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Noida Cam pus: A -26 , S ector-2, N o ida, G au tam B udh N agar-201301 U P, N ear S ec tor-15 M etro S tation.

North Cam pus: 2nd F loor, 2520, H udson Lane, Vijay N agar C how k, N ear G TB N agar, M e tro S ta tion , G a te N o .4 , N ew D e lh i-9

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[2] — Strictly for Internal Circulation 3 Feb - 9 Feb, 2012

� Centre proposed plan for Non-Timber For-est Produce (NTFP) to help tribals

Conceptually NTFP (Non - Timber Forest Products) re-fers to all biological materials other than timber extractedfrom natural forests for human and animal use. It includesplant tissues used for fibre, building material, medicine,edible leaves, roots, flower, fruit, seed, nuts, honey, resin,glue, lac etc. and has both consumptive and exchangevalue. They have income potentials and provide employ-ment opportunities.

Prior to National Forest Policy (NFP), 1988, NTFPs werepopularly known as Minor Forest Products (MFP) that wascentered around Kendu leaves (Bidi Patta) and few otherproducts. Besides the economic value, the non-economicvalue of NTFP for the forest dwellers is more importantsince quite a good number of such products do not enterthe market and are primarily consumed at local level witha little value addition. NTFPs are a part of the socio-cul-tural life of tribal people who mainly maintain a symbolicrelationship with the forest and forest based products. Moreparticularly the reliance of tribal on NTFP becomes veryhigh during uncertain agricultural yields for both foodsecurities during seasonal shortages as well as for house-hold medicine and income needs.

Thus aiming to protect tribes from exploitation by middle-men, Centre is planning to create "strategic public privatepartnerships" for roping in market forces to ensure valuefor non-timber forest produce (NTFP), the major incomesource of forest dwellers.

Objectives of NTFP Management:In the 12th five-year Plan the objectives of NTFP manage-

ment includes the following:a) To conserve and develop the vast & diverse potential

that the NTFP resources have to critically contribute tothe food security & livelihood of the forest dwellersand other dependent disadvantaged communities.

b) To conserve the biodiversity in general and naturalproduct diversity of forest origin in particular.

c) To preserve & develop the resource base for food secu-rity of wildlife.

d) To decide and adopt strategies for the above purposesin the changing contexts like climate change.

e) To help & ensure a smooth & successful compliancewith the mandates of PESA and FRA that give owner-ship rights over MFP to the Gram Sabha on conditionof preserving & managing them sustainably.

According to the plan, the NTFP's collective income couldbe increased through sustainable harvest and scientificpost harvest practices for higher returns and by negotiat-ing better with market forces while also taking up various

NATIONALvalue addition activities at appropriate levels. The inter-vention envisages strengthening the NTFP value chain onend-to-end basis and creating strategic public private part-nerships for the benefit of all stakeholders.

Further the Government has announced creation of sixprojects in Non-Timber Forest Produce, NTFP coveringaround 60 naxal-affected districts in the country. Theprojects to be executed within six months will be in thePublic Private Partnership mode and will cover the Stateslike Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh,Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

It will include the projects in Lac, Gum, Medicinal Plants,Tasar, Bamboo and Non-edible oil seeds like Neem andMahua which will provide a good return for the tribalengaged in collection of these forest products.

The projects will be part of the National Rural Liveli-hood Mission and will focus primarily on livelihood gen-eration and value additional in the non-timber forest prod-ucts in naxal affected areas and called for cooperativearrangement between forest departments and the local selfhelp groups and other such organizations

� SC appoints bureaucrat to monitor PDSThe Supreme Court has nominated a secretary-level of-

ficer in the Centre to monitor the effective implementationof government's food programme for the poor as the com-puterization of the entire PDS has not been able to curbpilferage and corruption.

The apex court appointed Secretary, Ministry of Con-sumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, to coordinatewith states and union territories for distribution of food-grains under the targeted Public Distribution System (PDS)which is a massive operation undertaken by the govern-ment to provide food to the poor in the country.

The report of the justice D.P Wadhwa committee, whichhas been examining the working of PDS, stated that sub-stantial work on digitalization and computerization of PDShas failed to live upto its efficiency and ratio of bogusration cards has increased.

Earlier the Central Vigilance Committee headed by Jus-tice Wadhwa had devised a scheme of community kitchenfor providing cooked meals to the poor living at places likecity hospitals and bus stops at nominal cost or free withthe help of corporates and Public Sector Units under theirCorporate Social responsibility (CSR) programme. But thecommittee had received a poor response from variousministries on the proposal of community kitchen with thehelp of CSR programme.

The apex court had earlier said that all states shouldemulate the PDS model adopted by Tamil Nadu whichhas been supplying rice at Rs. 1 per kg and subsidized

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3 Feb - 9 Feb, 2012 Strictly for Internal Circulation — [3]

fortified atta and pulses to BPL families without muchhassles and complaint of pilferage and misappropriation.It had directed the Centre to allocate additional five mil-lion tonnes of foodgrains to the 150 poorest districts underthe supervision of a committee appointed by it. But theslower digitalization of PDS or the nonexistence of soundPDS system has deteriorated the objective of "food secu-rity for all" in India.

� Rajasthan launches food fortificationprogramme

Rajasthan has high levels of stunting (40 per cent),wasting and under-nutrition (37 per cent) children with 79per cent of children under 3 years, 62 per cent pregnantwomen and even 21 per cent men, becoming anaemic, thestate government, in partnership with GAIN - the GlobalAlliance for Improved Nutrition, and other partners haslaunched projects aimed at increasing the nutritional valueof a range of foods - from infant foods to vitamin andmineral-rich wheat flour.

The food fortification programme or IPS (IntegratedProgramme Strategy)-Rajasthan aims to make fortifiedwheat flour (fortified with iron, Vitamin B12 and folic acid)and fortified edible oil (fortified with Vitamin A) widelyavailable across the State.

Under the project, it is envisaged to fortify the lentils(daal) with folic acid and iron, which would be providedthrough the centralized kitchens in the Mid-day Meals(MDM) and Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS).

Further GAIN is supporting for setting up of 7 mini-industrial plants managed by Women Self-help Groups toproduce fortified food for the ICDS in partnership withDepartment of Women and Child Development, Govern-ment of Rajasthan and UN World Food Programme. Thisproject empowers marginalized women to become entre-preneurs to produce high quality, fortified blended food forpregnant and lactating mothers and children aged 6-36months to complement breastfeeding and other best prac-tices in infant feeding.

Food fortification is defined as the practice of deliberatelyincreasing the content of essential micronutrients - vita-mins and minerals - in a food so as to improve the nutri-tional quality of the food supply and to provide a publichealth benefit with minimal risk to health.

The public health benefits of fortification includes:a) Prevention or minimization of the risk of occurrence of

micronutrient deficiency in a population or specificpopulation groups.

b) Contribution to the correction of a demonstrated micro-nutrient deficiency in a population or specific popula-tion groups.

c) Plausible beneficial effects of micronutrients consistentwith maintaining or improving health (e.g. there issome evidence to suggest that a diet rich in selectedantioxidants might help to prevent cancer and otherdiseases).

� CBSE international curriculum launched inIndia

The Central Board of Secondary Education's internationalcurriculum (CBSE-i), until now restricted to around 25 schoolsabroad, will now be available to around 50 schools in India.

The CBSE-I curriculum is for students choosing the boardssuch as the International Baccalaureate. The internationalsyllabus is implemented for class 1 to class 12 and stu-dents are taught through e-books. The CBSE-I studentshave an advantage over other CBSE students as they learnmore foreign languages and different curriculum for othersubjects. The net-based programme will also have subjectslike drama and dance.

The CBSE-i operates through a portal which disseminatesimportant information to teachers whose institution is sub-scribed to it and also has an expert panel to answer queries.

� Five-Point Agenda for Rejuvenating SocialScience Research Announced

Union Minister for Human Resource Development hasannounced a five-point agenda for rejuvenating socialscience research in the country and for attracting brightminds for research in this area.

For rejuvenation of Social Science Research follow-ing five point agenda proposed:a) ICSSR shall proceed to develop a Fellowship scheme

for embedding young scholars in the universities inter-ested in pursuit of social science research.

b) ICSSR can create a network of eminent academics tocollaborate on creation of academic content includingpublications of texts, digests and manuscripts in spe-cific areas in social sciences. These manuscripts wouldprovide an inexpensive aid to teachers and students insocial sciences and would be available in different lan-guages. The manuscripts could be delivered electroni-cally leveraging on the gains of the National KnowledgeNetwork which aims to interlink all institutions of higherlearning with an information super-highway.

c) It could take the lead to develop a Social SciencesKnowledge and Research Network as an open source,virtual assembly of research papers of quality. ThisNetwork could host peer reviewed research papersand Ph.D theses in social sciences, both priced andfree, depending on the choice of the author.

d) It could establish a National Social Science ResearchInnovation Centre in order to develop capacity in newand frontier areas of trans-disciplinary research. TheCentre could identify innovative research methodolo-gies in frontier areas of knowledge and assist in build-ing a network for carrying forward the research inter-ests of institutions, scholars and teachers.

e) There will be institution of 10 annual Amartya SenAwards for advancement of knowledge in social sci-ences. The Amartya Sen Awards will be on the lines ofBhatnagar Awards given for recognition in research inscience.

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� U.S. bid to woo foreign talentAmidst pending comprehensive immigration reform, the

United States has proposed several steps, including changesin the F-1 and H-1B visas, to attract foreign skilledworkforce, a move likely to benefit professionals from coun-tries such as India.

Prominent among the reforms include providing workauthorization for spouses of certain H-1B visa holders, 17-month extension of optional practical training (OPT) for F-1 international students to include students with a priordegree in science, technology, engineering and mathemat-ics, allow for additional part-time study for spouses of F-1 students and allow outstanding professors and research-ers to present a broader scope of evidence of academicachievement.

F-1 students who graduate in programs of study classi-fied as STEM (science, technology, engineering and math-ematics) could obtain a 17-month extension of OPT as partof their F-1 status if the degree they are conferred is in-cluded on the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) listof eligible STEM degree programs. This proposed changewould expand eligibility for extension of OPT by includingstudents with a STEM degree that is not the most recentdegree the student has received.

The DHS would allow spouses of F-1 students to enrollin additional academic classes on a part-time basis whiletheir spouse is pursuing full-time studies. Presently, underthe current regulation, spouses may only take part-timevocational or recreational classes.

Further it would launch 'Entrepreneurs in Residence' ini-tiative with an Information Summit in Silicon Valley. Thiswill bring together high-level representatives from the entre-preneurial community, academia and federal governmentagencies to discuss how to maximize current immigrationlaws' potential to attract foreign entrepreneurial talent.

INTERNATIONALThese reforms would hopefully attract new businesses

and new investment to the U.S. and ensure that the U.S.has the most skilled workforce in the world.

� China, Russia veto UNSC resolution againstSyria

Russia and China has vetoed an Arab League-backedresolution because of what they perceived to be a potentialviolation of Syria's sovereignty, which could allow formilitary intervention or regime change at the United Na-tions Security Council that called on Syrian PresidentBashar Assad to step down, while India, along with theU.S. and 12 others, backed the move.

France, Britain and Pakistan also voted in favour of theresolution aimed at putting pressure on Syria to end its 11-month crackdown on anti-government protests that havekilled more than 200 people in one of the bloodiest epi-sodes of the uprising against the Assad regime.

Human Rights Watch had condemned the UNSC resolu-tion, terming the Russian and Chinese decision irrespon-sible and praised India, which so far was seen siding withMoscow and Beijing on this issue, for voting in favour ofthe failed resolution.

� Iran launches observation satelliteIran has launched an observation satellite called NAVID

into orbit above Earth between 250 and 370 kilometres.It is a 50-kilogram micro satellite that will collect data

which can be used in weather forecasting and naturaldisaster management. It is meant to stay in orbit for 18months, sending back images to Iran as it completes arevolution of Earth every 90 minutes.

It was the third domestically made satellite Iran that hasbeen put above the planet using its Safir rockets. The othertwo observation platforms, launched in February 2009 andJuly 2011, stayed in orbit for two to three months.

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� Iran agrees for payment in rupees for crudeoil exchange

Iran has agreed to accept 45 per cent of the payment forits crude imports in rupees through three Indian banks tobeat the effect of western sanctions.

Since December 2010, Washington and its western allieshad exhorted India not to use the Asian Clearing Union(ACU) currency swap system to pay Iran for the exchangeof crude oil.

The Asian Clearing Union (ACU) was established withits head quarters at Tehran, Iran, on December 9, 1974 atthe initiative of the United Nations Economic and SocialCommission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP), for promotingregional co-operation. The main objectives of a clearingunion are to facilitate payments among member countriesfor eligible transactions on a multilateral basis, therebyeconomizing on the use of foreign exchange reserves andtransfer costs, as well as promoting trade among the par-ticipating countries. But Western countries argued thatthis mechanism was disconcertingly opaque. Consequently,it was difficult to ascertain whether the money flowinginto Iran's coffers was not used to fortify the country'snuclear programme. Thus US ordered to discontinue theuse of dollar as a transaction currency. Faced with theseobjections, India began using the German bank, EIH, formaking payments. However, this channel broke down inMay 2011, after the European Union imposed sanctionson Iran. Afer the closure of this path too, the oil paymentswere processed through Halkbank in Turkey.

Finally the two countries had agreed on part payment inrupees as gold was not a suitable option.

Under the new agreement, 45 per cent of the paymentwould be made in rupees through three Indian banksand Iran could utilize this for buying Indian machinery,metal products, iron, steel, minerals, clothes, fibre, sugar,tea, wood and automobile spare parts. Indian companiescan also invest in projects in Iran like developing its oiland gas fields, extraction of iron ore and building roadsand railways.

Nearly 12 per cent of India's total demand, around4,00,000 barrels a day, feeds India's refineries and petro-chemical complexes. The Mangalore Refinery and Petro-chemicals Ltd (MPCL) is the largest oil importer from Iran.The IOC, BPCL, HPCL and Essar are also major consum-ers of Iranian crude.

� India Bhutan MeetIn a move aimed at strengthening bilateral trade rela-

tions, India has exempted essential commodities to Bhutanfrom export ban. The Director General of Foreign trade hasissued notification exempting Bhutan from the application

INDIA AND WORLDof export ban on Milk Powder, Wheat, Edible Oil, Pulsesand Non-Basmati Rice with annual limits indicated by theBhutanese side.

Both leaders has also expressed satisfaction that progressin meeting the target of developing 10,000 MW of hydro-power capacity in Bhutan by 2020 is on schedule. Bhutanhas an estimated hydropower potential of 30,000 MW witha little over 1,472 MW harnessed. Three major hydroelec-tric power projects (HEPs) have been built with Indianassistance in Bhutan - 336 MW Chukha, 60 MW Kurichhuand 1020 MW Tala HEPs. In July 2006, India and Bhutansigned an Agreement wherein India agreed to develop andimport 5000 MW of electricity from Bhutan by 2020. Thistarget was revised to 10,000 MW during PM's visit toBhutan in May 2008.

Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $377.57million during 2010-11. Total exports to Bhutan were $176.00 million while total imports from Bhutan were $201.57 million during 2010-11. India's trade balance withBhutan has turned negative from 2006 i.e. India importsmore than it exports to Bhutan.

� India-Romania Bilateral MeetShri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Union Minister of State for

Commerce & Industry re-launched India-Romania EconomicEngagement by signing the 17th Joint Economic CommitteeProtocol at Bucharest (Romania) and urged the Indian in-dustry to utilise the available opportunities in Europe forinvestments and cutting- edge technology ventures.

India and Romania have agreed to enhance cooperationin upstream and downstream hydrocarbon sector, includ-ing training, capacity building, R&D, supply of equipmentfor exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon and othertechnical assistance and explore investment opportunitiesin IT, infrastructure and tourism sectors.

In a bilateral meeting both nations expressed hope todouble bilateral trade and economic cooperation in thenext three years by 2015.

The JEC which met after a hiatus of 8 years also resolvedto promote investments and Joint Ventures in areas of supplyof equipment for metallurgy and energy industry, coopera-tion between Micro small and medium enterprises, Trans-port and infrastructure field, IT and ITES, cooperation intechnical textiles, and Tourism.

Even in the midst of the EU crisis, during the currentfiscal 2011-12, bilateral trade between India and Romaniahas grown by 6%. Shri Scindia urged Romanian compa-nies to continue the trend of supplying competitively pricedinputs to Indian industry and invited them to participatein the 'India Show' in the Brno Engineering Fair in theCzech Republic in October 2012, where over 150 IndianEngineering companies will participate.

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� India Signs MoU with USA on Labour andEmployment

India and the United States have signed a Memorandumof Understanding establishing a framework for conductinga dialogue and to cooperate on future labour and employ-ment issues.

The MoU will enable Indian and US experts to begin adialogue on issues like Skill Development, Youth Employ-ment, Occupational Safety and Health and Mines Safetythus establishing a framework for conducting a dialogueand to cooperate on future labour and employment issues.

This MoU will help India in increasing her know-how inthe areas of accreditation systems, self-regulation andauditing through collaboration, exchange and sharing ofideas, etc with USA.

The memorandum is an outgrowth of a 2010 meetingbetween Indian Minister of Labour and EmploymentMallikarjun Kharge and US Secretary of Labour Hilda L.Solis following a conference of the G20 Labour and em-ployment ministers hosted by the US Department of Labour.

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� Government to release Monthly Headline In-flation data

The government has announced discontinuing releasingof weekly primary and food inflation data based on theWholesale Price Index as the weekly data were not givingany 'clear and holistic' picture of the inflation situation.

The government, however, will continue releasing themonthly headline or overall inflation data, which also con-tains the break-up for all segments including food, non-food,fuel and manufactured items. The headline inflation figuresfor January are scheduled to be released on February 14.

Besides, from this month the government will also comeout with a retail inflation data based on the all-IndiaConsumer Price Index. The first nationwide CPI numbers,for the month of January, will come out on February 21.

The government has last month decided to do away withthe practice of releasing the weekly primary and food in-flation data as the figures were not portraying the "holis-tic" picture of the price situation. The decision was takenby the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA),chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Wholesale Price IndexThe Wholesale Price Index or WPI is the price of a repre-

sentative basket of wholesale goods. The Indian WPI figureis released monthly and influences stock and fixed pricemarkets. The Wholesale Price Index focuses on the price ofgoods traded between corporations, rather than goods boughtby consumers, which is measured by the Consumer PriceIndex. The purpose of the WPI is to monitor price movementsthat reflect supply and demand in industry, manufacturingand construction. This helps in analyzing both macroeco-nomic and microeconomic conditions.

In September 2010, the government had changed the baseyear for calculating WPI to 2004-05 from 1993-94. The newWPI series has 241 more items than in the old index. Withthe additional items, the WPI now measures a total of 676items against 435 earlier.

The limitations of WPI are related to:a) Non-inclusion of services;b) following a fixed weighting scheme while the economy

is undergoing major structural changes, andc) Use of gross transactions data rather than data on final

purchases.

� SEBI guidelines set stage for disinvestmentIn order to facilitate promoters to dilute/offload their

holding in listed companies in a transparent manner withwider participation, SEBI has decided to allow the offer forsale of shares by promoters of such companies through aseparate window provided by the stock exchange(s).

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) haspermitted promoters of top 100 companies to quickly dilutetheir shares through a separate window on the BSE andthe National Stock Exchange.

ECONOMYAs per the guidelines issued by SEBI, all the listed com-

panies are required to have at least 25 per cent publicholding while in case of state-owned company the limit is10 per cent. Further the promoter will have to sell equityof minimum one per cent subject to a minimum of Rs.25crore. However, in respect of companies, where 1% of thepaid-up capital at closing price on the specified date is lessthan Rs 25 crores, dilution would be atleast 10% of thepaid-up capital or such lesser percentage so as to achieveminimum public shareholding in a single tranche.

The duration of the offer for sale shall not exceed onetrading day adding that the placing of orders by tradingmembers should take place during trading hours. As perthe guideline, the promoters should not have purchasedshares of the company during the 12 weeks period priorand after the offer of sale.

� S&P warning to India on negative ratingGlobal rating agency S&P has warned that "the balance

of risk factors" for India's sovereign credit rating could tilttowards 'negative' zone this year emanating from economicuncertainties at home and abroad.

However, Standard and Poor's (S&P) maintained that itdoes not expect to downgrade or revise its 'stable' outlookon the investment grade 'BBB-' long-term sovereign creditrating on India in the near future.

As per the report, high inflation, a weak fiscal positionand slower economic growth have hurt investor confidencein the rupee which triggered a capital outflow and allthese negatives weighed on the stable sovereign outlook onIndia in 2012.

� NIESBUD & IFC Rollout Innovative Train-ing of Trainers' Programme for MSME Sector

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed betweenthe National Institute for Entrepreneurship & Small Busi-ness Development (NIESBUD), an autonomous institutionunder the Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprisesand the International Finance Corporation, a member ofthe World Bank Group, for jointly undertaking differentProjects relating to entrepreneurship development in India.

The NIESBUD will collaborate with the IFC in conduct-ing Training of Trainers (TOT) programme, based upontheir vast experience in the area, for strengthening thetraining skills of MSME Trainers so that they are in a betterposition to impart training and thus facilitate sustenanceof this vital sector of the Indian Economy. The ultimateobjective is to create a cadre of Master Trainers who would,in turn, replicate the model to impart training for MSMESector in a much bigger way.

The Pilot Programme(s) will be organized for the selectedTrainers from across the five identified States/U.Ts. TheProgramme(s) shall involve the use of the Business EdgeTraining of Trainers methodology of IFC which has beenrolled out in 29 countries so far. The methodology is alearning platform for small businesses that includes acomprehensive and effective approach to equip trainerswith key facilitation skills.

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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

� DRDO develops a new indigenous, afford-able cochlear implant

The Defence Research and Development Organisation[DRDO] has developed an indigenous and affordable co-chlear implant which can help millions of deaf people tohear again.

Cochlear implant is a highly complex system. It is asurgically implanted electronic device that provides a senseof sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severelyhard of hearing due to loss of sensory hair cells in theircochlea. Pre-lingually deaf children, post-lingually impairedchildren and post-lingually deaf adults who have losthearing due to diseases such as meningitis form threedistinct groups of potential users of cochlear implants withdifferent needs and outcomes.

In India, there are nearly a million people who needcochlear implants. Every year, about 9,000 to 10,000 chil-dren are born deaf. Unfortunately, the imported cochlearimplant is very expensive and priced at Rs. 7 lakh to Rs.10 lakh, which only the affluent can afford. The new indig-enous cochlear plant will cost 1 lakh only.

� Fourth phase of intensive tiger monitoringprogramme begins

The fourth phase of an intensive "Tiger MonitoringProgramme" envisaged by the Tiger Task Force of the UnionGovernment has begun at the Kalakkad - MundanthuraiTiger Reserve (KMTR) in Tirunelveli (Tamil Nadu). Thisphase involves setting up of 100 cameras in every four sq.km. area of a tiger reserve. In the fourth phase, the densityof camera traps will be significantly more. This phaseinvolves setting up of 100 cameras in every four sq. km. ofrecognized habitat area of a tiger reserve. The camera trap-ping will cover a 400 sq. km. area in the 890 sq. km. spreadof KMTR. The 400 sq. km. area has been identified asimportant tiger habitat.

The earlier three phases of tiger monitoring in India havebeen as follows.a) In the first phase, determination of occupancy and

mapping relative abundance of the carnivores was done.b) The second phase was based on remotely sensed spa-

tial and attribute co-variates.c) In the third phase, camera-trap based mark recapture

was carried out.

Under the earlier system, the tiger population was moni-tored through census, conducted once in four years. In thatsystem the casualty of cats due to old age or any otherreason could not be identified. In the present intensive sys-tem movement of every tiger in a reserve can be identified.

The new system of camera traps will be in place for 45days, which will be regularly monitored by a team of re-

searchers and department officials. The collected data fromthe traps would be digitally processed and compared, usingspecial software. The data would be kept in KMTR andanother set of data sent to NTCA and the Wildlife Instituteof India, Dehra Dun.

� US engineers unveil laser-guided bullet thatcan hit target a mile away

Engineers in the US have invented a bullet that directsitself to a target like a tiny guided missile and can hit atarget more than a mile away.

The .50-caliber bullets are being designed to work withmilitary machine guns, so that soldiers could hit theirmark faster and with precision. The bullet can twist andturn to guide itself toward a laser-directed point, all whilemaking up to 30 corrections per second. It's packed withelectronics that control electromagnetic actuators that steerthe bullet's tiny fins.

Working of bulletThe 4-inch-long bullet includes an optical sensor in the

nose to detect a laser beam on a target. The sensor sendsinformation to guidance and control electronics that usean algorithm in an eight-bit central processing unit tocommand electromagnetic actuators. These actuators steertiny fins that guide the bullet to the target.

� Google unveils plans for country-specificcontent filtering

Google, which launched its blogging service - Blogger -in 1999 has unveiled plans to make content on its bloggerplatform selectively available, depending on the local rulesof each country.

The new rules would be applicable in many countries,such as India, Brazil, Honduras, and Germany. Accordingto the new plan company will restrict content in indi-vidual countries pursuant to requests by the local legalauthority without blocking worldwide access to that blog.

This means, for example, that if a blog breaks an Austra-lian law, Google can now block it in Australia but leave itup in the rest of the world.

Google is going to deploy a country-specific uniformresource locator (URL) scheme for its blogger platform,which will be redirected to a country-code top-level do-main, or 'ccTLD'. By utilising country-specific domainaddresses, content-removal can be managed on a per-coun-try basis, which will limit their impact to the smallestnumber of readers. Content removed due to a specificcountry's law will only be removed from the relevant page.

This step will continue promoting free expression andresponsible publishing along with greater flexibility in com-plying with valid removal requests pursuant to local laws.

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� India State of Forest Report 2011 ReleasedThe Forest Survey of India (FSI) has been publishing a

series of biennial assessment report the forest cover in thecountry since 1987. The India State of Forest Report isrecognized as the authoritative assessment of the country'sforest resources. The India State of Forest Report 2011 isthe twelfth report in the series.

It is based on interpretation of satellite data recordedduring October 2008-March 2009 from the indigenous IRS-P6-LISS III sensor on a resolution of 23.5m with a minimummappable area of one hectare. The assessment made on thebasis of satellite imageries is backed by rigorous groundtruthing carried out by the staff of FSI. The change matricesrecorded in the present report refer to changes with respectto the satellite data recorded for the previous India State ofForest Report two years earlier. Special coverage is providedto forest cover in hill districts, tribal districts and the north-east keeping in mind the special symbiotic relationship ofcommunities with forests in these regions.

Salient findings of the Report:a) The Forest and Tree cover of the country is 78.29 million

ha, which is 23.81% of the geographical area of thecountry. In comparison to the 2009 assessment, aftertaking into account the interpretational changes, there isa decrease of 367 square km in country's forest cover.

b) 15 states have registered aggregate increase of 5000sqkm in their forest cover with Punjab leading withincrease of 100sqkm.

c) 12 states/UTs (mainly the NE states) have showndecrease to the extent of 867sqkm. Decline of 281 sqkmin Forest cover of Andhra Pradesh is mainly attributedto harvesting of mature plantation of Eucalyptus &other species.

d) Decline in Forest cover of NE is particularly due toprevailing practice of shifting cultivation in this region.

e) The state of Madhya Pradesh has the largest forestcover in the country at 77,700 square km followed byAruncachal Pradesh at 67, 410 square km.

f) In terms of percentage of forest cover in relation to totalgeographical area, Mizoram tops with 90.68% followedby Lakshadweep with 84.56%.

g) The total growing stock of India's forests and treesoutside forests is estimated as 6047.15 million cu m i.e.4498.73 million cu m inside the recorded forest areaand 1548.42 million cu m outside the recorded forests.

The Forest Report 2011 has added three new chaptersthat are of crucial importance in the present national andglobal worldview about forests. These are: a detailed as-sessment of bamboo resources, a production-consumptionassessment of wood based on data stock in India's forestsreported under the NATCOM project and the assessmentof carbon stock in India's forests.

Due to its significant impact on rural/tribal economyand their livelihood the Production and consumption Studyis expected to fill the information gap in this arena. Thestudy highlights the importance of trees outside forests ismeeting the requirements of industrial wood, small timberand firewood.

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Starts 1st April, 2012

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2 - MARKERS� Himachal to become carbon neutral by 2020

In the process of achieving sustainable development,Himachal Pradesh has launched carbon smart growthproject to make Himachal Pradesh carbon neutral by 2020.As a initiative the State Government has signed an agree-ment with the World Bank for harnessing carbon creditsto generate revenue amounting to Rs. 20 crore for 20 yearsunder "Bio-Carbon Projects'' in 177 gram panchayats in10 districts.

Further the government had created an "EnvironmentFund'' through voluntary contribution from individualsand organisations for environment protection and stressedthe need for more incentives and resources for financingmitigation and adaption strategies. The Government hasalso started a mission called Community-Led Assessment,Awareness, Advocacy and Action Programme (CLAP) forenvironment protection and carbon neutrality at panchayatlevel under which initially 1000 panchayats will be cov-ered out of total 3000 panchayats in the hill State.

� Bengal gives second language status to UrduWest Bengal government has accorded second language

status to Urdu especially in those areas where over 10 percent of population as per 2001 and 2010 census speaksthe language.

Ten areas, including Kolkata, Asansol, Jamuria,Champdani, Goaltore I and II blocks, Islampur, Titagrhand Kamarhati, have been initially identified as having tenpercent Urdu-speaking population.

� New copper and gold deposits foundGeological Survey of India (GSI) has found the new

copper and gold deposits in Rajasthan, Karnataka andUttar Pradesh.

It has discovered Copper mineralization at Khera blockin Alwar district of Rajasthan and gold mineralisation inTumkur and Sonbhadra districts in Karnataka and UttarPradesh respectively.

� Conservation reserve status for Jawai forestsRajasthan will soon accord the bio-diversity rich Jawai

Bandh forests in Pali district the status of a conservationreserve. The rich forests and the water bodies along theJawai dam in Sumerpur tehsil have a large presence ofcrocodiles. The Jawai dam was built in 1957 for drinkingwater purposes. The creation of the conservation reservewould provide a fillip to eco-tourism and help preservecrocodiles, aquatic life in the dam and the leopard andwolf population in the forest.

The existing conservation reserves in the State are Jhodbedein Bikaner district, Bisalpur in Tonk district, Soonda Matain Jalore district and Gudha Vishnoi in Jodhpur district.

� Tropex 2012The Navy staged a network-centric exercise off the South-

ern coast and displayed cooperation with the Indian AirForce in its annual TROPEX (Theatre-level Readiness andOperational Exercise).

The exercise was staged to test new platforms, weaponssensors, communication systems and tactics in order tooptimise the network combat power of the fleet, whichincluded over 40 surface combatants of various classes,submarines and a large number of aircraft, including un-manned aerial vehicles.

� Centre plans 6.5-year MBBSIndia is planning to make its undergraduate MBBS course

six-and-a-half years long, instead of the present five-and-a half years. The health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad andthe Medical Council of India (MCI) discussed amendingthe MCI Act that would make a one-year rural postingcompulsory for all MBBS students before they can becomedoctors. The proposal was first mooted by former healthminister A. Ramadoss in 2007.

Presently India is facing an acute shortage of humanresources in health - the sting of which is being faced bythe flagship NRHM scheme, and the vulnerable popula-tion in rural, tribal and hilly areas is extremely underserved.

As per a Planning Commission study, the country isshort of six lakh doctors, 10 lakh nurses and 2 lakh dentalsurgeons, leading to a dismal doctor-patient ratio.

� New breeding ground for Black-neckedStork

A wetland near the Dhabok airport in Rajasthan hasbeen established as a new breeding site for the rare Black-necked Storks. The place, , is said to be the second knownbreeding ground for the Black-necked Stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus ) in Rajasthan after the cel-ebrated wetland, Keoladeo National Park near Bharatpur.

The population of Black-necked Stork, though not listedas endangered by the IUCN, is estimated to be slim withtheir combined presence in South and South East Asiarecording a low 1,000 birds. In India, the species is spottedin the west, in the central highlands and the NorthernGangetic plains extending up to the Assam valley. Thebirds are found in sizeable numbers in Australia.

Black-necked Storks are traditionally referred to as "LohaSarang" in Bihar and the Mir Shikars, the traditional birdhunting community there maintained a tradition of insist-ing on a young man wanting to get married to catch aBlack-necked Stork before getting the bride. This practicewas stopped in 1920 after one of the aspirants was killedby the bird, which can get violent when challenged.

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� V. Shantaram awardNoted environmental film maker Mike Pandey has been

honoured with the V Shantaram Lifetime AchievementAward of the Mumbai International Film Festival MIFF2012. The award was instituted in 1996 in memory ofIndia`s foremost film maker V Shantaram, the award aimsto recognise the multi-faceted contributions of an Indianfor the documentary film movement.

� Awards Instituted for Outstanding Work inChecking Human Trafficking

Government of India has instituted awards for recogni-tion of outstanding work done to check human trafficking.A Three member Committee headed by Shri G. K. Pillai,IAS (Retd.), former Union Home Secretary along with ShriKoshy, IPS (Retd.) and Prof. M. Aslam, Vice Chancellor,IGNOU will shortlist the awardee.

The awards will be given in three categories.In Category I two awards each of 2 lakhs will be givento State/UTs.In Category II three awards will be given to individualofficers of States/UTs. The award will carry a commen-dation and Rs. 1.5 lakhs.In Category-III two awards will be given to Non-Government Organisations/Civil Society Organisations(NGOs/CSOs).

� G. D. Birla AwardProf. Tapas Kumar Kundu of Bangalore-based Jawaharlal

Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research has wonthe G. D. Birla Award for his contributions in the field ofbio-chemistry. The award, instituted by the K. K. BirlaFoundation to accord recognition to high-calibre scientificresearch undertaken by Indian scientists below the age of50, carries Rs.1.50 lakh in cash.

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EDITORIALS� Syria needs diplomacy, not intervention

President Bashar al-Assad's government has used bruteforce to crush a genuine popular upheaval against hisregime. The death toll is nearly 6,000. Human rights havebeen systematically violated. But the crucial question ishow and what steps can international society lawfullytake to bring an end to the crisis.

Libya is not a model for emulation but a warning toheed; more so, Iraq. Each was a split polity surviving onfragile unity. The Syrian regime, however unpopular, issupported by a significant section of people. Regime changethrough outside intervention wreaks havoc, violates theUnited Nations Charter, the rules of international law, andundermines the stability of the world order. These funda-mentals must not be overlooked.

At the root of Russia and China's veto of the resolutionon Syria in the Security Council on February 4, lies dis-trust, deep and justified. The world was taken for a ridetwice by the Council's resolutions which did not authorisethe use of force, but came in handy as fig leaves to coverthe nudity of illegal recourse to war.

Obama's fatwaStatements made in the Council as well as their texts

establish that Resolution 1441 of November 8, 2002, didnot authorise an attack on Iraq. Nor did Resolution 1973,adopted on March 17, 2011, authorise the use of forceagainst Libya. However, on February 26, President BarackObama delivered a fatwa on Col. Muammar Qadhafi: "Heshould go." Now, on February 4, the very day the UNSCwas to vote on the resolution on Syria, he peremptorilydeclared apropos President al-Assad: "He must step asideand allow a democratic transition to proceed immediately."Few would believe Hillary Clinton when she said, on Janu-ary 31, "there is no intention to seek any authority or topursue any kind of military intervention".

Suspicions of plans for regime change are justified. "Thenyou will start telling what King needs to resign and whatPrime Minister needs to step down. This is not the busi-ness of the Security Council," Russia's Ambassador to theU.N. Vitaly Churkin remarked on January 31.

Textually, the resolution is misleading. It "calls for aninclusive Syrian led political process" but adds it "fullysupports in this regard the League of Arab States' 22 Janu-ary 2012 decision to facilitate a Syrian-led political transi-tion to a democratic, plural political system, … includingthrough commencing a serious political dialogue betweenthe Syrian government and the whole spectrum of the Syr-ian opposition under the League of Arab States' auspices, inaccordance with the timetable set out by the League of ArabStates; Encourages the League of Arab States to continue itsefforts in cooperation with all Syrian stakeholders."

As Neil Macfarquhar of The New York Times reported:"Three clauses that endorsed specific aspects of the Plan -including that Mr. Assad delegate his authority to his vice-president to speed a transition to democracy - were re-moved. But Arab and Western diplomats said the essentialidea remained, even if it was not spelled out."

'Demands, does not recommend'The Resolution, obviously adopted under Chapter VII,

"demands," does not "recommend." It says: "Demands thatthe Syrian government, in accordance with the Plan ofAction of the League of Arab States of 2 November 2011and its decision of 22 January 2012, without delay." Sixsteps are listed. Finally, the Council "Requests the Secre-tary General to report on the implementation of this reso-lution, in consultation with the League of Arab States,within 21 days after its adoption and to report every 30days thereafter. Decides to review implementation of thisresolution within 21 days and, in the event of non-compli-ance, to consider further measures." Of what avail thedisavowal "Nothing in this resolution authorizes measuresunder Article 42 of the Charter" when the threat is implicitin the text itself? The League's Plan which is endorsedprovides for Mr. al-Assad to step down.

Bashar al-Assad is no pushover. Diplomacy should seekhis consent to a plan which leaves him in office but en-sures a democratic transition. The resolution is not an aidto diplomacy but an instrument of duress. The Arab Leagueand its Western backers were impatient on regime change.

Regime change has furtively acquired certain respect-ability. Time there was when Gladstone told the House ofCommons on April 2, 1880 that "the rights of a Power, therights of a nation, ought not to be invaded because ithappens to have the misfortune of a despotic government."

The law was laid down by the International Court ofJustice on April 9, 1949, in the Corfu Channelcase: "TheCourt can only regard the alleged right of intervention asthe manifestation of a policy of force, such as has, in thepast, given rise to most serious abuses and such as cannot,whatever the present defects of international organization,find a place in international law. … from the nature ofthings it would be reserved for the most powerful States;…" These words are more relevant now than they were in1949. This was reaffirmed in the Nicaragua case in 1986.The Court rejected intervention at a "request for assistancemade by an opposition group in another state."

The collapse of the USSR in 1991 opened new vistas ofthe play of power. In 1986, a British Foreign Office PolicyPaper noted that "the overwhelming majority of contempo-rary legal opinion comes down against the existence of aright of humanitarian intervention". In 1992, the ForeignOffice held: "international law develops to meet new situ-ations; we believe that international intervention without

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the invitation of the country concerned can be justified incases of extreme humanitarian need."

In this clime came R2P. In an inspired moment in2000, the Canadian movement picked on the egregiousGareth Evans of Australia, with Mohamed Sahuom ofAlgeria, doubtless both of undying reason, to co-chairan independent International Commission on Interven-tion and State sovereignty. They coined the phrase "re-sponsibility to protect".

The doctrine was not accepted by the U.N. General As-sembly on September 14, 2009, after a long debate. OnSeptember 24, 1999, Foreign Ministers of the Group of 77"rejected the so-called right of humanitarian intervention,which has no basis in the UN Charter or internationallaw". This represents the opinion of 132 states; 33 Asian,51 African, 22 Latin American, and 13 Arab states.

Crisis of legitimacySuch an intervention inevitably entails regime change.

One suspects that change is the main objective; humanrights violations are a pretext for it. Witness the deafeningsilence on outrages by the favourites. Beneath the crisis inthe U.N. system lies a deeper crisis of the legitimacy of anorder which is devoid of an international consensus. Thatcan be restored only by a wide consensus. We face a genu-ine humanitarian problem. Remember Biafra, Cambodia,Rwanda and Darfur.

Russia's Foreign Minister said on February 4 that theresolution on Syria was not "hopeless" and that "we sup-port the call of the Syrian people for change." There wasample room for compromise. There is still time for that - aU.N. Mission comprising members of high credentials cango to Syria to bring about a settlement which leaves Mr. al-Assad in office but ensures democratic transition.

India's Permanent Representative to the U.N., HardipSingh Puri, said "the main role of the international com-munity, including this Council, is to facilitate engage-ment of the Syrian government with all sections of Syriansociety." Nominating its adversary, the Arab League, toaccomplish tasks set by the Resolution is no way to se-cure that "engagement."

If anything, the pursuit of regime change is hurting theinternational community's ability to end the crisis.Source: The Hindu

� Writings, not writersI have never attended the Jaipur Literature Festival; nor

does a visit loom in the foreseeable future. This is largely(but not wholly) because I have no taste for tamashas.Although unusual, this aversion is by no means unknownin the Indian subcontinent. I know of many writers andreaders who share it, and I suspect that most of us weredrawn to the world of books precisely because it providedan island of quiet within the din of tamasha-stan.

My own inclinations make it difficult for me to under-stand why Salman Rushdie is so drawn to this festival. Buteach to their own and I recognise that I am in a tiny minor-ity. The great majority of writers seem to want to go andanyone who does should certainly be able to. It is appallingthat Rushdie was prevented from attending and I am wholly

in agreement with those who believe that this bodes very illindeed for the future of free expression in India.

But the controversy also raises questions about anotherissue that touches directly upon writing: this is the way inwhich literature is coming to be embedded within a widerculture of public spectacles and performances. This pro-cess, which got underway almost imperceptibly, has nowachieved a momentum where it seems to be overtaking,and indeed overwhelming, writing itself as the primaryend of a life in letters.

A frequently heard argument in favour of book festivalsis that they provide a venue for writers to meet the readingpublic. Although appealing, this argument is based on aflawed premise in that it assumes that attendance is equiva-lent to approbation. Books, by their very nature often giveoffence and create outrage, and this is bound to be espe-cially so in circumstances where there are deep anxietiesabout how certain groups are perceived and represented.In democratic societies, those who are offended or out-raged are within their rights to express their views so longas they refrain from violence and remain within certainlimits. They are even entitled to resort to demonstrations,dharnas, occupations and the like; in circumstances whereany arm of the government plays a role people are entitledalso to press for the withdrawal of public funds or spon-sorship (something like this has already happened in theUS in relation to publicly-funded TV and radio channels).The equation is quite simple: to expand the points of directcontact between writers and the public is also to increasethe leverage of the latter over the former.

Writers and readers have not always stared each otherin the face. Until quite recently, most writers shrank fromthe notion of publicly embracing their readership. I remem-ber once being at an event with the American novelistWilliam Gaddis: this was in the 1990s and he was in his70s then. A major figure in American post-modernism,Gaddis had been reared in a very different culture of writ-ing: he would not sign copies or take questions from read-ers. He refused even to read aloud from his book. Aftermuch persuasion, he agreed to sit silently in front of theaudience while someone else read out passages from hiswork. When we talked about this afterwards, he said quitecategorically that he believed that books should have livesof their own and that writers could only diminish theautonomy and integrity of their work by inserting them-selves between the reader and the text.

Very few writers could afford to take such a positiontoday (although JM Coetzee and a few others do still holdto it). The rest of us have become accustomed, in varyingdegrees, to doing readings, signings and public events:provisions to this effect are now often written into bookcontracts. But there still exists some degree of choice inregard to the extent to which writers must also be perform-ers, which is why it is important to remember that if thereis something to be gained from the transition there is alsomuch to be lost.

Through the last century, the relationship between read-ers and writers was largely impersonal. The reader relatedin the first instance to a book, not to its writer; and writers,for their part, did not confront their audience directly inthe manner of musicians, singers, actors and so on. This

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was, I think, one of the reasons why writers were able totake greater risks in hurling defiance at society at large.

The situation has changed dramatically in recent years.The internet, as I have good reason to know, has made itpossible to subject writers to great pressure through mass-mailing campaigns. Face-to-face encounters add yet an-other dimension to this: to be called upon constantly toprovide answers is inevitably to become answerable. If thisprocess continues unchecked, its impact on the freedom ofthought and expression may be greater than any explicitpolicy of repression.

The old, impersonal relationship was, in other words,also a form of protection, a first line of defence, not merelywithin public spaces but also within the writer's own head.In breaking this down, the publishing industry certainlyhas much to gain, as does the tamasha industry; writerstoo have much to gain, but they also have something tolose, something that is as intangible as a latitude and yetof enormous value: this is the space that allows them toexplore their own thoughts to the fullest.

Nor is this the only loss. As a child I was drawn to booksbecause they were a refuge from a world that seemed to beat war with the very idea of an inner life. That world hasbecome today exponentially more noisy, crowded and in-trusive than ever before. Public life in India is now awhirling continuum that seamlessly unites cricket, politicsand Bollywood. Each domain leaks into the other and themajor figures are all closely linked. It is no coincidence thatmany of these elements are also much in evidence at bookfestivals. The intention evidently is to make the book worldanother link in the tightly joined whirligig of Cripollywood.It is easy to see the attractions of this, especially for writerswho are striving to bring their work to public notice. Butthere is a price to pay: we need to remind ourselves thatBollywood movies are routinely re-edited to accommodateprotests of various kinds. Recent incidents in Jaipur and inKolkata, where Taslima Nasreen's book was not allowedto be launched at the book fair, suggest that Indian pub-lishing will have to adapt its practices to those of the filmindustry if it is to pitch its tent beside the three-ring circusof the tamasha culture.

Another issue that was brought to the fore in Jaipur andKolkata is that of the relationship between festivals, writ-ers and the government. Much criticism has been directedat the national and state governments in this regard andmuch of it is certainly well-directed and well-deserved(although there is more than a touch of irony in seeing aneditor like David Remnick, who trimmed his sails to thewinds of Bush and Cheney during the Iraq war, holdingforth on it).

Criticism is vitally necessary if the government is to beprodded into discharging its duties. But it is also impor-tant to recognise, I think, that the situation in relation tothe freedom of expression today is vastly different fromthat which prevailed through much of the 20th centurywhen governments were the chief, often the sole, agents inthe repression of writers and artists. But States where thatis still the case - for example, China, North Korean andSyria - are now the exception rather than the rule. Else-where threats to free speech today come mainly from pri-vate and sectional interests - fundamentalist groups, iden-

tity-based organisations, political extremists, corporationsand so on. These may be 'non-State actors' but they can bevery effective in limiting the freedom of speech. It mighteven be said that in India they have succeeded in shrink-ing the space for free expression to a point where it is notmuch broader than in China.

The institutions and organisations that represent writersand artists have yet to adapt to this change: the reflexiveresponses of the 20th century still prompt us to point ourfingers first in the direction of the State. But today the roleof government is often limited to an insidious collusionwith various constituencies. Public pressure and criticismcan, and must, be exercised to prevent, or at least impede,this collusion. But beyond that the question will inevitablyarise, as it did in Jaipur and Kolkata, of whether the gov-ernments of today are even capable of providing the secu-rity they once did.

This is a matter of doubt not just in India but also inmany wealthy countries. Despite the deployment of enor-mous resources neither Denmark nor Holland were able toprevent attacks upon artists under threat; in the US awoman who put up a website that was offensive to areligious group was quickly forced to go underground.These countries are heavily and efficiently policed: whatare the chances that a country like India would be able toprovide effective protection?

Whether the threats to the Jaipur festival were inventedor real I am in no position to judge. But one has only toopen a newspaper to know that certain situations in Indiaare inherently combustible. What then would it have takento ensure order in Jaipur and Kolkata? One battalion? Two?Or should festivals now invest in creating private securityforces in the manner of mining companies? And whatwould this say about the relationship between writers andthe public?

It is when we think of this that it becomes evident howlucky writers are: unlike musicians and actors they do notactually need to appear in public (although they certainlyhave every right to do so). Performances are secondary andinessential to a writer's work. Our books, which are ourprincipal vehicles of expression, can reach people throughimpersonal mechanisms. This is what make the world ofbooks so uniquely democratic and accessible.

What is of vital importance now is to ensure that booksof all kinds continue to be published and are made avail-able to readers: this is where the publishing industry shouldinvest its resources. Public spectacles are a sideshow: if theIndian book world loses sight of this, as it seems to be indanger of doing, it will upend both the cart and the horse.

Of course limiting the role of performance would noteliminate the problem; it would perhaps only make it moremanageable. The threats would remain, and the commu-nity of writers and artists would still need to find ways ofprotecting those of their number who are facing them.

How is this to be done?As I noted earlier the institutions that are active on free-

dom of speech issues - PEN for instance - have, for histori-cal reasons, attuned their methods to combating govern-ments. There is certainly a place for this, even now, buttoday's battle is not the same as yesterday's. Unfortunately

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nobody, so far as I know, has yet found an effective meansof countering 'non-State actors' - certainly I can't think ofone. The problem is difficult enough to make the businessof dealing with governments appear relatively easy. Butthis is exactly why we need to pay proper attention to it.It is futile to proceed on the assumption that governmentsalone can provide a solution.Source: Hindustan times

� In the Maldives, a resignation that keeps de-mocracy afloat

Rather than allowing events to drift towards a politicalor even military showdown, Maldivian PresidentMohammed "Anni" Nasheed has shown great fidelity todemocratic principles in a country where none existedbefore him by stepping down from office with grace andpoise. The alternative to his sudden and yet unsurprisingresignation - when pushed by circumstances, often of hismaking or that of his aides and followers - could havebeen political instability at best, and possible street vio-lence at worst.

Under the U.S. executive presidency model, Nasheed hasbeen succeeded by Vice-President Mohammed WaheedHassan Manik, Maldives' first PhD-holder and an interna-tional civil servant in U.N. agencies across the world. Again,as in the U.S. model, Dr. Manik, who was the running-mate of President Nasheed, will complete the five-year termfor which he was elected, ensuring that there would be noinstability of any kind at the top. That democracy hastaken deep-roots in the Indian Ocean archipelago wasproved even in the hours immediately following PresidentNasheed's resignation, when the People's Majlis , or Par-liament, met to pass the necessary resolutions to declarethe succession.

Road aheadThe speculation about the new President ordering fresh

elections is thus ill-informed. If anything, there could befresh elections to the Majlis . This is also unlikely. Underthe prevailing circumstances, no party or group is certainof winning an absolute majority, and therefore, will notpush for elections. Instead, as President, Dr. Waheed mayconsider the feasibility of constituting a national govern-ment, where all parties, including President Nasheed'sMaldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and the two rival par-ties founded successively by his predecessor, PresidentMaumoon Abdul Gayoom, have a substantial and mean-ingful role and responsibility in nation-building, a taskthat has suffered over the past couple of years for a varietyof reasons.

Nasheed's legacyThere are other parties and groups that are now in the

Opposition but had sided with the MDP, particularly duringthe second round run-off elections to the presidency inwhich Nasheed was elected in October 2008. Included inthe list are Islamic fundamentalist groups, who were a partof the informal arrangement of the "December 23 Coali-tion," named after the day on which they all together stageda protest to "protect Islam" in 2011. At the end of the day,President Nasheed's short tenure, particularly compared

to the long innings of his predecessor, will be rememberedfor the institutionalisation of democracy in the country.However, it will also be simultaneously remembered forthe avoidable, and at times acrimonious, constitutionaland political deadlocks. The Nasheed camp blamed thevarious crises that came in its way on the well-entrenchedadministrative set-up that the young President had inher-ited. The new government did not learn, or learn fastenough, to live and work with the old guard. Instead, fromday one and until the end, the Nasheed government workedagainst the system. Unfortunately, that did not yield muchin terms of positive results or a positive image for theyoung inheritors of troubled times.

As President, Nasheed began well. With much help andcooperation from his predecessor, he could ensure a smoothtransition when much trouble was feared. Likewise, at hisexit, he stepped down without unease and discomfort,rather than indulge in brinkmanship that could have putthe young democracy in difficulties. A street-fighter to thecore, it remains to be seen how he will shape up in theOpposition - before this, when he and his yet-to-berecognised party were fighting for democracy under Presi-dent Gayoom, he had no formal role in the political system.Declared a "prisoner of conscience" by Amnesty Interna-tional, Nasheed spent much of his political career either inGayoom's prisons, or overseas - he was much influencedby the British Conservatives and by the U.S.' views onglobal issues. Yet, he also displayed an element of sagac-ity, in accepting India as a natural ally, as in the past.

The complaintsToday, along with President Gayoom, with whom he did

not share much in common, President Nasheed has asubstantial role to play in nation-building efforts, bothlearning as much from their faults as from the other person'sstrengths while in office. This can be both a cementing andcalming effect on the polity and society, which has feltelated at the birth of democracy and a change of leader-ship, from the old to the young - and yet could not adjustitself to the changing realities, particularly on the eco-nomic front, overnight. Included in the long list of com-plaints against the Nasheed leadership is the steep in-crease in the price of daily needs, all of which have to benecessarily imported, the problem further accentuated bythe International Monetary Fund (IMF)-induced decisionat a "managed float of the rufiyaa," the Maldivian currency- a devaluation in other words.

Likewise, the IMF-directed slash on salaries and staff-strength in the government also had critics in a countrywhere 10 per cent of the population is employed in thegovernment. Yet, the March 2011 local council electionsdid go the MDP way mostly, but then that alone has notbeen enough in this case. From Parliament to the judiciary,and now at the level of the police, the leadership lacked thecapacity to handling crisis situations that eventually be-came its undoing.

Contributory roleThe new President and his two predecessors can play a

concurrent and contributory role to make a Maldives oftheir collective dreams - Dr. Waheed, heading the relatively

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minor Gaumee Iththihaad Party does not have any parlia-mentary representation, and must depend on Gayoom andNasheed, as well as the Dhivehi Rayathunge Party (DRP),the parent party of Gayoom's more recent Progressive Partyof Maldives (PPM), among others, to get government busi-ness through the legislature. Dr. Waheed can be expectedto take the lead in this matter.

Nasheed's short tenure, when compared to the long in-nings of his predecessor,will be remembered for not onlyheralding a democratic era but also avoidable constitu-tional and political deadlocks.Source: The Hindu

� Just Target The RichThe food security Bill should look to exclude the wealthy,

not include only the poorest of the poorHow would you feel about a law that entitles half of all

Indian children to free school textbooks, but leaves it to thegovernment to decide which half ? It would be an odd sortof law which seeks to create a justiciable entitlement for thechild without any guarantee that she is eligible for it.

Suppose, further, that the government decided to give thefree textbooks to shorter children on the grounds thatunderprivileged children are generally shorter - with dif-ferent height cut-offs in different states, depending on theirpoverty rates. Perhaps a statistician would be able to relateto this method, but how would it fare in terms of commonsense, feasibility, equity and political appeal?

Something like this is about to happen with the NationalFood Security Bill (NFSB). Under this Bill, the populationwill be divided into three groups: priority, general andexcluded. Each group is to have different entitlements underthe public distribution system (PDS): major entitlements,token benefits and nothing, respectively. There is no clar-ity, however, as to how these groups are to be identified -the Bill leaves it to the central government to specify iden-tification criteria to be applied by state governments.

Until now, the main beneficiaries of the PDS were "belowpoverty line" (BPL) families. A BPL census was conductedevery few years to identify BPL families, based on somesort of scoring system. The cut-off scores were supposed tobe set state-wise in such a manner that the proportion offamilies with a score below the cut-off (i.e. BPL families)matched the proportion of families below the poverty lineaccording to the Planning Commission's poverty estimates.

It is fairly well understood now that this approach isvery unreliable and divisive. Exclusion errors are massive;at least three independent national surveys (the NationalSample Survey, National Family Health Survey and IndiaHuman Development Survey) show that about half of allpoor families in rural India did not have a BPL card in2004-05. Many states, however, have moved away fromBPL targeting in recent years, and extended the PDS wellbeyond the BPL category - Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, amongothers. Further, this move seems to have helped them toimprove their PDS by creating a broader and strongerconstituency for it.

The NFSB threatens to undermine this positive trend. Iteffectively reimposes BPL targeting under another name,

that too based on rigid national criteria. 'Priority groups'are not fundamentally different from BPL households, andthe Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC), which seemsto be expected to identify priority households, is much thesame as earlier BPL censuses. In fact, the term 'Socio-Eco-nomic and Caste Census 2011' appears to be treated asinterchangeable with 'BPL Census 2011' on the website ofthe ministry of rural development.

This is a serious problem: the hit or miss approach in-volved in BPL censuses is bad enough when the PDS isrun as a scheme, but it is especially problematic for thepurpose of legal entitlements. A legal right cannot leaveany ambiguity as to who is entitled to it.

In a statement released on October 3, 2011, the govern-ment asserted that the SECC would actually be a departurefrom the earlier BPL methodology. Specifically, it promisedto stop setting state-wise caps on the BPL list based onofficial poverty estimates. This sounds good, except that itis far from clear how the identification process would workwithout poverty caps. An 'expert committee' is supposed tosort this out after the SECC results "are available and havebeen analysed", but the track record of expert committeeson this subject is not particularly encouraging.

There is a simple way out of this mess: abolish the distinc-tion between general and priority groups and give all house-holds a common minimum entitlement under the PDS un-less they meet well defined exclusion criteria. In other words,target the rich instead of trying to target the poor.

Indeed, the rationale of the distinction between generaland priority households is far from clear. Neither theNational Advisory Council, nor the Rangarajan committee,nor any other expert group recommended that the propor-tion of excluded households should be as high as 25% inrural areas (and 50% in urban areas), as the NFSB pre-scribes. Insisting, after this exclusion exercise, on a furtherdistinction between priority and general households isunnecessary, counterproductive and impractical.

There is, of course, a case for giving special treatment tothe poorest households (e.g. by giving them pulses andedible oil in addition to foodgrains under the PDS). Butthis purpose would be better served by retaining and con-solidating the Antyodaya programme which is workingreasonably well and already covers about 25 million ruralhouseholds.

This simplified framework would be relatively practical,transparent, equitable and politically appealing. Mostpeople would be clear about their entitlements, making itmuch more likely that the Bill will succeed. If the Bill ispassed in its present form, it will be very difficult to imple-ment. It will also undermine, instead of supporting, therecent trend towards a more inclusive PDS in many states.Source: The Times of India

� That non-starter called BRICSIn 2001, Jim O'Neill of Goldman Sachs put out what the

firm termed a "game-changing paper" on the economicperformance of four countries in 2000, the first year of thenew millennium. The combined GDP (in US$ on a PPPbasis) of Brazil, Russia India and China, he found, added

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up to 23 per cent of world GDP. China had overtaken Italy,and O'Neill and predicted that their cumulative weightwould force the G7 to include them in future deliberations;equally, their fiscal and monetary policies would impactthe global economy in keeping with their rising economicimportance.

An acronym as entityHe coined the acronym 'BRIC' and did Russia and In-

dian policymakers an immense favour by handing themwhat they would consider a bargaining chip for greaterintervention in a messy, but hegemonic world order.

From an accident of history that resulted in these coun-tries reaching somewhat similar levels of GDP at aroundthe same time and for entirely unrelated reasons, to adeliberate belief in their consensual power to change theexisting world order seemed a rather appropriate concep-tual leap.

After all, economic strengths create and fortify 'super-structure' strengths, so went the belief. And the idea thatBRICS could be erected as a formidable alternative, strate-gically and economically, to perceived Western domina-tion was increasingly seductive, especially for Russia yearn-ing for superpower status once again. For India, the temp-tation lay in the possibility of recovering strategic groundin the global space, lost since 1984, and in the relief thatit was still standing among the ruins of the global crises.

No member of that acronym striving to morph a linguis-tic convenience (for that cartographer of global economictrends on Wall Street) into a "game changing" reality, everdefined just what that formation-waiting-to-be-born wouldreally do. Perhaps history would be kind and permit aEuropean Union-type formation; after all if its core groupin Western Europe, sharing economic prosperity, couldevolve into a pan-continental conglomerate, so could BRIC.

So, when South Africa was admitted last year, it seemedlike a good augury: its membership turned a BRIC intoBRICS. And an agenda was taking shape. Inchoate at best,confused at worst, that agenda of an idea waiting to ac-quire a life, reflects divisive self-interests, hidden powerplay, and signals all the reasons why the idea may remainstill-born.

For Russia and China, the singular advantage of BRICSis, so they think, the platform it provides to fire westwardat the dollar and American hegemony. That is why both atthe 2010 annual meeting and in China last year, the issueof a movement away from the dollar acquired urgency. In2010, Russia and China agreed to engage in non-dollardenominated bilateral trade.

So, in China last year BRICS leaders were urged to followsuit but settled for further discussion on the subject. ForIndia, the idea of BRICS offers it the seductive opportunityto simply grandstand; in India history plays tricks, andfools policymakers into believing a unique opportunity toprovide statesmanship has come its way.

Reaching for alternativesThe Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) was based on weak

economic performance, but a shared ideological vision.

Now, policymakers assume,that economic power automati-cally leads to strategic power. Where NAM's interventionsimply exacerbated global divisions (perhaps because itgrew out of them) BRICS would heal an endemic diseaseby reassuring it of India's commitment to the WTO, tobalanced multilateral trade, sound economic governance.India would like to reorder the current equations throughthe demonstration effect of its own exemplary behaviourand economic performance.

Russia and China want an agenda of war against thedollar. This year India hosts BRICS leaders and the agendais all about the Doha Round and WTO and multilateraltrade, and commitment to its balanced and purposive con-clusion.

Both viewpoints may help turn an acronym into a meta-phor at best, a simulacrum of life but hardly one that canprovide a tangible platform to stand on and aim for "game-change." Yet, the temptation to recreate the world by cre-ating an alternative regional formation, however syncretic,cannot be resisted.

BRICS, it is now said, is already increasing trade amongits members, with Russia Brazil and South Africa supply-ing raw materials to India and China. The composition oftrade perhaps is meant to indicate competitive strengthsbut if history is a guide and should such trade flowsincrease, one may expect yet another metaphor from thepast - neo-colonialism- -to acquire a life of its own.

Formations galoreThe dangers of still-birth for BRICS are real, because

regional formations all over are in crises. The most suc-cessful one is in danger of imploding just like an unrelatedancestor, the Hapsburg Empire, did almost a hundred yearsago, simply because it was too unwieldy and held togetherby an idea whose time was out of joint. Decentralisationhaunts Europe as it did the Dual Monarchy a hundredyears ago; like then, economic crises may push the EU'scentre into petty nationalism.

Growth itself has become decentralised. Just as the BRICScountries constituted an alternative centre to growth it ispossible new ones will proliferate from the strangest ofcorners. Map-makers are busy discovering new 'archipela-gos'. Recently "CIVETS" was pronounced as a new growth'agglomeration.' Its constituents, Columbia, Indonesia, Viet-nam, Egypt and South Africa, spread across the worldwith blatantly obvious differences may yet be tempted toconsider the option of contributing to the babble of hollowvoices now ringing around the world.

But the cartographer plays fair in his game of discovery:"PIGS" now stand for the dark underbelly of growth andone may be rest assured that Portugal, Ireland, Greece andSpain will not be seduced enough to attempt a club of theheartbroken.

Yet the urge to give body to an acronym via the waywardstations of the metaphor will not cease, despite O'Neill'scautionary on India pulling down BRICS growth. For hadn'tIsaac Babel said: "A well devised story need not be like reallife. Real life itself would like to be like a well-devised story".Source: Business Line

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� Corruption: Spectrum of solutionsThe underlying principle of the Supreme Court's land-

mark verdict to annul 2G licences should extend to allscarce natural resources.

The Supreme Court decision in two writ petitions filedby Loksatta and several eminent citizens, and DrSubramanian Swamy, cancelling 122 licenses of 2G spec-trum, gives a tremendous boost to the fight against collu-sive corruption.

In October 2010, Loksatta launched a campaign to cancellicences. A letter was sent to the Prime Minister urgingcancellation on the following grounds:

The corporates which colluded with bribe-takers andcaused a colossal loss to the Exchequer shouldn't benefitfrom corruption. A contract tainted by corruption, ineligi-bility of licensees and arbitrariness, and has caused injuryto public property is void, because the consideration orpurpose of agreements is unlawful as per Sections 23 and24 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872.

The Parliament and Government have sovereign powersto undo the wrong. When legitimate private assets couldbe nationalised as a matter of public policy, it would beperfectly legitimate and necessary to revoke licenses se-cured in a corrupt and arbitrary manner, causing loss tothe Exchequer.

The gravy trainIn her article 'Spectrums of Taint' (Business Line, Novem-

ber 16, 2010), the author quoted Loksatta extensively, argu-ing in support of cancellation of licences. In December2010, we urged several prominent citizens to join in filinga writ petition in the Supreme Court to cancel the licenses.Mr. J. M. Lyngdoh, Mr. T. S. Krishnamurthy, Mr. N.Gopalaswami - all former CECs, Mr. P. Shankar, formerCVC, Mr. Julio Rebeiro, former IPS officer, and Admiral R.H. Tahiliani, Mentor, Transparency International Indiajoined the effort, and Prashant Bhushan, senior advocate,took up the case on our behalf.

The verdict of February 2 has profound implications forthe future, encompassing a whole range of issues involvingallotment of land, mining leases and dispensation of otherstate patronage at national and state levels. There are thosewho argue that cancellation of licences might send a wrongmessage to foreign investors and MNCs. This isn't true.

Even if there are short-term complexities, in the longterm, fair competition, transparency, and rule of law willpromote investment and growth. Many investors do busi-ness in India with great difficulty, and try their best todistance themselves from ubiquitous corruption by creat-ing several buffers - consultants, Indian partners and pro-fessionals who deal with corrupt bureaucrats and politi-cians. If this verdict leads to a healthy, fair, competitivebusiness environment and transparent decision-making,everybody gains.

Competitive biddingWhich is a better policy - auction or first-come-first served?

Ideally, auction of scarce natural resources should be thenorm. If tariffs are likely to go up on account of exuberantmarket sentiment and overbidding and over-pricing, then

the bidding could be for revenue sharing or some otherappropriate model, not for licence fee. Non-competitiveprocesses are highly prone to collusive corruption, as the2G case has amply demonstrated. The arbitrariness, changeof rules at will, entry of players who have nothing to dowith the telecom sector, sale of spectrum for windfall prof-its days after allotment without any value addition, andother facts and circumstances that have come to light inthe 2G spectrum case clearly demonstrate the corruptbehaviour of decision-makers and corporates.

In respect of allotment of precious lands, and miningleases, competitive bidding must be the norm. For this, themining law needs to be amended. Supreme Court verdictshould be made applicable to allocation of all scarce natu-ral resources; Gali Janardhana Reddy and the like, andmany land sharks in the guise of industry should be sub-jected to the standards set by Supreme Court in this land-mark case.

Tax measuresWhat other steps should we take to curb collusive corrup-

tion and to protect public revenues? Three specific steps areneeded now. First, a law should be enacted by Parliamentmaking all contracts involving corruption, or a loss to theExchequer, void and unenforceable. This will remove allincentives for corporates to bribe any public official to get afavour. A company that loses the bribe amount as well asthe business or benefit or favour received through corrup-tion is unlikely to resort to bribery. Only then can we de-mand corporate integrity and create a level playing field.

Second, a windfall profit tax should be imposed on allthose who secured a license or mining lease or other natu-ral resource, and made huge profit without value addition.This will ensure that excess profits made out of a vitalpublic resource are retained with the Exchequer, and aren'tappropriated by private interests. Mere private monopolyof public assets shouldn't be a source of unusual profits,even if there is no corruption in the transfer of asset. Sucha windfall profit tax was imposed in the UK in 1997, inrespect of North Sea Oil, and the monopolies in electricity,telecom, airports, gas, water, and railway sectors.

Third, a law similar to the False Claims Act in the USshould be enacted in India. This law allows imposition ofa civil penalty five times the loss sustained by the Exchequerin any public procurement or transfer of natural resource.

If a product is overpriced relative to the best customer ofthe company, or the asset is underpriced while transfer-ring from State to a Corporate, or there is compromise inquality or environmental damage, or the Exchequer haslost money through fraud, bribery or wrongdoing, thenany citizen can file a claim, and a court after hearing isempowered to impose five times the loss as penalty. Thecitizen gets a share of the penalty as incentive. Under theFalse Claims Act in the US, more than $24 billion has beenrecovered from corporates during the past 23 years, in10,650 cases.

We need to move beyond the politics of the 2G case andcorruption scandals. Systematic, far-sighted, practical stepsare needed to curb collusive corruption. The Supreme Courtverdict is an important first step to cleanse our system.Source: Business Line

3th to 9th february

Documents

Transcript of 3th to 9th february