA
6. ASIA AND THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT - PIERRE P. LIZÉE

DAILY MIRROR

1. SAVING RIZANA CAN NOT BE LEFT TO PRAYER
2. WHEEL JAM IN GREECE
3. IMPLEMENT THE 13TH AMENDMENT?
4. NUCLEAR POWER FOR SRI LANKA?
5. LIVING THE NIGHTMARE…

GULF DAILY NEWS

1. CARBON-FREE BY 2050?   - BY PAYAL PAREKH

TEHRAN TIMES

1. THE PLAN TO DESTABILIZE SYRIA - BY THIERRY MEYSSAN
2. GAZA, WE ARE COMING - BY FREE GAZA TEAM
3. CRISIS IN SYRIA INFLUENCED BY FOREIGN MEDDLING - BY JAVAD MANSOURI
4. BREACHING GAZA'S SIEGE - BY STEPHEN LENDMAN
5. STAYING HUMAN: PREPARING TO SAIL TO GAZA - BY KATHY KELLY
6. U.S. PRESENCE IN IRAQ IS SOURCE OF INSECURITY, PROBLEMS - BY IRFAN PARVIZ
7. BAHRAIN TAKES A PAGE OUT OF STALIN'S TEXTBOOK - BY DR. ALA'A SHEHABI 

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

REJOICE, ALL IS WELL!

PM SAYS HE IS IN COMMAND OF SITUATION

If by telling a group of carefully selected editors that he is very much in command of the Government he heads and there are no obstacles that prevent him from doing that which is good for the nation the Prime Minister could salvage his battered and bruised image, then a question mark would loom large over the collective intelligence of this nation. By now Mr Manmohan Singh should have realised that few are willing to believe that he has the capacity to lead from the front or the authority to take decisions that are crucial to governance. If the UPA is seen as a non-performing Government steeped in corruption, then the Prime Minister is viewed with diminishing respect and even lesser regard: He has elected to remain indifferent to increasing governance deficit; he has chosen to maintain silence while his Ministers steal with gay abandon; he has preferred to capitulate to the most damaging demands of his party boss; and, he has willingly misled Parliament on more than one occasion to white-wash the many sins of omission and commission for which he cannot disown responsibility. He has displayed amazing lack of grace while dealing with the Opposition while pandering to those who keep him in office though without any power. He has skilfully used the image of a 'decent' and 'honest' man as a cloak to cover his appalling lack of intellectual integrity and concern for probity. He has looked away from domestic issues that agitate the masses while persisting with a two-point foreign policy agenda: Appeasing America and pleasing Pakistan. He has repeatedly promised to control the price line but done nothing to ensure that food doesn't continue to disappear from households and people are not pushed into impoverishment. He has a fixation with economic growth that benefits a wafer-thin section of Indians while the masses find their real income falling with each passing day. And he has the gall to blame the Opposition for his failures and those of the Government he heads, albeit notionally.

Mr Manmohan Singh is utterly mistaken if he believes the perception that his "lame duck" Government has gone "comatose" is no more than "clever propaganda" of the Opposition "to which some sections of the media have lent ear". The Opposition has at best capitalised on what is now popular perception which, for a change, reflects the reality. Much as Mr Singh may find it difficult to accept, the truth that he refers to has little or nothing to do with his "performance" (of which he was so boastful during his interaction with the editors) but everything to do with his failure — as a Prime Minister, as a leader. In the past, too, he has used similar means to deflect attention from his failure by slyly pointing a finger at the Opposition. Recall his interaction with another group of selected editors before the Budget Session of Parliament when he blamed the Opposition for highlighting corruption in high places and accused the media of damaging India's image and reputation. This is what those who are weak and unsure of where they stand do: Blame others for their shortcomings and lapses. The Prime Minister of India is expected to be honest and honourable. Even if we were to grant that there is no reason to doubt the personal honesty of Mr Singh, there is nothing honourable about his being so petty-minded.

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

BLOSSOMING ROMANCE

BERLIN AND BEIJING WARM UP TO EACH OTHER

Following an enormously successful five-day, three-country trip to Europe, when a triumphant Chinese Prime Minister flew back to Beijing on Wednesday he left behind a continent that was somewhat surprised but significantly overawed by the tremendous might of the Asian dragon economy. At the start of his tour, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao received a warm welcome in Budapest where he indicated to the Hungarian Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Orbán, that China would buy some of the country's sovereign debt and provide a $1.4 billion loan. He also pledged to support the euro to help the EU find its way out of the ongoing currency crisis — a promise he reiterated in London during his meetings with Prime Minister David Cameron and his predecessors, Mr Tony Blair and Mr Gordon Brown. Yet much of this paled in comparison to what Mr Wen achieved in Berlin, where he concluded several billion euros worth of trade deals and, more importantly, strengthened China's strategic partnership with Germany. In recent years, bilateral trade between the two countries has grown by leaps and bounds — last year it was valued at €130 billion, an increase of 34 per cent from 2009 when China surpassed Germany as the world's largest exporter, and is expected to increase to a whopping €200 billion by 2015. As a reflection of this "significant deepening" of economic ties, the two countries agreed to establish special Government consultations that will ensure their representatives meet on a regular basis to discuss a wide range of issues. Currently, Germany only conducts such consultations with France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Russia and Israel, with India joining the club only this year, while China has no such arrangement with any other country. The political weightage China attached to the last leg of Mr Wen's tour of Europe was evident in the huge entourage that accompanied him in Germany: 13 Ministers and more than 300 managers. The Germans, in turn, rolled out the red carpet for the man who has promised to bail them out of a financial catastrophe.

Yet, not all is fine. Germany is still uneasy about China's human rights record, regarding which the latter has made clear it will not tolerate foreign bullying or 'lectures.' It is also particularly displeased with Beijing's low-cost loans to Chinese firms competing for contracts in eastern Europe, while the Chinese approach towards intellectual property rights also make the Germans uncomfortable, especially as they look to trade in high-technology products. However, seeing how China has 'forgiven' German Chancellor Angela Merkel for meeting the Dalai Lama in 2007, it is unlikely that the world's two largest exporters will let such 'value-based' issues jeopardise their economic interests. That's the way it should be. ***************************************

 

 

THE PIONEER

COLUMN

CHINA'S BOON, INDIA'S BANE

GAUTAM MUKHERJEE

As a nation we are driven by the urge to save and invest in gold and silver, while skimping on infrastructure that can propel growth.

A recent issue of Time offers an interesting snippet of information: 47 per cent of Americans can't raise $2,000 in 30 days without selling an asset. I dare say most of the middle classes in India, including the lower echelons of the descriptor, can find, or borrow, one solitary lakh of rupees in one month without liquidating any asset.

Of course, our poor, some 500 million Indians, and almost the same percentage of our 1.25 billion population, can't think of raising that kind of money. However, the comparison is between the richest country in the world, which is going through a rough economic patch, and the country with the second fastest growing economy which is going through political turbulence and governance deficit.

But then America is largely made up of wage-earners. These range from the mind-boggling compensation of the business leaders to the millions of Americans living on weekly pay-slips. This is because some three per cent of the US's population actually owns everything there and has a predominant say in most areas of American influence across the world. Capitalism has its advantages, but they are rarely spread evenly.

Another major difference between the US and India is the sheer extent of national debt.

India, with an economy hovering short of $2 trillion, has a large current account deficit, but in percentage terms, it is still in single digit. India also has a sizeable chunk of national debt, measured against GDP, and in percentage terms this is definitely in double digits. Our off-book liabilities, such as those of various poorly-run State power corporations, ad hoc 'non-Plan' expenditure and the like, are considerable. We probably owe at least one-third to two-fifths of our GDP when all of it is accurately admitted to.

This could have been higher, but partly because of our infrastructure bottlenecks in power, roads, trains, ports, airports, automation, health, education, methodology, etc, they collectively act to dampen confidence in our economy and slow it down. We are growing at anywhere between seven to nine percent per annum nevertheless.

In comparison, America, the world's sole superpower, is hardly growing now but continues to borrow in many multiples, not percentages, of its $13 trillion to $15 trillion economy. The US's national debt is reported at 64 per cent of its GDP, but add in all the off-balance sheet liabilities and it is more like 500 per cent, according to Fortune.

Mr Bob Rodriguez, the CEO of a $16 billion money management firm, First Pacific Advisors, thinks there will be a debt crisis in the American economy within two to five years and that it will shake the global financial systems much harder than the financial crisis of 2008. Mr Rodriguez expects US Government borrowing to hit a wall of international under-confidence, sending global interest costs spiralling out of control.

America is the greatest debtor in the world and China, alongside most of the other leading countries, including India, is its greatest lender. And the US dollar is the main currency of global trade. So, if America goes through a debt burden crisis, it will be many magnitudes bigger than the 2008 financial crisis. It will have a horrific domino effect and hit most national economies.

To prevent that from happening, Mr Rodriguez says, the US should consider fiscal belt-tightening now, not more and more borrow-and-spend policies to promote growth. However, many do not agree with Mr Rodriguez's prescription, citing the Great Depression of the 1930s when precisely this was done.

India, on the other hand, goes too much the opposite way, ever ready to strangulate growth by citing inflation but never really looking for efficiencies and modernisation as substitute strategies. We end up being feted by the World Bank, the IMF and the WEF by default. But it is interesting to note that no other country wants to follow the Indian way, lacking perhaps our sizeable domestic demand.

That we routinely sacrifice our destiny on the altar of fiscal prudence is cold comfort to those of us who want this country to first, for once, achieve its true potential, because that could heave us into a different shore and paradigm going forward.

Slowdowns hit the poorest hardest and this is as true of people as of nations. But a recent book by management guru Upendra Kachru, India: Land of a billion entrepreneurs, meditates entertainingly on how we have the largest number of shops and mobile hawkers, in urban and rural India alike, relative to our population, in the world. He writes, "The way entrepreneurs operate, whether their strategy is attack or defence, differentiates them." Indian fiscal policy, on the whole, is defensive.

This prudent stance may well be built into the national DNA. Traditional Indian business always emphasises the balancing of the daily cash books with a bias towards income over expenditure. Our middle classes can come up with a lakh of rupees because they have salted it away in public sector banks and post office PPF accounts or invested it in life insurance policies and even in the relatively new-fangled mutual funds with open plan formats.

Welfarism, including the NAC variety, is largely, if not wholly, directed at the poor and the destitute, even as it infamously enriches the gravy train. Perhaps the Americans, long used to being on top, are habituated to spending every cent they have, something we cannot afford to do in any event. There will be no bailouts for us because we at least have food on the table and a roof above our heads.

When the middle classes in India have no money to fall back upon, given the less than dire nature of our needs, they are on their own. The poor are much worse off, yet we have over 25 lakh better off farmers committing suicide.

Perhaps this lack of bold carpe diem is a civilisational deficit in a nation that boasts of traditions that go back more than 5,000 years. Preferring to always err on the side of caution, we don't seem to have the guts to realise our full potential, not only just now, but at any time during our long story of survival.

This virtue of making sure we have a financial cushion is partly due to our innate conservatism, our trust in gold and silver over currency, and the saving habit that has only strengthened with greater prosperity after 20 years of the reforms process. The savings rate has actually gone up by over 10 per cent to about 32 per cent of household earnings instead of the other way around.

Another country that saves like us is China. The Chinese have also been around for centuries and gone through many ups, like today, and downs too. But just because they save the Chinese don't skimp on infrastructure, national security or growth like we Indians do.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

CHANGING POWER EQUATION

ASHLEY J TELLIS

The peculiar marriage of convenience, where America was minimally appeased as long as the Generals were well compensated and their interests protected, was torn asunder by the events of May 2. But what escalated the crisis in US-Pakistan relations since that day was something unanticipated: The Army's plummeting credibility in the eyes of Pakistan's populace

The daring raid that killed Osama bin Laden marked a turning point not only in US-Pakistan ties but also in power relations within Pakistan. Most observers have focussed on the first, but have failed to understand how worsening civil-military relations in Pakistan have contributed to the recent meltdown between Washington and Islamabad.

US President Barack Obama's decision to launch 'Operation Neptune Spear' without informing Pakistan exploded the myth of the US-Pakistani 'strategic partnership'. The discovery of Osama bin Laden close to the Pakistani Military Academy in Abbottabad — almost certainly protected by elements of its 'deep state' — marked Pakistan as a 'frenemy' rather than the 'ally' it regularly claimed to be.

The consequent upsurge in American resentment, in turn, reinforced the Pakistani military view of Washington as a formidable but fickle friend. This peculiar marriage of convenience, where America was minimally appeased as long as the Generals were well compensated and their interests protected, was torn asunder by the events of May 2, 2011. But what escalated the crisis in US-Pakistan relations since that day was something unanticipated: The Army's plummeting credibility in the eyes of its own populace.

The shock that the US could discover Osama bin Laden from thousands of miles away in a cantonment town, when he was overlooked by the military and its powerful intelligence services, confronted the Pakistani public with one of two possibilities: Either their Army was malicious, harbouring an enemy whose allies were ravaging Pakistan every day, or it was incompetent, incapable of discharging its principal task of protecting the nation.

In either case, the Osama bin Laden affair raised the fundamental question of why such a military was offered preferential access to the public trough given its debilitating failures. The ease with which homegrown insurgents were able to attack a major Pakistani naval base, even as the intelligence services, for all their fecklessness, were widely suspected of torturing and killing a prominent Pakistani journalist who had uncovered connections between the deep state and extremists, filled the Pakistani populace with dismay and revulsion.

Not since the disastrous Kargil war of 1999 has the Army's reputation fallen so low. In a praetorian state, a loss of credibility is a threat to survival and, hence, the Pakistani Army struck back resolutely and early.

In the immediate aftermath of the Osama bin Laden raid, it looked like Pakistan might have finally seized a moment for introspection. In his phone conversation with Mr Obama, Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari struck exactly the right note, recognising correctly that Osama bin Laden's death was a victory for both the US and Pakistan. Given the disasters Islamist radicals have wreaked in Pakistan, his elimination — however achieved — was welcome news and the main task for both countries was to resolutely pursue the anti-terrorism campaign because, as Mr Zardari later put it, "the forces of modernity and moderation remain under serious threat".

Unfortunately for Mr Zardari, Rawalpindi — the headquarters of the Pakistani military — did not get the memo. Within days of his conversation with Mr Obama, the Army began hounding the civilian Government for betraying the national interest by weakly opposing American military action after first having liberally issued visas to US operatives that allegedly made the intrusion both inevitable and easy.

Before long, Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would be threatening the US with a military response in the event of another similar operation, while defending the honour of the military and the intelligence services. Far from exploiting the opening created by Osama bin Laden's death for reflection on Pakistan's continued dalliance with jihadism, the official debate pressed by the Army now centered on Pakistani sovereignty and the contempt conveyed by the US in breaching it.

Except for small bastions of Pakistani liberalism, which persisted in asking the hard questions about the Army's involvement in Osama bin Laden's sanctuary and what that meant for Pakistan's future, the deep state successfully kept up the diversionary drumbeat about bruised sovereignty — a particularly ironic focus given that the purported ignorance about Osama bin Laden's presence illuminated Pakistan's empty sovereignty even more than the ensuing American raid.

A strong civilian Government might have used this moment to demand the resignation of the Pakistani Chief of Army Staff and the Director-General of the ISI, holding them accountable for their failures. In Pakistan, however, the opposite happened: In a particularly galling moment, some civilian politicians close to the Army actually called on Mr Zardari and Mr Gilani to resign on the grounds that the Osama bin Laden episode demonstrated that their management of national security — on which they exercise no oversight, let alone control — was found wanting!

Operation Neptune Spear has thus proved to be a turning point — but not in the manner expected, at least concerning Pakistan. Far from strengthening civilian authority, the Army's embarrassment has provided new opportunities to decisively undermine counter-terrorism cooperation with the US and further weaken the civilian regime — even as the Pakistani military sold fantastic stories about the Army chief's struggle to keep his job because of 'excessive' cooperation with the US.

While recent Pakistani actions, such as the arrest of US informants who supported the Osama bin Laden mission, the compromise of operations targeting facilities that produce improvised explosive devices, the reduction of Special Forces components training the Pakistani Frontier Corps, the sharply increased constraints on clandestine American counter-terrorism operations inside Pakistan, the demanded diminution in the size and the status of the US military assistance mission in Islamabad and the continued support of jihadi groups that continue to target US troops in Afghanistan, remain disconcerting, the US will find ways to circumvent these problems, albeit at greater cost and with greater risks.

More significant, however, is the damaging enervation of Pakistan's already frail civilian authority. While continuing American appeasement of its Generals has contributed mightily to this outcome, the demise of the civilian Government on issues of national security will not only undermine Mr Zardari's bold assurance that "the war on terrorism is as much Pakistan's war as it is America's," but it will also subvert Pakistan's stability by further strengthening the power of the very military that has taken the country to perdition repeatedly since its formation.

-The writer is Senior Associate, South Asia Programme, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

INDIAN COMPANIES INVEST ABROAD

SHIVAJI SARKAR

There is a growing realisation that the future growth of Indian companies will be influenced by the share that they can garner in the world market. They are acquiring overseas assets to establish overseas presence and to upgrade their competitive strength in overseas markets

Sometime back, the investment by Indian companies abroad was looked at as a positive sign. Now it is being sensed as concern of the Indian companies about safety of their investments in the country. So it won't be wrong to say that they are possibly looking for a safer destination.

A recent survey carried out by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch showed that India is among the least favoured investment destinations at minus 20 per cent, the lowest in the last six months. The survey also noted that among the Asia-Pacific investors, India has a minus 13 per cent preference, worse than Korea at minus eight per cent.

The FIIs have for the first time in nine months reduced their total stake in top Indian companies. The survey finds that the FIIs now put less weight on India. They are reportedly shaken by the series of arrests of high-profile corporate people and politicians found involved in a number of scams.

On the macro-economic front, for months the rate of inflation has been hovering around the double-digit mark. In addition, RBI's raising interest rates for the tenth time since March 2010 is also proving a dampener as it results in increasing the cost of investment. The growth has also plunged from 9.4 per cent in March 2009 to 7.8 per cent in March 2011.

Over the last few years, the growing ambitions of Indian firms — both big and small — have added a new dimension to the Indian economy. This has been made possible through a reverse flow of resources as outward FDI from companies in India looking to become global players. With the result some ambitious and daring steps were taken by the Indian Inc lately. Hindalco-Novelis, Tata Steel-Corus, Tata-Jaguar, Suzlon-REpower, Wipro-Infocrossing, United Spirits-Whyte & Mackay are some of the major acquisitions by the Indian corporate abroad.

As per the RBI's data for the year 2007-08, the total outward investment from India, excluding that made by individuals and banks, rose 29.6 per cent to $17.4 billion, largely due to acquisitions. A large part of this was through the equity route. If we consider a sectoral spread of India's investments abroad, manufacturing topped the charts followed by the non-financial service sector.

Earlier, there was an accent on inward flows — FDI, portfolio investments, joint ventures and collaborations to tap the growing Indian market, and also technology transfers for enhancing competitiveness of Indian firms. Exports were predominantly the main door to step out towards globalisation. Now, the scenario is changing.

There is a growing realisation that the future growth of Indian companies will be influenced by the share that they can garner in the world market by acquiring overseas assets, including intangibles like brands and goodwill, to establish overseas presence and to upgrade their competitive strength in the overseas markets.

Though it looks as a spread of Indian corporate, it is now being read as their inherent fear that possibly everything is not fine within the shores of the country. Still nobody has said that it was reflection of their receding confidence but it is gradually being interpreted like that.

The direction of investment proposals reveals that the US, Singapore, Netherlands, European Union, Mauritius and Britain together accounted for more than 60 per cent of proposed outward investment from India. Some other destinations are Singapore, Korea, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Fiji and Cambodia.

The process started in 2005-06 with $2.7 billion investment largely in the manufacturing sector.

The FII shareholding pattern in Indian companies point to a decline in interest in Indian stocks. It is stated to be a major reason for the continuous fall in Bombay stock sensex. The ICICI Securities recently analysed the pattern for BSE 500 companies. It indicated a gradual decline in FII interest in Indian companies. Between March 2009 and December 2010, FII holding had increased in these top 500 companies from nine per cent to 13.1 per cent.

But in March 2011 it dipped to 12.6 per cent. The FII data shows a net outflow of Rs 13,253 crore (about $3 billion). During the last one-and-a-half month alone it declined by Rs 5,300 crore.

The trend is continuing. The Indian companies are continuing their search for greener pastures. Africa has emerged as one of the major destinations. In the last five years scores of Indian companies have bought or invested about $16 billion in a range of businesses in Africa. Among them is Bharti Telecommunications whose $9 billion deal to acquire mobile phone operations in 15 African countries is the biggest investment by an Indian company.

The fear among fund managers, according to Mr G Banga, CEO of Indiabulls Financial Services, is that India may lose its premium over emerging markets if the Government does not make progress in infrastructure and invest efforts to control scandals.

 

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THE PIONEER

OPED

NEW STRATEGIC REALITIES EMERGING IN ASIA

THE NEW STRATEGIC ORIENTATION OF THE US IN AFGHANISTAN LEAVES INDIA AND PAKISTAN TO FIGHT THEIR OWN BATTLES. PAKISTAN WANTS 'STRATEGIC DEPTH' WHILE INDIA CLAIM ITS STAKE, WRITES CP BHAMBHRI

President Barack Obama's announcement of the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan has clearly conveyed a global message — America's self-appropriated role as the sole 'super policeman' has proved costly and extremely counter-productive because nation's economy cannot carry the burden of fighting wars to protect its so-called national interests. Though Mr Obama has observed that "the tide of war is receding" but in blunt recognition of domestic economic strains, he frankly admits that "it's time to focus on nation-building at home".

It's not just the US that feels the heat of economic downturn at home, other European members of the Nato forces are also pulling out of war in Afghanistan as European economies too confront a 'stagnation of growth'. That apart, many crisis-ridden members of the European community are engaged in 'crisis management' on the basis of short-term and long-term 'bail out programmes'. Moreover, 20 years of American global 'hegemony' has taken a heavy toll on economic and socio-political fabric of the country. This could better explain the erosion in popular support for the war-mongering activities of the US Presidents from Mr George W Bush to Mr Obama.

Notwithstanding the alarming reality, the foreign policy-makers in India reposed full faith in the capacity of our 'strategic partner' on bilateral issues related to India-Pakistan and Indian-Afghanistan. But in the process they overlook the fact that the Pakistani Army — the real centre of power in the country — considers India its enemy number one and that it has not revised its military doctrine of directing all its energy against India. It shows that India has not learnt any lessons from the past relationship with Pakistan.

Yet India and Pakistan cannot turn their faces away from the compulsions of geographically determined status. The persistent 'trust-deficit' between these two neighbouring countries is the product of Pakistan's India-focussed strategic doctrine. In this context, it seems that India-Pakistan bilateral disputes were not enough to create disturbed situation in South Asia, a difficult new chapter of Afghanistan has opened new areas of conflict between India and Pakistan.

America's long war against Al Qaeda and Taliban for the last 10 years has completely shattered every structure of the Government in Afghanistan. A defeated and humiliated America and Nato armed forces are in disarray because popular opinion in their countries suffering from the impact of severe economic crisis are retreating in haste and leaving Afghan people to their own fate. The retreating Americans recognise this fact and General David Petraeus stated, that "More needs to be done, not only against those extremist elements that are threatening the security of Pakistan but also against those that are causing problems for neighbouring countries — Afghanistan foremost among them."

The real implication of American approach towards Afghanistan problem is that the armed forces need to be withdrawn 'gradually'. But at the same time, it looks that the US is in no mood to completely vacate the space occupied by it in Afghanistan because American security policy-makers are convinced that the presence of the forces in Afghanistan is essential for safeguarding strategic interests in Central Asia, South Asia and Russia. What Mr Obama has given from left hand, he has kept his military options in his right hand and its means Nato forces are permanently going to stay in this region.

The new strategic orientation of America in Afghanistan leaves India and Pakistan to fight their own battles because Pakistan wants 'strategic depth' in Afghanistan and India has its own stakes in Afghanistan which bring it in confrontation with Pakistan.

On the other hand, Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai may be feeling happy at the turn of events. But he must not forget that other warlords, Al Qaeda and Taliban, are not interested in keeping his Government in the saddle. And the Pakistani Army, with the support of Islamic militants both in its own country and in Afghanistan, is not going to leave easily the territorial boundaries of its very precious neighbour.

American and other interested parties want India to support nation-building and infrastructural development of Afghanistan. This is a very tall agenda for India to handle such an enormous task in unsettled conditions in Afghanistan. America is handing over the burden of reconstruction of wreaked economy without the protective umbrella of Americans who have to play an active role in Pakistan. In fact, the US cannot withdraw its forces without ensuring a guaranteed role for India.

Pakistan is an active player in Afghanistan irrespective of whether or not the Americans are engaged in Pakistan or vacating the military space in the region. The central issue is that India is bound to operate in hostile territory in Afghanistan because Pakistan has always considered Afghanistan as its zone of influence. It deserves to be mentioned that Mrs Indira Gandhi, considered as friend of Soviet Union, did not agree with Brezhnev–Kosygin interventionist policy in 1979 because as the Prime Minister of India she considered Afghanistan an Indian zone of influence. And much water has flown down the Ganges from 1979 to 2011 because Americans with the full support of Pakistan have given birth to Islamic fundamentalists like Al Qaeda, Taliban and other anti-India religious fanatic forces during their post-September 11, 2011 adventure in that area.

It is no secret that Pakistani agencies like the ISI have patronised and lionised the religious fanatics and allowed the anti-terrorist forces to operate openly against America and India. The American and Pakistani and Army and the ISI do not have any control over the Islamic religious zealots and India has been left to fight its own battles on its own. This is the situation at the ground level. The option before India and Pakistan is to resolve its own dispute on the basis of the available resources.

Recently concluded Foreign Secretaries-level meeting between these two countries in Pakistan has come to recognise that it has to fight against Islamic militants and if both these countries realise that terrorism is their common enemy, new steps in positive manner can be evolved.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

 COMMENT

BREAK THE SILENCE

He's not in silent mode. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seemingly sought to convey this message by interacting with mediapersons. Such exchanges, it's said, will be the UPA's communications strategy from now on.

That's just as well. Silence at the top is rather deafening when controversies abound, be it corruption scandals, persisting inflation or the Lokpal gridlock.

This is the age of instantaneously accessed information. Leaders flout the spirit of the times if they remain behind a veil of silence and secrecy denoting distance between those governing and the governed. What's expected today of politicians is accessibility, transparency and accountability, as manifested in willingness to provide ready answers to people's questions.

It has been said that talking to the media isn't the same as talking to the people, to whom the prime minister is answerable. But democracy isn't just about poll-eve rhetoric and electoral judgment days. It's also about governance delivery between one election and another. Here, the media's a key channel via which governments reach out. Did Singh do so? Yes and no.

For starters, he said he wasn't a "lame-duck prime minister". While he welcomed Rahul Gandhi succeeding him, he suggested change of guard wasn't imminent. If that sets to rest popular misgivings, is the Congress itself convinced? To link doubts about prime ministerial authority with opposition "propaganda" won't do; Singh's own partymen haven't desisted from fuelling speculation on this score by their statements.

Singh did well to signal readiness to be under the Lokpal's ambit. In fighting corruption, the prime minister's office must set an example. For, like any manmade institution, it too can be vulnerable to taint. Rather than weaken the top office, scrutiny by the Lokpal - itself subject to checks and balances - will make it stronger, more upright and accountable. But Singh's clearly enunciated stand has a caveat.

All decisions will taken be by "consensus". With deep cleavages on the issue between government and civil society and between political parties, a marriage of minds is unlikely. Will the Lokpal become a casualty of the quest for an elusive consensus?

Singh justifiably says combating black money, tax evasion and corruption isn't a one-time operation. But surely more urgency is needed to push technology-aided transparency in government dealings and systemic and regulatory reform, including by curbing discretionary powers and exposing sources of political funding.

The prime minister may have used the opportunity better to dispel anxieties about the economy. Regarding inflation, why the inaction on farm sector reform? And why the moratorium on reforms in general, given the fears of a renewed slowdown? Nor was he too forthcoming on the expected cabinet reshuffle. Given the UPA's troubles, the rejig must be more than a merry-go-round for seat-holders. Only by infusing young blood and keeping out habitual slackers can the UPA give itself the fresh impetus it so badly needs.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

 COMMENT

THAT'S A SPORT

 

In many ways the annual conference of the International Cricket Council in Hong Kong has been a significant affair. While the decisions taken at the meeting are certainly up for debate, they reflect the direction in which world cricket is heading.

Technical decisions such as introducing two new balls per innings and making elective powerplays mandatory between the 16th and 40th overs of ODIs should help bring some parity in a game loaded in favour of batsmen and make the middle-overs exciting. On the other hand, only time will tell if the decision to do away with runners is prudent.

It is positive that the ICC has endorsed the Umpire Decision Review System following a compromise with the BCCI. Notwithstanding the complications involved in implementing the system, that too minus ball-tracking technology, it is desirable for technology to be leveraged wherever possible to improve the standards of the game.

On the commercial front, the most significant decision has to be the unofficial window period for the IPL. Gaps have been left in the Future Tours Programme from 2012 to 2020 that will free up cricketers from most nations to participate in the marquee event.

Given the innovative platform IPL represents, this should encourage similar formats to come up and take cricket to uncharted territories. Equally important for the game's development is the decision to include associate nations in the 2015 World Cup, which will give minnow teams a chance to prove their mettle. On the whole, it is welcome that cricket's apex body has been responsive to the demands of commercial logic and sought to innovate with an eye to the future of the game.

 

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

TOP ARTICLE

A NEED TO BE FIGHTING FIT

PRAKASH SINGHPRAKASH SINGH

 

The home minister, writing in early 2010, expressed his confidence that "if we remain steadfast in this path of carefully controlled, calibrated operations to reclaim territories that are dominated (by) Maoists, we should be able to rid ourselves of this menace in about two-three years".

The paramilitary forces were accordingly mobilised in pursuance of his plan of 'Clear, Hold and Develop', and placed at the disposal of the worst-affected states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra. The results so far, however, have been far from satisfactory.

The Maoists continue to be on a rampage. In 2010, the total casualties in Maoist-related incidents for the first time touched four figures - 1,003 killed in 2,212 incidents. It was always unlikely 2011 would see a turnaround. Last month, the Maoists were again on the offensive. Seven CRPF men were killed in an explosion when the Maoists blew up a vehicle in Dantewada district, Chhattisgarh, on May 17. Four policemen were killed in two firefights in the forests of Gadchiroli district, Maharashtra, on May 19. Maoists ambushed and killed nine policemen, including an additional superintendent of police belonging to Gariyaband district of Chhattisgargh, in the Naopara area of Orissa on May 24. Seven policemen and eight SPOs were killed on June 9 in two separate incidents in Narayanpur and Dantewada districts. More attacks have taken place since, including in Dantewada and Kanker.

A number of factors have contributed to blunting the sharpness of the security forces' offensive against the Maoists. There is no clarity on the policy the government should pursue. P Chidambaram's approach was clear: he wanted to go all out against the Maoists, put them down with a heavy hand, and thereafter undertake development in the area. However, he found himself hamstrung by the Congress party's perception articulated by general secretary Digvijay Singh, who emphasised the developmental approach and expressed his opposition to the use of brute force.

Mamata Banerjee also has a different take on the Maoists. At a rally in Lalgarh on August 9, 2010, she was reported to have referred to them sympathetically. In Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar has been repeatedly saying that the Maoists could not be countered by force and that all-round development and welfare measures alone would bring them back to the mainstream. Nonetheless, the government claimed on October 7 last year that the security forces had regained control over 10,000 sq km of area dominated by the Maoists in Naxalite-affected states.

The stalemate in anti-Maoist operations can also be attributed to internal wrangling within the Congress. There is speculation that a powerful section within the ruling party does not want Chidambaram to be very successful as home minister because of suspicions of his prime ministerial ambitions. They want him to go thus far and no further. Unfortunately, Rahul Gandhi's rise to the top post seems more important for some ruling party members than success in anti-Maoist operations.

On his part, the problem with the home minister is that he does not appear amenable to advice, not even from experts or officers who spent the better part of their lives fighting insurgents and terrorists of different hues in the troubled theatres of the country. Seemingly, he has yet to understand that being an astute politician and an able general are two different things, and he cannot combine both roles. His selection of officers for top positions leaves much to be desired. Two paramilitary chiefs chosen by him proved a disaster. Besides, the home ministry appears to have no strategic plan. Nor is there monitoring of results achieved by the security forces.

Paramilitary commanders, on their part, are content as long as their troops do not suffer casualties. There are hardly any aggressive operations. The one honourable exception now is the current CRPF director general, who has been camping in the most interior areas and trying to motivate his men. But, unfortunately, his force requires restructuring and overhaul. Some police chiefs in affected states have also cut sorry figures. There are officers who do not visit the hot spots and prefer to issue directions from the safety of state capitals. The bureaucracy has not shown much commitment, and many of its minions have in fact developed a vested interest in continued insurgency because that ensures liberal grants from the Centre.

Political leadership in most of the states is either non-serious or indifferent to the Maoist problem or making hay while the sun shines. Raman Singh is the only chief minister taking the Maoists head-on. But he appears too much of a gentleman to wield the whip, which is what is needed today to galvanise the administration.

The future is a big question mark. Much will depend on the faithful implementation of the government's flagship schemes. The government recently announced a Rs 3,300 crore Integrated Action Plan for 60 Naxalite-affected districts across nine states to ensure overall development of these areas - setting up schools, health facilities, roads and access to safe drinking water, etc. The government's sincerity in wanting to develop Naxalite-hit areas cannot be questioned. But the fact remains that, partly because of lack of commitment and partly because of rampant corruption, the fruits of development are not reaching the intended beneficiaries. The government must understand that corruption and a successful campaign against the Maoists cannot go together.

The writer is a retired police chief.

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 THE TIMES OF INDIA

TIMES VIEW

BONDING WITH THE BEST

 

Actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley isn't content with her much-publicised debut film, Transformers. She's now eyeing one of the most glamorous roles actresses can aspire to. She wants to be a "Bond Girl". This is entirely understandable.

Those who'd accuse her of not setting her sights 'higher' possibly base their judgment on the stereotypical notion of Bond girls as being no more than arm candy, an ornamental foil to James Bond, the famous spy. Bond girls, they think, denote superficial, commodified women who pander to men. Such views are not just misplaced, but are marked by a crushing lack of humour or sense of fun.

Yes, Bond girls celebrate glamour and femininity. What's wrong with that? Why, they also display wit and intelligence, apart from giving Bond a hard punch or two in fight sequences. Nor are they sexualised caricatures any longer. Today's Bond girls epitomise both the beauty and strength of womanhood. They portray well-rounded, psychologically complex and realistic characters conveying a range of emotions.

Take actress Sophie Marceau in the film, The World Is Not Enough, or Eva Green's character in Casino Royale. Nor is sensuality highlighted at the expense of all other facets of womanhood. The Bond flick Quantum of Solace didn't even have the female lead romantically involved with Bond, as is the tradition. Rather, she helps him in his mission as an equal! Bond movies today include diverse roles for women. Don't forget his middle-aged boss, played impeccably by Judi Dench.

There's another reason actresses want to partner Bond. Diana Rigg, Michelle Yeoh and Halle Berry may have been stars before they became part of the Bond story. But other relative newcomers saw fame only afterwards. Playing the part is seen as a good career move. Bond being a highly successful movie franchise, Bond girls want instant celebrity - and get it too.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

                                                                                                                                COUNTERVIEW

WOMEN CAN DO BETTER

AJAY VAISHNAVAJAY VAISHNAV

 

If Rosie Huntington-Whiteley expects that landing the role of a Bond girl will lead her to bigger and better roles, she should take a cue from the careers of legions of actresses who've sold themselves short by playing 'It' girls, and so failed to break into the big league.

In fact, they ultimately faded into oblivion. While scouting around for roles is justifiable for Hollywood beginners, Whiteley would do well to adopt a guarded strategy. More so, when it comes to roles like that of a Bond girl who's essentially a showpiece. It's Bond who hogs all the limelight.

Starring as a Bond girl may give the initial kick of a high-flying career riding on the back of a movie series known for churning out blockbusters. But what happens after that? The answer to that lies in journalist Jeremy Clarkson's words: "Bond girls are like fruit flies. They come...And then they are gone." Even a cursory glance at the trajectories of many a Bond heroine shows that despite the initial hype and attention surrounding them during the making of the movies, they eventually vanished into obscurity.

Playing a Bond girl is hardly a mark of achievement for an actress given that Bond films are known for their sexist portrayals of women.

Even if today's Bond girls share more screen space and time with Bond, that's still the case. Surely there's a reason why we can't imagine accomplished and award-winning actresses like Julia Roberts or Meryl Streep ever playing a Bond girl.

Angelina Jolie, on her part, ensured she starred as a Bond-like spy herself in the film, Salt. She was the main protagonist, not a sidekick. Instead of eyeing superficial roles that don't give women their due, Whiteley should aim for more meaningful parts that'll give a definite direction to her acting career.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

                                                                                                                                                                                                                ERRATICA

AIR APPARENT

BACHI KARKARIABACHI KARKARIA

 

However much you have savoured the organised delights of the West, you begin to yearn for the chaos of home. You don't even have to wait till you land back; the disorderliness begins on the last leg of your return journey itself. Regardless of the airport of your transit, there are Seven Signals which tell you for certain that there's a flight about to take off for India.

In the past fortnight, it had been as wonderful discovering Seattle for the first time as exploring London for the umpteenth. The city of organic chic turned out to be much more than Bill Gates and Amazon. Apart from soaking in the touristy charm of Pike Place Market or the sun-dappled bay of Puget Sound with its surreal flank of snow-covered mountains, i had been flung into a wild 'bachelorette party' as soon as i landed - and i had participated in something as far removed as the Pacific Health Summit.

Now i was ready to return home, and put my Seven Signal theory to the test again. My flight to Mumbai via Heathrow displayed the whole set. Here they are.

One, after Security, there will be desperate announcements featuring truant Indian passengers. We have the disconcerting habit of disappearing into the maw of Duty Free instead of reporting at our designated gate.

Two, the transit train taking you to your gate resembles a Mumbai local. The same people have behaved quite correctly on the London Underground, but the old habit kicks in within sniffing distance of home. There's the same milling and jostling on the 'platform', the same elbowing to get inside. No one moves considerately to the back of the coach.

Three, again in contrast to the orderly way we have lined up for museum entry or theatre loos during our trip, all semblance of a queue disintegrates at the departure gate. The ground stewardess may put on her strictest schoolmarm voice, but 'tis in vain. Everyone has become deaf to the instruction to 'board only if you are in rows 44 to 30'.

Four, carry-on bags rival checked-in luggage. So, once on board, you will witness a Herculean struggle to squeeze strolleys and stuffed plastic bags into the overhead bins in disbelieving defiance of the laws of mass, volume and space.

Five, throughout the flight, babies will bawl their heads off at a decibel level only Indian infants are genetically programmed to achieve.

Six, there will always be water on the plane's bathroom floor. 'Ablutions' have to be carried out, no?

Seven, on landing, several announcements will be made in ascending order of sternness ordering passengers 'Not to stand up but to remain seated with seat belts securely fastened and not switch on mobile phones because the plane still hasn't reached its parking bay'.

There is also an eighth signal, but this one is in our own terminal building. Airports have become swankier; immigration is quicker, Customs is a breeze (unless you are a Bollywood star); there's even toilet paper in the bathrooms. But baggage reclaim remains unredeemed.

Nowhere else in the world is there the same crowding as papa, mummy, Bunty, Pinky, whole tour-party jam their legs against the carousel yielding not an inch to those jumping up and down behind them. Nowhere else is there the same tangle of trolleys, the same frantic pulling off of bags not one's own, the same desperate scanning of the horizon as the belt trundles on and periodically sighs to a halt as if it were the cycle of life and death itself. Welcome home.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

OUR TAKE

DON'T SLIP ON THE OIL SLICK

Last week's hike in fuel prices and the ensuing flurry of tax cuts by states in an attempt to ease the pain is a reminder to the government that it shouldn't be subsidising energy use. And if it must, there are better ways of going about it. Trying to put a lid on oil prices is an expensive endeavour for a nation that imports two out of every three barrels it burns. When, as is inevitable, rising prices of crude oil need to be passed on to the "protected" Indian customer, it comes as a shock because incremental changes bunch up over the time the government has been trying to cushion the blow. This jolt can be avoided if transport and cooking fuel prices are freed from bureaucratic control. Then again there is a fundamental argument against price controls: these lull us into a false sense of security and we end up burning fuel faster than we can afford to.

Yet if cheap energy remains critical to Indian policy- making, we ought to be asking ourselves whether price controls serve the purpose. Artificially low diesel prices benefit the bloke riding a bus to work as well the guy driving his own car. Do we need to subsidise both? The free rider problem — as economists describe it — is inherent to any imposed ceiling, or floor, for market prices. It makes eminently more sense to free fuel prices and  pay the bus rider cash if his ticket costs too much. As a country with an intimate relationship with subsidies, India needs to target them better. Cash handouts to select households will go much further than the jungle of price controls we have erected in vast swathes of the economy, arresting the invisible hand in markets as diverse as food and fuel.

The flip side of economy-wide subsidies are high taxes. Fuel is a good example. Taxes on a litre of diesel in India are much higher than the subsidy on it. In effect, the subsidy lowers the tax rate on diesel. It would be simpler, then, to lower the tax and dispense with the subsidy. The relentless rise in the price of oil is perversely steering our policy-makers to this realisation. For one, the government gets to test its ability to withstand international market forces. And it also realises the limits to lazy taxation. Dear energy in India traces its roots to high taxes as much as it does to the underlying price of crude oil. The government can fix the former instead of engaging in a futile battle with the latter. It's time the penny dropped.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

A BORDERLINE CASE

As with most things Pakistani, even a possible war with India has a schizophrenic quality to it. We heaved a sigh of relief when disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan spoke of how the two countries would never go to war thanks to the nuclear bombs he helped make and India's capability on that front. Before you rush to the Wagah border for a thanksgiving candlelight vigil, let us inform you that war is not very far from the mind of the Pakistani establishment, the only problem being that it does not think it can win it. But, say the dear souls, the two could be in the trenches for at least 20 days before the Pakistanis would have to call it quits while the Indian lads could last about 45 days. Oh, now we get it, they are thinking of a conventional war.

What a letdown for the nuclear hawks on both sides whose eyes glow in the dark at the prospect of a little radioactivity. Even the no-first-use clause does little to deter them, confident as they are in the devastating efficacy of a second strike. If the lily-livered among you are going to start yammering on about the millions who may lose their lives, rest assured, say our experts, there are many more millions to go around. But we have a better idea on how we can settle things without having to get down and dirty.

We could start by sending across the most annoying people on both sides to each other. Thus, we could perhaps learn to count our own blessings. They could send us Asif Zardari for a chat on corruption with Anna Hazare. And we could send Baba Ramdev to Rawalpindi or Karachi where he could hold his breath until the Lashkar-e-Taiba agrees to declare its assets, material and otherwise. If all this doesn't put us off from trying to conquer each other's territory, nothing will. But given the choice between a nuclear war and the normal sort, we vote for a little dust-up any day.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

SOME TOUGH TALKING

Oh, you may sit down.

But prime minister, you're the prime minister!

Oh, that's all right. Why such formalities? Come on, ask me questions.

Sir, you think corruption is bad for the country?

I certainly do!

Mr Prime Minister, many bad people trying to destabilise the country are suggesting you are a lameduck PM. Do you have any opinion on this?

Personally speaking, I am not a lameduck PM.

Would you consider the PM coming under the purview of the lokpal?

Personally speaking, I have no hesitation in bringing myself under the purview of lokpal but many of my Cabinet colleagues feel that bringing the institution of PM under it will create instability.

And you are not in favour of instability, are you?

No, I dislike instability.

Do you think Rahul Gandhi is ready to be PM?

Publicly speaking, he can be PM any damn time he wants to! Sorry, I get angry and agitated because I'm my own man and not a lameduck PM.

And privately, sir?

How dare you ask me about my private life! You media have become accuser, prosecutor and judge!

But sir, we love you! [PM is whisked away and editors are left to field questions from TV reporters]

Do say: Did you see us on TV talk to the media about our intense grilling of the PM?

Don't say: Lameduck.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

UP THE GARDEN PATH

KAPIL SIBAL

The jurisdiction of the Jan Lokpal Bill is all-pervasive. It covers all public servants including members of the higher judiciary. This has far-reaching consequences. Some eminent jurists believe it might fall foul of the basic structure of the Constitution. The autonomy and independence of the judiciary is protected under the Constitution, which allows a member of the higher judiciary to be removed only through a cumbersome impeachment process. The intent was to ensure that justice is administered without fear or favour. What we need is a robust Judicial Accountability Bill.

The Jan Lokpal Bill provides an alternative wherein 11 unelected wise men will have the sole authority to prosecute a member of the higher judiciary. The consequences are worse when you consider that the Jan Lokpal Bill will have independent investigating and prosecuting agencies. No judge will ever dare to differ with the views of a prosecutor of the lokpal since he might face prosecution himself if his orders are misunderstood.

One of the litigants to a dispute is always unhappy with the outcome of a court proceeding. Presently, unhappy litigants are willing to face the wrath of the court by hurling unsubstantiated allegations against judges. With the jan lokpal in place, these allegations will be made daily, threatening the autonomy of the judicial process and vitiating the course of justice.

The second concern is that the jan lokpal seeks to arrogate to itself the power to discipline government servants. This would require a constitutional amendment. At present, the tenure of a government servant is protected by the procedural requirements embedded in Article 311 of the Constitution. Besides, the quantum of punishment is required to be determined by the Union Public Service Commission on a reference made to it under Article 320 (3)(c) of the Constitution. In the event of such an amendment, the jan lokpal will have the authority to discipline all employees of the central government. This is a directional shift from the existing constitutional structure and interferes directly in matters of maladministration.

Such a step will paralyse government functioning. Government servants will be fearful of possible disciplinary proceedings, loath to obey the officers and lodge complaints against each other to settle personal grievances. Decision-making will become a casualty. Those far removed from administration are providing solutions, which are both utopian and impractical. The jan lokpal also wishes to bring the office of the PM under its jurisdiction. In a democracy, all public servants are accountable. No one can object in principle to such a proposition. The issue is whether the jan lokpal should be given that authority? One jurist (Rajinder Sachar, Scared of the spark, June 24) has pointed out that experience does not show that all our PMs have been angels. That holds true of our judges as well. The future is likely to prove that members of the jan lokpal are not angels either. Independence does not make functionaries angelic.

None of us is being more loyal than the king when we seek to protect, not the individual, but the office of the PM. Given the nature of our polity, quick-fire unsubstantiated allegations made for political mileage are likely to paralyse institutions. The office of the PM is the lynchpin of our parliamentary democracy. An independent, non-angelic jan lokpal could well destabilise the entire system and investigate a PM only to find out that the allegations were not true. Under the present system, the PM is not immune from prosecution. In a given case, when facts are in the public domain, the system will not allow a corrupt PM to continue in office. The reference to Jacques Chirac by an eminent jurist is inapt because his prosecution started several years after demitting office, since the French president is immune from prosecution while in office. Besides, the prosecution relates to a time when he was the mayor of Paris (1977-1995). The reference to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is equally inappropriate. Given an unstable neighbourhood and the threat of terrorism, weakening the institution of the PM would be a monumental folly.

Yet another concern is the attempt by the jan lokpal to prosecute members of Parliament, who are protected under Article 105(2) of the Constitution only for speeches made, and the right to vote exercised, in the House. These are two precious rights. To allow them to be the subject of investigation would encourage members of an intensely polarised polity to question every speech made and every vote cast. Such a power vested in the lokpal would again require an amendment to the Constitution.  The remedy lies with the ethics committees of Parliament to be far more vigilant and unrelenting in dealing with members against whom there is prima facie proof of corrupt practices and for the Speaker to sanction persecution. Other controversial provisions of the Jan Lokpal Bill include transferring the chief vigilance commissioner and the anti-corruption wing of the Central Bureau of Investigation to the jan lokpal; the lokpal under Section 5 of the Indian Telegraph Act becoming an authority, authorised to interfere and monitor messages, voice and data transmitted through telephone, internet or any other media without reference to existing legal procedures; having the authority to bind the finance minister to its budgetary demands; issuing directions in public interest during the course of an investigation for taking action as recommended by the jan lokpal; impose fine up to five times the loss caused to the public on business entities who may be beneficiaries of corrupt acts, and having it recovered from the assets of the business entity as well as personal assets of its managing director and others.

Anna Hazare, the Pied Piper, has enchanted people with his melody. But neither he nor those who follow him are aware that the journey ahead might threaten the republic.

Kapil Sibal is a union cabinet minister and a member of the joint drafting committee of the lokpal bill The views expressed by the author are personal.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

MAKING AN ASS'S MILK OF US

V GANGADHAR,

Queen Cleopatra of Egypt boasted of a wonderful complexion that was maintained by bathing in ass's milk. Did her complexion glow? Did the queen's palace have a stable of asses? How much milk would be needed for the daily ritual? Did Julius Caesar and Mark Antony have problems putting up with the smell of ass's milk or did the queen use special cosmetics?

During Cleopatra's time, bathing in ass's milk was fine. But 2,000 years later comes the news that donkey's milk helps you to stay in shape. The momentous discovery — that regular consumption of donkey's milk keeps waistlines slim — was recently made  in Rome. Rich in omega-3 and calcium, the milk was found to be better for the heart and kept energy levels high.

Mind you, Italian scientists worked hard on this discovery. Dozens of rats were fed on cow's and donkey's milk. The first made the rats put on weight and sluggish while those given donkey's milk were trim and active. The latter had lower levels of blood and other fats that damaged the arteries and the heart. Earlier, research had proved that ass's milk helped in curing allergies.

In India, where people are increasingly watching their weight, ass's milk could become the rage. Till now, Indians have nurtured a healthy contempt for the donkey. This will disappear when fashion mags and fitness experts advocate its virtues. Imagine the boost to donkey's milk if it was known that Aishwarya Rai consumed it during and after pregnancy and that 'Jalsa', the Bachchan household, had a separate stable for the animals.

We keep hearing strange anecdotes about fitness foods. Recently, a South Korean footballer ket it be known that the concoction prescribed by his grandfather to stay fit was frog juice. He admitted that frog juice tasted lousy but couldn't deny that his fitness levels had reached new heights.

Travelling in rural Rajasthan long ago, I once sampled tea flavoured with camel's milk. The milk was thick and a few drops were enough for a cup of tea. But the flavour  was strong enough to put people off. While travelling to Shimla and Kufri with my family, we were served a yellowish, gooey substance that was butter made from yak milk. Earlier, my two kids had enjoyed their ride on the yak. But despite the best intentions, they did not take to yak butter.

It takes all things to make the world. And who knows, ass's milk could become part of the beauty and health regimen.

V Gangadhar is a Mumbai-based journalist. The views expressed by the author are personal.

 

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

SHUT UP, LISTEN TO ME

JASON STANLEY

Beware of the manipulation of language for political propaganda

We might wish politicians and pundits to engage in reasoned debate about the truth. But as we know, this is not the reality of political discourse.
Instead we often encounter bizarre and improbable claims about public figures.
Words are misappropriated and meanings twisted. These tactics are not really about making substantive claims, but rather play the role of silencing. They are, if you will, linguistic strategies for stealing the voices of others.

In her 1993 paper, `Speech Acts and Pornography', philosopher of language Jennifer Hornsby used an example: Suppose that men are led to believe that when women refuse a sexual advance they don't mean it. Women, then, will not be understood to be refusing, even when they are. If certain kinds of pornography lead men to think that women are not sincere when they utter the word `no', and women are aware that men think this, those kinds of pornography would rob women of the ability to refuse. Using `no' to refuse a sexual advance is what is known as a speech act -a way of doing something by using words. Hornsby and Rae Langton's work raises the possibility that a medium may undermine the ability of a person or group -in this case, women -to employ a speech act by representing that person or group as insincere in their use of it. There are multiple purposes to political speech, only one of which is to assert truths. Nevertheless, we expect a core of sincerity from our leaders, not a Muammar Qaddafi.

Silencing robs others of the ability to engage in speech acts, such as assertion.
But there is another kind of silencing familiar in the political domain. It is possible to silence people by denying them access to the vocabulary to express their claims. One of the best investigations of propaganda was presented by Victor Klemperer in his book The Language of the Third Reich. As he writes, propaganda "changes the value of words and the frequency of their occurrence... it commandeers for the party that which was previously common property and in the process steeps words and groups of words and sentence structures in its poison." Klemperer was thinking of the incessant use of the term "heroisch" ("heroic") to justify the military adventures of the National Socialist State. Obviously, the mechanism described by Klemperer is not used for such odious purposes today. Nevertheless, there has been a similar appropriation of the term "freedom" in political discourse.
Most would agree that heroism and freedom are fundamentally good things. But the terms "heroisch" and "freedom" have been appropriated for purposes that don't have much connection with the virtues of their original meanings.

Similarly, whatever one thinks of taxcuts, it is difficult to engage in reasoned debate when they have been relabeled "tax relief". It is easy to say "a tax cut is not always good policy," but considerably more difficult to say "tax relief is not always good policy".

Silencing is only one kind of propaganda. In silencing, one removes the ability of a target person or group to communicate. Given our current environment, it is worthwhile bearing in mind the dangers of the manipulation of language. What may begin as a temporary method to circumvent reasoned discussion and debate for the sake of a prized political goal may very well end up permanently undermining the trust required for its existence.

Jason Stanley is professor of philosophy at Rutgers University, USA The New York Times The views expressed by the author are personal

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

GROUND RULES

 

We don't want any more Nandigrams," said the Supreme Court, hearing the petition on the Allahabad high court's cancellation of land acquisition projects in Greater Noida, because of the complaint that this land was acquired for industrial purposes and then transferred for residential use. The court also warned the UP government that it would have to intervene if the state relied on the urgency clause to take over land, which overrides the objections of farmers who own it. "We will not keep our eyes closed. You take it [agricultural land] from one side and give it to the other... This has to go and if it does not go, this court will step in to ensure that. It is development of one section of society only," the court told UP state authorities.

But Nandigram was an entirely different issue — not one square inch of land was actually acquired. It was, instead, a shocking instance of state-backed violence from party cadre. The central failure at Nandigram was not a question of law: it was a political failure. Since then, the Trinamool Congress-led recalcitrance on land has ended up stalling a new and improved land acquisition law, and different states have been compelled to come up with their own interim solutions. The Mayawati government has largely practised a nimbler politics with land acquisition — offering greater compensation to farmers, and often outpacing her opposition. The point is that "land acquisition" is a large category that encompasses very different struggles and adjustments. Can one conflate a case of clear resistance to acquisition, as in Nandigram, with wrangles over pricing and stakes in real estate as in Noida?

Specifics are everything with land acquisition projects in various states. This is why we must be careful even in observations. Given the high esteem in which we hold the Supreme Court, there is a real danger in these obiter dicta, analogies that are not part of the judgment but yet frame it in normative terms. There are many views on what the ideal land acquisition process should look like. However, until land acquisition amendments, long-deferred by political battles, are passed by Parliament, states muddle along as best as they can. We need a clear and considered legislation to balance these complex interests, not ready comparisons.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

ROOMS AT THE TOP

 

Few people are required, in their new jobs, to hit the ground running as fast as Christine Lagarde is, the new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Many in Greece are stiff in their opposition to the conditions attached to a euro120 billion bailout set up by the European Union and the IMF. The national parliament may have voted on Wednesday to accept the terms, but Lagarde will have to handle the fallout, which will test both the strength of the euro and the IMF's nerves. She will have to do so while simultaneously assuring IMF watchers in the developing world — some countries wherein have been subject to similar requirements, of cutbacks in government spending — that there will be no separate rules for European countries, just because the IMF chief is traditionally a European.

It was hoped, following Dominique Strauss-Kahn's fall from grace, that that convention, a relic of the post-World War II international order, would be abandoned. There was some chatter that Strauss-Kahn's replacement might be from Asia, but no common candidate was found. Unusually, Lagarde's candidacy didn't go uncontested, however, with the governor of Mexico's central bank mounting a spirited challenge.

Lagarde's aggressive wooing of Asian countries in response was a nod to changing times. That acknowledgement will have to go further, and take tangible shape in Lagarde's stewardship of the Fund. It's not just a question of priorities, but of ensuring that emerging economies have a stake in the institutional order of things. One sensible way in which to do so is to consider very carefully whether the tradition that the IMF's number two be a nominee of the US Treasury Department be continued. A nod to the greater internationalisation of the international financial system is overdue.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

                                                                                                EDITORIAL

BREAKING THE SILENCE

 

The recent political past has been marked by the continued reticence of the powers-that-be in engaging with a very concerned public on matters of policy. This loss of the art of conversation, in a season of real as well as exaggerated controversies, had a serious and unfortunate consequence: it reinforced the perceived sense of drift in the government. But good politics is all about reinventing the style at short notice. It is, therefore, welcome that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has reached out to the media, meeting a group of senior editors on Wednesday. This is, reportedly, the first of many such interactions that he plans to hold at regular intervals, in which he will hopefully articulate and assert his — and his government's — views.

The PM was decisive as he said that he did indeed hope for a strong Lokpal bill, but that it would be no "panacea". No pressure group with opinions on the bill's final shape, he insisted, could have things all its own way; it's necessary to develop a national consensus on the shape of the bill, and he himself would be "guided" by the views of various political parties. He also spoke about inflation, saying frankly that he expected prices would not moderate till April next year. On the Lokpal and on inflation — two of the most charged issues in politics at the moment — these words of good sense, from the very top of the political pyramid, will count for a great deal. It's a pity, therefore, that they have not been delivered earlier, when they could have made even more of an impact.

In a mature democracy, such as India aspires to be, the head of the government needs to be willing to explain his government's actions, lay out the constraints it labours under, and spell out a vision for the future — not just occasionally, but continually and repeatedly. Dr Singh's grasp of issues, his command of their minutiae, and the credibility which he brings to policy discussions, are beyond contestation. It's good that he has shed his inexplicable reticence.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

THE REGULATORS STRIKE BACK

MK VENU

 

Regulatory institutions evolve in a capitalist system necessarily through a robust interface between the state and market forces. Twenty years of economic reforms in India have seen some fascinating see-saw battles between the state and market forces, scripting a fascinating journey for various regulatory institutions. Since regulators do not exist in a vacuum, their conduct also reflects the spirit of the times, especially the imperatives of the political economy. For instance, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) can also be broadly seen as performing a regulatory function — examining the terms on which government resources are handed over to the private sector, either through auctions or through public private partnerships.

In the past, the CAG would come out with scathing criticisms of public sector asset sales but its reports would hardly be noticed even by the media. But today every word of the CAG is lapped up by the media and opposition alike, even when the former gets into uncharted territory, advising the government on policy matters. A decade ago, when the consensus was to push economic reforms vigorously, the general discourse in policy-making circles was that public sector units must be insulated from the CAG's "petty accounting interpretations" so that they could function more autonomously in the marketplace. Today, given the combative political climate built around the issue of corruption, nobody dares to question the CAG, even when its findings are prima facie exaggerated. A decade ago, the government would have ignored the CAG and moved on. Not any more.

So are the regulators striking back? In the past, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) had to keep the powerful corporate houses and brokers of Mumbai in good humour. Otherwise, these well-connected businessmen would constantly give negative feedback about Sebi's top brass to the finance ministry. But Sebi members seem to have come into their own. Recently, one member of its board wrote to the prime minister directly requesting that anonymous complaints against Sebi from corporate houses be filtered through the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) before the finance ministry decides to send them to the market regulator for an inquiry. It would have been difficult to imagine a Sebi board member writing directly to the PM some years ago. In recent times, Sebi has also passed bold punitive orders against politically well-connected business houses, the latest one being against the Sahara Group.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI), which was a toothless body until a few years ago, is now fully empowered to consider cases of abuse of dominance by monopoly businesses. They can also examine with a fine-toothed comb mergers and acquisitions which may be detrimental to the development of the market. The CCI has come a long way in its struggle to get these powers. Around 2001-02, the top economic policy-makers firmly believed that it was too premature to have a fully empowered CCI to check the rise of monopolies, because Indian businesses were too small compared with the size of big global companies. It was then argued that keeping low import duties was enough of a check on domestic businesses trying to abuse dominance. The consumer could simply import from abroad.

However, this discourse has also changed as Indian businesses have built scale rapidly over the past decade. Besides, low import duties have not prevented an oligopoly-like situation in many sectors.

Many of these regulatory bodies had to wage intense struggles, especially in the initial years of reforms, to wrest much needed autonomy from the neta-babu complex. Experience showed the bureaucrat-politician combination would try to undermine the regulator by encouraging the public sector units to lodge complaints of favouritism to private players. This happened particularly with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) which was initially seen as forcing PSU behemoths like VSNL and MTNL to compete on a level playing field with private players. This led to ugly battles between the government and the regulators, with the entire Trai board being replaced summarily on one occasion. In due course, the government made some peace with the regulators by creating another tier of appellate authority where judicial appeals could be made against the regulator's orders. This was a successful model, and implemented with most regulators, including the CCI.

Interestingly, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) initially saw the regulatory authorities in various sectors as a threat to its own existence. But the IAS's cockroach-like survival instinct eventually converted into an opportunity the proliferation of regulatory authorities in various sectors. Today, these regulatory bodies are largely populated with the IAS lot.

The debate over the autonomy of the regulator is by no means over. Some time ago, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a provocative statement that regulators do not fall from heaven. The FM was suggesting that the regulators are no special creatures and must stay within the limits set by Parliament which returns elected representatives. Indeed, it is Parliament which enacts regulatory laws giving quasi-judicial powers to a regulator, like in the case of Sebi.

Though many regulatory institutions in India have evolved and matured over the years, they still have to deftly manage the politicians and bureaucrats who wield the power to appoint them. Yet, within these constraints, India has evolved a reasonably strong regulatory culture over the past 20 years. There are certainly many shortcomings still; the glass can be seen as half-full or half-empty. For example, on the negative side, the government has still not resolved the owner-as-regulator syndrome in some critical sectors.

Classically, the regulator should be seen as developing the larger industry or market by providing a level playing field to public and private sector players. However, in the upstream oil sector, the director-general for hydrocarbons, an important regulatory functionary, remains a part of government. This anomaly has landed the DG's office in all sorts of problems. He is seen as adopting a different standard for ONGC, a government oil company, as opposed to the private oil companies.

The owner-as-regulator also afflicts the oldest financial regulator, the Reserve Bank of India. It feels obliged to protect the public sector banks in various ways in the name of maintaining overall financial stability. PSU banks still have over 75 per cent market share in bank assets.

Clearly, Indian regulatory institutions have come a long way, but they are still a work in progress.

The writer is managing editor, 'The Financial Express'; mk.venu@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

CORE CONCERN

HARSH V. PANT

 

In an unprecedented move in 2008, the 46-nation nuclear cartel, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), granted a crucial waiver to India enabling it to carry out nuclear commerce and ended 34 years of India's isolation from the international mainstream in the wake of the 1974 nuclear tests. Describing it as a "historic deal," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called it "a recognition of India's impeccable non-proliferation credentials and its status as a state with advanced nuclear technology". The NSG exemption was a major step in the implementation of the US-India nuclear accord and since then Delhi has been working towards establishing a mutually beneficial partnership with friendly countries in an area important for both global energy security and climate change.

Last week, however, at its 2011 plenary meeting in the Netherlands, the NSG came up with new guidelines regarding tightening of exports of enrichment and reprocessing (ENR) technologies that seem to go against the spirit of its exemption to India. The transfer of ENR technologies will exclude nations that are not signatories to the NPT and do not have full-scope safeguards. Indian officials have already expressed their concerns, suggesting the new ENR rules would make the 2008 exemption to India rather meaningless.

The US State Department has tried to allay growing concerns in Delhi by suggesting that "nothing about the new ENR transfer restrictions agreed to by NSG members should be construed as detracting from the unique impact and importance of the US-India agreement or our commitment to full civil nuclear cooperation". It goes on to argue that "the NSG's NPT references, including those in the ENR guidelines, in no way detract from the exception granted to India by NSG members in 2008 and in no way reflect upon India's non-proliferation record".

But there is a growing disquiet in India. Some of it is rooted in genuine apprehensions about India's ability to take part in global nuclear commerce in future, but a lot of it is ideological. Every setback is viewed as a triumph by those who have been against the nuclear deal on ideological grounds. The CPM has accused the government of "misleading" the people and Parliament even as the anti-US lobby is back with a bang, underscoring America's perfidious behaviour in trying to scuttle Indian nuclear ambitions.

The fact remains that India enjoys a unique status in the global nuclear hierarchy and it was always going to be a difficult exercise in bringing India into the nuclear mainstream. It was the US that expended precious diplomatic capital in bringing the naysayers around when the exemption was granted in 2008.

The Obama administration's support for the new ENR guidelines stems from its ideological commitment to the extant nuclear non-proliferation regime. Successive US administrations have viewed proliferations on WMDs as the biggest threat to US and global security; but unlike its predecessor the present dispensation in Washington believes the regime framework needs to be strengthened to counter the proliferation threat.

Meanwhile, India has been signalling that it doesn't really need Washington to operationalise the nuclear deal and garner its benefits. This has been applauded by those who want a more independent (read anti-US) foreign policy. More applause followed when Parliament passed a nuclear liability law that makes it virtually impossible for US companies to operate in the Indian market. And now when the US is refusing to put its weight behind the NSG deliberations in favour of India, there is much heartburn about American duplicity.

Mired in domestic problems, the Indian government lost crucial time over the last three years when it could have settled this issue with some finality. Now, the never-ending chaos surrounding UPA 2 is raising doubts about the ability of this government to take decisive steps in the realm of foreign policy. With two non-serious governments in Delhi and Washington, is it any wonder that the gains of the landmark treaty are likely to be frittered away?

Delhi needs to engage its nuclear partners bilaterally now, seeking reassurances that they would stand by their earlier commitments. Nuclear commerce is not a one-way street. India remains a huge market and it should leverage its assets accordingly. While the new ENR guidelines are a setback, ground realities can be altered by astute diplomacy. After all, NSG guidelines are voluntary, so that its member states can have the flexibility necessary to deal with issues related to nuclear commerce. It is this flexibility that India should try to use to its advantage. Railing against American duplicity won't help, identifying challenges and using diplomatic capital to overcome them is the way forward.

The writer teaches at King's College, London, express@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

PARTY GAMESMANSHIP

SUHAS PALSHIKAR

 

Critics of India's political parties often draw attention to their utter lack of organisational mechanisms and intra-party democracy. Parties are always seen as being the monopoly of a small coterie. Indeed, political parties themselves use the same descriptions to criticise each other! In this backdrop, a re-reading of the Munde episode that recently beset the main opposition party, the BJP, could be instructive of what does not ail our political parties.

While it is easy to pour ridicule on the BJP for the plight in which it found itself, we need to realise that running and managing a national party with a mass base is a gigantic challenge. Losing a Munde may be a blow for the BJP in Maharashtra, just as losing a Jaganmohan can be a blow to the Congress in Andhra. Both the BJP and Congress chose to act tough with their dissidents.

If one does not adopt the moral high ground, and sit in judgement and decide who is right and who is wrong, here is a fascinating dilemma: if the party caves in to demands by Munde (or Jaganmohan), the leadership loses authority and the wrong message goes out to the rank and file. If, on the other hand, the party acts tough, it runs the risk of losing the dissident leader and her or his followers. Besides, to the extent politics is about symbols and tokens, such action is easily translated as injustice to a certain constituency — in Munde's case, OBCs.

Critics of India's political parties will say that this complication arises in the first place because of the absence of well-settled norms for running an organisation. In other words, the burden of the argument is often that our political parties are organisationally flawed; they do not have mechanisms for sorting out such disputes; and worse, they lack internal democracy. We should perhaps give a more careful and sympathetic attention to what goes on in our political parties.

In newly established parties, the leadership overwhelms everything. It is also possible that parties that limit themselves to specific regional terrain are more easily controlled by just one leader. It is also true that towering and authoritarian leadership does emerge from time to time in many political parties. And yet, the Munde episode is instructive to disabuse ourselves of at least some parts of the conventional argument.

That episode was caused by rivalry between Munde and the BJP's national president, Nitin Gadkari, which goes back to the state from which both of them hail — Maharashtra. Both have been trying to outwit the other by mobilising support within the party, and by managing to get their own followers appointed as key party functionaries. The same happens in the case of distribution of tickets. During most of the '90s, both were state-level players, and over time started nursing ambitions to make it big in Delhi. To any observer of Indian politics, this would be a routine matter, and described as "factionalism". While to those who never join and run political parties, factionalism is a dirty word, party politics is all about groups and factions. It is only natural that political players build their support base, then try to gain control over the party and start claiming a share in what the party can distribute. That is all competitive politics is about.

That all the details of the Munde episode spilled out into the public domain was mainly due to the intense media attention such developments attract. This is both unavoidable and somewhat welcome in an open democratic society. So, how has the BJP been handling the issue?  Nobody denied that Munde was sulking (and one should not grudge the right to be dissatisfied with the distribution of power within the party). The party then tried to sort this out through a series of parleys, both between Munde and some top party leaders, and among the party leaders themselves. Munde brought pressure to bear by making moves to shift to another party, and also by threatening to hurt the party organisation in his home state. Then there was some counter-pressurising; and finally, at least for the moment, Munde had to beat a strategic retreat, though he is far from quiet or pacified.

So the intra-party competition will certainly continue. All these are the signs of a living (though chaotic) political organisation. Competition, power struggles and negotiations mark the life of political parties.

This is not to give a certificate to any one political party. It is helpful to understand that political parties in India do not entirely lack intra-party democracy or intra-party negotiations; they do not lack deliberative mechanisms — albeit of a less bureaucratised or routinised nature.

This same process can be seen in the case of the other large political party, the Congress. Whether it is the Jaganmohan episode or the famous spat between Chidambaram and Digvijaya Singh on the Maoist issue, it is necessary that we read the unfolding drama in the right perspective.

This is not to say that all is well with our parties. Yet, it is necessary that we first decide what is not a core issue when critiquing them. The extent of negotiation, and the style or mechanism for dispute resolution, will vary from party to party — but let us not trap ourselves into incorrectly criticising parties as having no intra-party democracy. Such criticisms stem from sanitised ideas of party functioning based on the experience of very small-scale and only nominally mass-based parties in the Western democracies.

The writer teaches political science at the University of Pune

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

THE CORPORATE VOTE

MANOJCG

 

The corporate vote

In the context of the RBI's latest report, which said the outward flow of FDI in May was up 59 per cent at $3.7 billion, the RSS has claimed that the flight of capital from India was now official, given that the outward flow of FDI in the same month last year was $1.39 billion. "Blame it on policy paralysis, the unconcealed civil war in the economic ministries, absence of governance or a deliberate drift to jeopardise India's growth, the UPA has practically succeeded in killing the India story," says an editorial in Organiser.

The editorial argues there is nothing wrong with Indian firms investing abroad in a globalised world. "The problem is when it starts pinching the domestic economy, affects growth, investment and employment generation and disincentivises FDI inflow. This also is a reflection of the corporate perception that there are better, more profitable destinations for investment," it says.

"In a way, it is an expression of no-confidence by corporates on the present regime. Has Manmohan Singh done anything to the arrest of this trend? No. In fact, the UPA government is wilfully encouraging this flight of Indian capital. This at a time, when FDI inflows from the rest are drying up. Other Asian countries have emerged stronger contenders for foreign investment," it says.

"The UPA, it seems, is bent on instigating a capital flight from India. It has created a super-cabinet of frustrated, retired babus, over-ground Maoists and Left fellow-travellers as Sonia's advisory club, which obstructs all economic reforms. This Sonia club has devised a number of schemes to perpetuate poverty in the country and create a captive votebank for the dynasty," it concludes.

Judge not

In an article in Organiser, Rajya Sabha member and former chief justice of the Punjab and Haryana high Court, M. Rama Jois argues against bringing judges of the Supreme Court and high courts under the ambit of the Lokpal. Observing that opinion appears to be divided on this question, he says: "Having regard to the scheme of the Constitution and the exalted position assigned to the Supreme Court under the Constitution, the answer to the question has to be in the negative." He bases his argument on the unanimous decision of a seven-judge SC bench in the 1997 L. Chandra Kumar case, from which it follows that the proposed Lokpal would be amenable to the writ jurisdiction of the high courts under Article 226 and the Supreme Court under Article 32 and Article 136 of the Constitution.

"Even if an amendment to the Constitution were to be made providing for excluding the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the high courts in respect of matters falling within the jurisdiction of Lokpal, such provision would be unconstitutional and liable to be struck down in view of the ratio of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Kumar's case," he argues. While admitting that the impeachment provisions against Supreme Court and high court judges are "difficult and impractical", he said "that is no reason to bring them under Lokpal and bring them down from the exalted position assigned to them by the founding fathers of the Constitution". He favours an alternative procedure that would not affect their security of tenure.

Rifts in government

The Panchjanya reads a deeper conspiracy into the attempted bugging of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's office as reported by The Indian Express last week. Echoing the BJP line, it says the bugging could be a result of internal rivalry within the Congress or prompted by big business lobbies. "But this government does not want the truth to come out," it says. "There are several unanswered questions. Primarily, the fact that the complaint was made by none other than Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee himself in a letter to the prime minister requesting a secret probe.

"This should normally have been treated as a security incident, which is the responsibility of the home ministry, but by writing to the PM, Mukherjee displayed his no-confidence in the home ministry. This has brought Home Minister P. Chidambaram under suspicion," the article says.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

THE ANTI-DEMOCRACY DEMOCRATS

 

There is little doubt that Thais like the idea of democracy. They have been fighting for it on and off since 1932, when absolute monarchy was overthrown. Most Thais will vote on July 3 for the third time in six years. Campaigning is feverish, posters omnipresent and a raucous media offer endless news, comment and speculation.

Yet this election is about Thailand's repeated failure to agree on what constitutes democracy and on how democracy fits with the older institutions — themonarchy, the military and the centralised bureaucracy. Those failures have been seen in the cycle of elections and coups that has repeated itself since the 1973 overthrow of the Thanom Kittikachorn dictatorship.

But two things are different that make this election especially important and also unlikely to resolve political tensions. The first is the personality of Thaksin Shinawatra, the exiled prime minister deposed by a coup in 2006 who is fighting this election through a surrogate party, Pheu Thai, headed by his photogenic youngest sister, Yingluck Shinawatra. Thailand has had several democratically elected prime ministers but none aimed for, let alone achieved, populist appeal. They got to the top through deal-making between parties. Thaksin, however, was an authentic populist who identified the potential power of the nation's poorer classes and used his wealth and organising ability to exploit it.

The second is a broad generational change that manifests itself in different ways. Wealth gaps are getting wider but there is no shortage of work; Thailand now relies on about three million foreign workers to do its dirtiest jobs. Political awareness has increased thanks to education and the ubiquitous media creating a feeling among many Thais, particularly in the lower income groups, that they are not getting a fair share of the cake. Generational change also affects views of the role of the old institutions.

For Thaksin's defenders the problem has been the unwillingness of the military and monarchists to accept democracy: Thaksin was overthrown, the constitution was changed, and many Thaksin supporters believe the judiciary was manipulated. They see the incumbent prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva of the Democrat Party, as a front for conservative forces that want a veto over who is prime minister, and, as in Bangkok last spring, is willing to use violence against peaceful demonstrators.

The anti-Thaksin forces accuse him, with some reason, of abusing his power in office for personal and political gain, and undermining the institutions and checks and balances built into the 1997 constitution — then viewed as a democratic model. Less convincingly, Thaksin's opponents also accuse him of fomenting antimonarchist sentiment and threatening economic stability through populist spending.

So the country has two choices. An Abhisit government that has proven competent but owes its existence to the military and is viewed by many to represent a self-interested elite, a choice that risks a backlash in the streets. Or, a return to the Thaksin camp, a choice that risks a possible military crackdown.

This being Thailand some kind of deal is always possible, even one that allows for the eventual return and pardon of Thaksin. Money speaks loudly in Thai politics, and big business, though tending to be critical of Thaksin, is more concerned with avoiding political mayhem.

Given the passions that Thaksin arouses and that the king is no longer seen as peacemaker, finding a liberal and democratic way forward will not be easy. Neither Thaksin nor his military and monarchist enemies are at ease with the freedoms, rules and compromises necessary for democratic politics. But most Thais are, which suggests that the election will neither resolve nor worsen the tensions arising from economic success and social change. Philip Bowring

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

THE EDGE OF THE ATLANTIC

 

The philosopher Isaiah Berlin once remarked that the United States was "aesthetically inferior but morally superior" to Europe. On the aesthetics, there's not much doubt. Savoir vivre is a French expression that English finds it needs. Style is many things but one reason Italy elevates it is because it is a fine disguise for lost power. When you're running the world you don't have much time for Windsor knots.

The aesthetics of European cities offer the consolation of the past's grandeur but seldom the adrenalin of future possibility. It's wonderful to be lost in Bruges or Amsterdam, Venice or Vienna. The palaces bear no relation to current obligations. They have become outsized repositories of beauty.

Sleepwalk through them and feel content. The only problem is awakening. One of the things you awaken to is that it's now almost a century since Europe ripped itself to shreds at Verdun. Geoffrey Wheatcroft recently calculated in The New York Review of Books that British losses on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, given respective populations, were the equivalent of "280,000 GIs killed between dawn and dusk."

The Great War had its mid-century European sequel. And so power passed to America. It was of a United States ascendant that Berlin wrote, a confident nation assuming responsibility for the world. He found it "morally superior" to Europe. I think he meant above all the can-do vigour of a young nation still able to dream big and gather its collective resources to realise great projects. Not for America the moral relativism of tired European powers that, ambition exhausted or crushed, settled for comfort and compromise.

I was talking about puritanism the other day with an American friend who observed: "Don't knock it — that's what got us this country in the first place!" There's something to that: America has been inseparable from a city-on-the-hill idealism but also from a strong work ethic. When I became an American citizen and had to do an English test the second sentence of my dictation was: "I plan to work very hard every day."

But of course you can't work if you don't have a job and today that's the situation of 9.1 per cent of Americans and 24 per cent of US youth. These are shocking numbers that aren't temporary blips. They reflect shifts in the global economy. Every year developing economies are producing tens of millions of middle class people who can do American jobs.

What's most worrying is that the US response to this crisis seems to be one of a country in middle age, a nation that has lost its can-do moral edge, the ability to come together and overcome. In this critical regard Obama has failed to deliver.

Berlin observed that Americans were a "2x2=4 sort of people who want yes or no for an answer." They've gotten neither of late, only muddle.

Bill Clinton recently took Obama to task in Newsweek, proposing 14 measures to create employment. Given that the Clinton presidency saw the creation of 23 million jobs his advice is probably worth a glance even if it grates. I was struck by two underlying themes: the need for an energy policy and for an industrial policy.

Here's why: It's absurd that "climate change" has become an unpronounceable phrase under Obama and that green technology initiatives have been stymied by sterile ideological dispute. Intelligent use of resources makes strategic sense for America whatever your hang-up on global warming. It's equally absurd that private US corporations, having made $1.68 trillion in profits in the last quarter of 2010 and sitting on piles of cash, are doing fine while job numbers languish and more Americans struggle.

None of this makes moral or any other sense. America needs an energy policy and an industrial policy. It has to lead in green technology and — purist capitalist reflexes notwithstanding — it must find ways to get corporate America involved in a national revival.

In these regards it might look to Europe: Copenhagen now heats itself in winter by burning its own garbage; Germany has 6 per cent unemployment in part because the government and corporations have cooperated to keep jobs.

One of Clinton's energy ideas related to the cash incentive Obama had offered for start-up green companies. America moved in the past few years, the former president noted, from having less than 2 per cent of the world market in manufacturing high-powered batteries for hybrid or all-electric cars to 20 per cent, with 30 new battery plants built or under construction. Then — wait for it — Republicans in Congress wouldn't extend the plan because they viewed it as a "spending program" rather than a tax cut.

This is madness, the ne plus ultra of American politicians betraying the American people.

It's past time for Obama to lead in these areas. Americans, Berlin also suggested, are the "largest assemblage of fundamentally benevolent human beings ever gathered together." But their representatives have lost their moral compass. History tells us where that leads. Roger Cohen

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

PM FAILS TO IMPRESS

The Prime Minister's job is not to talk up the market. It is, however, his and his Cabinet's job to get on with solving policy problems that keep markets down. But what Manmohan Singh said on Wednesday promises very few action points on that score. Instead, by taking the CAG to task, he has opened a front that was just not needed. While the Prime Minister has underscored the need to steer away from suggesting facile solutions to the problems of corruption and black money that will lead to the re-emergence of the licence-control permit raj we have been dismantling since 1991, what he did not have to say was that it was his government's reluctance to move ahead with reforms that has brought these issues centrestage. The tone of the entire introductory statement in his meeting with some editors was instead one of fault-finding that does very little to restore the image of the government. He painted a very accurate picture of the global problems that can be catastrophic for India. But what he missed out is that few of them have impacted more than domestic factors on the growth slowdown that India now faces.

The UPA government, until recently, sniped at road development, held back on disinvestment and even now is not committed on whether the insurance Bill will sail through Parliament. In these circumstances, if the Cassandras are out in full force, the government can hardly blame anyone else. Modernisation of infrastructure, education reforms and healthcare—the three priorities he identified—are held up not because of opposition from outside but due to problems of missing ministers. For instance, the Prime Minister's talk just ahead of a legislative session gave no indication about which Bills or policies he expects his ministries to steer through Parliament. Since none of those figured in his chat with the editors on Wednesday, one can only hope Manmohan Singh will follow up this one with more such chats where he would have more to say on policy priorities. Until then, the clouds of uncertainty are unlikely to move away.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

IMF GETS A NEW BOSS

 

This is one race that was probably won as soon as it began. No sooner did the French finance minister Christine Lagarde announce her candidacy for IMF headship than the EU rallied behind her solidly. This bloc, together with the US, holds 50% of the voting shares on IMF's board, making it pretty unbeatable. It was only because the US withheld its official endorsement till the last minute that some drama was able to develop, and the focal point of this drama was no more surprising than its denouement—let waning Europe give way to emerging economies. It does not advance the legitimacy of IMF that when BRICS contribute 25.7% of the world's GDP on a PPP basis, they should only get 11.5% of the voting share. Europeans, on the other hand, are hugely over-represented. Consider Lagarde's France, whose share of global output on PPP basis is short of each of the BRIC countries but which has already held the top post for 35 of IMF's 65 years so far. The ungainliness of such arrangements has obviously come centrestage in the post-Lehman world, where emerging economies have delivered most of the growth. What's particularly ironical is that while IMF has shown little qualms about shoving bitter pills down Asia and others during their moments of crisis, it is tiptoeing now that the developed countries that dominate the fund are also plunged in a crisis. Lagarde will really have to prove her neutral credentials on this one as she has been at the centre of one failed bailout package for Greece after another. Europe's worsening debt problem and China's currency policy will clearly be two of her main challenges.

During a blitzkrieg of a campaign through China, Brazil and India, Lagarde made lots of promises about giving emerging market countries greater influence at IMF. This is why all the aforementioned could justify putting their weight behind her instead of going with the emerging market rival, Mexico's central bank governor Agustin Carstens. Still, all the momentum that the latter gathered and the conversation about governance reform that he pushed through will not be for nought. Notwithstanding its embarrassing record, IMF's role in managing crises and tensions in the world appears plain for now. What appears equally plain is that a reshuffling of rights will take place in the global lender's boardroom sooner rather than later.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

WHY AUSTERITY ALONE RISKS A DISASTER
MARTIN WOLF

Enjoy the coming slump. That is not what the Bank for International Settlements says to the US and other overindebted economies. But it is what its latest annual report implies. I admired the warnings of monetary and financial excesses that the BIS gave under its former economic adviser, William White. I respect Stephen Cecchetti, his successor. But I disagree with the thrust of this report. It understates the obstacles to across-the-board austerity.

Persisting with monetary and fiscal accommodation is uncomfortable. But unconventional times demand unconventional policies. What makes these times unconventional? The answer is that a number of economies are in what the Jerome Levy Forecasting Center calls a "contained depression"—a period of sustained private sector deleveraging.

Implicitly, the BIS report rejects such a view. It argues for monetary and fiscal tightening across the globe. This argument rests on two beliefs. First, the world economy is close to full capacity. Second, "addressing overindebtedness, private as well as public, is the key to building a solid foundation for high, balanced real growth and a stable financial system. This means both driving up private savings and taking substantial action now to reduce deficits in the countries that were at the core of the crisis."

Consider, first, monetary policy. Suppose we had an inflation-targeting central bank for the world. How should it respond to rising commodity prices when inflation expectations are also under control? Such a bank would recognise that this is a shift in relative prices, which reduces capacity and real wages. It would not know whether the rises are a one-off or a lasting trend. It would want to avoid a jump in inflationary expectation or a wage-price spiral. But would it also wish to reduce nominal wage rises, to offset the inflationary impact of the rise in commodity prices, even if that risked a significant slowdown? I think not. If it did, it would impart instability into the real economy in response to erratic and unpredictable movements in prices of commodities.

In practice, not only do we have no global central bank but inflation conditions are divergent. In high-income countries inflation is reasonably under control. In many emerging countries it is shooting upwards, partly because the latter consume commodities more intensely and partly because their economies have expanded more strongly.

The right monetary policy would also be diverse. This, happily, is just what our world allows: emerging countries should tighten; and high-income countries should tighten more slowly. This is happening but not enough, because many emerging countries are desperate to avoid exchange rate appreciation.

What should high-income countries do? On this the BIS report does a signal service: it demonstrates that hysteria about the impact of larger central bank balance sheets is unjustified. But it argues that economic slack has disappeared. That this is true of emerging countries seems plausible. The BIS also points to the mistake made in the 1970s, when the impact of the oil price shock on capacity was underestimated. It argues that today, too, the amount of spare capacity is exaggerated. Yet unit labour costs and expectations are far better under control than then. Now, I would argue, is when central banks use up their credibility. They must watch inflation expectations. But they do not have to act pre-emptively.

Now turn to the yet more debated question of fiscal policy. The question I have is this: does the BIS know that every sector cannot run financial surpluses at the same time?

Few doubt there is excessive private sector debt in a number of high-income countries. But how is it to be reduced? The BIS notes four answers: repayment, default, higher real incomes and inflation. Let us rule out the last and focus on the first. Repayment means spending less than one's income. That is what is happening in the US private sector. Households ran a financial deficit (an excess of spending over income) of 3.5% of GDP in the third quarter of 2005. This had shifted to a surplus of 3.3% in the first quarter of 2011. The business sector is also running a modest surplus. Since the US has a current account deficit, the rest of the world is also, by definition, spending less than its income. Who is taking the opposite side? The answer is: the government. This is what a controlled depression means: every sector, other than the government, is seeking to strengthen its balance sheet at the same time.

The BIS insists this is not good enough: highly leveraged countries are running structural fiscal deficits, which must be eliminated as soon as possible. Fair enough, but where are the offsetting adjustments to occur?

The evidence suggests that the foreign surpluses are structural or at least highly persistent. Given these debt overhangs, surpluses of household sectors are also likely to be sustained. So a big reduction in these fiscal deficits probably demands an offsetting reduction in business sector financial surpluses. That can happen in two ways: a surge in business investment or a reduction in retained earnings. The former would be adjustment via growth and the latter adjustment via a slump. Which is more likely? If you believe a sharp monetary and fiscal tightening would result in an investment boom, I have a bridge to sell you. If the more plausible adjustment is via shrinking profits, that surely implies a fall in output. If so, this would preclude lowering the debt overhang via higher real incomes. That then leaves default. This would work, but via a slump and destruction of financial assets.

This process of thinking through offsets to a sharp fiscal tightening is inescapable. The answer that avoids yet more problems in the private sectors of overindebted countries is a shift in external balances. Thus, the external rebalancing—more or less blocked, at present—and fiscal rebalancing are two sides of a coin.

The BIS is right: normalisation of monetary and fiscal policy is needed. But it is impossible to eliminate structural fiscal deficits until either the private sector structural adjustment is complete or we see big shifts in the external balances. It is impossible, finally, for this external adjustment to occur without big changes in the surplus economies.

The BIS boldly calls for simultaneous private and public deleveraging. But what are to be the offsets? That is the question. The BIS provides no convincing answer.

martin.wolf@ft.com

©The Financial Times Limited 2011

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

DON'T CARRY CSR OVERBOARD
MADAN SABNAVIS

Philanthropy is a good thing to talk about, and the visit of Warren Buffet to India has added more spice to the art of giving, which is what everyone wants others to do today. Several corporate honchos have gone on to have it well publicised that they give an awful lot of money for the needy and several pages in the media have been devoted to the same. At another level, it is averred that philanthropy should always be anonymous or else it is the cost of branding, of either the company or the individual. It works well both ways and is a win-win situation for everyone.

At a more serious level, it has been argued that companies should devote a certain amount for CSR (corporate social responsibility) or, more specifically, set aside money for the poor or social causes that are distinct from making statements on saving the planet. In fact, critics say that this should be mandatory and must be reckoned as a fixed percentage of their profits. This is so because society enables corporates to grow and prosper. Hence, it becomes obligatory for this sector to give something in return. Is there merit in this argument?

If one takes the overall net profits of the corporate sector, it would have been around R3.2 lakh crore in FY10. This is substantial and would be around 4% of India's GDP at current market prices. Taking a portion out (1% would mean around R3,200 crore) can be benchmarked with various development schemes that will help society at large. Or so the argument goes.

While CSR is a good idea, it cannot and should not be made mandatory. Corporates are like any entity in the country that work for a profit and abide by the rules of the game. Therefore, taxes are paid and several other regulatory covenants are adhered to in the process. There would be a lot of lobbying going on to seek concessions but that is another issue as they are decided on merit. Therefore, we should not be going beyond the rules already laid down. If it were done, then it should be extended to individuals too, as there are several millionaires in the country who could contribute to CSR by the same logic.

There are essentially three arguments that can be made in this context. First, let us go back to the world of Adam Smith, which we are trying to pursue based on free markets. In this capitalist society driven by markets, private enterprise works with self interest in mind to earn profits. The government lays down the framework and ensures that the rules are obeyed. As we never do have a fully capitalist system, the government also enters economic activity and undertakes projects, for which we have the Budget and the entire tax system. At times, the government could go a step ahead and earmark specific charges in the form of additional taxes or cess for specific purposes. This goes for drought relief or education and is levied universally on all entities, which are fair measures. Instead of charging a corporate tax rate of, say, 30.6%, it is broken up into 30% tax on which there is a cess of 2%. The idea is that there is transparency insofar as the money from this additional charge is earmarked for a purpose. This being the case, CSR cannot be imposed beyond the realm of the tax system.

Second, it should be recognised that a company belongs to investors finally as the shareholders have made investments in the enterprise. While they could vote for such an allocation, it can never be made a rule for all as it comes in the way of economic freedom and imposes an additional cost to running an enterprise. Any mandatory move should be opposed, though corporates can always be made more responsible for the harm that may be coming about on account of their business activity. Asking them to pay for fuel emission is okay while asking them to donate to the poor is not in order. It has to evidently to come from within and we cannot stand on any such judgement.

The third is, even if we make it mandatory, who will administer the same? The public sector is considered to be inefficient when it comes to creating social infrastructure. Currently, there is little accountability for the money allocated for, say, health and education in the Budgets. We have hospitals without doctors and schools without teachers. These are issues beyond the leakages that are there. It is not surprising that even when corporates indulge in philanthropy; it goes in the name of the organisation or person because keeping it within one's own purview makes sure that resources are better utilised. However, the core competence of companies is in specific lines of business and diversification into social infrastructure is inefficient.

Addressing the concerns of the poor is a public sector issue that has to be addressed separately by the government. Asking the private sector to mandatorily pitch in is against the grain of free enterprise and imposes costs, besides leading to undesirable and inefficient solutions. This should be opposed.

The author is chief economist, CARE Ratings. These are his personal views

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

A CLEAN CHIT FOR NOW

The Reserve Bank of India's latest Financial Stability Report attempts to assess the health of India's financial sector in a holistic manner and pinpoint the incipient risks to stability that may arise in a systemic sense. Like its counterparts in the advanced economies, the RBI seeks to draw the right lessons from the interplay of the macroeconomic setting, policies, markets and institutions, for which it claims to rely on up-to-date techniques and methodology. The report declares that India's financial system remains "stable in the face of some fragilities being observed in the global macro-financial environment." Growth has been slackening in most parts of the world and the risks arising from global imbalances and the European debt crisis show no signs of abating. The truth is that the causes for some of these persistent problems have never been fully addressed. India's growth momentum has moderated slightly on account of both domestic and global factors, but its economic fundamentals continue to remain strong despite concerns over inflation and the fiscal situation. The widening current account deficit also is not a matter of serious concern for now, although a slowdown in capital inflows could occur as the advanced economies exit from their accommodative policies. However, government expenditure needs to be more tightly managed as part of a well thought-out process of fiscal consolidation.

The domestic financial markets remain stress-free and are expected to be so in the near future. There has been a strong demand for credit and, consequently, liquidity has tightened recently. One subject of concern has been the currency mismatches that have arisen in the wake of domestic companies relying more extensively than before on external commercial borrowings. A related problem is that many domestic corporate issuers of foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) might face refunding risks by March 2013, when it would be time for redemption. The conversion prices on many of these bonds are much higher than the current prices of the linked equity shares, and it is unlikely that the gap will narrow. The Indian banking system remains well capitalised, with both core capital adequacy and leverage ratios ruling at comfortable levels. Even as credit off-take has rebounded recently, asset quality has improved although certain specific sectors of the economy could pose problems. For now, a rise in net interest income has boosted the profitability of banks, but over the near-term rising costs may weigh in. Banks need to be vigilant in facing up to interest rate risks in the prevailing inflation scenario.

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

OLD FEARS IN THAI ELECTION

The July 3 parliamentary election in Thailand is the culmination of a bitter five-year-political battle that haunted the country, leading to constant unrest and uncertainty. In December 2007, a year after the Thai Army removed the billionaire Prime Minister Thakshin Shinawatra in a coup and banned his political party, its proxy, the People Power Party, managed to win the parliamentary elections impressively. However, within a year, it found itself outmanoeuvred, and the opposition Democrat Party led by Abhisit Vejjajiva put together a coalition and took office. Since then, there has been a rash of protests resulting in bouts of political paralysis. Last year, security forces put down anti-government protesters with bullets, leaving some 90 people dead. Clearly, in the coming election, Mr. Thaksin, who lives in self-exile abroad after fleeing Thailand to escape prosecution on corruption charges, is eager to avenge his 2006 removal. His party, now called the Pheu Thai, has fielded his sister Yingluck Shinawatra as the prime ministerial candidate. Evidently, the former Prime Minister hopes to run the country through her. There are fears that the election itself will not remove the tensions between the colour-coded political camps — Red Shirts, comprising mainly the rural and urban poor, for the Shinawatra clan; and Yellow Shirts, made up of the prosperous old ruling elites, for Mr. Abhisit and his Democrat Party — until Thailand addresses the deeper malaise of the military's role in politics.

The Royal Thai Army — which has carried out a total of 18 coups, and like the Pakistan Army, has played a backroom role supported by the monarchy during times of civilian rule — is a powerful player in this election. Army chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha declared recently that as a neutral entity, it had no intention of meddling in the election. But his warning that the monarchy was under threat and his demand that voters must elect "good people" have left no one in doubt that the Army has already made its choice. General Prayuth led the 2006 coup, and his televised speech came as polls predicted Mr. Thaksin's PTP in the lead. With the Army having helped put together the 2008 Democrat Party-led coalition, there is concern that if the Pheu Thai Party wins this election it will not be allowed to remain in office for long. On the other hand, it is certain too that the political roiling will continue should voters choose the Democrats — Mr. Thaksin has enough money and street power to ensure that the government will never have it easy. Either way, it appears that political peace in Thailand is still a distant prospect.

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS AND HEALTH

CONDITIONAL CASH TRANSFERS ARE NECESSARY BUT NOT SUFFICIENT FOR IMPROVING HEALTH. GOOD GOVERNMENT-FUNDED HEALTH CARE IS ESSENTIAL, AS ARE SCHEMES WHICH ADDRESS SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH.

K.S. JACOB

The march of capitalism, with its reduced emphasis on public spending, while improving many national economies has also widened the gap between the rich and the poor. For millions of Indians, hunger is routine, malnutrition rife, employment insecure, health care expensive and livelihoods are under threat, arguing for an urgent need for social security. Over 80 per cent of the world's population lives in conditions without any guarantees to manage life's risks. The United Nations and other international agencies have argued that only 2 per cent of the world's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is required to provide basic social security to the world's poor. They contend that such programmes provide growth with equity and are in the national interest of many countries.

Successful social protection programmes, many of them in South America, have demonstrated the use of innovative social security schemes and have countered capitalism's attempts to roll back social expenditures, cut deficits and finance fiscal stimulus packages for the economy. Argentina's universal child allowance programme and Brazil and Mexico's conditional cash transfer schemes are credited with reducing poverty and improving the health of populations. South Africa's Child Support Grants and Thailand's universal health care are also notable successes. Most of these schemes run on less than 0.5 per cent of national GDPs.

Redistributive transfers are not only desirable but are also hallmarks of civilised nations. They have multiplier effects and create more secure societies. Nevertheless, the philosophy, structures, economics and impact of these innovations are debated. Do they add to existing nutrition, health, education and employment services? Or do they replace existing public services and provisions? Are conditional cash transfer programmes a panacea to reduce poverty and improve health? Two schemes related to health are discussed here to highlight the complexity of the issues involved.

JSY a success: The Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) scheme is a conditional cash transfer (CCT) scheme to incentivise the use of health services. It is an intervention for safe motherhood and aims at reducing maternal and neo-natal mortality among poor women by encouraging institutional deliveries. It integrates financial assistance with delivery and post-delivery care for the mother and baby. The scheme also provides for the identification of pregnant women, antenatal care, assistance with transport and certification, postnatal care, and support and counselling services. Recent additions to these services include the cost of all medication and treatments, blood transfusions, consumables and diet. In some States, the scheme is complemented by the provision of public funds to private service providers in rural areas.

The programme has caught the attention of public health experts around the world for its scope, coverage and budget. The success of the scheme is currently being measured by the number of institutional deliveries, beneficiaries and financial assistance provided. Independent evaluations of the programme have confirmed its beneficial impact on antenatal care, health facility births and neonatal deaths. However, the assessment also noted wide inter-State and inter-district variations in the programme. It also documented the fact that the poorest and the least educated women had the lowest odds for enrolment.

While the JSY is a path-breaking initiative, its impact, when measured by maternal and child health outcomes, is dependent on the availability and accessibility of good health care services. Although the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has revitalised a neglected public health care delivery system, increased health finance, improved infrastructure, increased health personnel, established standards, trained health care staff, improved and streamlined health care delivery structures, many challenges still remain. The NRHM's functioning in its project mode and its competition with the State health services with their old ideas, platforms, ethos and morale complicate issues. These conflicts are not apparent in the evaluation of the NRHM with its focus on process indicators. For example, it records the monies spent on infrastructure, documents the increase in personnel, describes new priorities and records the recent benchmarks. However, there is a need to also evaluate indicators of efficient functioning. It needs to correlate its inputs and processes with health outputs in order to assess their effectiveness and to fine-tune its procedures. For example, data on the number of normal and complicated deliveries, maternal and neonatal outcomes should be correlated with the type of hospital infrastructure, personnel and health care provided. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that 24 x7 health facilities with adequate medical staffing on their rolls continue to provide sub-standard care in violation of the established norms. The failure to document health outcomes of mothers and babies allows poor health care standards in many institutions to be masked by process indicators (e.g. institutional deliveries) employed for assessments. Unless good health care is provided at health institutions, CCTs for institutional deliveries will fall short of their goal of reducing infant and maternal mortality and improving standards of health.

Incentives for sterilisation: India's population policy with its narrow focus on surgical sterilisation, aided by incentives and coercion, resulted in disastrous consequences during the Emergency (1975-77). The vehement rejection, not just of the programme but of the government in power, made such measures taboo in the nation's public and political discourse.

And yet, sterilisation continues to be the sole population stabilisation strategy. While governments are conscious of avoiding coercive practices, incentives for tubal ligation and vasectomy continue to be provided. Vasectomy, despite its greater monetary value (compared to tubectomy), is not commonly accepted by Indian men. Its unpopularity is rooted in the cultural concepts of manhood and virility. Consequently, women continue to bear the responsibility for family size. However, the incentives for sterilisation have not reduced the fertility rate in many parts of India.

The correlation between family size, illiteracy and poverty, leads the naive and uninformed to conclude that the large number of children in each family is the cause of poverty, malnutrition and ill health. Little do they realise that for the uneducated and poor, larger the number of children, better their insurance and social security, particularly in their old age. The complete absence of social security forces the poor to rely on their children to provide the safety net. Class and caste issues interact and preclude universal explanations and call for a sensitive analysis of the context. Simplistic demographic transition models, which linked population growth to development without understanding non-European history, politics and contexts, have legitimised the argument that population control reduces poverty. The fact that poverty without social security results in increasing populations is rarely considered. Consequently, maps of "high risk" populations incorrectly identify the already marginalised groups (e.g. the poor, women, Muslims, Dalits, adivasis, etc.) for further stigmatisation. And yet, politicians, administrators and governments continue to emphasise contraception and sterilisation as the sole focus of population policies. Our current demographic approaches disregard questions of context, class, caste, religion and gender and classify people, us and them, based on narrow frameworks and value judgments. Without the provision of basic social security for the poor, the country's population will continue to increase. CCTs as tools to bring about social change, based on a simplistic understanding of issues, are doomed to failure.

Nuanced approach: CCTs are not a panacea for poverty, ill health or for stabilising populations. As related to health, they will deliver only within the context of an effective health care system. Without a good public health delivery system, the aim of CCTs to bring people to hospital, to obtain effective health interventions, will be defeated. The use of CCTs as a proxy for the delivery of good health care is fallacious. They may change health-seeking behaviour, but it requires a good health care system to reduce maternal and child mortality rates. Similarly, CCTs for population stabilisation, by rewarding contraception and sterilisation, without a basic social security net for the poor will not be utilised and will be ineffective.

CCTs are complex interventions and part solutions within a range of services provided for people. They cannot be an alternative to good health and social security services. Social determinants of health like clean water, sanitation, nutrition, housing, education, employment and social security play a major role in population health and growth. The use of CCTs should not result in the government abdicating its responsibility of providing public services to the poor. They should also not be viewed as another business opportunity for free market players. While recent efforts at improving health care delivery, food security and employment guarantee have made an impact, they have a long way to go before significantly influencing maternal and child mortality, family sizes and population numbers. CCTs are not complete solutions and call for a nuanced understanding of the strategy, context and issues.

(Professor K.S. Jacob is on the faculty of the Christian Medical College, Vellore.)

 

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 THE HINDU

OPED

THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF 'HONEY BABY'

THE STORY OF A RECENT NORTH KOREAN REFUGEE CASTS LIGHT ON THE HARSH LIFE OF CITIZENS IN ONE OF THE MOST CLOSED COUNTRIES.

PRAVEEN SWAMI

Kyeong-Mi Rhee's phone avatar identifies her, improbably, as "Honey Baby." In the photograph, she is dressed in faux-schoolgirl chic: bright pink lipstick painted on implausibly perfect skin, her ponytails carefully flipped to one side. She clutches two outsized teddy bears in her arms.

Earlier this year, Ms Rhee completed an incredible five-year journey that led her from a North Korean labour camp to Seoul's suburbs, through China's booming northern cities and the jungles of northern Thailand.

Her extraordinary story offers rare insight into the lives of ordinary North Koreans — country that remains extraordinarily closed to the outside world.

Born in 1990, Ms Rhee grew up in a small village near Musan — a dying industrial centre along the Tuman river, which separates North Korea from China.

From the handful of videos occasional visitors to the mining town have posted online, it appears a grim place: row after row of grey shacks and decaying factories, cloaked in snow and the rising smoke from wood fires.

Like many rural families, the Rhees survived the great famine of 1992-2002 — known as the March of Tribulations — relatively unscathed. Ms Rhee says she has no childhood memories of real hunger, an account quite different from those of North Korean refugees from other regions: 3.5 million people were to die in the famine, and two-thirds of the country's children are still malnourished.

Ms Rhee's mother, widowed in 1993, did what she needed to do to feed her children. Like others in the village, she tilled an illegal field gouged out of the mountains that surround the Paekmu plateau, and raised rabbits and chickens.

The family sold its produce in Musan, at one of the dozens of street markets which sprang up across North Korea after 1994, when the government allowed some private-sector economic activity, in an ineffectual effort to battle the famine.

But Ms Rhee lost her mother in 2005, after a minor infection in her foot became sceptic: antibiotics, the accounts of many refugees from North Korea show, have become almost impossible to obtain.

It was a terrible blow to the family. Ill, because of a congenital heart condition, Ms Rhee had never been able to work the fields. Her older sister, Sang-mi Rhee, now had to feed both — all the while, fulfilling a labour quota as part of a group of 15 villagers assigned to a local collective farm.

Fear of authorities

Later that year, Sang-mi's boyfriend, Myung-chul Choi disappeared. Mr Choi, a university graduate who worked a youth trade union linked to the ruling Workers' Party, had a better job than most — but had not been paid for several months. He left for what he told Sang-mi would be a three-month visit to China, where he hoped to save some money working as an illegal migrant worker.

"I did not even tell the woman I loved of my plans," he says, cradling a green-tea flavoured iced drink, "because I was scared she might inform the authorities. In North Korea, you learn to trust no-one."

A South Korean Marine on Baengnyeong Island, surveying the North Korean side, near the border.

Mr Choi made his way west, as hundreds of North Koreans before him had done, through the great Gobi desert that straddles China and Mongolia. He survived the journey — and, arriving at the South Korean embassy in Ulan Baatar, received the travel documents that let him fly to Seoul.

Increasingly desperate, the Rhee sisters decided to make their own way to China, hoping to find Mr Choi. In the summer of 2007, they crossed the Tumen river. "The water was just waist-deep," Ms Rhee recalls, "and there were no guards."

More than a quarter of a million North Koreans have had the same idea: the Chinese porcelain making town of Dehua, home to a large ethnic-Korean population, draws more migrants every day. Some are fleeing political oppression — but more than a few, like the Rhees, are like economic migrants everywhere, simply in search of a better life. Although China discourages the flow of illegal immigrants, its prosperity draws them in ever-growing numbers.

Even though the crossing was easy, the life that lay ahead wasn't. Helped by a relative, the Rhee sisters found work along with two other North Korean girls, in a small businesses providing online sex-chat services to South Korean men. Fearful of being arrested and deported by Chinese authorities, the one-room building the girls worked in was also their home.

"I was locked in 24 hours a day," Ms Rhee recalls, "I really regretted what we had done." Then, late in 2008, Chinese border police finally came calling. Sang-mi was out that day, with one of the other girls, on a rare shopping trip. In the weeks that followed the raid, Sang-mi succeeded in making contact with Mr Choi, and travelled to South Korea where she married her boyfriend.

Kyeong-mi Rhee, though, was deported to North Korea, and was to serve 18 months at a labour camp in North Hamgyong. The conditions, she says, were horrific. There was little food, and prisoners were made to engage in back-breaking work, chopping firewood in the mountains.

"In the winter," she recalls, "sometimes five or six people would die in a single night. The prisoners would have the job of clearing away the bodies. I was excused, because I would faint."

Ms Rhee came out of prison in 2010, to find a man she had never met before waiting for her. He wanted to make sure, the man said, that she was alive. Behind the scenes, her sister and new brother-in-law had been working to bring her to South Korea. The man was a broker, who took potential North Korean refugees into China.

For the next several months, Ms Rhee was shifted from town to town, finally crossing the mountains near the Kunmin border with Thailand before heading by boat to Bangkok. There, armed with a new South Korean passport, she flew to Seoul.

"It cost me $10,000 or so," says Mr. Choi, some pride in his voice, "I still owe $4,000, but it is the least I could do."

Like all North Korean refugees, Ms Rhee has received generous compensation from the South Korean government: after three months at a rehabilitation centre, learning the life skills needed to cope with a relentlessly-capitalist society.

"I do not feel this is all that strange a land," she says, "because like many people in the North, I knew it thorough television soap-opera and films we used to watch secretly. It is difficult, though. I have still not made friends, and have not yet picked up the courage to get a job."

Film-maker Park Jung-bum's "The Journals of Musan," which premiered to critical acclaim in April — the same month Ms. Rhee arrived in Seoul — provides some insight into what challenges he might face. Mr Park's film traced the grim life of refugee Seung-chul, who makes a living plastering posters of sex shops in Seoul's streets, underpaid and cut off from the society around him. North Korean refugees have often struggled to integrate.

Ms Rhee's phone avatar suggests the kind of life she aspires to. That dream, more likely than not, is still some distance, and many struggles, away.

( Some names and personal details have been altered to protect the families of individuals still living in North Korea.)

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THE HINDU

UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE: THE BARRIERS AND THE WAY FORWARD

HEALTH TARGETS FAIL AS THEY ARE SET WITHOUT STRATEGIES. THE 12TH FIVE-YEAR PLAN SHOULD BE USED TO LOOK AT THE CHANGES NEEDED IN THE PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM.

DILEEP MAVALANKAR

Health is currently a privilege in India. Not a right. Maternal and child health remains neglected even after countless plans, programmes and political proclamations. Every year, nearly 60,000 women die in pregnancy and childbirth, while approximately 1.7 million children less than five years of age also die. In absolute numbers, India outranks all other countries in both regards. Sadly, most deaths can be prevented with available technologies. Many diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia kill thousands every year. While infectious diseases are very much a concern, chronic diseases are now rapidly catching up. India has become the capital of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease. Health targets in plan after plan have not been achieved, yet there has been no systematic analysis of why health systems fail to achieve these targets.

The fundamental reason why our health targets are not achieved and will not also be achieved, unless we radically change our strategies, is that we set targets without setting strategies; without understanding what is preventing progress; and without putting adequate human and financial resources toward achieving targets.

First, we equate the number of buildings to available health services. The Planning Commission and Central and State governments only count the number of health centres, without bothering to find out what is happening at these centres. Many are without staff, electricity, a telephone, water, medicines or an ambulance. No wonder these centres do not have patients — mothers or children — to take care of. Surveys have shown the inadequacy of our health infrastructure and that health workers are not staying where they are posted. There are good reasons why health staff do not stay in villages. But health departments have not bothered to study this problem or remedy it. Not only are workers not staying, studies have also shown that they are quite frequently absent without reason. Such unaccountability is treated as routine and not discussed in health policy forums.

The second reason for a lack of services is underfunding and poor management of medicines, leading to a lack of availability. How can an army fight without ammunition? The lack of medicines forces poor patients to buy medicines from private pharmacy shops, which can be expensive. Often times, the quality of medicines available from these shops and government health centres is poor due to the government's weak oversight on pharmacies and poor procurement policies. Patients do not want to go to clinics where they do not get medicines or where they are of poor quality.

Managers

While planning and funding are major problems, the root of the health problem in India, I feel, is the lack of adequate numbers of well-trained managers. Many national health programmes cover millions of beneficiaries, yet they are managed by just two or three technical managers who are general or specialist doctors.

Most of the time these individuals are without any public health or management training. They learn this on the job. This is also true for health secretaries and ministers — they all learn on the job. We are obsessed with training an eighth standard-passed village health worker with six to seven modules — but there is no training or even orientation for top policymakers and managers in the health department before they take up such important managerial and policymaking jobs. Why isn't health systems management made compulsory before an officer takes up the job of director or secretary in the health department?

The way out

Fortunately, things can rapidly change in the next few years, if government and society pay a little more attention to health. During the last five years, the government has put in significant resources into the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). At the same time, many States are also using local solutions to various problems. Preparations are underway for the 12th Five Year Plan (FYP), and thus we should be looking at what radical changes are needed in the public health system.

Budgets for health services will need to increase by a factor of three to five times. The national government is committed to take health funding from less than one per cent to two to three per cent of the GDP. This is critical. The government must chart out how the Centre and States will increase these budgets over the next five years. This will also require advocacy on behalf of the health community. And we must also be more smart in how to spend the money that is already available. Money remains unspent in health because the regulations around spending are so complicated and confining that doctors and health works cannot spend the money. Many times, money does not arrive in time for it to be useful.

Health care is provided by humans. Not by buildings or physical infrastructure. We need to get doctors and nurses to go to remote and rural areas and work there. This means paying them much higher wages, providing much better housing and other amenities, and making the working environment conducive to their lives.

Appreciation of the doctors and nurses who work in remote areas will ensure that younger doctors go to rural areas and serve the poor. Another solution could be to contract private providers, where government providers are unavailable and unwilling to provide services. Gujarat did just this through its much acclaimed "Chiranjeevi Scheme." Here, the government pays private doctors a fixed fee for conducting child birth services for poor women in their private hospitals. "Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana" also provides financial access to care in private and public services to the poor throughout the country. This is truly innovative and revolutionary.

Technology and drugs

While improving health systems is critically important, we cannot afford to wait until such changes are made before also improving the technological base for health systems. This means better machines and newer drugs and vaccines. For example, new vaccines and diagnostic techniques that can prevent or diagnose early some of the diseases among children and women are currently available in the private sector, but these technologies remain out of reach for the poor. The health department must have a division of technology assessment that is responsible for identifying and rigorously evaluating potentially useful and cost effective technologies for adoption in national health programmes in India.

All this can happen if there is a high-level of political commitment and the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers take personal interest in health improvements.

Of course, more resources need much better management in order to deliver results. Health departments must have an adequate number of qualified programme managers and health planners to ensure better programme design and effective implementation. I strongly believe that we can do this in 12th FYP, and it will be a big step towards universal access to health.

( Prof. Dileep Mavalankar is Dean, Academics, Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar.)

 

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THE HINDU

A CLOSE CALL FOR SPACE STATION CREW MEMBERS

KENNETH CHANG

One of the hundreds of thousands of pieces of space-age litter orbiting Earth zipped uncomfortably close to the International Space Station on Tuesday.

The six crew members of the space station took refuge in their "lifeboats" — two Soyuz space capsules they would use to escape a crippled station — as the unidentified object hurtled past them at a speed of 29,000 miles per hour, missing the space station by only 1,100 feet. The episode took place at 8:08 a.m. Eastern time.

"We believe the probability that it would the hit the station was about 1 in 360," said Lark Howorth, who leads the team at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that tracks the space station's trajectory. NASA rules call for precautions when the risk of impact is greater than 1 in 10,000.

In the section of the station run by the United States, astronauts closed the hatches in case the debris — commonly known as space junk — crashed through, to limit the danger of explosive decompression. To prepare for a rapid departure, the clamps holding the Soyuz capsules to the station were released.

"They would be one command away from releasing the hooks and undocking," said Edward Van Cise, NASA's lead flight director.

Mission controllers gave the all-clear signal four minutes later, and the crew members returned to work. There was no sign of damage or impact to the station.

Second time

It was only the second time in the 10-year history of people living on the space station that the crew needed to take such precautions; on March 12, 2009, a piece of an old satellite motor went zipping by.

If the station had been hit, the crew could have quickly undocked and returned to Earth. The risk of space junk hitting a Soyuz capsule is much slimmer.

Usually, when NASA gets a warning, several days in advance, that something that might come too close to the station, it moves the station by firing thrusters. Or, if a space shuttle happened to be visiting at the time, the shuttle would nudge the station out of danger. That has happened 12 times.

This time, however, the warning came Monday evening, less than 15 hours in advance, too little time to plan a manoeuvre.

Since the first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched was in 1957, the space neighbourhood has become cluttered with human-made detritus — more than half a million pieces, by recent estimates, from the size of a marble on up. If the orbits of two intersect, the result can be a destructive collision.

"It's getting kind of dangerous," said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics who has become an expert on space debris. "Most active satellites now have a regular process of manoeuvring to avoid debris."

NASA estimates that for each six-month period, there is a 1-in-100 chance that some or all of the space station crew might need to evacuate, and most of that risk comes from the possibility of impact from debris or natural micrometeroids. Over 10 years, the current planned lifetime of the station, the cumulative risk is nearly one in five.

"It's at the level where it probably won't happen in the lifetime of the station, but it could easily," Dr. McDowell said.

The debris includes spent rocket stages, and sometimes over time residual fuel combines and explodes. "You now no longer have a rocket stage," Dr. McDowell said. "You have 500 pieces of shrapnel."

Also still in orbit are broken satellites or almost incidental litter. In the past, lens covers on satellite cameras and sensors were simply popped off and left to float away. Now satellite makers put the lens cap on a hinge.

Military antisatellite tests also make a big mess, notably when the Chinese blew up one of their satellites in 2007.

© New York Times News Service

 

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THE HINDU

DEVICE TO MONITOR TROOPS' MEDICAL STATUS

The Israel Defence Force (IDF) is planning to test a wearable device capable of monitoring a soldier's physical condition and alerting commanders to life-threatening situations, the Ma'ariv daily reported on June 29.

The "physiological sensor," a miniature device developed by Israeli start-up Life Beam, is attached to the ear of a person and simultaneously monitors critical physiological parameters, including blood pressure, breathing and heart rate, while the soldier is engaged in rigorous activities. The sensor can instantly discern life-threatening changes that point to heat stroke or dehydration, enabling early evacuation and treatment.

Life Beam was founded by two former Israeli Air Force pilots, who served together and came up with the idea during their tour of duty.

"We saw incidents in which people died or nearly died, and began thinking of ways to prevent them," one of the founders, in his early 30s, told Ma'ariv. While training-related fatalities are a rare occurrence in the IDF, which routinely operates in extreme weather conditions, a handful of soldiers, mostly young trainees, have died over the past decade during desert exercises.

"Soldiers will be monitored in the future battlefield," a senior IDF's Medical Corps officer has said, adding that "militaries around the world are still only thinking about the idea." A prototype of the device has undergone successful lab trials, and the Medical Corps said it plans to launch its own testing in coming months.

While the IDF has already placed orders for the sensor for some special forces units, its developers say their vision is to develop a civilian version that would save the lives of infants, the elderly, athletes and patients with chronic illnesses.

1        Xinhua

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THE ASIAN AGE

WILL COURTS DRIVE A NEW LAND POLICY?

The Supreme Court has had a significant impact in framing the terms of debate on key public questions recently. It is not unlikely that but for the forceful intervention of the nation's highest court, issues relating to corruption in high places may have moved only very slowly. The political executive's timidity in such matters has been all too glaring, and for several years now. In many recent instances — such as the 2G affair and the related Radia tapes — governmental lethargy has permitted the judiciary to make firm institutional interventions.

The public have been heartened by the higher judiciary's boldness, and may well come to regard this as natural — given the slow government response — in dealing with complex matters of governance. Other than corruption, one other issue which has caught the people's imagination of late is acquisition of agricultural land by the state to be transferred to private parties for commercial and industrial purposes. It has led to violence in some states, excited the imagination of political parties and ignited a wide debate on the methods used to obtain land for non-agricultural purposes.

It is to be hoped that the probing questions put by a Supreme Court bench on Monday to both the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government will galvanise our political system into action. As the Supreme Court noted, the anachronistic 1894 Land Acquisition Act, enacted during the British Raj, is at the root of much of our current problems regarding land acquisition. And while the UPA-2 government has promised to bring in a new law to replace it in the coming Monsoon Session of Parliament, now just weeks away, we have no inkling of what the government's thinking is. A public debate on such a vital issue is absolutely essential, and will only enrich and improve the proposed legislation.

In its observations on Monday while hearing petitions filed by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority and some real estate groups, the Supreme Court came down hard on the routine practice of state governments to purchase from farmers land on which food is grown to transfer it to non-farm interests. The two-judge bench insisted that the terms of trade were steeply skewed against agriculturists in such cases. The bench was also annoyed that villagers in Greater Noida were not even allowed to record objections as the state government used the so-called "urgency" clause in the 1894 Act. The court held the Centre responsible for this state of affairs as it had permitted an antiquated law to remain on the statute book. It also pointedly noted that it is barren land that should be acquired for industrial or commercial activity. While valid in principle, such an inventory is difficult to make until all land — along with the names of title-holders — is duly mapped and stored electronically. Another consideration must be addressed: what when all the barren land in a state is exhausted?

The Supreme Court, as it itself acknowledged, has been influenced by the Singur syndrome in West Bengal, where the mobilisation of farmers unwilling to part with their land led to the Tatas cancelling plans to set up the Nano plant there. Interestingly, on a petition by the Tatas to restrain the Mamata Banerjee government from returning those lands to farmers (as these now belonged to the Tatas), the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the state government not to proceed further with the return of land till the matter is sorted out in the Calcutta high court. The outcome of this case will be watched with keen interest across the country. Will the Supreme Court be able to square its observations in the Greater Noida matter with what eventually transpires in the Singur case?

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THE ASIAN AGE

THE SUMMER OF 2014

SRINATH RAGHAVAN

The much anticipated endgame in Afghanistan has formally begun. The American President has laid out his plan to extricate US troops while preserving and building on the fragile gains made in the past few months. The fog of uncertainty that hung around American strategy is beginning to lift. That does not mean that the road out of Afghanistan is absolutely clear.

As Helmuth von Moltke once observed, no plan survives the first contact with the enemy. Much will depend on how the US' adversaries as well as putative allies like Pakistan respond to these moves. India is reasonably well poised to deal with the unfolding situation. The challenge, as always in Afghanistan, is to keep our ears close to the ground but also maintain adequate flexibility of posture.
The killing of Osama bin Laden has, as anticipated, provided the requisite political context for the American drawdown. From the outset, the Obama administration had been divided between those who called for a protracted counter-insurgency effort in Afghanistan and those who preferred a narrower counter-terrorism posture. Since entering the White House, US President Barack Obama has committed an additional 33,000 troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total number to around 100,000. The figure of 33,000 was lower than what the advocates of counter-insurgency strategy wanted, and much higher than what the counter-terrorism were willing to contemplate. Mr Obama, after much deliberation, chose the middle ground. But his political instincts were always against a troop-heavy strategy. At a time when domestic challenges loomed large, a prolonged and bulky military presence in Afghanistan seemed untenable. Yet a quick exit with little results to show risked a conservative backlash at home. The elimination of Bin Laden has shored up Mr Obama's domestic position and paved the way for a sharp drawdown of troops in Afghanistan.
According to the plan announced by Mr Obama last week, 10,000 American troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of this year and another 23,000 by the summer of 2012. The military surge will effectively end by middle of next year. In the following two years, US forces will transition from combat to support role by handing over responsibility to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). By 2014 this transition will be completed. But US forces will stay on in smaller numbers as advisers and trainers. Besides, there will be a small but strong counter-terrorism presence comprising mainly of special forces and intelligence operatives. Mr Obama also made it clear that drone attacks and targeted operations will continue against Al Qaeda in Pakistan. On the political and diplomatic front, the US has openly acknowledged contacts with the Taliban — even if it is only "very preliminary outreach" in US secretary of state Hillary Clinton's formulation. A "core group" comprising the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan has been created to coordinate the efforts towards reconciliation with the insurgents. The Americans have also orchestrated the splitting of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions on Al Qaeda and the Taliban into two lists: one of individuals connected with Al Qaeda and the other of Taliban members who are focused on Afghanistan alone. This is intended to facilitate the reconciliation process.
The strategic and the political dimensions of the exit plan are not unproblematic. For a start, the claim that the "momentum" of insurgency has been broken reflects a serious misunderstanding of the nature of counter-insurgency. The idea of momentum may be useful in prosecuting conventional operations, but it is not useful in analysing the progress of insurgencies. Control of territory, not momentum of operations, is the key factor in counter-insurgency campaigns — especially when the insurgency has an external base. The American performance on this score has so far been mixed and it is too soon to predict whether the gains of the recent operations will hold. A related problem is the assumption of a smooth transition to operations led by Afghan forces. The US claims that in the past year an additional 100,000 ANSF personnel have been inducted and trained. The operational performance of the ANSF has yet to be tested seriously. But given the persistent problems over the availability of Western trainers — problems that have only recently begun to be addressed — it would be prudent not to set too much store by the capacity of the ANSF.
It is difficult to avoid concluding that the Mr Obama is following the advice offered by Senator George Aiken at the height of the Vietnam War: declare victory and get out. From a political standpoint, the Obama administration's stance is entirely understandable. Just that Kabul and its friends should not swallow these claims wholly.
The efforts to reach out to the Taliban are likely to be even more problematic. The Afghan President has already constituted 27 provincial peace councils as well as a High Peace Council. This arrangement reflects the fact that the Taliban is increasingly functioning as a collection of myriad factions and splinter groups. The best outcome possible may be a patchwork of agreements that holds long enough for the Afghan state to bolster its enforcement capacities. Reaching out to the more powerful groups like the Haqqanis will require cooperation from Pakistan. In the current state of US-Pakistan relations, this will call for more sweeteners for the Pakistan Army but without any assurance that a deal will be struck.
Washington has reiterated its redlines for reconciliation with the Taliban: sever ties with Al Qaeda, forsake violence, abide by the Afghan Constitution. These redlines as well as Mr Obama's call for an Afghan-led process are in sync with India's position as articulated by the Prime Minister during his recent visit to Afghanistan. Despite its reservations about making too fine a distinction between the Taliban and the other groups, India voted in the UNSC in favour of splitting the sanctions list. From this point, New Delhi will have to closely watch both the reconciliation process and the balance of forces on the ground. India's interests in Afghanistan are limited, but preserving them will require an adroit combination of strategic clarity and tactical agility.

The author is senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

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THE ASIAN AGE

LOOK WHO'S WATCHING

SIDHARTH BHATIA

Anyone who has moved cities in India for a job will agree, starting life afresh can be quite a task. Renting an apartment, then getting to know the new environment and coping with an alien culture is tough enough, but even simple things can prove to be enormously complicated. Try opening a bank account, for example.

Even if you have an account with the same bank in your previous location, you will have to surmount a mountain of formalities and provide a wide spectrum of documentation, all to prove your identity.
Proving who you are is a tough job in India. At one time it was simpler — you just produced a ration card and, if employed, a letter from the office. Over the years the ration card has lost its power, not the least because many middle-class people do not keep it any more and there are millions of fakes floating around. Since then, the PAN card and passport have also been deemed acceptable, but if you have shifted homes after getting the latter, you still have to provide proof of address. What if you live in a rented flat — the rent agreement should ordinarily be enough, but not everyone has one (the poor certainly don't).
So back to the original question — how do you prove who you are? To surmount this monumental problem, the government has introduced the unique identity number (UID), which is supposed to be the most reliable indicator of identity, because it has, embedded in it, information that is unique to you. But — and there is always a but — to get it, you have to provide documents proving who you are, which include passports, PAN cards, electricity bill (for proof of address) etc. Sounds scary in more than one way, especially when one considers that all this information will be stored in vast databases controlled by the government. Just thinking about the potential for misuse and abuse is frightening, though the worthies running the UID assure us that there is no danger of that. In a country where the finance minister's office is bugged; this is not very reassuring. All these documents are already recorded in some data base or the other. What is the need for one more?
The number of ways the government keeps an eye on its citizens has been steadily increasing. Apart from all the above named documents and now the UID, there are many other ways the government knows what you have been up to. Some are unavoidable — use of credit cards, PAN cards, filling of immigration forms (while entering and leaving the country). Some are newer and very frightening, the latest being the new rules for Internet monitoring. These regulations put the onus of content on intermediaries; put simply, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot and even ebay will also be held liable for any content that appears on their sites. If you post a comment on Twitter that angers anyone — say a political party — it can complain and Twitter will not only have to remove it but also face prosecution. How do you think such intermediaries are going to react? It could be goodbye to fair comment, because as we know, there is no dearth of people and organisations who feel offended.
Meanwhile, efforts to make Blackberry, Skype and others to give up proprietary technology to allow monitoring of phone calls and chats continue. The government says it wants to keep an eye on mischief makers, a perfectly valid argument. But who is to say that the privacy of innocent citizens will not be invaded? And at the rate technology is developing, criminals and other malcontents will find newer ways of staying below the official radar.
Clearly, big government is here to stay and its getting bigger and more intrusive. It appears that we not only do not mind it, we are welcoming it. The agitation of "civil society" for a Lokpal will create another humongous bureaucratic monster which will have the power to intrude into our lives in different ways. It will be judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one. Now, as if this wasn't dangerous enough, there is a proposal to have one more body that will oversee the Lokpal. And this is an agitation that has the approval of our educated middle classes. Franz Kafka would have felt right at home here.
Twenty years ago, the then finance minister Manmohan Singh loosened the tight controls on the Indian economy. The fruits of those reforms are visible to us today. But while we celebrate these economic freedoms and choices, we are giving in — willingly, it appears — to personal restrictions. As long as the latest models of cellphones, cars and games are available on our shelves, who cares if Big Daddy is watching us?

The author is a senior journalist and commentator on current affairs based in Mumbai

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DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

OIC'S KASHMIR TANTRUM

 

In a jibe, Dr. Farooq Abdullah has made light of the Kashmir rhetoric of OIC. Representatives of 57 Islamic countries to the 38th session of its Council of Foreign Ministers began their work on 28 June at Astana, Kazakhstan. On its side lines Dr Ekmeleddin, the Secretary General, was chairing the meeting of OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir. His Special Representative on J&K, Ambassador Abdullah Abdul Rehman Al-Alim was present. In his address to the Contact Group, leader of the "True Representatives" of the Muslims of Kashmir Valley, Agha Sayyid Hassan Al-Mousvi, a pro-Khumeini Shi'a leader, updated the meeting on "Indian brutalities and human rights situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir." OIC hangs the board of NO ENTRY for the World's second largest group of Muslims in India.
OIC is a religious and political organization. Close to the Muslim World League of the Muslim Brotherhood, it shares the Brotherhood's strategic and cultural vision: that of a universal religious community, the ummah, based upon the Qur'an, the Sunna, and the canonical orthodoxy of shari'a. Its structure is unique among nations and human societies. The Vatican and the various churches are de facto devoid of political power, even if they take part in politics, because in Christianity, as in Judaism, the religious and political functions have to be separated. Asian religions, too, do not represent systems that bring together religion, strategy, politics, and law within a single organizational structure.
Not only does the OIC enjoy unlimited power through the union and cohesion of all its bodies, it also adds the infallibility conferred by religion. Bringing together 57 countries, including some of the richest in the world, it controls the lion's share of global energy resources. The European Union (EU), far from anticipating the problems caused by such a concentration of power and investing in the diversification and autonomy of energy sources since 1973, acted to weaken America internationally in order to substitute for it the U.N., the OIC's docile agent. In the hope of garnering a few crumbs of influence, the EU privileged a massive Muslim immigration into Europe, paid billions to the Mediterranean Union and Palestinian Authority, weakened the European states, undermined their unity, and wrapped itself in the flag of Palestinian justice. In their Charter (2008), Member States confirm that their union and solidarity are inspired by Islamic values. They affirm their aim to reinforce within the international arena their shared interests and the promotion of Islamic values. They commit themselves to revitalizing the pioneering role of Islam in the world, increasing the prosperity of the member states, and -- in contrast to the European states -- to ensure the defense of their national sovereignty and territorial integrity. They proclaim their support for Palestine with al-Quds (Jerusalem), as its capital, and exhort each other to promote human rights, basic freedoms, the state of law (shari'a), and democracy according to their constitutional and legal system -- in other words, compliance with shari'a.
The OIC supports all the jihadist movements considered to be resisting "foreign occupation," including those in "occupied" Indian Kashmir, and condemns the "humiliation and oppression" of Muslims in India. But one can note that Sudanese President Omar al Bashir, accused of genocide committed in Southern Sudan and Darfur, and has not been troubled by the Islamic Court of Justice. His colleagues at the OIC do not consider him in any way a criminal and receive him with great respect, as does Turkish PM Erdogan. They will not condemn the broad day killing of the chief of Jamiat-e Ahl-e Hadith in Kashmir, Maulana Showkat Ali.
Within its organization, the Charter presents characteristics similar to those of the EU; however, in terms of its spirit, functions, principles, and objectives, it is the EU's very antithesis. Present-day aspiration of the ummah to submit to a caliphate which embodies a combined political-religious institution can only surprise the Westerner and highlight the gap that separates the two. Rooted in individualism, Europeans cultivate the search for happiness and cherish freedom of thought and of rational, scientific exploration, which are perceived as a human being's greatest privilege and finest adventure. Conversely, aspiring to the Caliphate indicates the longing for a supreme authority owing its infallibility to Allah and his intermediary. According to Ibn Khaldoun, this institution placing politics at the service of worldwide, religious expansionism was created as instrument for the mandatory Islamization of mankind. However, non governmental agencies speaking in more realistic terms have found vital contradiction in the word and the deed that direct OIC.
Human Rights Watch says that OIC has "fought doggedly" and successfully within the United Nations Human Rights Council to shield states from criticism, except when it comes to criticism of Israel. For example, when independent experts reported violations of human rights in the 2006 Lebanon War, "state after state from the OIC took the floor to denounce the experts for daring to look beyond Israeli violations to discuss Hezbollah's as well." OIC demands that the council "should work cooperatively with abusive governments rather than condemn them." The OIC has been criticized for diverting its activities solely on Muslim minorities within majority non-Muslim countries but putting a taboo on the plight, the treatment of ethnic minorities within Muslim-majority countries or regions, such as the oppression of the Kurds in Syria, the Ahwaz in Iran, the Hazars in Afghanistan, the Baluchis in Pakistan, the 'Al-Akhdam' in Yemen, the Berbers in Algeria and the Pandits in Kashmir.
With all said and done, the tone and tenor of the address of the host, President Nursultan Nazabayev of Kazakhstan, who chaired the session, must have come like a bolt from the blue for the Caliphatists when he said, "There is a serious imbalance in development among the OIC countries. For example, GDP per capita between the most developed and least developed states differs by more than 100 times." He asked: Why are Islamic countries - with their immense natural and human resources, and financial capacities - at a modest level in the hierarchy of the global development? Why are Islamic universities not in the top leading higher educational institutions of the world? Why have there been no world scale discoveries in natural sciences and technology in Muslim countries over the last twenty years? It is impossible not to notice these realities. Apparently, neither money, nor rich natural resources will play a defining role in achieving innovations and the development of Islamic civilization. But the intellectual environment and socio-political climate will", he asserted.

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DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

HOW THE LOKPAL BILL CAN BE IMPROVED

BY PRAFUL BIDWAI

 

The roller-coaster ride of the Government-civil society Joint Drafting Committee on the Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill has ended in a draw, but left both sides badly injured. Whether the tie will be broken when they present their separate recommendations to a proposed all-party committee in July remains an open question. Yet, this is a good time to draw up a balance-sheet of the government's first-ever effort to take on board civil society concerns on fighting corruption.
The Government decided to set up the Committee because it panicked at the response that Anna Hazare's fast was drawing from the middle classes, which could "get out of hand". So great was its concern to create a safety valve through the Committee that it gave 50 percent representation to non-government members. If the Government started with bad faith, Team Anna too tarred all politicians with the same bribe-soaked brush and questioned the government's intentions.
The Committee debate was bound to be fractious. It was also accompanied by abuse and accusations. The shadow of Baba Ramdev's fast, and the government's gross mishandling of it, hung over the Committee's deliberations. That they resulted in at least partial agreement in nine rounds of meetings is an affirmation of the value of debate and reasoning on public policy issues.
There are not only substantive differences between the Committee's two components, but also differences over the area of agreement. Yet, optimistically, the areas of convergence and discord could both serve to take the debate forward and result in a better Lokpal Act than the Government would have drafted.
A precondition for this is that the Government doesn't scuttle the debate and the Congress party doesn't play its usual Machiavellian tactic of accepting under pressure cosmetic changes to the way its Government functions, without making it truly accountable. It would be suicidal for the Congress to do this when its government's credibility stands badly battered by numerous scams, the latest-and one of the greatest-involving the padding up by $6 billion the capital expenditure claimed by Reliance Industries on Krishna-Godavari gas, at public expense.
So, assuming the Congress plays clean, how should the government and Team Anna alter their Lokpal Bill drafts? The main differences pertain to the inclusion of the Prime Minister's Office and the higher judiciary under the Lokpal's ambit; the Lokpal's appointment and removal; funding; putting the CBI's anti-corruption wing under the Lokpal; the term of punishment for corruption; and extending the Lokpal's ambit to the conduct of MPs in Parliament.
Some matters have been sorted out, including the size of the Lokpal team (11 members) and a separate investigation wing for the Lokpal. The Government agrees the Lokpal can prosecute public servants without prior Government sanction.
The Government insists that the Prime Minister should be excluded from the Lokpal's ambit. At maximum, the Lokpal would receive complaints against the PM, but defer investigation until s/he demits office. In support, it cites the report of the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution (2002) set up by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, which said "The nation cannot afford to have a Prime Minister under a cloud …. The PM should not be subjected to [the] Lokpal as this would severely impair his independence and freedom of judgment."
There is merit in this argument. The Lokpal should not destabilise the Government or make the PM dysfunctional. But whether a mere investigation would do so is questionable. Rajiv Gandhi didn't stop functioning after the Bofors investigation started. Nor was PV Narasimha Rao paralysed by the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha bribery scandal.
All these areas should be brought under the Lokpal's scrutiny with adequate safeguards to rule out frivolous complaints. The PM's authority should not be wantonly weakened-unless a strong prima facie case of corruption, or misjudgment leading to corruption or defrauding of the exchequer, is established. The Lokpal's scrutiny should cover the scope for corruption contained in policies initiated or shaped by the PMO.
There is a good case for excluding the higher judiciary from the Lokpal's ambit, and subjecting it to the proposed National Judicial Commission. This will avert a potential conflict of interest with the Lokpal, who must petition the Supreme Court in certain cases.
Team Anna would like the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Chief Election Commissioner to be part of the Lokpal selection committee, in addition to the PM, the Speaker, Leaders of the Opposition in both Houses of Parliament, the Home Minister, senior bureaucrats, etc. This should prove no great obstacle. The Government should also consider how to bring corrupt bureaucrats under the Lokpal's purview. The Lokpal should be able to recommend disciplinary proceedings against them once their guilt is established.
However, Team Anna must also show some flexibility. It should not see the Lokpal as a countervailing force to the Government or a permanent supervisory authority. That simply doesn't make sense in a democracy, where the executive has its own autonomous function, subject to checks and balances, and to the overall separation of powers.
Team Anna is totally wrong to demand a huge budget for the Lokpal-one-quarter of the government's gross revenues-, and to insist on a life sentence for corruption.
The Committee's civil society members are mistaken in exaggerating the Lokpal's role in fighting corruption. It's hard to accept that "a major reason for … rampant, widespread corruption is the lack of an independent, empowered, and accountable anti-corruption institution that can … credibly investigate complaints of corruption …".
Corruption is widespread largely because of other reasons, including an economic policy regime that encourages privatisation of common property resources through sweetheart deals and a politician-bureaucrat-businessman nexus; the rise of super-greedy entrepreneurs; collapse of the integrity of the civil service; poor monitoring and supervision of important public service delivery programmes; and a dysfunctional delivery justice system.
The Lokpal is no silver bullet. S/he would come into the picture typically after corruption has already occurred. But to stop, prevent and control corruption, it is necessary to look at many places, especially where corruption affects the poor. This will need administrative reform, social audits of important programmes, grievance redressal, and transparency in appointments-and new laws, including a Judicial Accountability Bill, Protection of Whistleblowers Bill, and Rights to Services Bill. No less important is reform of the police. Only 11 states have legislated the Police Commission-recommended new police Act.
These measures will promote accountable governance, reduce the scope for diversion of public resources, and prevent and punish corruption. It's only when we create enforceable entitlements to public services that we can eliminate the scope offered by discretionary powers and the sheer bullying authority of the local constable over the vegetable vendor or paan-bidi shopkeeper. This will help foster accountability and responsibility on the part of Government functionaries.
Fighting corruption is a priority. But it must be fought in ways that strengthen democracy without creating new unaccountable power centres. One can only hope that Team Anna's adversarial posture-natural and necessary in such contestations-does not blind it to this reality. The Government too must understand that its legitimacy would be undermined if it betrays its promise to act in good faith in drafting an effective Lokpal law. (IPA)

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DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

ECO-SYSTEM, LIFE AND DEVELOPMENT

BY KABUL SINGH RAJPUT

 

Eco-system, life and development are inter-related and extensively inter-dependent. Requisite eco-system originates life and sustains it. Life struggles for existence and development by making scientific inventions leading to industrialization undertaking remedial measures to maintain life sustaining eco-system.
The life sustaining eco-system has to be neat and clean, pure and serene, calm and quiet, smoke and dust free and densely vegetated with plenty of water sources. The physiography of the area having dense vegetable, neat and clean topography and drainage system i.e. tributaries and distributaries and presence of water bodies like lagoons, lakes, estuaries, springs and ponds contribute much more to the eco-system.
Imbalance in eco-system affects the life and thus, maintaining of life-sustaining eco-system becomes an essential and bounden duty of the Government as well as of public.
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India has laid down rules and regulations and amendments from time to time for strictly observing the same so that eco-system is protected for survival of life.
To set up projects and industries, environmental clearance is to be sought from Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India and is granted only to those who adopt necessary methods and mitigation measures to maintain life sustainable eco-system.
The different departments of environment, forests and wild life of Centre as well of State Governments are entrusted the main duties to protect and develop them. These departments respectively are duty bound to undertake necessary measures to maintain eco-system for keeping the environment neat and clean, afforest the deforested portions of forests and grow and develop the wild life. Are these departments doing their duty honestly and sincerely, is the question? And this can be well judged from the state of environments, forests and wild life in every province and state of the country. The departments of Himachal Pradesh evidently appear to be performing the job effectively.
Public has to play a great role in maintaining and developing the eco-system. Every vacant space available anywhere or along the roads, tracks, paths and lanes ought to be vegetated. The available vacant spaces in the house accommodations also need to be vegetated instead of making them concrete.
Pollution caused by the public by plying vehicles on roads, streets and lanes is needed to be controlled. The vehicular conveyance ought to only be used when very essentially required . The means of conveyance and transport which do not use P.O.L, may be preferred because it will help to balance the eco-system and shall save petrol and diesel.
In most of the cities, 90% of the population is diseased as there are more industries or factories. The vehicular traffic being run by the inhabitants of that city as a means of conveyance is polluting its environment by emitting heat, smoke, dirt and dust.
Concluding, it is emphasized that every department and citizen of India ought to understand the importance of eco-system and devise various means besides enumerate above to contribute honestly and sincerely to maintain the eco-system for the sustenance of life. Comparatively, imbalance in eco-system is very less being caused by industrialization than otherwise.

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

REAL ISSUE IN AFGHANISTAN

IT'S TIME TO WIN OVER THE TALIBAN

 

Most experts on Afghanistan are convinced that former US President George Bush's strategy of using the military to establish peace in that strife-torn country has proved to be a failure. The various Taliban factions, the real source of trouble in Afghanistan, remain as potent a force as they were ever. Even the country's capital, Kabul, is not out of bounds for them.

 

Nine Taliban suicide bombers, believed to be men of the Haqqani faction, attacked Kabul's Intercontinental Hotel, popular with Westerners, on Wednesday in a daring manner. It is a different matter that they were soon killed by NATO forces. Yet 11 civilians and two policemen lost their lives. NATO's intervention came because the authorities were not confident of the Afghan security forces successfully handling the situation.

 

The Taliban factions continue to control large parts of Afghanistan despite the US-led multinational forces remaining there in large numbers. The extremists have not been defeated militarily and there is no hope of their getting vanquished in this manner in the future. The sceptics should revise their opinion now when one of the most respected experts on Afghanistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Britain's former Ambassador in Kabul, has expressed the view that it is not possible to achieve "the wider strategic goal of stabilising Afghanistan to the point where the Afghan authorities can secure and govern the country with only money and advise from outside". Almost similar observations were made by senior military leaders of the US after President Barack Obama occupied the White House. Thus, the Obama strategy of withdrawal from Afghanistan is based on sound logic: Why waste your resources when the goal is not achievable militarily?

 

The best way out of the Afghan imbroglio is to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table. This is what is being done in the case of what are described as the "good Taliban". Keeping in view the emerging reality, India will have to review its strategy so that the enormous investments it has made in various sectors in Afghanistan do not go waste. Most Taliban factions are anti-India, but those who may join the government in Kabul as part of a future arrangement may change their thinking. They are basically power-hungry and may not behave the way they did in the late nineties when they ruled Afghanistan.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

COMPENSATION FOR RAPE?

THE MOVE COMPROMISES WOMEN'S DIGNITY

 

As if the low conviction rate (a dismal 27 per cent) in rape cases was not enough to push up the rising graph of rape incidents, now comes a proposal from the Centre to compensate rape victims. The effort, claimed to be "restorative justice", will, in fact, subvert the already slow process of justice for the victims.

 

This unique way of delivering "justice" by offering financial assistance between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 3 lakh to a traumatised rape victim by the government supports former Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan's view expressed during a speech. He said, "Due regard must be given to their (the rape victims') personal autonomy since in some cases the victim may choose to marry the perpetrator or choose to give birth to a child conceived through forced intercourse."

 

In many societies which may be considered primitive, similar practices are followed under the garb of social justice. In Namibia, the parents of a rape victim get the issue settled through the traditional court; the culprits' parents compensate them with money or cattle. In many countries, Islamic courts have asked the rapist to marry the victim. If these solutions are regressive for a modern society like ours that claims to offer equal rights to all, why should rape victims be treated perpetually as vulnerable, and not as equal contenders for their right to live with dignity? What justice will the government offer to a victim of rape whose financial needs are nil?

 

At a time when human rights advocates are deliberating upon punitive laws for marital rape, is it not irresponsible to talk of financial compensation for rape victims? Like the practice of offering blood money, it will only absolve the perpetrator of legal and moral responsibility and the consequences of committing a heinous crime. If the government sincerely wants to control incidents of rape, it should allow rape cases to be handled by fast- track courts and free the administrative and law-enforcing machinery of its caste biases. There is need to ensure that another Bhanwari Devi does not waste her 15 years in the courts, without getting justice.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

IT'S NOT CRICKET

RULES REMAIN FAR TOO FLEXIBLE

 

The International Cricket Council's decision to scrap the use of runners from all forms of the game, like every major issue, can be argued from both sides. On the one side are those who think this is a move in the right direction since this system has come in for abuse quite frequently.There have been many instances of batsmen feigning injury in order to bring in a runner.

 

As senior batsmen grow in age and girth, they tend to slow down between the wickets. So, injuries are feigned and a runner is called, who almost always is younger and faster. Two things are achieved — the senior batsman gets some rest and the younger lot can convert singles into twos and twos into threes, shoring up the team total. But on the other side are veterans like Sunil Gavaskar, who think that the bowlers and fielders also flout fitness norms, even more than the batsmen do.

 

This is true to an extent since fielders can call in substitutes at any stage, and the penalties for not being on the field for the entire session or day, and then coming in to bat, are minimal. Gavaskar is right in saying that bowlers get energy drinks at the boundary after every over but, then, even batsmen have extra fielders running in at the drop of a hat with drink bottles. The rules of cricket are far too flexible and all cricketers bend them as per their own convenience. While Gavaskar himself may not have used a runner, everyone in the game takes the advantage of these rules somewhere down the line.

 

In any event, cricket is a batsman's game, and this ban on the use of runners is not something that shifts the balance radically. Even the adoption of the Decision Review System shows how rules can be bent. As the BCCI agrees to the principle of using reviews, they have not really moved an inch from their original stand. In the end, the BCCI still gets away with its stand while the ICC portrays that it has prevailed. That is not quite true.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

ARTICLE

INFLATION IS BACK

THE NUMBER OF POOR IN INDIA MAY RISE

BY JAYSHREE SENGUPTA

 

High inflation is back with us — it is reflected by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) which rose to 9.06 per cent in May 2011. Now the diesel, kerosene and cooking gas price hike will make things worse for the common man. Food inflation, which had receded on June 4 to 8.9 per cent, is also back at 9.13 per cent.

 

India is experiencing the fastest increase in prices among the big emerging market countries (Brazil, Russia, China) which is already having deep ramifications on foreign investment and its stock markets. Inflation in China, causing problems of competitiveness to its manufactures, is almost half (5.5 per cent) of that in India. Basically, the Government of India is facing problems of mismanagement and lack of governance in being able to control runaway prices. The Central government is not taking enough strong steps either to stop corruption or arrest the rising inequalities or tackling inflation. Regarding stock markets, India's is one of the worst performing ones and even Pakistan's stock market is doing better. Inflation in India is discouraging foreign institutional investments.

 

The Reserve Bank of India has raised interest rates 10 times since March 2010 to control inflation, and its adverse impact on the demand for goods and services, investment and corporate profits is already visible. The Index of Industrial Production fell to 6.3 per cent in April from 8.8 per cent in March 2011. The GDP growth has also slowed down to 7.8 per cent in the three months ending March 31. Unfortunately, the multiple rate hikes have not been able to tame inflation.

 

Some basic problems of the Indian economy also remain unresolved. In agriculture, inadequacies in infrastructure, mainly in storage space, irrigation and transport of perishable goods, remain. The minimum support prices for foodgrains, on the other hand, have been raised again which means that there will certainly be higher foodgrain prices next season despite the bumper crop.

 

The hike in diesel prices will hit all transportation costs and it will have a cascading effect on the prices of all commodities. Another petrol price hike is also imminent, given the current losses of the government oil companies. The excise and customs duty cuts on petroleum products, aimed at relieving the burden on the common man, will mean Rs 49,000 crore revenue loss for the government's exchequer which will cause problems in controlling the size of the fiscal deficit.

 

How will the poor cope with high food and non-food inflation? Even going by the Planning Commission figures, there are over 300 million people living in abject poverty. According to it, there are less poor today than three years ago and poverty is supposed to have come down from 37 per cent to 32 per cent in 2009-2010. But there are many more millions who are just "above the poverty line" and are still miserably poor.

 

India's growth story could indeed be spoilt if we have large numbers of poor without skills, employability and good health, and also have high inflation. This is because with meagre incomes in times of inflation, poor people spend a large chunk of their earnings on food which leaves them with very little for other essential requirements like health, education, housing and nutrition of children. It is a dangerous situation as it affects the welfare of the future generation.

 

In many parts of India, poverty is persisting and people are getting deeper into it. This is the case in tribal areas where the level of human development is very low, and people inhabiting those areas have for centuries depended on forest produce. With their land taken away from them by the state and sold to private mining or manufacturing companies, a sizeable tribal population has nothing to live on. They are not trained in skills and cannot get jobs. They are easy recruits for the Maoists, who keep looking for disgruntled youth having no future.

 

Unskilled labourers, who have no assets but only labour to sell, are also at the risk of remaining poor for generations and with high inflation, their expenditure on education and health of children will fall further.

 

While it is true that the Indian middle class is growing and more than before people are enjoying foreign travel, can afford private schools for their children and own cars, houses/ flats, yet there are millions who are outside this charmed circle and are suffering multiple kinds of deprivation. The middle class does not mind a hike in petrol/diesel prices because it is a small proportion of its budget, but the poor have to pay higher prices for all goods. Inflation is making the poor poorer.

 

Instead of concentrating on controlling inflation through hikes in interest rate and expecting people to save more and spend less by raising EMIs (equated monthly instalments), the government ought to make its public distribution system, health care, water supply, education and public transport facilities more efficient and accessible.

 

In times of high inflation, subsidised foodgrains help the poor because these provide for their basic nutritional needs. But, instead of trying to improve it by plugging the loopholes, the government seems keen to dismantle it and substitute it with direct cash subsidies from next year.

 

The poor ought to have more access to public goods than the rich which is the basis of an egalitarian society. Here in India, more and more people are going for personalised transport — cars and two wheelers — choking the roads and highways and increasing congestion and air pollution because of lack of a satisfactory public transport system. All industrialised countries have spent huge amounts on an efficient public transport system over decades, and have encouraged people to use mass rapid transport facilities, but this is not the case in India so far. This lack of efficient/cheap transport will affect the poor more.

 

The EU members, Canada and Nordic countries also have an efficient health care system and a good public schooling facility. In India, even the poor have to go to private clinics and hospitals.

 

The water supply system is also good in most developed countries, where everyone has access to tap water. In India, water treatment plants are not doing a sufficiently good job, and most urban people (even the poor) drink filtered, boiled or bottled water, adding to the cost of living of the average citizen.

 

As for rural India, inflation is having a severe impact on the health of children and their schooling. Higher kerosene prices will increase the lighting and cooking expenditure of the rural population. The rural poor will suffer in many ways and this will have long-term effects on human development in the country.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

NO FIDDLING WITH DRUGS

BY JUPINDERJIT SINGH

 

The intoxication caused by bhang (cannabis) is probably the worst, especially for an unassuming victim. Years ago, I became one such hapless victim consuming it by mistake.

 

For three days, I floated in a vicious endless circle, gripped in fear and reliving the events that took place immediately after I was tricked by my two colleagues in Patiala into taking a strong dose of bhang as prasad on Shivratri day.

 

It was all fun for others though. I just remember putting a paper into the typewriter until a colleague shook me.

 

He saw me staring fixedly at the plain paper with my hands in the air and fingers pointing towards the keypad, "Bhang has gripped your head," he said.

 

I felt fear.

 

He took me to our boss who laughed as I repeated many times, "Sir, I have taken Bhang prasad. I am intoxicated." He ordered the colleague to take me home and directed me that I should take some rum or whisky that was a good antidote.

 

Riding pillion on the colleague's black Vespa, I kept repeating, "I have got bhang nasha(intoxication). Bhaji (Sir) said go home and take rum. I will recover."

 

The colleague recalls much more. I pulled his hair and ears at the sight of vehicles, especially trucks coming from the opposite direction. I shrieked in fear and gripped him so tight that he was almost strangled. At the same time, I kept repeating, "I have got bhang nasha….."

 

My mom had a fit of laughter as I kept saying the same sentence again and again. She gave me three glasses of buttermilk and later a huge quantity of mango pickles on the advice of concerned neighbours.

 

In my mind, events repeated themselves. I was at the office, sitting, telling the boss, on the road, coming home, seeking rum, made to lie down, getting up out of fear and people laughing and lying down again. My boss called me a couple of times only to be flabbergasted when I said, "Bhaji, I got bhang nasha…" and repeated everything.

 

Eventually, on the third day, my father returned from some outstation work and gave me rum. I came back to reality within a few hours. By that time I had consumed buckets of buttermilk and over a kg of pickles as well.

 

The two tricksters had their own harrowing time. One of them belonged to a hill station and was for the last few days crossing a narrow trench dug for laying telephone wires, on the way of our office. That day he couldn't dare ply his scooter on a small plank over the trench, "It is a deep khud (gorge)." It took 8 or 10 people to lift him across while he resisted his best.

 

The second one got stuck at traffic lights.

 

He kept accelerating his Chetak scooter without putting it in gears as the lights turned red to green to red to again green and so on. Eventually, a friendly cop helped him by pushing his vehicle with the help of others as my colleague sat on the vehicle shouting 'vroooommm'.

 

He used gears later but got stuck at the next intersection and the next as well before somehow reaching home. We all laugh at it now but we tell all not to play such tricks.

 

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

MIND OVER MATTER

THE OMEGA WAVE

 

Are you unhappy with your children's performance in exams? Disturbed with their behaviour? Worried about their lack of concentration? There is mounting evidence to suggest that children who eat a diet containing sufficient Omega 3 fats are better behaved, more intelligent and even show lower levels of allergies
D. S. Samloke

 

Modern-day parents are facing new challenges in the growing needs of their children, which directly impact their academic results, behaviour and concentration. Junk food, coupled with an increased intake of processed food by growing children, is not adequate enough to take care of their nutritional needs. Most of us have had a harrowing time with these problems, despite expecting great performance from them by sending them to the best of schools that we could afford.

 

Some common problems in children can be anxiety, depression, aggression, mental performance, temperament, relationship disturbances with friends and family, poor-school performance, behavioural regression, phobia, thumbsucking, repetitive movements of muscle groups, stuttering, dysfluent speech, anxiety disorders, fearfulness, disruptive behaviour, arson, anti-social behaviour, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, careless mistakes, avoiding sustained mental effort, fidgeting, impulsiveness, sleep disorders and a score of more such problems.

 

The world-over scientists, researchers and doctors have documented some studies, which are as surprising as revealing. There is mounting evidence to suggest that children, who eat a diet containing sufficient Omega 3s, are better behaved, more intelligent and even show lower levels of allergies.

 

What is Omega 3? Two fats, which are essential to good health, are called Omega 3 and Omega 6. These belong to a family of polyunsaturated fatty acids known as "essential fatty acids" or EFAs. These fats are vital for good health and normal growth. These are called "essential" because the body cannot manufacture these fats, or store much of these fats. These fats have to be taken through the diet. In other words, they have to be eaten regularly. To make matters more complicated — Omega 3 and 6 only maintain their status as "Good Fats" when these are eaten in the right balance.

 

The typical diet that our children eat contains too much of Omega 6 and too little of Omega 3 fats. That's way we need to increase our intake of Omega 3 in isolation, as our Omega 6 intake is normally sufficient. Alpha Linolenic Acid (ALA) is the principal Omega 3 fatty acid, which a healthy human being will convert into eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and later into docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). EPA and the gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) synthesised from linoleic (Omega-6) acid are later converted into hormone-like compounds known as eicosanoids, which aid in many bodily functions, including vital organ functions and intra-cellular activity.

 

Omega 3s are used in the formation of cell walls, making the walls supple and flexible, and improving circulation and oxygen uptake with proper red-blood cell flexibility and function. Omega 3 deficiencies are linked to decreased memory and mental abilities, tingling sensation of the nerves, poor vision, increased tendency to form blood clots, diminished immune function, increased triglycerides and "bad" cholesterol (LDL) levels, impaired membrane function, hypertension, irregular heartbeat, learning disorders, menopausal discomfort, itchiness on the front of the lower leg(s), and growth retardation in infants, children and pregnant women.

 

In an intensive trial conducted by Dr Alex Richardson, a senior research fellow in physiology at Mansfield College, University of Oxford, and Madeleine Portwood, a special educational psychologist with the Durham Local Education Authority, it was reported by the BBC, UK, that statistically significant improvement was seen in the school performance in the group of children who were given Omega 3 supplements.

 

The dramatic effects of Omega 3 fatty acids on the children in the Durham trial may hinge on several functions of fatty acids in the brain. It was found that Omega 3s may make it easier for signals to cross the gap between brain cells and also improve brain function at the very simplest level, by improving blood flow. However, studies such as the Durham trial suggest that all is not lost, and that boosting Omega 3 intake may still confer significant benefits.

 

Western diets contain very little Omega 3 fatty acid. Hydrogenation, the process used to give foods a long shelf life, removes them. But certain people may break down Omega 3 fatty acids faster than others. Some of the children, who showed greatest improvement in the Durham trial, might fall into this category.

 

According to the American Dietetic Association, adults should receive 20 to 35 per cent of energy from dietary fats, avoiding saturated and trans or "bad" fats, and increasing intake of Omega 3 fatty acids. The association also found that substitution of canola oil for fat commonly used in the US would increase compliance with dietary recommendations for fatty acids, particularly in lowering saturated fat and increasing heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.

 

Dr Basant Puri, a consultant psychiatrist and senior lecturer at London's Imperial College, released his findings on Omega 3 and its effect on brain function and depression.

 

 

It was found that:

 

l Daily supplements of Omega 3 fatty acids will boost the brain development of children by three years in only three months. Scans showed their brains developed three years in as many months as nerve fibres grew additional branches.

 

l Children given capsules of Omega 3 grew additional "grey matter" which helps intelligence.

 

l Brain scans, which showed the evidence of changes, were reinforced by results in tests of reading, concentration and short-term memory.

 

l Children, who took part in the study, increased their reading ability by an average of a year and a quarter during the Omega 3 trial. The average increase in their reading age was a year and a quarter and their handwriting became more accurate.

 

Studies over the past two years have consistently confirmed that Omega 3, a substance lacking in today's diet, is a key component in the brain's development and proper functioning. While the benefits of Omega 3 fatty acids can be noticed on many levels, the biggest breakthroughs documented have occurred in improved mental functions and health. Omega 3 has been reported to be effective in the treatment of depression.

 

The main reported benefits of Omega 3 for the body occur in the heart. The American Heart Association recommends including oils and foods rich in alphalinolenic acid (canola, flaxseeds and walnuts) in order to reduce the likelihood of heart disease.

 

While research is still ongoing into the effects of Omega 3 on the heart, research so far date has shown that Omega 3 fats decrease the risk of arrhythmias, which can lead to sudden cardiac death, decrease triglyceride levels, decrease growth rate of atherosclerotic plaque, lower blood pressure. Additionally, Omega 3 has been reported to be effective as an anti-inflammatory. And according to an article by Judith Horstman for Arthritis Today, there is strong evidence that oil supplements with Omega 3 fatty acids can ease rheumatoid arthritis (RA) symptoms.

 

The problem is to identify the most commonly used diet without changing your lifestyle a lot. It can be seen that cooking oil can be the one common link in each one of our lives. It can be a good source of Omega 3 nutrition for not only our children but also for the parents too, if chosen carefully.

 

It is said the Japanese have been found to have very low incidence of depression, heart diseases and their children have been found to be the most intelligent, due to their Omega 3-rich diet. Any good doctor or nutritionist will tell you that the best way to get any nutrient is to go right to the source and eat it through the foods in which they originate. In the case of Omega 3, this would most likely be in the form of canola oil, fatty fish, flaxseed, walnuts etc. And it is a relief to know that finally a small change in dietary habits like switching over to healthier oils like canola can bring about a turnaround in the family's health.

 

It is said "you are what you eat" but now it also seems that "you act what you eat", too.

 

(Dr D. S. Samloke is a practicing physician, child psychologist and researcher in the fields of child behaviour and intelligence).

 

Tall claims

 

l Most of the cooking oils lay tall claims as being Omega 3 rich but the truth is that, either their percentage of Omega 3 is too less or the ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 is badly skewed. The lower the ratio, the better the oil.

 

l Here are the Omega 3 content and ratios of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids in some common cooking oils:

 

l Canola oil like Jivo (content 11 per cent), Ratio 1:2

 

l Olive oils like Figaro and Leonardo (1 per cent), 1:13

 

l Sunflower oils like Sundrop and Sweekar (1 per cent), 1:71

 

l Safflower oils like Saffola 1:88

 

l Soybean oils like Fortune and Nature Fresh (7 per cent), 1:7

 

l Corn oils (1 per cent), 1:57

 

l Groundnut oils (negligible Omega 3) and

 

l Palm oils like Ruchi Gold (negligible Omega 3).

 

l Typical Western diets provide ratios between 1:10 and 1:30 - i.e., dramatically higher levels of Omega 6.

 

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EDITORIAL

A POVERTY OF STATISTICS

TOO MANY BASELESS CONCLUSIONS ARE BEING DRAWN FROM BAD DATA

The Planning Commission, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) and the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) are being overseen by some of the brightest minds in the Indian government for many years now. Both together and individually they have made a travesty of the data being brought out, debated and used for policy making. Thus, whether it is poverty or employment, the figures are so far away from reality that it is unclear whether they should be used even in an indicative manner.

As is well known, poverty figures computed by the Planning Commission are based on a survey that captures less than half of the total household consumption expenditure. Yet the same organisations complain that the poverty figures are way too low! If actual consumption was more than double that reported by the NSSO, would poverty levels not be much lower? This is now being followed by another farcical exercise in which the government is going to identify who is poor and who is not by looking at a combination of reported caste occupation and assets owned. What happened to the great system designed by the late P C Mahalanobis, which was arguably among the best in the world?

 

Employment figures are another farce being played out by organisations that have been made defunct. The great hungama over how India has had jobless growth continues, with few paying attention to the quality of data or the role of policy. According to a new theory that has been floated, Indian unemployment figures are not comparable internationally because most Indians are self-employed! These arguments can only be offered by the Planning Commission and the economists/statisticians it employs and consults. On a similar note, organised-sector employment estimates from the NSSO data are found to be 30 million or thereabouts for more than two decades. Meanwhile, the number of Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) account holders is in the vicinity of 45 million. Why can the NSSO not make a more realistic estimate? The answer lies not in its sampling or quality of data collection; it simply does not ask the obvious questions. And no one bothers to change the questionnaire, which is more or less the same as in the seventies. It is well known to everyone except those in the ministry of statistics and programme implementation as well as the Planning Commission that the organised sector in India has circumvented many rigid labour laws by hiring temporary and/or contract workers. In some cases, employment from the organised sector has been outsourced to entities in the unorganised sector. In many of these "newer" models of employment, provident fund is still paid and, consequently, organisations such as the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation can capture it, but the Planning Commission and the CSO cannot.

Employment is by far the most important measure of economic activity. It is also an objective in itself and perhaps one of the best measures of inclusive growth. But its character is far more complex today than in the past — there are the regular employees, temporary employees, on-demand staff, contract employees, paid internships, both paid and unpaid work in family businesses, apprentices, and so on. In addition, many people are simultaneously undertaking more than one type of income- earning activity. The tools used to measure employment in the sixties and the seventies will not work half a century later. India needs more up-to-date and robust employment data so that meaningful conclusions can be drawn about the nature of the growth process and its impact on jobs.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

WASTING FOOD

THERE ARE BETTER WAYS TO CURB IT THAN A GUEST CONTROL ORDER

No one can deny that in a country like India, wasting food and ostentatious consumption at social gatherings are a social crime. A social movement espousing moderation in consumption habits would instantly strike a chord with a large number of Indians. Also, few would deny that India's newly rich and upwardly mobile like to indulge in conspicuous consumption to show off to their peers and neighbours that they have arrived. From your neighbourhood get-rich-quick real estate broker to the new billionaires, everyone who has come into wealth likes to show off, especially at family events like a wedding or a birthday party. So, the idea of promoting temperance and moderation, of campaigning against wastage, is well taken. Yet, visible prosperity of the upwardly mobile has the positive social externality of encouraging the less energetic to work harder and be smarter. "Enrich yourself", the famous slogan attributed to China's great moderniser Deng Xiaoping, can spur enterprise and growth. So a campaign against conspicuous consumption will have its advocates and critics. However, few would suggest that reviving the old 1960's Guest Control Order (GCO), introduced in an era of war, drought and "ship-to-mouth" dependence on imported food, is the best way to address the problem of food going to waste. Yet, and perhaps not surprisingly, an official group headed by secretary, consumer affairs, Government of India, constituted to suggest ways to address the problem of food wastage at public gatherings and social functions, is considering a revival of GCO. Few today may recall that GCO bred corruption and contributed to needless harassment and to hypocritical response from those who obeyed the law in theory and ignored it in practice.

The fact is that the real wastage of food is happening between farm and the retail market. Post-harvest loss of foodgrain has been recently estimated to be as much as Rs 44,000 crore a year. Worse, between 30 and 50 per cent of all fruit and vegetables produced in the country are spoiled at various stages of their handling, and at least one study calculates the loss to be almost Rs 28,000 crore. Besides, huge quantities of foodgrain perish every year owing to rot and mismanagement at the godowns of the Food Corporation of India. At present, over five million tonnes of foodgrain are officially stated to be lying in the premises of government godowns without proper shelter, running the risk of spoilage in the ongoing monsoon season. Compared to all this, the total wastage of cooked food at social events would be peanuts, so to speak! The best way to deal with food wastage by the rich is to launch a social awareness campaign against conspicuous consumption, addressed to school children and young adults. The young can be great agents of change.

 

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

MARTIN FELDSTEIN WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THE US ECONOMY?

EACH NEW ROUND OF DATA INCREASES THE PROBABILITY OF ANOTHER DOWNTURN IN THE US ECONOMY

MARTIN FELDSTEIN

 

Each new round of data increases the probability of another downturn in the US economy

The American economy has recently slowed dramatically, and the probability of another economic downturn increases with each new round of data. This is a sharp change from the economic situation at the end of last year — and represents a return to the very weak pace of expansion since the recovery began in the summer of 2009.

Economic growth in the United States during the first three quarters of 2010 was not only slow, but was also dominated by inventory accumulation rather than sales to consumers or other forms of final sales. The last quarter of 2010 brought a welcome change, with consumer spending rising at a four per cent annual rate, enough to increase total real GDP by 3.1 per cent from the third quarter to the fourth. The economy seemed to have escaped its dependence on inventory accumulation.

This favourable performance led private forecasters and government officials to predict continued strong growth in 2011, with higher production, employment and incomes leading to further increases in consumer spending and a self-sustaining recovery. A one-year cut of the payroll tax rate by two percentage points was enacted in order to lock in this favourable outlook.

Unfortunately, the projected recovery in consumer spending didn't occur. The rise in food and energy prices outpaced the gain in nominal wages, causing real average weekly earnings to decline in January, while the continued fall in home prices reduced wealth for the majority of households. As a result, real personal consumer expenditures rose at an annual rate of just about one per cent in January, down from the previous quarter's four per cent increase.

That pattern of rising prices and declining real earnings repeated itself in February and March, with a sharp rise in the consumer price index causing real average weekly earnings to decline at an annual rate of more than five per cent. Not surprisingly, survey measures of consumer sentiment fell sharply and consumer spending remained almost flat from month to month.

The fall in house prices pushed down sales of both new and existing homes. That, in turn, caused a dramatic decline in the volume of housing starts and housing construction. That decline is likely to continue, because nearly 30 per cent of homes with mortgages are worth less than the value of the mortgage. This creates a strong incentive to default, because mortgages in the US are effectively non-recourse loans: the creditor may take the property if the borrower doesn't pay, but cannot take other assets or a portion of wage income. As a result, 10 per cent of mortgages are now in default or foreclosure, creating an overhang of properties that will have to be sold at declining prices.

Businesses have responded negatively to the weakness of household demand, with indices maintained by the Institute of Supply Management falling for both manufacturing and service firms. Although large firms continue to have very substantial cash on their balance sheets, their cash flow from current operations fell in the first quarter. The most recent measure of orders for non-defence capital goods signalled a decline in business investment.

The pattern of weakness accelerated in April and May. The relatively rapid rise in payroll employment that occurred in the first four months of the year came to a halt in May, when only 54,000 new jobs were created, less than one-third of the average for employment growth in the first four months. As a result, the unemployment rate rose to 9.1 per cent of the labour force.

The bond market and share prices have responded to all of this bad news in a predictable fashion. The interest rate on 10-year government bonds fell to three per cent, and the stock market declined for six weeks in a row, the longest bearish stretch since 2002, with a cumulative fall in share prices of more than six per cent. Lower share prices will now have negative effects on consumer spending and business investment.

Monetary and fiscal policies cannot be expected to turn this situation around. The US Federal Reserve will maintain its policy of keeping the overnight interest rate at near zero, but, given a fear of asset-price bubbles, it will not reverse its decision to end its policy of buying Treasury bonds – so-called "quantitative easing" – at the end of June.

Moreover, fiscal policy will actually be contractionary in the months ahead. The fiscal stimulus programme enacted in 2009 is coming to an end, with stimulus spending declining from $400 billion in 2010 to only $137 billion this year. And negotiations are under way to cut spending more and raise taxes in order to reduce further the fiscal deficits projected for 2011 and later years.

So the near-term outlook for the US economy is weak at best. Fundamental policy changes will probably have to wait until after the presidential and congressional elections in November 2012.

The author is professor of economics at Harvard, was chairman of President Ronald Reagan's Council of Economic Advisers and is former president of the National Bureau for Economic Research

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2011.
www.project-syndicate.org

For a podcast of this commentary, please use this link:
http://media.blubrry.com/ps/media.libsyn.com/media/ps/feldstein37.mp3

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF A CLASSIC

JOHN RAWLS' A THEORY OF JUSTICE PROVIDED A METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATION TO DEEPLY DIVIDED LITERATURE ON HUMAN WELFARE COMBINING ECONOMICS AND PHILOSOPHY

RAJEEV ANANTARAM

The year 1971 saw the arrival of two stellar intellectual contributions that would eventually revolutionise the discourse in their respective fields. Susan Strange's Sterling and British Policy: A Political Study of an International Currency in Decline (Oxford University Press) was the first major work to give substance to the idea of a merger of economics and politics. Ms Strange's subsequent work (along with other significant contributions, notably from Robert Gilpin) provided the intellectual foundation for International Political Economy, a field that has grown by leaps and bounds over four decades and continues to make seminal contributions as the world grapples with the aftermath of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression.

John Rawls' A Theory of Justice (Harvard University Press) was the other. While Ms Strange was an intellectual pioneer of sorts, Dr Rawls' genius lay in providing a methodological foundation to a dense and deeply divided literature on human welfare that straddled economics and philosophy. Intellect apart, it took uncommon courage of conviction to seek to overturn what was (despite sporadic criticism) the most deep-rooted tenet of the Anglo-American philosophical tradition, Utilitarianism, which posited that justice was best defined as that "which provided the greatest good for the greatest number". It should come as no surprise that "maximising efficiency" is, in turn, the guiding dictum of Utilitarianism and by extension neo-classical economics, with its strong roots in positivism.

 

Dr Rawls' arguments went beyond efficiency and focused on fair outcomes. In doing so, he insisted that even "efficient" outcomes would be normatively guided if they were to be fair. Dr Rawls' preoccupation with distributive justice did not constrain his pragmatism in any way. The Difference Principle, the point of departure in Dr Rawls' work, was motivated by an uncompromising tenet — equal respect for all people. Given that the wealth in an economy varied from one period to the next, the most common (and "fair") way of producing more wealth is to have a system where those who are more productive earn greater incomes without making anybody worse off. While it may sound utopian at first glance, it has exerted considerable influence on various branches of economic theory ranging from social choice theory to mechanism design, which seek to minimise the adverse effects of market imperfections.

A Theory of Justice was anything but an exercise in idealism. It was intended to provide insights into the vexing questions of the day, mainly involving the distribution of the fruits of economic growth. For example, Dr Rawls' main concern was with the relative welfare of the individual as opposed to the absolute level. This has important implications for social policy on issues ranging from income distribution within societies as well as at the level of the firm. Dr Rawls' arguments refute the position long held by neo-classicists that income differences have little meaning as long as the poorest are assured of the wherewithal to survive: very large differences in wealth may make it impossible for the poor to be elected to political office and have their political views heard. As a second example, the long-held link between productivity and wages – more productive people are entitled to higher wages – is itself questioned in a Rawlsian framework, where productivity itself is seen as being endogenously determined by several factors often beyond an individual's control. Second-generation affirmative action programmes, especially in developed countries, seek to redress this imbalance.

The intellectual influence that A Theory of Justice and subsequent work by Dr Rawls have exerted on a whole generation of welfare theorists is stupendous and extends to issues of justice at a global level (the problem of resource and ecological burden sharing) as well as the questions that have an inter-temporal dimension (justice across generations). Like other great intellectual pioneers, notably Robert Merton and Noam Chomsky before him, Dr Rawls' work has its fair share of critics. Libertarians object on the grounds that the Difference Principle involves unacceptable infringements on liberty, while others have criticised it on the grounds that it mostly ignores claims that people deserve certain benefits in light of their actions. Feminist theorists complain that the Difference Principle does not adequately criticise the constraints patriarchy imposes on the choices women can make, notably in the amount of time they can spend in the labour market.

While much of this criticism is definitely valid, it cannot and should not diminish the contributions of a body of work that did much to reconcile the philosophical and economic aspects of welfare theory, provided a firm empirical basis to evaluate welfare choices and, above all, liberated the field from its narrow preoccupation with efficiency. Dr Rawls' work was a relentless quest for ensuring the dignity of the individual. Amartya Sen summed it up best when in a Harvard University speech in 1990, he described equalisation as a "social necessity".

John Rawls was the James Conant Bryant Professor of Moral and Political Philosophy at Harvard University at the time of his death in 2002. President Bill Clinton, while awarding Dr Rawls the National Humanities Medal in 1999, described his work as having "helped a whole generation of learned Americans revive their faith in democracy itself". It was the culmination of a process of scholarly activism that produced great work, with A Theory of Justice as its pinnacle.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

A SLOWDOWN IN PROTECTIONISM?

THE NEW CONTOURS OF INTERNATIONAL TRADE MAY HAVE HAD AN IMPACT

RUCHI SHARMA

At the onset of economic recession in 2008, it was widely feared that most economies would take shelter in protectionist trade measures to shield domestic industry. G20, fearing the worst, declared during the Washington meet (November 2008), "not to turn inward in times of financial uncertainty." The leaders of G20 reaffirmed their commitment in London (April 2009) and Pittsburgh (September 2009), and declared to follow it until the end of 2013 during the Seoul (November 2010) meet. Irrespective of the fears, world trade bounced back in 2010, providing interesting insights into the changing global trade patterns and raising unsettling questions.

It is evident that G20 members declared not to take measures that are WTO-inconsistent. But what about WTO-consistent measures? Protectionist measures that are WTO-consistent predominantly involve trade remedy, border measures and exports measure. Trade measures comprise anti-dumping duty, countervailing duty and special safeguard duty. A recent report by WTO reveals that during April 2009-April 2011, 407 trade-restrictive measures have been initiated by G20 economies, including 212 trade measures. Further, the number of potentially trade-restrictive measures taken by G20 economies from mid-October 2010 to April 2011 increased to 122 from 54 during mid-May to mid-October 2010 that covers around 0.5 per cent of total world imports, and 0.6 per cent of total G20 imports. Export restrictions, including export taxes on agricultural products and quotas on metals and mineral products, have been predominant restrictive practices for the past one year mainly to contain inflation and favour domestic consumers.

World trade data present a different picture as the volume of merchandise trade increased 14.5 per cent in 2010 and world trade surpassed its peak level of 2008 in 2010. Counter-intuitive data make the protectionist measures appear as populist choices. According to Dadush, Ali and Odell*, the growth in the world trade is attributed to the resilience of the global trade that developed in the past two decades owing to following factors:  

·      Most economies of the world today have liberal trade policies that are not easy to reverse.

·      The production structure of most industries has changed and spread across the globe and has increased the trade of intermediate trade. This structure makes the domestic industry dependent on imports to reduce cost of production and any import restriction harms the domestic producers along with the importers. For instance, Walmart spent a considerable amount on lobbying against punitive legislation on Chinese imports and currency. 

·      Consumers worldwide have also got used to more product variety that has been made available with increase in international trade. These economic realities have contributed to restoring trade levels to pre-recession period within a two-year span.

The contradiction of an increase in the WTO-consistent restrictions along with a rise in world trade raises the following question. Is it the WTO discipline or the changed contours of the international trade that rendered the protectionist measures ineffective? The issue will be resolved if there is evidence that WTO has contributed to changing the economic situation. The evidence on this is rather ambiguous as a study shows that multilateral trade agreements contributed to a mere 25 per cent of liberalisation of trade policies against 66 per cent by the autonomous liberalisation in the countries. On the other hand, studies have shown that WTO has a positive influence on world trade. The wavering interest of the members in the completion of the Doha Round casts further doubt on the faith in the multilateral system. An obituary of the Doha Round has already been written.

The economic recession has shown protectionism in a different light. On the one hand, economies are severely constrained in taking extreme measures either due to WTO compulsions or due to the integration of the economic interest of the domestic producers and importers. On the other hand, when it comes to furthering the globalisation process, economies are shying away from multilateral negotiations. Having learnt their ropes, it seems that countries do not intend to make commitments at the multilateral level that may severely limit their capabilities to follow populist policies in the future.

*Is Protectionism Dying, May 2011, The Carnegie Papers The author is Assistant Professor of Economics in IIT Indore

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

THE OTHER GROWTH STORY

INDICUS ANALYTICS

Many Indian infants are still shockingly undernourished, especially in rural areas.

The prevalence of malnutrition in India is among the highest in the world. Given its impact on health, education and productivity, persistent undernutrition is a major obstacle to overall growth, especially among the poor. Following the World Health Organisation (WHO) Child Growth Standards, malnutrition is generally measured by three parameters — stunted (low height for age), underweight (low weight for age) and wasted (low weight for height). World Bank statistics show that in 2006 around 48 per cent of Indian children below the age of five were too small for their age and 44 per cent were underweight. The corresponding estimates for China were 11 per cent and five per cent. Looking at the trend of malnourished children in 1992-93, it is obvious that India lags countries with similar growth patterns.
 

EATING DISORDERS Nutritional status: Proportion of children  below three years of age                         (figures in %)
	Stunted	Wasted	Underweight
1992-93	NA	NA	51.5
1998-99	51	19.7	42.7
2005-06	44.9	22.9	40.4
Source: NFHS-3, 2005-06

The third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), carried out in 2005-06, showed that the proportion of stunted children below three years declined by 11 percentage points. And the proportion of underweight children declined by five percentage points from 1998-99 to 2005-06. Over the same period, however, there was an increase in the proportion of wasted children from about 20 per cent to 23 per cent.(Click here for graph)

The 2005-06 survey showed that in rural areas, half of the young children were stunted, almost half were underweight, and one out of every five was wasted, while in urban areas, 40 per cent of young children were stunted and 17 per cent were wasted. Interestingly, despite the strong preference for sons in India, boys are as likely as girls to be underweight, stunted and wasted. NFHS data, in fact, note a strong inverse relationship between all three measures of nutrition and the level of the mother's education, clearly indicating the impact of female schooling on the country's health status .

There is large inter-state variation in the patterns of malnourishment among children. Looking at the proportion of children below the age of three, at least one in two children in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand is underweight. The situation is equally worrying in Chhattisgarh, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat where more than 40 per cent of the children are underweight. These states also stand out with a strikingly high prevalence of stunted children. The lowest proportion of underweight children is in Mizoram, followed by Sikkim and Manipur, while Punjab, Goa and Kerala also perform relatively well on this indicator. More than half the children below three years are stunted in Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

At the other end, the proportion of stunted children in the best performing states like Goa and Kerala is almost half of what it is in the worst performing states. Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Manipur also show good scores with less than a third of the children estimated as being stunted.

Clearly, while aggregate levels of undernutrition are shockingly high, the picture is exacerbated by the significant inequalities across states. With numerous causes for malnutrition, it is only with a rapid scaling up of health and education interventions that the children of next generation India will lead healthier and more productive lives.

Indian States Development Scorecard, a weekly feature by Indicus Analytics, focuses on the progress in India and across the states across various socio-economic parameters.

sumita@indicus.net 

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BUSINESS LINE

OPINION

CLASHING VIEWS ON FARM LAND

For the farmers of Gadag, in Karnataka, their lands are still profitable. The State, bent on industrialisation, does not think so.

Mention Posco and the first word that springs to mind is Orissa. Given the sea of troubles in which the Korean steel giant found itself in its attempt to build a steel plant at Jagatsinghpur in that State, both Posco and the Centre must have heaved a sigh of relief when Karnataka offered to play host with a generous offer of land. Posco seemed to have struck pay dirt when it signed the MoU 12 months ago. But that moment was all too brief, for now farmers in Gadag district of North Karnataka, close to the Bellary-Hospet mining belt, are building up a slow opposition to land acquisition by the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board, the mandated agency to acquire more than 3,000 acres for the steel plant. Will Posco witness an Orissa in Karnataka?

Quite naturally, the State authorities are sanguine that project will go ahead and that the process of land acquisition will not be hampered. Posco is said to have deposited Rs 120 crore for the initial land acquisition; the farmers, according to one official, want more compensation than they are being offered. But is the quantum of compensation the real reason for the emerging confrontation? The lands being acquired, or slated, for the project are rain-fed black-soil arable lands and farmers appear to want to continue cultivation; what is more, they aver that a lift irrigation scheme has already been sanctioned and so view the urgency to acquire land for the steel project as a bolt from the blue. This is the heart of the problem; for the farmers, the lands are still profitable. The State, bent on industrialisation, does not think so. Unlike in Singur, the farmers of North Karnataka have more than an emotional attachment to their land. In Karnataka, two economic view points appear to be clashing and this is a matter that the State Government cannot dismiss lightly. What it must do is engage the farmers in dialogue to ensure that the trust deficit implicit in the feeling of being let down on the promise of lift irrigation is filled before assuming that cultivators would buy its idea.

Gadag reveals yet another facet of the complex issue of land acquisition, not just in one State, but all over the country. Land is a State subject, to be sure, but industrial expansion and its detractors are not.

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BUSINESS LINE

OPINION

BIOTECH CRUCIAL FOR FOOD SECURITY

RAM KAUNDINYA

Biotechnology can play a major role in bridging the supply-demand gap in food by raising input efficiencies. However, a misconception has been created that this technology is genetic modification and little else.

For almost 25 years post independence, India imported food grains, particularly wheat. Under a programme called PL480, we received aid in the form of foodgrains. We did not have the capacity to produce the wheat required to feed our population. The first breakthrough in our wheat productivity came through the introduction of dwarf Mexican varieties.

Similarly, a revolution in rice productivity came about through the introduction of IRRI varieties from the Philippines such as IR8 and IR64. Later, we combined the imported varieties with our own varieties and developed even higher yielding varieties. In fact, India's food security and self-sufficiency story is a result of a free flow of varieties and lines from several other countries; international institutions and Indian agricultural scientists combined their best materials with such lines to produce high-yielding varieties and hybrids.

The enormous progress we made in food production during the 1970s and 1980s has given us a sense of food security. However, the situation does not look comfortable, given the ever-growing population.

PRODUCTIVITY CHALLENGE

According to a working paper by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), India would have to double its food production by 2020. The demand for meat, fish and eggs is expected to go up by 2.8 times; the demand for cereals is expected to double; the demand for vegetables and fruits is expected to go up by 1.8 times and the demand for milk is expected to go up by 2.6 times compared with 2007. This rising demand will create further pressure on land and water in India over next 10-15 years.

Between 1991 and 2007, the crop yields in India have been stagnant, except in the case of cotton. Ministry of Agriculture data reveals that during this period the yields of crops like wheat, rice, pulses, soybeans and sugarcane have grown by 0.19- 1.4 per cent per annum.

However, in the same period, the yields of cotton have grown by 4.38 per cent per annum, which actually demonstrates the push GM technology managed to give to this crop. So far, Bt cotton is the only GM crop approved for cultivation in India and has delivered enormous benefits to Indian farmers. About 5.8 million Indian cotton farmers are now growing Bt cotton on more than 25 million acres of land. Cotton yields have doubled since the introduction of the technology in 2002. From a net importer of cotton, India is now the second largest exporter and producer of cotton.

The current rate of growth in crop yields cannot help us meet the challenge of doubling our food production by 2020. We need to think of ways and means to achieve this objective. One important way to increase the availability of food is to increase the productivity of land and water in the country. This is not an easy task in view of pressure of industrialisation, lack of arable land and depleting water tables. However, there is great scope for increasing crop yields through improved agronomic practices and crop improvement. It is estimated that improved agronomic practices can increase yields by about 50 per cent, while crop improvement can increase yields by more than 50 per cent.

All these measures like minimising wastage in the supply chain, improving the productivity of land, water and saline soils, improving agronomic practices and crop improvement have to be used as a package to make adequate food available to our growing population in the next 25-40 years. Against the above realities, agricultural biotechnology offers a key solution to meeting these growing challenges.

POTENTIAL OF BIOTECH

A misconception has been created that all agricultural biotechnology is genetic modification. This is not correct. Agricultural biotechnology consists of many traits and techniques, of which the genetic modification is the most popular. Molecular marker-based selection is the tool now extensively used in India and abroad to enhance the speed and precision of plant breeding. Apart from this, there are many other tools like dihaploids, tissue culture and others which are biotech tools used extensively to improve plant breeding.

Genetically improved seeds were introduced in the world in 1996. In 2010, a record 15.4 million farmers in 29 countries planted 148 million hectares of biotech crops, with 90 per cent, or 14.4 million being small and resource-poor farmers in developing countries. This share has been growing very rapidly in the last five years as the acceptance of GM crops has gone up substantially.

There are two types of GM traits — input traits and the output traits. Input traits are those which incorporate a character into the plant, as a result of which the way in which an input is used on the crop is modified. The primary beneficiary of these traits is the farmer. An example is the insect tolerant trait (Bt) which gives the plant the strength to fight the insect pests that attack the crop. This trait modifies the way insecticides are used on the crop. Another example is the herbicide tolerant trait which modifies the way herbicides are used on the crop.

Very exciting input traits are in the pipeline. For example, water use efficiency trait which will reduce the water requirements of the crops considerably (estimated to be 30 per cent reduction) and can help the vast number of farmers who cultivate rainfed crops in the country in more than 100 million hectares. Similarly, the nitrogen use efficiency trait which will reduce the use of nitrogenous fertiliser on the crops by an estimated 30 per cent.

Another trait that is waiting in the wings is the salt tolerance trait which can help farmers grow crops in saline soils of more than 20 million ha in India. These three traits can make a huge difference to Indian agriculture.

On the other hand the output traits are those which modify the character of the output of the crop. The primary beneficiary of these traits is the consumer. These traits will require identity-preserved output management from the field to the fork. Contract farming systems will be important to make this technology successful. An example is the Golden Rice technology which produces Vitamin A-enriched rice grain. Similarly, there are healthy oils being produced with modified fatty acid profile.The safety of GM technology is well established by a rigorous regulatory process the world over, after which it is approved for use. The regulatory process for GM crops is stringent in all countries and the resultant data that is submitted to the Governments is adequate to prove the safety of this technology.

(The author is CEO, Advanta India, and Chairman, Association of Biotech Led Enterprises - Agriculture Group.

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BUSINESS LINE

OPINION

DIDI IS RIDING A TIGER NOW

RAGHUVIR SRINIVASAN

Power is intoxicating, especially that drawn by a leader from the people. It takes a very balanced, mature personality to ensure that it does not go to the head. More often than not, in politics especially, this balance and maturity is absent. Political history is replete with examples where leaders, elected with massive mandates, muffed it by allowing power to get to their heads.

At risk now of joining that long list of leaders is our very own Didi, who has been going about the Tata Motors-Singur land issue like the proverbial bull in a china shop. Her sole focus in the month that she has been in power has been Singur, and the restoration of status quo as it prevailed before Tata Motors ventured to set up its Nano car plant there. Nothing wrong with that, especially because Singur was what provided her the momentum to take on the Left. Besides, she has a promise to keep to the farmers from Singur, and elsewhere in West Bengal, who have been dispossessed of their land in the name of industrialisation.

Didi's strategy

But wasn't there a better way to go about fulfilling the promise than to use the overwhelming majority in the Assembly to pass an Act and dispossess the Tatas and their vendors of the land? Did Ms Mamata Banerjee imagine that the Tatas would sit by idly and watch the government seize the land from them and without paying any compensation?

Surely not. Didi's strategy appears simple. Pass the Act and seize the land from the Tatas. Take them on legally if they go to Court. If the Court rules in the government's favour, the job is done. If it rules in favour of the Tatas, well, you can tell the people that you tried your best to redeem your pledge, but thanks to the Court verdict, that is now not possible.

This is a dangerous approach because the dispossessed people can turn angry and they are not going to distinguish between the government and the Court. They had voted for Didi in the expectation of a return of their land and she would be seen as breaching that promise. The feeling that they have been let down will quickly set in and the groundswell of people's support can then quickly turn into disenchantment. In sum, Didi is riding a tiger now.

Could Ms Banerjee have handled this differently, in a less confrontational manner? Wouldn't it have been a more elegant approach to invite the Tatas, discuss with them how best to sort out the issue in a manner that would keep all the parties — the farmers, the government and the Tatas — happy?

Yes, the Tatas were forced out of Singur when they were on the verge of launching the Nano from there. But, surely, they are pragmatic enough to understand the circumstances that prevailed then, and what prevails now, and settle for a compromise that would minimise their losses. With the Nano driving out of Sanand in Gujarat now, the Singur plant is not important in the scheme of things for the Tatas at this point in time.

With a fair recompense for the land and the efforts they put in there, who knows, the Tatas may have agreed to quietly leave Singur, if that is what Didi wanted.

Unpleasant environment

With such an approach, the Mamata Banerjee Government would have also sent out the right signals to others eyeing investment opportunities in West Bengal. Instead, what we have now is an unpleasant environment that is sure to repel prospective investors.

If the Tatas, howsoever depleted their goodwill after all that has happened in the last few months, can be trampled upon in this manner, other industrialists are bound to think twice before doing business in and with West Bengal.

This is surely not a good augury for the State which desperately needs investment in industry. Ms Banerjee may have captured power with her promise of protecting farmers but as she is bound to realise, she needs industry as much as agriculture to propel the State forward.

Whether she has damaged that cause by the approach of the last month, only time will tell.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

WINDS OF CHANGE

NEW CHIEF LAGARDE MUST ADDRESS THE IMBALANCE IN THE IMF'S VOTING RIGHTS

 

The cynical view of Tuesday's appointment of French finance minister, Christine Lagarde, as Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is that the old order (read, the US and Europe) is invincible. That for all the talk of the rising clout of Asia, nothing has changed when it comes to global institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. Their top positions are reserved, for the US in the case of the Bank and for Europe when it comes to the Fund. That is how it has been since these institutions were set up 64 years ago and that is how it is going to remain. But that would be too facile a view. It would also mean ignoring a notable aspect of the latest appointment: the high-profile, furious (and completely unprecedented) lobbying by the European candidate for the support of the developing world. Unlike in the past, when the victory of the candidate favoured by the US and Europe was a given, this time round there was a real contest, even if one-sided. That is a notable first. Agustin Carstens, Mexico's finance minister, was a credible rival who had the support not only of Latin America but also Canada and Australia.

Lagarde comes to the helm at a particularly challenging time for the global economy. Apart from the immediate problem of averting a Greek collapse, with its attendant risk of contagion to the rest of Europe and beyond, there is the issue of redrawing the global financial architecture. The old regime established at the end of World War II has plainly outlived its utility but the new one is not yet in sight. Nor will it be till the IMF recasts its Board to reflect the new global economic dynamics. For that, the new head will have to live up to what she said in the runup to her selection: "The IMF must be relevant, responsive, effective, and legitimate (emphasis added) to achieve stronger and sustainable growth, macroeconomic stability, and a better future for all." The first step for that would be to pare Europe's vote share from the present 40% to closer to 20% (its share in world GDP) as many developing countries have been demanding. That is not going to be easy. But Lagarde, the first woman to head the IMF, can make a beginning and add another first.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

CORRUPTION POLITICS

THE PAC SHOULD DO ITS JOB; POLITICKING ON 2G SCAM POSITS THE WIDER PROBLEM

he latest round in the tussle between the Opposition and the UPA over the 2G spectrum scam is over the fate of the report prepared by the previous Public Accounts Committee. The chairperson of the PAC, BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, is pushing for that report to be brought before the newly constituted PAC, with the Congress members of the committee arguing the report was redundant as it was 'rejected' by the Lok Sabha Speaker. There is little merit in the latter argument. For one, there is no sanctity about such a report that can prevent it from being passed on for discussion. Or, indeed, why there can't even be a new report, which can draw from the earlier one. It would also be pointless to quibble over whether the report has such a status or is to be termed a 'draft', since it wasn't adopted by the last PAC. The primary consideration is that the PAC should be doing its job, and there is no reason why its members can't argue and debate points of difference and discrepancies before submitting the report to the Speaker. The Congress also can't now use the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the 2G issue as an excuse against the PAC's report — which stems from the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the 2G allocation — after having tried to point to the PAC itself while seeking to deny the Opposition's demand for a JPC.

It is once again clear that such manoeuvring by political parties on the issue is part of the tussle over managing public perceptions on combating corruption. The entire narrative on probing the spectrum scam, including the brouhaha over setting up a JPC, has thus been one of petty politicking. This paper had argued that there was logic in the point as to what a JPC could achieve given that a report from such a body does not have any penal consequences. That even the last PAC's draft/report now is likely to be the site of more politicking brings home how the political class deviates from the larger issue of ridding India of systemic corruption. And as long as such political 'compulsions' dictate conduct, not much progress can be made on that critical front.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

SAAS-BAHU, SPLITSVILLA

QUESTIONS POSED BY THE IMBALANCE OF AMOROUS RELATIONSHIPS IN INDIA

 Much is written about the world becoming a flatter place, the levelling of aspirations and modes of behaviour across the globe. But there do exist two dissimilar dimensions. At the level of amorous relationships, that is. In one world, comprising mostly the twittering uber urban lot, one finds people partner-hopping with the felicity of, well, rabbits. Breaking off with someone no longer even seems to invoke the genteel phrase of a relationship having ended. It is called, simply, aptly, dumping; often communicated in the form of the exquisitely abbreviated message: u r dumpd. Familiarity didn't even get time to breed contempt, leave alone children. Then there is the Indian dimension, rather, often the small-town, mofussil one. Where lie stories with drama, emotion, maybe some action, and certainly tragedy. Take the case of the newly-married couple from one such north Indian town who, after the bride on the night of their wedding revealed to her husband that she was in love with someone else — indeed, had married the first chap a few days prior to this momentous night — decided to tie the sibling knot. The r a k h i having been dutifully procured and planted on the arm of this outrightly noble chap, the latter decided to unite his (illegal?) new wife-turned-newer sister with her former lover/first husband. The latter, however, added further sting and twist to the tale by shunning the girl.
All this begs the question whether one of the aforementioned worlds should be shamed by the notions of belonging, fealty and sacrifice inhabiting the other. Or whether the latter feels those are ideals best, well, dumped as they can, like in this case, arise from stifling social norms and skewed gender equations. It's the s a a s - b a h userial vs Splitsvilla question. Decide for yourself.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

SPEAKING PM. AND NOW A DOING ONE?

DR SINGH NEEDS A BIG, DEFINED TASK. HE SHOULD NOW MAKE REFORMING LAND LAWS HIS PERSONAL PROJECT

 

So, the Prime Minister has spoken. Going by what the five editors who met the PM told news organisations, Manmohan Singh spoke "confidently" and seemed "in charge". Neither, according to Dr Singh's interlocutors, did the PM appear to evade any question. And that's good, isn't it? Especially because the Congress has decided that the PM must talk to the media more. Every time Dr Singh talks to the media, he appears confident and in-charge; he doesn't duck questions, and before you can read through the entire CBI charge-sheet on the 2G scam, Dr Singh and UPA-II execute a fantastic makeover.

Except they won't, of course, never mind the number of future media interactions. Any government should try and use its media interactions to get a good message out and the frequency of meetings is a factor, as are appearances (say, leaders appearing confident as opposed to appearing hesitant). But the iron rule of political spin is that you can't spin on empty for very long. In Wednesday's chat with five editors Dr Singh pretty much spun on empty. Given the nearnovelty of a speaking Prime Minister that greeted us on Wednesday, and given that he seemed to have got his signalling right, Dr Singh's probably got away with spinning on empty this time.
What did he say, really? Sonia Gandhi is superb as Congress president, Rahul Gandhi can become PM, the Ramdev police action was sad but necessary, that he asked ministers to receive Ramdev, the Anna brigade can't alone decide whether PM should be under Lokpal, that he as PM deserves 5 to 7 on 10 for his performance, that much of the bad news was Opposition propaganda that seemed to have influenced the media and the media in any case was hellbent on giving him and his government a bad time. We are ignoring — yawn — the foreign policy observations. If you think about these observations carefully, then even granting that they were delivered with, say, mesmerising confidence by the PM, you can't but conclude Dr Singh said nothing — repeat, nothing — on the substance of his prime ministership. Perhaps, the PM will talk substance about his job very soon. It's only fair to assume this might be a possibility. That Dr Singh, a serious man after all, won't be spinning on empty. In which case, the point is how he is going to define the parameters of his prime ministership in the three remaining years of UPA-II. There's no doubt he needs to do that because that's how leaders of governments are assessed — by a relatively narrow set of priorities. Indeed, that's how governments are assessed as well.
UPA-II and Dr Singh-II have been characterised by an almost surreal inability to define and work on a narrow set of priorities. That the PM didn't address the media and therefore appeared to be under siege — that's always the media's conclusion in all democracies about silent government leaders — was a part of the symptom. The real problem for Dr Singh-II is that we have no idea whether a speaking, confident and incharge-looking PM will define a set of priorities and start making it clear that prime ministerial energy is behind these goals.
Actually, even one priority might work for Dr Singh-II, just as it did for Dr Singh-I. If he makes reforming land laws his priority, if that becomes what the nuclear deal was during his first tenure as PM, there's enough time left for him to look like a PM who's leading a government which is doing something big and important and paradigm shifting.

Unreformed land acquisition laws, to very briefly summarise the much-elaborated and much-argued, is already probably the single-biggest constraint on medium-term growth. To Dr Singh's advantage, the political circumstances for him lending the power and prestige of his office behind this are propitious.
    First, as the Supreme Court's observations in two consecutive days over Mayawati's and Mamata Banerjee's land policies show, both dodgy acquisition from people and dodgy dispossession of industry are going to be legally frowned on. Mayawati's use of the emergency provision in the land acquisition law to acquire land for real estate projects in Greater Noida and Mamata's Singur bill taking land away from Tatas are examples of two bad policies that will help frame a good policy by the Centre.

Second, an amended land bill is reportedly almost ready and if prime ministerial prestige is attached to the bill, it can easily be put on legislative fast track. Third, the BJP, if it is consulted properly, will find it hard to be obstructive for the heck of it on a subject that confronts every state government, including its own. The same should hold for other non-UPA parties.

Mamata Banerjee? Dr Singh-II let Mamata (land law), then DMK ministers (telecom) and then Congress's egregiously badly behaved Suresh Kalmadi (CWG) to do what they wanted, and what they did only brought him grief. If the PM is not to appear merely confident but to be actually doing something, he must tackle Mamata's obstreperousness, assuming there's any, on land acquisition law reform firmly. Making and passing a good law that obtains a rough political consensus is obviously not an easy job, but it is entirely doable given the time Dr Singh-II has left.

What are the downsides for the PM? None. Any controversy engendered by his persistent efforts to give India a rational land law will make him look like a PM who's doing something big. Even if he doesn't succeed, he will end his term looking better than he would if he speaks to the media frequently and confidently but doesn't undertake a real, definable task.

It's good to know, Dr Singh, that you appear to be in charge. Now, tell us what you will take charge of.

 

SAUBHIK CHAKRABARTI

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

NEURAL NET

FINDING METRO MAN

VIKAS DHOOT

Fourteen years, six metro rail lines, 133 stations and 208 trains later, India's 'Metro Man' Ellattuvalapil Sreedharan intends to say goodbye this December to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) — having rescued nearly two million denizens of commuter-unfriendly New Delhi from the clutches of fatal buses, rogue auto-rickshaw drivers and the mysteriously non-existent culture of hailing a cab on the go. A fortnight ago, Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit said that the procedure to choose a new DMRC chief 'will start shortly'. Sreedharan is learnt to have told the CM to expedite the process so he can spend at least three months 'handing over' to his successor — a process that must include a run-down on how to get metro projects executed on time while working with multiple government agencies with sniping tendencies. The government is expected to invite applications and a committee that should include the urban development secretary and a top Delhi government official would screen contenders before proposing candidates.

Sreedharan has asked to be included in the search panel because he has the best idea of what the job needs. He wants the selection process to be transparent, professional and focused on getting the best man for the job. "It will not be a political posting," the 80-year-old Sreedharan said in an interview earlier this month. Having a no-nonsense executioner at the DMRC's helm after Sreedharan is crucial for the capital — where the proposed Phase-III lines and connectivity to Faridabad can help the city get the maximum juice out of its metro investments.

But the DMRC is not just about Delhi — it is also actively involved in conceiving various metro projects planned across the country from Jaipur to Chennai. To turn these projects into reality quick enough to deal with Indian urban commuters' growing angst is no mean task in a country whose first metro rail transit system (in Kolkata) took nearly three decades to get from the planning stage to actually ferrying passengers. So, when the Delhi Metro's first train was flagged off by former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Christmas Eve in 2002 — within its deadline of five years — Sreedharan turned into an infrastructure icon whom the Delhi government has given five tenure extensions. But if one looks at the wrangling that preceded his appointment as DMRC managing director, finding Sreedharan's successor is going to be far from smooth — and that's without factoring in the challenge of finding a person with the necessary skill-sets.

Former Cabinet Secretary TSR Subramanian's memoir

Journeys through Babudom and Netaland: Governance in India reveals some fascinating details of how the Delhi Metro's five-year target was almost derailed even after the Centre and the Delhi government thrashed out their differences to clear the project and tied up vital Japanese finances. "After some months when, one day, I checked…I learnt to my horror that there was no forward movement, as there was no agreement on the appointment of the managing director for the project," Subramanian recalled. Apparently, there had been a big tug-of-war on nominating the Delhi Metro MD — the Railways was keen to put its officer in charge, the central government wanted an IAS officer, while the Delhi government wanted its own man on top.

"As usual, every agency wanted a hand in the till," concluded Subramanian, before intervening and proposing Sreedharan's name on the basis of his successful execution of the very difficult Konkan Railways project. The proposal met with stiff resistance — government rulebooks were dusted off to find reasons why Sreedharan couldn't take charge, including the fact that he was over-age. It was only when Subramanian convinced Delhi's lieutenant governor to back Sreedharan did his appointment as the Delhi Metro chief get a green signal. Nearly a decade and a half may have passed since then, but there's little reason to believe that intra-government wrangling will not vitiate the hunt for India's next Metro Man. The UPA-II's habit of deciding not to decide on important appointments won't help. India's road-building agency — the National Highways Authority of India — has probably been the worsthit by this dithering. After five bosses in five years, it has been without a regular chief for over a year now.

The danger for Indian commuters is that Sreedharan's exit could put metro projects in the same limbo as the ambitious Golden Quadrilateral highway project. In the UPA's seven years, the project has crawled from about 98% completion to 99.7%.

 

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

CURSOR

MANMOHAN SINGH, EASY TARGET

T K ARUN

Every time the Prime Minister interacts with the media, someone would walk in a lame duck and Dr Manmohan Singh would shoo him out, halfapologetically. The non-voting classes who have switched channels from a sitcom for the nonce would cackle at the spectacle. He might be honest but if he cannot control corruption, why doesn't he just quit, they grumble. Yes, Manmohan Singh is an easy target of middle-class disdain for the unsavouriness of politics.

This is not just unkind and unfair but also intellectually shallow. Dr Singh took on a job whose many tasks just do not fit within the framework of simplistic morality.

You are against violence, but when an armed intruder attacks your family, can you retreat into a shell of non-violence? You are against the caste system but born a Brahmin; can you personally be held to moral account for the totality of historical injustice caused by caste hierarchy? Can you abdicate all responsibility? When there is a conflict between loyalty to your friend and loyalty to your country; what do you choose? You should love your neighbour, but what if your neighbour comes to rape you? Stealing is wrong, but so is allowing your child to starve; how immoral is stealing a loaf of bread to feed a child?

Ethics and morality interlace at the levels of the individual and the collective in a complex fashion. The facile binariness of calls for the PM to resign and get out if he can't be perfect is a luxury of the elite that the real world cannot afford.

Dr Singh faces a peculiar situation. He is the administrative head of the government, but not its political head, that role going to the chairperson of the ruling coalition, Sonia Gandhi. This form of diarchy poses enormous challenges to the incumbent of the Prime Minister's office. Yet, when he fought for the Indo-US nuclear deal and overcame entrenched opposition within his own party and coalition and in the opportunistic opposition, staking the survival of the government and finding new allies when old ones departed, Dr Singh showed grit, determination and considerable political skill.

But the political arrangement between the Congress president and her nominee for PM is not the central tension in the polity or cause of governmental inertia. That lies in the conflict between the new dynamic of the economy, after two decades of reform, and the unchanged tradition of politics. The vocal disgust of those who drive the dynamic of the economy holds the polity in thrall, liberation from which depends on radical reform of the polity.

The economy still has its fair share of crony capitalism, but that is not its main dynamic. That has shifted to entrepreneurship, innovation and skill as the driving force of business. This calls for transparency and working within commonly applicable rules. This dynamic is in conflict with corruption, which means bending rules to benefit someone. But corruption funds Indian democracy. All political parties fund themselves through the proceeds of corruption, filching money from the exchequer, extorting money from the public or selling patronage. Almost all political expenditure is funded by black money, for which economic agents generate funds off their books, making a mockery of corporate governance and the haloed standards of audit and accounts. Funding politics through corruptions helps individual politicians to amass personal fortunes. Since use of state machinery to generate corrupt proceeds calls for collusion by the civil service, officials also become corrupt. This is a system in which no insider has an inherent incentive to change anything.
When all of politics is funded by corruption, did it make sense for an honest Prime Minister to risk the cohesion of his rickety coalition and the survival of his government to stop individual acts of corruption? What would be the political implications of a Congress-led coalition not being able to complete a fiveyear term, on the heels of a BJP-led coalition completing its full term? Would the return of a BJP-led government at the Centre and the consequential boost to the Sangh Parivar and its majoritarian ideology help India's political cohesion and long-term prosperity? Should such macro level priorities have any bearing on individual distaste for the corruption that feeds the entire political process?

The central challenge for Dr Singh today, however, is to institutionalise political funding, make receipts and expenditure of political parties transparent, open to challenge and verification. This is the key to toppling corruption from its present status as systemic necessity. This is the only way to align politics with the dynamic of the economy. The Lokpal movement is a sideshow of little real consequence. Reform of political funding and the justice system are the substantive challenges. Proactive steps to act on these will restore political authority, and precipitate decision-making, stalled for a while. That would once again galvanise the economy.

 

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MUMBAI MIRROR

EDITORIAL

THIS ONE IS FOR MALA SEN

SHE DEFIED CLICHÉS ABOUT ACTIVISTS, FEMINISTS, TRADE UNIONISTS AND ANY OTHER 'ISTS' ONE CAN THINK OF

 

Mala Sen, author, activist, friend, whose death late in May has left all those close to her devastated: This is for her rather than about her, but some things must be said. What was remarkable about her activism was that, whether she was meeting Bangladeshi immigrants in Brick Lane in London, young offenders in detention, bandits and their families in India, she did not feel she had to condescend by "dressing down." She was always elegantly dressed, and I saw for myself when I went with her to Brick Lane that her appearance had nothing to do with the kind of rapport she established with immigrants who lived in grotty rooms, with wallpaper in a dozen different patterns, and holes in the walls.

 

I remember, years ago, listening to someone who went on and on about "leftists" who discussed social problems over a glass of whisky, and young revolutionaries who became staid businessmen in middle age. Well, I am happy to say that Mala could enjoy a good meal, loved elegant appointments in her flat in London, and was past middle age when she, still committed to various causes, died. In brief, she defied clichés about activists, feminists, trade unionists and any other "ists" you can think of.

 

In her honour, I would like to discuss Jean Rhys, a writer both she and I admired. At some stage, Mala gave me both Rhys' autobiography and a collection of her letters. Rhys' bestknown book continues to be the rewrite of Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (1847), which she titled Wide Sargasso Sea (1966). It humanizes Bronte's "mad woman in the attic," the first Mrs Rochester by giving her a background where she grew up, people who loved her, before she was slowly driven to despair and madness.

 

The novel is set in 1834 or so, after the Emancipation of slaves in Britishowned Jamaica. The slaves have been freed, but there has been no compensation. The freed slaves refuse to work, and many estates go down the hill. One of them is Coulibri, the estate on which Antoinette Cosway, the future Mrs Rochester lives. There is immense hostility towards the one-time slaveowners. Antoinette is constantly taunted by chants about a "white cockroach". One day, during a protest, the freed slaves accidentally set fire to the house. Pierre, Antoinette's brother is killed, and Antoinette's mother goes round the bend. Mr Mason, an Englishman who had married her because of her beauty and her estate, leaves her with caretakers and spends most of his time away.
    The novel also humanizes Mr Rochester who, in the Bronte novel appears to be an erotic fantasy figure. Rochester too is, in a sense, an orphan. As the second son of an English family, he has to find his way in the world, as the estate will go to the oldest son. He goes to the West Indies in search of an heiress, and is persuaded by a bribe of 30,000 pounds to marry Antoinette. The marriage is arranged by Richard Mason, Antoniette's stepfather's son. But he finds everything disturbing: "Everything is too much," he thinks." Too much blue, too much purple, too much green. The flowers too red, the mountains too high, the hills too near. And the woman is a stranger."

 

Wide Sargasso Sea is a haunting novel. Jean Rhys was herself a white West Indian, born in Dominica. Despite the fact that she had written several fine novels and stories, she remained unknown till the publication of Wide Sargasso Sea. Her fame, she said in an interview, came too late for her to care very much about it.

While re-reading the book this week, I came across one or two details I wasn't sure of. I thought, automatically, as one does, I must ask Mala.

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                                                                                                               DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

WILL COURTS DRIVE A NEW LAND POLICY?

 

The Supreme Court has had a significant impact in framing the terms of debate on key public questions recently. It is not unlikely that but for the forceful intervention of the nation's highest court, issues relating to corruption in high places may have moved only very slowly. The political executive's timidity in such matters has been all too glaring, and for several years now. In many recent instances, governmental lethargy has permitted the judiciary to make firm institutional interventions. The public have been heartened by the higher judiciary's boldness, and may well come to regard this as natural in dealing with complex matters of governance. Other than corruption, one other issue which has caught the people's imagination of late is acquisition of agricultural land by the state to be transferred to private parties for commercial and industrial purposes. It has led to violence in some states, excited the imagination of political parties and ignited a wide debate on the methods used to obtain land for non-agricultural purposes. It is to be hoped that the probing questions put by a SC bench on Monday to both the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government will galvanise our political system into action. As the SC noted, the anachronistic 1894 Land Acquisition Act, enacted during the British Raj, is at the root of much of our current problems regarding land acquisition. And while the UPA-II government has promised to bring in a new law to replace it in the coming Monsoon Session of Parliament, we have no inkling of what the government's thinking is. A public debate on such a vital issue is absolutely essential. In its observations on Monday while hearing petitions filed by the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority and some real estate groups, the SC came down hard on the routine practice of state governments to purchase from farmers land on which food is grown to transfer it to non-farm interests. The two-judge bench insisted that the terms of trade were steeply skewed against agriculturists in such cases. The bench was also annoyed that villagers in Greater Noida were not even allowed to record objections as the state government used the so-called "urgency" clause in the 1894 Act. The court held the Centre responsible for this state of affairs as it had permitted an antiquated law to remain on the statute book. It also pointedly noted that it is barren land that should be acquired for industrial or commercial activity. While valid in principle, such an inventory is difficult to make until all land is duly mapped and stored electronically. Another consideration must be addressed: what when all the barren land in a state is exhausted? The SC, as it itself acknowledged, has been influenced by the Singur syndrome in West Bengal, where the mobilisation of farmers unwilling to part with their land led to the Tatas cancelling plans to set up the Nano plant there. Interestingly, on a petition by the Tatas to restrain the Mamata Banerjee government from returning those lands to farmers, the SC on Wednesday directed the state government not to proceed further with the return of land till the matter is sorted out in the Calcutta High Court. The outcome of this case will be watched with keen interest across the country. Will the Supreme Court be able to square its observations in the Greater Noida matter with what eventually transpires in the Singur case?

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

THE SUMMER OF 2014

 

The much anticipated endgame in Afghanistan has formally begun. The American President has laid out his plan to extricate US troops while preserving and building on the fragile gains made in the past few months. The fog of uncertainty that hung around American strategy is beginning to lift. That does not mean that the road out of Afghanistan is absolutely clear. As Helmuth von Moltke once observed, no plan survives the first contact with the enemy. Much will depend on how the US' adversaries as well as putative allies like Pakistan respond to these moves. India is reasonably well poised to deal with the unfolding situation. The challenge, as always in Afghanistan, is to keep our ears close to the ground but also maintain adequate flexibility of posture. The killing of Osama bin Laden has, as anticipated, provided the requisite political context for the American drawdown. From the outset, the Obama administration had been divided between those who called for a protracted counter-insurgency effort in Afghanistan and those who preferred a narrower counter-terrorism posture. Since entering the White House, the US President, Mr Barack Obama, has committed an additional 33,000 troops to Afghanistan, bringing the total number to around 100,000. The figure of 33,000 was lower than what the advocates of counter-insurgency strategy wanted, and much higher than what the counter-terrorism were willing to contemplate. Mr Obama, after much deliberation, chose the middle ground. But his political instincts were always against a troop-heavy strategy. At a time when domestic challenges loomed large, a prolonged and bulky military presence in Afghanistan seemed untenable. Yet a quick exit with little results to show risked a conservative backlash at home. The elimination of Bin Laden has shored up Mr Obama's domestic position and paved the way for a sharp drawdown of troops in Afghanistan. According to the plan announced by Mr Obama, 10,000 American troops will leave Afghanistan by the end of this year and another 23,000 by the summer of 2012. The military surge will effectively end by middle of next year. In the following two years, US forces will transition from combat to support role by handing over responsibility to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF). By 2014, this transition will be completed. But US forces will stay on in smaller numbers as advisers and trainers. Besides, there will be a small but strong counter-terrorism presence comprising mainly of special forces and intelligence operatives. Mr Obama also made it clear that drone attacks and targeted operations will continue against Al Qaeda in Pakistan. On the political and diplomatic front, the US has openly acknowledged contacts with the Taliban — even if it is only "very preliminary outreach" in the US secretary of state, Ms Hillary Clinton's formulation. A "core group" comprising the US, Afghanistan and Pakistan has been created to coordinate the efforts towards reconciliation with the insurgents. The Americans have also orchestrated the splitting of UNSC sanctions on Al Qaeda and the Taliban into two lists: one of individuals connected with Al Qaeda and the other of Taliban members who are focused on Afghanistan alone. This is intended to facilitate the reconciliation process. The strategic and the political dimensions of the exit plan are not unproblematic. For a start, the claim that the "momentum" of insurgency has been broken reflects a serious misunderstanding of the nature of counter-insurgency. The idea of momentum may be useful in prosecuting conventional operations, but it is not useful in analysing the progress of insurgencies. Control of territory, not momentum of operations, is the key factor in counter-insurgency campaigns — especially when the insurgency has an external base. The American performance on this score has so far been mixed and it is too soon to predict whether the gains of the recent operations will hold. A related problem is the assumption of a smooth transition to operations led by Afghan forces. The US claims that in the past year an additional 1,00,000 ANSF personnel have been inducted and trained. The operational performance of the ANSF has yet to be tested seriously. But given the persistent problems over the availability of Western trainers — problems that have only recently begun to be addressed — it would be prudent not to set too much store by the capacity of the ANSF. It is difficult to avoid concluding that the Mr Obama is following the advice offered by Senator, Mr George Aiken, at the height of the Vietnam War: declare victory and get out. From a political standpoint, the Obama administration's stance is entirely understandable. Just that Kabul and its friends should not swallow these claims wholly. The efforts to reach out to the Taliban are likely to be even more problematic. The Afghan President has already constituted 27 provincial peace councils as well as a High Peace Council. This arrangement reflects the fact that the Taliban is increasingly functioning as a collection of myriad factions and splinter groups. The best outcome possible may be a patchwork of agreements that holds long enough for the Afghan state to bolster its enforcement capacities. Reaching out to the more powerful groups like the Haqqanis will require cooperation from Pakistan. In the current state of US-Pakistan relations, this will call for more sweeteners for the Pakistan Army but without any assurance that a deal will be struck. Washington has reiterated its redlines for reconciliation with the Taliban: sever ties with Al Qaeda, forsake violence, abide by the Afghan Constitution. These redlines as well as Mr Obama's call for an Afghan-led process are in sync with India's position as articulated by the Prime Minister during his recent visit to Afghanistan. Despite its reservations about making too fine a distinction between the Taliban and the other groups, India voted in the UNSC in favour of splitting the sanctions list. From this point, New Delhi will have to closely watch both the reconciliation process and the balance of forces on the ground. India's interests in Afghanistan are limited, but preserving them will require an adroit combination of strategic clarity and tactical agility. * The author is senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

IT'S SCIENCE, BUT NOT NECESSARILY RIGHT

 

One of the greatest strengths of science is that it can fix its own mistakes. "There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong", astrophysicist Carl Sagan once said. "That's perfectly all right: it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process." If only it were that simple. Scientists can certainly point with pride to many self-corrections, but science is not like an iPhone; it does not instantly auto-correct. As a series of controversies over the past few months have demonstrated, science fixes its mistakes more slowly, more fitfully and with more difficulty than Sagan's words would suggest. Science runs forward better than it does backward. Why? One simple answer is that it takes a lot of time to look back over other scientists' work and replicate their experiments. Scientists are busy people, scrambling to get grants and tenure. As a result, papers that attract harsh criticism may nonetheless escape the careful scrutiny required if they are to be refuted. In May, for instance, the journal Science published eight critiques of a controversial paper that it had run in December. In the paper, a team of scientists described a species of bacteria that seemed to defy the known rules of biology by using arsenic instead of phosphorus to build its DNA. Chemists and microbiologists roundly condemned the paper; in the eight critiques, researchers attacked the study for using sloppy techniques and failing to rule out more plausible alternatives. But none of those critics had actually tried to replicate the initial results. That would take months of research. Many scientists are leery of spending so much time on what they consider a foregone conclusion, and graduate students are reluctant because they want their first experiments to make a big splash, not confirm what everyone already suspects. "I've got my own science to do", Mr John Helmann, a microbiologist at Cornell and a critic of the Science paper, told Nature. The most persistent critic, Ms Rosie Redfield, a microbiologist at the University of British Columbia, announced this month on her blog that she would try to replicate the original results — but only the most basic ones, and only for the sake of science's public reputation. "Scientifically I think trying to replicate the claimed results is a waste of time", she wrote in an email. For now, the original paper has not been retracted; the results still stand. Even when scientists rerun an experiment and even when they find that the original result is flawed, they still may have trouble getting their paper published. The reason is surprisingly mundane: journal editors typically prefer to publish ground-breaking new research, not dutiful replications. Even when follow-up studies manage to see the light of day, they still don't necessarily bring matters to a close. Sometimes the original authors will declare the follow-up studies to be flawed and refuse to retract their paper. Such a stand-off is now taking place over a controversial claim that chronic fatigue syndrome is caused by a virus. In October 2009, virologist Judy Mikovits and colleagues reported in Science that people with chronic fatigue syndrome had high levels of a virus called XMRV. They suggested that XMRV might be the cause of the disorder. Several other teams have since tried — and failed — to find XMRV in people with chronic fatigue syndrome. As they've published their studies over the past year, scepticism has grown. The editors of Science asked the authors of the XMRV study to retract their paper. But the scientists refused; Ms Mikovits declared that a retraction would be "premature". The editors have since published an "editorial expression of concern". Once again, the result still stands. But perhaps not for ever. Mr Ian Lipkin, a virologist at Columbia University who is renowned in scientific circles for discovering new viruses behind mysterious outbreaks, is also known for doing what he calls "de-discovery": intensely scrutinising controversial claims about diseases. Last September, Mr Lipkin laid out several tips for effective de-discovery in the journal Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews. He recommended engaging other scientists — including those who published the original findings — as well as any relevant advocacy groups. Together, everyone must agree on a rigorous series of steps for the experiment. Each laboratory then carries out the same test, and then all the results are gathered together. At the request of the National Institutes of Health, Mr Lipkin is running just such a project with Ms Mikovits and other researchers to test the link between viruses and chronic fatigue, based on a large-scale study of 300 subjects. He expects results by the end of this year. This sort of study, however, is the exception rather than the rule. If the scientific community put more value on replication — by setting aside time, money and journal space — science would do a better job of living up to Carl Sagan's words.

 

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

LOOK WHO'S WATCHING

 

Anyone who has moved cities in India for a job will agree, starting life afresh can be quite a task. Renting an apartment, then getting to know the new environment and coping with an alien culture is tough enough, but even simple things can prove to be enormously complicated. Try opening a bank account, for example. Even if you have an account with the same bank in your previous location, you will have to surmount a mountain of formalities and provide a wide spectrum of documentation, all to prove your identity. Proving who you are is a tough job in India. At one time it was simpler — you just produced a ration card and, if employed, a letter from the office. Over the years the ration card has lost its power, not the least because many middle-class people do not keep it any more and there are millions of fakes floating around. Since then, the PAN card and passport have also been deemed acceptable, but if you have shifted homes after getting the latter, you still have to provide proof of address. What if you live in a rented flat — the rent agreement should ordinarily be enough, but not everyone has one (the poor certainly don't). So back to the original question — how do you prove who you are? To surmount this monumental problem, the government has introduced the unique identity number (UID), which is supposed to be the most reliable indicator of identity, because it has, embedded in it, information that is unique to you. But — and there is always a but — to get it, you have to provide documents proving who you are, which include passports, PAN cards, electricity bill (for proof of address) etc. Sounds scary in more than one way, especially when one considers that all this information will be stored in vast databases controlled by the government. Just thinking about the potential for misuse and abuse is frightening, though the worthies running the UID assure us that there is no danger of that. In a country where the finance minister's office is bugged; this is not very reassuring. All these documents are already recorded in some data base or the other. What is the need for one more? The number of ways the government keeps an eye on its citizens has been steadily increasing. Apart from all the above named documents and now the UID, there are many other ways the government knows what you have been up to. Some are unavoidable — use of credit cards, PAN cards, filling of immigration forms (while entering and leaving the country). Some are newer and very frightening, the latest being the new rules for Internet monitoring. These regulations put the onus of content on intermediaries; put simply, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot and even ebay will also be held liable for any content that appears on their sites. If you post a comment on Twitter that angers anyone — say a political party — it can complain and Twitter will not only have to remove it but also face prosecution. How do you think such intermediaries are going to react? It could be goodbye to fair comment, because as we know, there is no dearth of people and organisations who feel offended. Meanwhile, efforts to make Blackberry, Skype and others to give up proprietary technology to allow monitoring of phone calls and chats continue. The government says it wants to keep an eye on mischief makers, a perfectly valid argument. But who is to say that the privacy of innocent citizens will not be invaded? And at the rate technology is developing, criminals and other malcontents will find newer ways of staying below the official radar. Clearly, big government is here to stay and its getting bigger and more intrusive. It appears that we not only do not mind it, we are welcoming it. The agitation of "civil society" for a Lokpal will create another humongous bureaucratic monster which will have the power to intrude into our lives in different ways. It will be judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one. Now, as if this wasn't dangerous enough, there is a proposal to have one more body that will oversee the Lokpal. And this is an agitation that has the approval of our educated middle classes. Franz Kafka would have felt right at home here. Twenty years ago, the then finance minister Manmohan Singh loosened the tight controls on the Indian economy. The fruits of those reforms are visible to us today. But while we celebrate these economic freedoms and choices, we are giving in — willingly, it appears — to personal restrictions. As long as the latest models of cellphones, cars and games are available on our shelves, who cares if Big Daddy is watching us? * The author is a senior journalist and commentator on current affairs based in Mumbai

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

TAKE OFF THE BLINDFOLDS

 

There are so many misconceptions and misunderstandings prevalent about spirituality that I thought it necessary to explore what it actually is. As I understand, and I am no guru, just a seeker on the path, spirituality is a way of seeing things radically differently from what we have been used to, from birth until now. It is an uncovering of layers, a peeling away of blindfold upon blindfold, in order to begin seeing things as they actually are. To get as real as possible, which is why viewing spirituality as some sort of an exotic, other-worldly pursuit, is to completely miss the point. Since the goal is an unconditioned knowing, of the big truth that underlies everything, if you wish, the process of getting there is not only seminal to the endeavour, it is its very heart. This is the reason why spirituality is often described as a path, a search, a seeking or a journey. The reason for this is, spirituality is about constant, unrelenting practice. Not the popular cliché of passive navel-gazing, but a deep commitment to and a persistent engagement in the task of clarifying one's perception and purifying one's being. Anyone who has ever tried to not retort with anger when provoked, or find compassion for anybody other than oneself or one's loved ones, can imagine how mammoth a task it might be to completely root out all afflictive emotions and replace them entirely with positive and wholesome mental states. Why is it so difficult, though? Most of us have heard often enough that we must be good, we mustn't be mean, we mustn't lie, we must help others. And yet, how many of us can truly say that all the choices we make are governed by selflessness, humility, compassion and love, especially if it involves people who are not our loved ones, and who might have even harmed us or harboured ill-feelings towards us? Even if we think we are all of the above, good and kind that is, how many of us can truly say we are completely and absolutely happy, that we don't need another thing or person or circumstance to make us feel complete and fulfilled? My hand will certainly not rise in response to this question! So, one could say that spirituality and its practice is not just about "doing good", it is also about being good, in the sense of being happy, balanced, peaceful and fulfilled. And to get there, we need to realise the reality of ourselves and of life. We're back to the blindfolds. They need to come off. What are these blindfolds I keep referring to? They are limited ways of seeing and relating that one might attribute to individual conditioning, the habit patterns we have developed over time, the memories, emotions, desires and revulsions that drive us for most of our lives. As a result, what is known as "original mind", our basic nature, becomes clouded, and we live in ignorance of our own potential for clarity, goodness, joyousness. Over the centuries, different wisdom traditions have shown different ways of taking off the blindfolds, perhaps to cater to the diverse needs and abilities of humankind. Some paths have made use of the energy of our emotionality, like the bhakti and Sufi traditions, some of the physical to refine mind and being, like the branches of yoga and tantra. Still others, like Buddhism, have focused on the mind and its cognitive and imaginative capabilities. And there are many more, all of which have acted as rafts to ferry us to new shores of knowing since times immemorial. In the same way, we are all waves in an ocean of "interbeing", to borrow an exquisite term from Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh. Even as we create our worlds around ourselves, we remain inextricably interlinked to everyone and everything. The way we live, what we consume, how we behave, what we buy — every action affects the ocean of consciousness we inhabit with everybody else. This is why spiritual practice can never be about "I" alone. As the wave merges back into the ocean, or at least realises it is not separate from it, it has found a way of being that is vast, open, free. All blindfolds are, finally, off. * The author has written Women Awakened: Stories of Contemporary Spirituality in India, Buddhism: On the Path to Nirvana and Dharamsala Diaries. She can be contacted at www.swatichopra.com

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THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

IS IT REALLY NECESSARY ?

THE REVIVAL OF WEST BENGAL COUNCIL

THE Trinamul election manifesto's pledge to revive the Legislative Council is a commitment that West Bengal can well do without. This is quite the most charitable construct that can be placed upon the move. Tuesday's motion, introduced by the Chief Minister, comes 42 years after the Council was abolished by the United Front in 1969, and significantly with the support of the Congress Opposition leader, Siddhartha Shankar Ray. A bicameral legislature at the state level is an anachronism in this day and age. Apparently the only raison d'etre is to constitute a House for Miss Banerjee's loyalists, who had lent her moral support during the Left Front's disastrous phase (2006-11). Trinamul's steamroller majority will ensure their election to the Council. Many of them have already been rewarded by their induction into various committees. It would be no exaggeration to suggest that the West Bengal Legislative Council will be an almost institutional reward for services rendered. Miss Banerjee's argument that the Council will afford an opportunity to those, who fight shy of contesting elections, to participate in the legislative process is as laboured as it is specious. The Council will not be an elected entity in the profoundly democratic sense. Ergo, it cannot be an embodiment of the will of the people.
The other critical issue on which the government must take a call is whether a parlous West Bengal can really afford this profligacy. Quite simply, it can't. Thus far, the fiscal implications have been totally ignored. If the salary and perquisites that every MLC is entitled to is factored in, considerable will be the drain on a bankrupt exchequer. The productivity of their role must remain open to question. The Council is an avoidable adjunct to the Assembly, crucially for a state that is groping for ways and means and market borrowing to pay salaries and pensions, let alone clear the staggering debt. The Opposition does have a point when it calls the proposed Council a "white elephant". Hopefully, the 15-member advisory committee that has been set up to examine its utility will be engaged in deeper reflection than has been in evidence thus far. It isn't a matter that can be rushed through in keeping wit