The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

EDITORIALS

Stop means stop

THE change is dramatic indeed. When US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had come to India on June 7, 2002, he brought with him an assurance from Gen Pervez Musharraf that he would take steps to end cross-border infiltration permanently. But last Saturday, all he said was that “it is not my job to give assurances. It is not my job to tell our Indian friends what I think”. There are two ways to look at this shift. One interpretation is that the US is no longer in a position to stand surety for Pakistan’s promises and wants New Delhi to tackle the matter at its own level. The other more alarming possibility is that it wants India to overlook the continuing violence and come to the negotiating table nevertheless. To weigh the two possibilities, one has to read his statements against the backdrop of what he said about related matters. The “complete convergence” between India and the US on the need to strongly deal with terrorist outfits like the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad is an indicator that even if the US may not say so in public, it is alarmed about the web of violence woven by Pakistan and wants to cut it off, lest it traps America as well. The constructive role played by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee apparently came in for high praise during the talks, but too much should not be read into it, considering that when Mr Armitage was in Islamabad, he was equally effusive about General Musharraf’s role. India on its part did well to tell Mr Armitage in no uncertain terms that no meaningful talks could be held between the two neighbours unless Pakistan eschewed terrorism. It also wisely tried to downplay the role of Mr Armitage in the entire matter. It not only wanted to avoid giving the impression that the US had become a mediator, but also wanted to refrain from raising false hopes.

The dispute between India and Pakistan is highly complex and expecting a breakthrough shortly is unrealistic. What matters most is that friction between the two neighbours has toned down a little bit. They still have their guns in hand but are not pointing these at each other. Although an Indian spokesperson claimed that the Indo-US relations comprised the main agenda during the Armitage visit, and even External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said that “Pakistan came in (during the talks) only edgeways”, it was obvious that the Indo-Pak relations dominated the hectic discussions and the US would continue to play a central role in the “prevention of conflict”. Mr Armitage’s assessment that he is “cautiously optimistic” about the ties is fairly accurate.

Calls as evidence

THE import of the Supreme Court ruling that allows use of intercepted phone calls as evidence in POTA cases will take some time to sink in. It is going to be the topic of debate among members of the legal fraternity. Delhi University Professor Syed Abdur Rehman Geelani was picked up by the police for his alleged role in the December 13 attack on Parliament House two years ago. He was arrested on the basis of intercepted calls from and to his mobile phone. Though he was arrested on December 14, it was shown in police records as December 15. His mobile phone did not show any incoming or outgoing calls after December 14. The Delhi High Court had ruled that intercepted phone calls were inadmissible as evidence if the due process of law was not followed. The court held that procedural correctness was required in all legal matters. Obviously, the police wanted to take advantage of the draconian provisions of POTA but without caring for its safeguards. But when the issue came up before the apex court, it rapped the High Court gently on the knuckles for not following the proper procedure. What the superior court has said is not necessarily an endorsement of the prosecution’s stand. If the reports in the print media are based on a faithful reading of the judgment, the court has merely expressed its annoyance because “such a finding on the merits of the case during the pendency of the trial proceedings by the High Court was incorrect”. In other words, the timing of the ruling against phone intercepts was wrong. The Delhi High Court had jumped the gun, as it were. Last year Geelani and the two other conspirators, Mohammad Afzal and Shaukat Husain Guru, were sentenced to death. Guru’s wife was awarded a five-year prison term. The High Court is now hearing their appeal against the conviction.

The apex court ruling should send a clear signal to anti-national elements about using mobile phones for coordinating their nefarious acts. However, terrorist organisations have been active in many parts of the country, particularly Jammu and Kashmir, for decades, even before the advent of sophisticated gadgetry. The phone intercepts ruling is not actually a blow for POTA. The advocates of the anti-terrorist law need to be told that poor policing and intelligence-gathering are at the root of the problem. Had the security forces done their duty efficiently, terrorist organisations would not have been able to spread their network literally from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. Another point that should not be overlooked is the possibility of the abuse of the apex court’s ruling by the police for harassing suspects or implicating innocent persons. It certainly does not allow the police to bypass the prescribed procedure for eavesdropping.

Once again CBSE

THERE appears to be something seriously wrong with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). That is why whenever it is in the news these days it is mostly for wrong reasons. Last month the unearthing of a racket involving its officials put a big question mark over the fairness of the Pre-Medical Test held for admission to various medical colleges. The CBSE’s credibility suffered another major blow on Friday when a new scandal relating to the tampering with of answersheets of secondary and senior secondary students came to light. The latter case is more serious in nature than the previous one as it exposes the height of carelessness in the system of awarding marks. The credibility of the CBSE’s examination system lies shattered. The board has the practice of assigning a fictitious roll number to every candidate before sending the answersheets to the examiners. This job in the case of the Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir students is handled by a private contractor. The contractor got this work done mostly by daily wage-earners. He had rented rooms in a Chandigarh school for keeping the answersheets in “safe custody”. According to the CBSE’s explanation, the rooms were “well-guarded” and the contractor’s “integrity is beyond doubt”. But the arrested workers say that the “watchmen never checked them properly” when they came out of the premises where the answersheets were kept. This explains the lack of dependability of the contractor engaged by the CBSE, which had gone in for the questionable arrangement to ensure that its own officials had no chance to indulge in a tampering business.

The arguments given by the contractor or the CBSE authorities carry no meaning when viewed in the light of what the arrested workers have revealed. The truth is that there was no foolproof security arrangement for the sensitive task. This is how a government agency plays with the career of students, the future of the nation. The students spend their days and nights for scoring good marks. But the resourceful among them can buy more marks than the serious learners with the help of the corrupt system. It was the carelessness of the highest order on the part of the CBSE that led to the emergence of a nexus of people indulging in the unlawful act. Why are bank strongrooms not used for keeping the answersheets when this is the practice in the case of those appearing in the tests for admission to engineering colleges? This could be a better way to avoid the embarrassment the CBSE is faced with today.

OPINION

Implications of trade in services
India’s obligations under GATS
P. K. Vasudeva

THE Uruguay Round has brought the services sector into the fold of multilateral trade for the first time. The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is the first set of rules for international trade in services. India has been a signatory to the agreement since its coming into force in 1995. GATS sets out a framework of rules governing the conduct of world trade in services. It is supported by a number of schedules of specific commitments by individual WTO members. These commitments prevent the members from introducing more restrictive rules, which could have an adverse effect on trade. India too has made certain commitments. According to GATS, a new round will commence every five years to review and implement the agreement.

Services account for a large share of production and employment in most economies. This sector’s share of the GDP is higher in developed countries, where it averages 60-70 per cent while it is 49 per cent for the developing nations. India’s share was 52.3 per cent in 2002-03. The world trade in services amounted to $1.440 trillion in 2001, of which India’s share was about 1.4 per cent. Concerns have been voiced about the potential adverse impact of liberalising trade in services under the GATS framework on equity, costs, distribution, the availability of services and the sovereignty of governments in defining and pursuing their national objectives and priorities. These concerns have been mostly expressed in India and the other developing countries, and predominantly in the health and education sectors where the governments are heavily involved as regulators, providers and distributors.

The debate on GATS assumes increased significance given the recent campaign launched by a number of NGOs against the agreement. They argue that the agreement will force member-countries to make their public services open to foreign competition, deregulate these services and force them to undertake commitments which cannot be reversed in future. The WTO secretariat has dismissed these claims, pointing out that nothing in the agreement can force any government to liberalise a sector it does not wish to or remove restrictions to safeguard public interest.

The mandated negotiations under GATS to work out the rules and framework for further liberalisation of trade in services are underway. The negotiations, which commenced on January 1, 2000, are likely to continue for the next two years. The main objective is to liberalise the commitments in all the services sectors and the modes of supply of services and to improve the multilateral rules for trade.

It had been decided during the Doha ministerial conference that each member-country must submit its requests by June 2002 and initial offers by March 2003. This request-offer process is still underway. However, most countries, including India, have interpreted these deadlines as indicative only. India is likely to submit its offer anytime now. It will be discussed at the next ministerial conference at Cancun, Mexico, in September this year.

GATS in principle applies to all service sectors except the “services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority”, those made available neither on a commercial basis nor in competition with other suppliers.

One of the most striking features of GATS is the way in which it defines services trade — as occurring through four possible supply modes: Mode 1: Cross-border trade corresponds with the normal form of trade in goods and maintains a clear geographical separation between the seller and the buyer. In this case services flow from the territory of one member into that of another crossing national frontiers. (e.g. banking or architectural services with the help of telecommunications or through mail).

Mode 2: Consumption abroad refers to the situations where a service consumer moves into another member’s territory to obtain a service (e.g. a consumer travelling for medical treatment).

Mode 3: Commercial presence is the supply of a service through which a foreign supplier in the territory of another WTO member. In this case, a service supplier of one member establishes its presence in another member’s territory (e.g. the establishment of branch offices or agencies to deliver such services as banking, legal advice or communications).

Mode 4: The presence of natural persons involves the admission of foreign nationals to another country to provide services there. An annexure to GATS makes it clear, however, that the agreement has nothing to do with individuals looking for employment in another country, or with citizenship requirements. The members still have a right to regulate the entry and stay of the persons concerned.

We are at liberty to schedule our commitments in one of the following ways:

(i) Full commitment: “None” or “no limitations”, which implies that the member does not seek in any way to limit market access or national treatment through measures inconsistent with Articles XVI or XVII of GATS.

(ii) Commitment with limitations: The member details the measures maintained which are inconsistent with market access or national treatment, and implicitly commits itself to take no other inconsistent measures.

(iii) No commitment: “Unbound” indicates that the member remains free to maintain or introduce measures inconsistent with market access or national treatment.

(iv) No commitment technically feasible: “Unbound” indicates that in the sector in question a particular mode of supply cannot be used.

India has been asked by other countries to make commitments with regard to transparency in domestic regulations, simplify procedures, eliminate the differential treatment of foreign service suppliers and facilitate the movement of natural persons under Mode 4. The categories of professionals about which commitments have been sought include intra-corporate transferees, contractual service suppliers and specialists (trades persons, associate professionals, professionals and managers).

India has to sort out its services sector impediments before negotiating on services delivery issues under GATS. It has to make a strong case at the WTO for macro issues like a service provider visa for Indian professionals under GATS, withholding tax and expansion of the definition of services. However, before that is done there are many issues which are to be handled at the local level. For instance, a software or services company in Singapore may be under a zero tax regime, but the same service offered to a Singapore company from India attracts 15 per cent withholding tax.

If the services exported from India under cross-border trade are subject to withholding tax in other countries, then why should this country not impose the same on the import of software products?

India’s inability to lay emphasis on sectoral definitions and insist on sectoral commitments, rather than going in for open-ended horizontal commitments, will finally act as a self-limiting factor for trade in services. India is trying to support horizontal commitments, which can enable free flow of manpower across the globe. However, it is unlikely that, given the complexity in free cross-border movement, this will be acceptable to most countries. It will be prudent to identify more sectoral commitments.

Interestingly, India is in a position to gain from the comprehensive sectoral definitions of services as this will lead to the inclusion of many new services that can be delivered to trading partners from this country.

The writer specialises on WTO issues

MIDDLE

Love to keep caged birds? Follow me!
Balvinder

AS a child the pair of parrots that one of my classmates had been gifted by his parents as a birthday present always fascinated me. Though I did not like the boy much otherwise, I would spend hours with him, only to play with the parrots, feeding green chillies and trying to teach them to speak et al.

That is why I always wanted to have caged birds of my own. As my parents were against keeping birds in cages, not because of any Sonia fad but for the avoidable hassle of looking after them, I never could fulfil my childhood dream.

Years passed by. Though now I too have realised the perils of keeping birds in cages, again not because of any whims for ecological imbalance or some other big sounding craze like that, I still love to play with them.

So when we moved to Chandigarh and had an opportunity of living in a house with a big lawn and lots of trees, I could fulfil my childhood dreams. For, close-to-the-lake-sector in which we live being the northern-most part of the city and is located at the Shivalik foothills, a large variety of birds keep visiting our house.

The first thing that I did here was to place a couple of bird baths that the birds started frequenting soon. Over the years, they have become so used to it that while picking their food-specks they don’t feel scared from us, and at times cross even under our chairs. No wonder these birds have become an integral part of our family. In fact, my two daughters (now married and settled) grew up with them while running after them in their unsuccessful bids to catch them.

In our small lobby I have also put a small wooden birdhouse that always remains occupied by home-sparrows. At a short distance I have hanged a country-made perch that carries a number of small bells. Every time these birds enter or leave their nest, unmindful of our presence, they sit and swing on it as if to listen to the sweet chiming sound of bells.

However, this nest remained empty for a few months, for inexplicable reasons soon after both my daughters got married (almost simultaneously) and left the house!

We really missed them all, my daughters and the sound of chirping sparrows and chiming bells! Thankfully now the sparrows have returned, and keep us good company!

One thing that I forgot to mention is that here in this house I realised my childhood dream of keeping caged birds too! I have hung on a branch of a tree a few ornamental old bird-cages with clay-birds in them. They look so cute!

An airport crying for upgradation

AMRITSAR is one of the most fascinating cities of North India. The Golden Temple and Jallianwala Bagh have given this holy city a unique place in the history of the nation. It attracts a large number of tourists, pilgrims and businessmen from all parts of the country and the world, including non-resident Indians of Punjabi origin.

A view of Rajasansi International Airport, Amritsar

Keeping in view the increase in the tourist, business, pilgrim and cargo traffic from various parts of the world, the Airports Authority of India has made plans for the upgradation and development of Amritsar airport at a cost of Rs 128 crore, and Rs 79.26 crore for the first phase has been sanctioned.

It is now increasingly recognised that aviation, far from being a mere mode of transportation for an elite group, is crucial for sustainable development of trade and tourism. In this context, it is vital that airport infrastructure grows in anticipation of the growing needs of the air transport industry. As this is a capital-intensive sector, there is an obvious necessity for perspective planning with a vision for the next 20 years. In fact, civil aviation is today universally acknowledged as a key component of the service-fuelled global economy.

The policy document also mentions that airports, being the nuclei of economic activity, have a significant role to play in the national economy. The quality of airport infrastructure contributes directly to a country’s international competitiveness and the flow of foreign investment. While the cargo carried by air in India weighs less than 1 per cent of the cargo exported, it accounts for 35 per cent of the total value of exports. Better cargo handling facilities lead to enhanced levels of importation, especially of foreign capital goods and high-value items. Likewise, 97 per cent of the country’s foreign tourists arrive by air, and tourism is the nation’s second largest foreign exchange earner.

Airports represent a country’s window to the world. Since passengers form their first impressions about a nation from the state of its airports, it is hoped that Amritsar airport will properly project the rich cultural heritage and strength of the city and Punjab.

The airport at present has Customs and immigration facilities to cater to international flights with a peak-hour capacity of 200 passengers. The existing runway of 2789 metres is suitable for the operation of AB-320 aircraft while the existing apron is capable of accommodating two B-320 planes. The airport is equipped with navigational aids like DVOR, NDB, ILS, VHF and HF facilities. It has the night-landing facility with PAPI approach lights.

The salient features of the project include construction of a centrally airconditioned new terminal building with a plinth area of 14,500 sq metres, in place of the existing 3,000 sq metres terminal building which will be dismantled in phases with a peak-hour capacity of 500 passengers, extension of the main runway from 2789 metres to 3349 metres and strengthening of the existing length for AB-300 operations, construction of four additional aircraft parking bays and a cargo building with a plinth area of 3,500 sq metres. It is learnt that 60 per cent of the expansion work has already been completed. The new terminal building at a cost of Rs. 20 crore is likely to be completed by next year with facilities of ILS (instrumental landing) for its fair weather operations.

After having been granted the status of international airport, passenger traffic at Amritsar has seen tremendous growth, from 12,000 passengers in 2000-01 to 1,12,000 in 2001-02. The consistent growth is encouraging more airlines for seeking permission to use this airport. At present 18 weekly flights operate from Amritsar airport with connections to many cities in Europe, the Middle-East and America. A number of international airlines, including Austrian, Virgin Atlantic, Air Canada, and Air Mauritius, have shown keen interest to operate their flights from this airport.

Indian airports in the past had remained content standing in isolation. Now they must start work to identify themselves with the growing needs and aspirations of the people. An airport is a living entity and it should co-exist with all members of the community, especially the users of its various facilities.

During the past two decades, aviation has emerged as not only an integral part of transportation but significantly the most important too. With the increasing globalisation of economies, liberalisation and technological developments in air transport, new trends are emerging on the horizon.

Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) is a living example of how a Rs 2.3 billion project became functional in a record time of six years (1993-99) with contributions from the Kerala Government, financial institutions and the NRIs numbering 10,000 from 30 countries. The airport boasts of having India’s second longest runway. If Kerala could achieve this remarkable feat with the financial assistance from non-resident Indians and others, the Punjab Government may also consider seriously tapping the resources of the NRIs for developing another airport in Punjab. It will Punjab’s economy besides making much easier the visit of the thousands of the NRIs of Punjabi origin. If it is not possible to consider developing another airport, then part-privatisation may be considered for creating facilities at Amritsar airport.

It is relevant to mention here that almost 26 per cent of the total air passenger traffic from Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) is from Punjab. As many as 1.3 crore passengers used international airports during 1998-99. Of these, 37,91,973 used IGIA, meaning thereby that nearly 10 lakh passengers travelled from the region to New Delhi or vice-versa. If on an average, an air-traveller from Punjab or Chandigarh spends about Rs. 2,000 per air trip to travel from his home to IGIA or vice-versa, the money spent would come to a whopping Rs 200 crore which the air travellers from Punjab spent either to fly out of New Delhi or reach their destination in Punjab after travelling abroad. Besides this big amount, the loss of man-days or man-hours is also grossly very large. In the same year the number of international passengers from Rajasansi International Airport, Amritsar, was only 19,979, which was 0.15 per cent of the total international passengers.

This further strengthens the case for expediting the completion of the project undertaken by the Airport Authority of India.

There are 35 IATA-approved agents in Punjab and tickets worth approximately Rs 20 crore are sold every month with 10,000 people directly employed with travel agencies, GSA’s and other outlets of tour business. The maximum outbound traffic from Punjab is to the UK, Canada, the USA and Australia. However, skilled labour migration from Punjab is the highest to the Middle-East.

The proposed strategy:

1. Involve the private sector, including NRIs, in financing the Amritsar airport-related projects.

2. Provide higher air connectivity to domestic as well as international routes. On the domestic routes flights may be connected to New Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Shimla and Jammu.

3. Indian Airline’s bi-weekly flight connecting Delhi-Amritsar-Sharjah should be made thrice a week in view of the passenger demand, and the flight timings should be made more comfortable.

4. Connect Amritsar with the existing Delhi-Jammu-Srinagar route, resuming the previous connection between Amritsar-Srinagar.

5. Allow foreign airlines to operate direct flights from Amritsar to destinations abroad.

6. Provide visitors’ galleries with facilities like paid telescopes, binoculars, TR shops, cafeteria, etc.

7. Introduce televisions and video game machines in the visitors’ lounge.

8. Start an air-taxi service to various places of pilgrimage, and leading cities such as Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala and even to the neighbouring states of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal, UP and Rajasthan, making Chandigarh as the base.

9. Consider the construction of tourist villages surrounding Amritsar.

The Draft Aviation Policy-2000 states that a thrust for international tourism will be given by providing, among other things, “encouraging private sector participation in building tourist infrastructure near airports like golf courses, amusement parks, business centres, duty-free shopping complexes of international class, aviation recreation activities, adventure aviation, hang-gliding, microlight aircraft, parachuting, etc”.

If no provision for providing these facilities has been made in the future plans for the airport at Amritsar, the authorities may well consider to incorporate these points. The airport authorities, if they have not prepared any marketing and business plans so far, may well consider to prepare such a plan for the next 10 years.

These facilities will help the export of agricultural produce, bring more visitors, including NRIs, in view of the likelihood of the Golden Temple being declared as a World Heritage Site. As there is enough land available adjacent to the airport, scope for its expansion does exist. The land may need to be acquired on a priority basis.

However, among the factors, which, are likely to stand in the way for future expansion of the airport could be, IAF establishment reducing the use of airport land, lack of empowerment to the managers and trained men and Amritsar being a border city. As expansion of the airport would undoubtedly bestow many economic and social benefits, efforts should be made for shifting of the IAF establishment to the west of runway of 16/34 declaring that no construction zones be there in the land adjacent to the airport, providing trading and other facilities to AAI/CISF to ensure availability of trained and committed manpower, identifying additional financial resources for acquiring additional land for future growth and, lastly, preparing a Master Plan for next 20 years to govern the development of Amritsar Airport Land.

As regards the impact of one additional flight on creating jobs, Mr M.P. Bezbaruaha, former Secretary, Union Ministry of Tourism, says: “Assuming 400 passengers in one flight with 200 foreigners who stay for seven days with an expenditure of Rs 2,000 per day per passenger, it comes to Rs 28 lakh worth of foreign exchange. The country earns over Rs 100 crore in foreign exchange creating 20,000 jobs per year. There is, thus, no doubt, that the upgradation of the Amritsar airport to international standards would go a long way in generating a number of direct and indirect job opportunities.

Excerpts from “Vision Punjab: A case Study Approach by ITFT-Chandigarh”, released in Chandigarh last week

Living on your nerves
Jack Shamash

EXTREME fear, hyperventilation, dizziness, numbness... it’s estimated that at least half of us will have a panic attack at some point in our life.

Panic or anxiety attacks have become so common that they are almost seen as “normal” and whereas few people would generally confess to hearing voices or feeling suicidal, panic attacks are now seen as an almost routine facet of modern life.

The UK self-help organisation, No Panic, estimates that as many as 50 per cent of people will have a panic attack at some time in their lives and an attack often occurs with no discernible cause. Although the attacks are in some cases associated with phobias, they can also happen at random and when least expected. It is common for a sufferer to feel at ease one minute and struck down by terror the next.

Most people who get panic attacks will have them only once or twice in a lifetime though, and usually at times of stress. Cosmo Hallstrom, consultant psychiatrist and medical director of the private Florence Nightingale Clinic in London, suggests that they can be partly attributed to the pressures of modern life. “A lot of the people I see work in London’s financial centre in high-powered jobs. The condition is stress-related and often linked to the use of illegal drugs such as cocaine. In many ways, panic attacks are tied to lifestyle.”

Mark Sutton (whose name has been changed), in his late twenties, is fairly typical of the people who get one-off attacks. An employee of a large bank, he was in Belgium on business when his arm went numb and he thought he was having a heart attack. A friend had to take him in a taxi to the casualty department of a Brussels hospital.

“It was pretty scary until the doctor told me it was simply panic. I had been working long hours and drinking more than was good for me. I had a similar attack a year later, but for the last two years I’ve been fine.”

For others, attacks can become a regular and terrifying aspect of their lives. When this happens, the condition is usually referred to as “panic disorder”. For people who have regular attacks the situation is far more serious. Around two per cent of the population has this condition and for them panic attacks can mean destroyed lives, wrecked relationships and difficulty in maintaining a job. Many of them find it difficult even to leave their homes.

Margaret Hawkins has spent much of her life suffering from panic disorder and now describes herself as “recovering”. “My problem started when I was 32. The attack come out of the blue. I was coming home from my mother’s house when I noticed that the road was undulating and the garden walls were leaning towards me. I panicked and started to run. My heart was racing. My vision started to go until all I could see was a little red neon sign, which I knew was near my home. I thought it must be a brain tumour at the very least.”

For the next 10 years, Margaret couldn’t go out alone. “I’m ashamed of it now, but I’d send my four-year-old son across a busy road to do the shopping. All the time, I’d be shouting directions at him, telling him when to cross. It was like a nervous breakdown, except nothing breaks.”

The condition is often linked to agoraphobia - a fear of going outside. The experience is so terrifying that people tend to avoid returning to the places where it happened and often seek security indoors, fearful of leaving the safety of their home. Sufferers will also avoid going into lifts, supermarkets or anywhere they feel vulnerable. The Guardian