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Saturday,
June 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Diplomacy of cross-connection From crisis to crisis WTO: a new menace |
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Resetting federal fiscal relations
Jehad is bad foreign policy, tell Pak
Signs of new thinking in Press
The People’s Bank of
Northern India
Bureaucrat lands in trouble
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From crisis to crisis THE
Centre has buried an avoidable controversy by dropping its plan to merge the two paddy grades. Eighty to 90 per cent of paddy grown in Punjab and Haryana is of grade A (MSP Rs 540 a quintal). Its merger with the common variety (MSP Rs 510) would have hit farmers of the two states. The merger proposal was perhaps initiated to check frequent quality relaxations effected under political pressure. Victory still evades Mr Parkash Singh Badal and Mr Om Parkash Chautala, who wrestled this policy reversal from Union minister Shanta Kumar in New Delhi on Thursday. There are more troubles ahead for the two Chief Ministers. One, the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) has recommended a meagre Rs 10 a quintal across-the-board hike in the minimum support price for kharif crops, including paddy. With elections approaching, this Mr Badal is bound to oppose. Backed by Mr Chautala, he may have his way, given an obliging coalition at the Centre. Two, the CACP has also stressed on the FCI withdrawal from the procurement process in the surplus states. Both Mr Badal and Mr Chautala had already voiced their opposition to this move at the recent conference of the Chief Ministers. The third CACP suggestion to introduce value cuts and set the maximum relaxation limit beyond which paddy won't be procured is also not likely to find favour with them. Since they have their voters' short-term interests only in mind, they will not allow its implementation. The paddy crisis will persist if tackled only by buying more gunny bags and filling them with substandard produce, which keeps accumulating in godowns or disposed of at throw-away prices. Foodgrain procurement, storage and distribution is a national issue. Increasing the administered farm produce prices year after year, procuring rain-hit, poor quality grains on orders of ruling politicians and continuing with the still inadequate public distribution system will never solve the problem. Rather the crisis will aggravate. Agriculture has to be cost effective. A free market and competition must ensure farm inputs and machinery are available at reasonable prices. Production must be determined by demand and supply factors. Government machinery, cheaper banking finance, corporate expertise in marketing and guidance by farm scientists should all combine to rescue the crisis-ridden agriculture. The need for modern methods of storage and exploration of new markets for exports becomes obvious. As also the strengthening of the PDS so that no area remains uncovered. If Mr Badal and Mr Chautala devote all their energy and state funds, as also seek private investment, in building up excellent infrastructure, their vote bases would be grateful to them. Short-term relief is easily forgotten. The farmer must stop living from crisis to crisis. |
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WTO: a new menace CHINA
has cleared the last obstacle to enter the WTO and it is no good news for India. It will be a full member before the year is out and a totally new set of regulations will apply to curbing its exports at prices it fixes. At present India accuses China of dumping a large number of consumer goods by making a weak charge that the country is not a free market economy. (An official notification has been issued making this categorisation formal.) This carries weight with a non-member but not with a member of the WTO. With a non-member like China India has only to make a statement and act on it without producing any proof; but with a member it is obliged to accept the facts provided by it — in this case China — and compile credible evidence to counter them and convince the Disputes Settling Mechanism of the WTO. That is the rub. India has not so far collected evidence to prove the fundamental test of dumping: the export price is lower than the domestic price. The designated authority of anti-dumping has set up a war room in the Ministry of Commerce to constantly monitor the increase or decrease in imports of 300 sensitive items normally produced by the small and medium scale sectors but marketed by large scale sector. For instance, it is known that table and ceiling fans are manufactured by faceless small sector units but marketed as well-known brands without upgrading the technology or the quality. In the absence of a reliable scientific analysis, the government opts for morale-boosting figures of doubtful validity. Earlier this week the Commerce Ministry claimed that imports of the 300 designated items have fallen in value terms by about 18 per cent. This related to the period of April and May this year. As a respected analyst has pointed out, the statistics are misleading for two reasons. One, during the first two months of the financial year, imports of these 300 items were restricted to 14 harbours in the name of effective monitoring. That led to great congestion and delay in unloading. Two weeks back this has been rectified and imports are allowed in any port that suits the individual or company that imports. Two, the sharp fall in the value of imports is mostly because of a reduced level of edible oil imports after the stiff hike in customs duty. So to link the two – removal of quantitative restrictions and a fall in imports – in a cause and effective format is questionable, if not wrong. |
Resetting federal fiscal relations IT was the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, who had in 1997 persuaded the compatriot from his state, Mr I.K. Gujral who was the Prime Minister for seven months, to waive all the outstanding loan the state had taken from the Centre for fighting terrorism. Mr Gujral did it as a special case against the Finance Ministry’s warning that it might raise similar demands from other states. The issue was forgotten in the tumult of two general elections to Parliament that had followed only to surface now again. The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, has raised at the Telugu Desam Party’s annual general body meeting held in the last week of May two issues impinging on Centre-State fiscal relations. One is the demand for waiver of all Central loans. The second demand was the transfer of all centrally sponsored schemes to the states. Both the issues are important for smooth Centre-State relations and there should be a proper assessment and response. Mr Naidu’s demand is for general amnesty on loans from the Centre. Normally the demands of the state governments for waiver or rescheduling of past loans from the Centre should be tackled by statutory bodies like the Finance Commission. Even though the terms of reference restricted the consideration to non-plan revenue gap of states only, the Finance Commissions in the past had considered the demands of the states for waiver or rescheduling, partially or fully, of some categories of past loans and had responded to some extent giving some relief though not fully agreeing with the states for complete waiver of the past loans. It is never late or too early to consider the serious debt problem faced by the state governments. It is vitiating the observance of prudent norms by the Centre and state governments. The problem might be the consequence of non-observance of norms. But over the years the debt burden has itself become the cause for throwing to winds the prudence and public interest. The cause and consequence have cascaded to pull the finances of the Centre and states into a deep rut. To state the overall magnitude of the problem, the outstanding liabilities of the state governments in 2000 were a staggering Rs 409,258 crore constituting nearly 20.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of the nation. It is 17 times that in 1980-81. The states’ debt is doubling itself almost every five years. (See the excellent report of the Reserve Bank of India giving at one place the consolidated and individual figures about states finances — State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 1999-2000. This high magnitude of states’ debt has two implications. First the interest payments constituted nearly 20 per cent of their revenue receipts. The pressure on debt servicing is forcing increased borrowings. The Mid-Term Appraisal of the Ninth Plan that has been released recently has expressed serious concern over this trend stating that “it will only push their debt liability to unsustainable levels.” The second implication of this trend is the states depend heavily on the Centre for financing their borrowing requirements. The loans and advances from the Centre constituted nearly 60 per cent of total borrowings by the states and formed about 50 per cent of their gross fiscal deficit. This has to be seen in the light of the growing revenue deficit of the states. The revenue deficit accounted for 52 to 53 per cent of their fiscal deficit. The implication is clear that the entire borrowings by the states from the Centre were not enough even to plug their revenue deficit. Is this what the borrowings are meant for? The borrowings are meant to be used for productive purposes, because they carry an interest charge. The Central loans to the states carry on an average interest of 12 to 13 per cent. Though lower than the market rate, it is rather heavy in the long run unless the projects or programmes the loans are spent are able to pay for the interest at least. In the present situation it is not the case and it is likely to further worsen. Even the states like Andhra Pradesh, which is getting sizeable World Bank assistance, the interest is the same. Though the World Bank lends to the Centre under soft terms, the Centre lends it to states at the same high rate as it bears the foreign exchange risk involved in the repayment of loans to foreign institutions. So it makes no difference in the repayment burden to any state if it goes for World Bank or other foreign institutions. The non-Plan capital account was for the first time referred to the Sixth Finance Commission headed by Mr K. Brahmananda Reddy, the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. Their report in 1973 did not agree for large-scale write-off of states’ debt on the ground that it made no difference to resources position of the Centre and states taken together. They also noted that it would benefit the developed states whose borrowings from the Centre were more. Yet they conceded consolidation and rephasing of the loans on the basis of their purpose as also the severity of debt burden as proportion of State Domestic Product. The Seventh Finance Commission, however, did not agree with the view expressed by the previous commission that it was not possible to categorise loans into productive and non-productive and recommended total write-off of the later category. The Ninth Finance Commission, on the other hand, gave debt relief to those states which had invested more on productive power and road transport projects. The Tenth Commission linked general debt relief to better fiscal performance and specific relief to states facing fiscal stress. They had agreed with the Central Government who had for the first time submitted a memorandum opposing grant of debt relief and conceded only marginal debt relief. From the stand taken by the Finance Commissions in the past it is clear that the states could not expect any major relief, let alone total write-off of their debt. The Centre’s stand on granting write-off of their loans to the states has understandably become stiff. The total debt of the states has been increasing but as a proportion of the GDP it has not increased from 20.5 per cent since 1985-86 and is at the same level in 1999-2000. Unlike that, the Centre’s total debt as a proportion of GDP has gone up from 29.1 in 1996-97 to 39.4 in 1999-2000. The public debt of both the Centre and the states has risen to nearly 60 per cent of the GDP. Any further increase cannot be sustained. What is alarming is that it is increasing at the rate of 7.5 per cent per annum. If it is not stemmed, a stage of financial emergency might very soon have to be faced. Attempts are on to finetune the states’ debt instruments management by permitting them to individually raise market loans through auctions on a tap basis. The governments of Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and a few other states had exercised this option. That might marginally benefit better off states as they might get better terms. But the problem has to be tackled at the root by checking the financial profligacy of the state governments. The Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, had in his last Budget speech rightly raised an alarm with the total debt servicing of the Central Government exceeding total revenue receipts by Rs 22,789 crore. Greater concern was the Revenue Receipts falling short of revenue expenditure by as much as Rs 24,265 crore in the revised estimates for 2000-01. His response to the overwhelming problem was typically bureaucratic by referring to the appointment of a committee to go into expenditure control and the introduction of what he called a fiscal responsibility bill. This is simply pulling wool over the eyes of the public. The distinction between revenue and capital expenditure has got totally blurred when a large part of revenue expenditure is being met from capital receipts. In the book that has just come out — “Federal Fiscal Relations in India” — Mr B.P.R. Vithal who was a member of the Tenth Finance Commission and Mr M.L. Sastry who was for a number of years worked with the Planning Commission and Finance Commissions have rightly stated that “Recurring expenditure may be defined as expenditure, which, once incurred, follows Newton’s First Law Motion, i.e., it continues to be incurred, unless an external force impinges on it. On the other hand, if capital asset is defined as expenditure for the creation of a productive asset, it will be both self-limiting and self-financing.... Many of our problems arise out of the fact that this logic is not followed Revenue expenditure is financed by borrowings and capital expenditure does not create future sources of revenues. The concept of overall deficit and the submergence of revenue deficit in the fiscal deficit confound this situation”. The problem is not mere semantic. It has grown to these unmanageable proportions and continues to escalate because the elected governments, the uncaring bureaucracy and the beneficiary people in general have developed a deep vested interest in the extravaganza. It can never correct itself from within. Some urgent measures are, however, needed to save the situation. The Constitution makers have prophetically provided some escape provisions. The Article 360 provides for declaration of Financial Emergency by the President. This was incorporated because the Centre otherwise cannot give mandatory directions to the states to take corrective steps. However, even while the Constitution was being drafted, the then Finance Secretary, Mr P.C. Bhattacharyya, wrote a D.O. letter expressing reservations over the difficulty in the practical application of this provision. He had rightly stated: “The advent of an economic crisis is not like that of war and it may be difficult to decide when the President would declare a situation as one which threatens the financial stability or credit of the country.” A further problem is that such a course might create a panic and could be self-defeating. But there is a lesser provision that could be invoked in a threatening situation like the present. The Articles 292 and 293 provide for imposing a ceiling on borrowings. These safety provisions were approved without much discussion in the Constituent Assembly because the framers had provided elsewhere in Articles 112 and 202 making the borrowings by the Centre and the states a first charge on the Consolidated Funds of each along with the salaries of the President, Speakers and Governors. These have to be paid even without a vote in Parliament. That provision had been made as an abundant caution to safeguard the financial solvency of the Centre and the states. A ceiling on the total debt of the Centre and states up to 75 per cent of the GDP could be a proper norm. In the light of present trends, that could be reached in the next two to three years. Similarly, the RBI report and the Mid-Term Appraisal of Ninth Plan have categorised the states according to debt stability and sustainability. A ceiling on further borrowings in extreme cases already reached like Bihar might be due. A nagging question remains. Where did the system fail? The parliamentary control of government’s expenditure in the fora of the Estimates Committee, the Public Accounts Committee, the Comptroller and Auditor Generals reports and the prior approval by Parliament of demands for grants have all been streamlined over decades. But unfortunately the item-wise scrutiny by all these bodies has missed the woods for trees. The British Parliament was also aware of this shortcoming. On the recommendations of the Plowden Committee regular surveys of public expenditure as a whole in relation to prospective resources have been introduced and White Paper on expenditure is released months in advance of the Budget annually since 1980. Even at the risk of centralisation, the reports on expenditure cover the local bodies also. The Finance Minister, Mr Sinha, will do well to follow the British practice. The public and first of all himself should be aware of the grimness of the situation. The invoking of Articles 292 and 293 of the Constitution might in any case become inevitable. |
Jehad is bad foreign policy, tell Pak DOES a military dictator stop being a military dictator if he declares himself President? Don’t bother answering that, its meant to be a rhetorical question. Suffice it to say that the ways of Pakistan are different to ours and that is that. Pakistan may be our most important neighbour and, impossible though it now sounds, was once part of our own country, but its path has been so different to ours that there is little about it that Indians understand. How, for instance, is it possible for the average Pakistani to accept coups and military dictators with such equanimity? How was it so easy for Gen Pervez Musharraf to have a military coup that appeared to have popular support? Najam Sethi, a well-known Pakistani journalist, answered that for me when we met at a conference in Holland a couple of weeks ago. He said the truth was there was much more repression in the time of Nawaz Sharif’s democratic rule and infinitely more corruption so there was not much democracy floating around. ‘In my own case’, he said, ‘had the coup not happened I would certainly have been in jail and may even have been dead. I believe the General saved my life’. This is Najam’s story. A few months before the coup he published a series of articles in his newspaper, Friday Times, on the corruption of Nawaz Sharif’s family and government. He was warned by the government to lay off but he persisted and then compounded his problems by coming to New Delhi for a seminar and making some critical remarks about Pakistan. This gave Nawaz Sharif the chance he was looking for. Shortly after Najam returned to Lahore there was, quite literally, the ‘midnight knock’. Policemen stormed into his home, dragged him out of bed, thrashed him and his wife and threw him into jail. While in judicial custody he had a heart attack that was ignored by his captors, the price of which he paid later with a quadruple by-pass. The charges against Najam were treason and spying for India but when Pakistan’s democratically elected Prime Minister tried to get its future military ruler to pursue the treason charges he refused. He told him bluntly that there was no case at all. A case was, nevertheless, made out and a trial started with a pliant judge presiding. Najam believes that if the coup had not happened he would have been jailed for at least ten years. With this kind of brutality and repression the norm in times of democracy it is not surprising that Pakistanis do not see much difference between democracy and military rule. Not surprising either that General Musharraf becoming self-appointed President of their country last week should cause so little outrage. President Musharraf’s military spokesman, Major General Rashid Quereshi, did not hesitate to admit to CNN that ‘the constitution was in abeyance’ so it did not matter if it was unconstitutional for Musharraf to make himself President in this way. Nor did he hesitate to launch into a tirade against Pakistani politicians charging them with looting the country. When the CNN anchor asked if the coming summit between India and Pakistan had anything to do with the haste of the appointment he said he did not think so? But, does it? It must do if you consider that the dates for the summit were barely decided (July 14-16) when the General announced that he would shortly be promoting himself from military dictator to President. Will it make a difference to the summit? Not at all, because to us a military dictator in civilian garb is still a military dictator. Having said that, though, we need to remember, as this column has pointed out before, that we have a better chance of making peace with a Pakistani General than we have with a democratically elected Prime Minister. This is because foreign policy — particularly with regard to Kashmir and Afghanistan — is totally in the army’s control. Neither Benazir Bhutto nor Nawaz Sharif had the authority to do anything on their own. The next question is does Musharraf want peace? He has openly stated that he is coming to India ‘to make history’ but what does this mean on the ground? Pakistani friends I have talked to say that he is sincere in his pronouncements and that he is willing to be ‘flexible’ on Kashmir. What exactly does this mean? Well, they say, it cannot mean that he will ever accept the present status of Kashmir but could possibly –at the end of a peace process – accept less than the plebiscite under those long forgotten UN resolutions. They were not clear about what this ‘less’ would be but then there are the complications our own side. We have agreed – for the first time – to allow Kashmir to be on the agenda of talks but the Prime Minister made it clear as he emerged from Breach Candy Hospital last week that Kashmir is ours and will stay that way and that what may come up is the question of Pakistan occupied Kashmir. This approach, unless it is only for public consumption, is unlikely to get us moving in a forward direction. But, the good news is that at least we are talking again for the first time since, as Vajpayee so eloquently put it, the bus to Lahore ended up in Kargil. There is a degree of irritation in our Ministry of External Affairs that Pakistani opinion-makers have chosen to see our desire for dialogue as a sign that we cannot solve the Kashmir problem on our own. There is also a wariness about Pakistan’s sincerity on the peace front considering that their terrorists are still wreaking havoc in the Kashmir valley but there is also recognition that we need peace on the sub-continent. Vajpayee made this clear when he pointed out in his invitation to Musharraf that our common enemy was poverty. Pakistan, on the economic front, needs peace even more than we do. The Indian economy has been growing at a steady 6 per cent annually whereas Pakistan’s has been hardly growing at all at around 2 per cent. The General’s recent decision to cut the defence budget – for the first time in history – indicates that he recognises that the jehad is becoming unaffordable. Pakistan’s jehad foreign policy extends not just to Kashmir but to Afghanistan as well and increasingly the world is beginning to become less tolerant of this approach to foreign policy. In Afghanistan, where the Taliban is almost totally financed by Pakistan, there is the worst humanitarian disaster ever and in Kashmir we have a possible nuclear flashpoint causing President Clinton to famously remark that the Indian sub-continent was ‘the most dangerous place in the world’. Even if the summit in Agra yields little by way of immediate gains if we can persuade Pakistan that jehad is bad foreign policy we will have made a beginning. So, let us welcome the General or the President or whatever he chooses to become when he comes in July. |
Signs of new thinking in Press SANER voices in Pakistan are asserting and urging anyone who cares to listen to end the five-decade long Indo-Pak conflict on Kashmir. Find a solution and being the battle against poverty. That is the message. Newspapers like the Nation, Pakistan Times, Friday Times and Dawn have been carrying articles over the past some days by politicians, retired generals, diplomats and journalists. The common refrain is: avoid a nuclear holocaust, stop wasting resources on arms and wars and fight poverty. Dawn has carried an article by Sardar Aseff Ahmed Ali, a former Foreign Minister, in which he urged Mr Vajpayee and General Musharraf to make a historic beginning. Mr Ali said: “Nobody is overly optimistic about the outcome of the proposed summit meeting. But everybody expects the peace process to be revived after it broke down in 1999 in the wake of the Kargil fiasco. This is the least expectation. The ice-cold relations must thaw. Two big nations cannot live in the same neighbourhood hating each other. Both have been unwise in going to wars, squandering their energies on weapons of destruction, indeed mass destruction.” This leading article is worth quoting in detail. Mr Ali writes: “Since a fourth of their people have been kept in wretchedness and poverty, both states live with self-professed self-importance. While one claims great power status to match China the other believes it is the leading light of the Muslim world. They have agreed to talk, that is the least they can do. The sons of the Indus valley and the sons of the Gangetic plains have lived side by side for millennia, even as Muslims and Hindus. The last half century has seen two major wars and several low intensity conflicts. But wars have not got them anywhere. Time has come to say farewell to arms because the next war could destroy South Asia. There is a time for war, and there is a time for peace. This is the time for peace. Pakistan could not force a solution of Kashmir dispute through war. Neither could India destroy the indomitable will of the Kashmiri people through the use of 700,000 of its troops for twelve bloody years.” Mr Ali said, “Vajpayee has timed his invitation well. He broke the fiction of ceasefire in Kashmir, and sent his emissary K.C. Pant to talk to Kashmiri leaders. Near Pakistan’s borders recently conducted ominous military exercises and cosied up to the US by extending support to its hated national missile defence (NMD) system. India’s honeymoon seems to be doing well. Bickering in the marriage of convenience will come later. India finds Pakistan isolated and reeling under economic sanctions while it basks under the comfort of a $ 45 billion foreign exchange reserve. While plans are afoot to lift US sanctions against India, no such thing is planned for Pakistan. India has engaged Pakistan in an arms race Pakistan can ill afford. While democracy and civil society thrive in India, there is a military dictatorship in Pakistan, which is not on talking terms with the nation’s leaders.” Mr Ali was equally critical of Pakistan’s military ruler when he said, “General Musharraf, devoid of economic strength, with hardly any legitimacy, and with his seven-point agenda on the rocks of creditability and ignorance about issues, can hardly be going to New Delhi with any great strength. Vajpayee will be talking to Pakistan as a senior world-class statesman. From what position will General Musharraf be talking to Vajpayee? This makes it imperative for the general to build support for the national cause before the summit.” “Pakistan’s position has been ‘first solve Kashmir, then take up others’. Both India and Pakistan will need to show flexibility in order to move forward. In my view, the best option for both would be to follow the principle of symmetry. From the two baskets of issues, that is the ‘soft’ and the ‘hard’, we pick one and they pick one. The ‘soft’ issues would include the demarcation of Sir Creek, Wullar Barrage, trade and economic relations, people-related issues of travel and exchanges. The ‘hard’ issues include the Kashmir dispute, Siachen Glacier, nuclear security, disarmament, no-war pact, etc. If India raises issues of trade and co-operation, as it is likely to do, then it would have selected one from the soft basket. |
The People’s Bank of Northern India A
Branch of the People’s Bank of Northern India Ltd was opened on the 11th instant at Phagwara, an important centre of trade in the Doaba. The opening ceremony was a very interesting function and the Chief Minister, along with other Ministers of the State and the residents of Phagwara, joined in this in order to welcome the institution. Khan Bahadur Dawan Abdul Hamid presided over it. Pandit Roop Narain Raina in an impressive speech sketched the growth and development of the Bank. The Chairman then in a short speech brought home to the people the advantages which accrue to them from the Bank. He assured the business men and traders of the mandi that since a long-felt want of having a Bank at that place has been removed, Phagwara market has very bright future. Then sweets were distributed and the function came to a close. |
Bureaucrat lands in trouble IT started like any other anonymous cyber friendship. But six months down the line, it has turned into a classic case of harassment on the Net. The police in Kolkata is hunting for a 47-year-old bureaucrat from Pondicherry who has been charged with deluging a young woman with smut e-mails after being rejected in love. The couple had met in a popular cyber chat room and had struck a friendship. The man posed as a young, handsome and rich bachelor, which impressed the 24-year-old woman from Kolkata. Gradually, the two developed a relationship and soon fixed a blind date in Kolkata. But one look at her cyber partner from Pondicherry and the woman was appalled. Middle-aged, married and anything-but-handsome, the man was nothing like he had led her to believe. She realised she had been conned and rebuked the bureaucrat. His love rejected, the man, a senior manager with a telecommunications utility, kept bombarding the woman with smut e-mails. Eventually the woman, an executive with a city firm, turned to the police for help. “Having got a fix on the e-mail path, we have identified the culprit as a bureaucrat based in Pondicherry,” Banibrata Basu, Deputy Commissioner, was quoted as saying. “That man is pure evil. For God’s sake help me before I do something to myself,” the woman wrote in her complaint. The city police, with assistance from Internet service provider VSNL, have finally tracked down the offender. The Kolkata police has asked its Pondicherry counterpart to arrest the bureaucrat and seize the mails and photographs the woman had earlier e-mailed to him.
IANS
Voice box transplants possible Within five years the voices of the dead could be heard again among the living if, as one surgeon hopes, donors are able to offer their larynxes for transplant after their deaths. Up to 12,000 Britons deprived of normal speech because their voice boxes have been removed could benefit from research into larynx transplants. Martin Birchall, a head and neck cancer specialist at Bristol University, in England, has been given a US $ 1.68 million grant by the Wellcome Trust to find how a donor larynx can be successfully transplanted into a patient. The first and so far only larynx transplant was carried out in the USA in 1998. The recipient recovered a virtually normal ability to speak but still has to breathe through a hole in his neck because it proved impossible to connect the nerves properly. The
Guardian
Study explains doping incidents A German scientist said on Friday he had shown a link between dietary supplements and positive tests for the anabolic steroid nandrolone, possibly explaining a recent spate of high-profile doping incidents. A study by Dr. Wilhelm Schaenzer of the Institute of Biochemistry at German Sports University in Cologne connects ingredients of some popular supplements and the internationally banned substance nandrolone, which strengthens muscle and bone. “We are basically warning athletes that these substances could lead to a positive test,” Schaenzer told Reuters by telephone on Friday. The impact from Schaenzer’s findings could be immense, as a number of sporting stars such as Dutch soccer player Frank de Boer and German 5,000 metres Olympic champion Dieter Baumann have faced sanctions after testing positive for nandrolone. But Schaenzer cautioned his study does not prove the innocence of all those who have tested positive for nandrolone, saying it merely puts the rash of positive results in better context while providing a warning to athletes. “Each case will still need to be checked on its own merits, because you can’t tell the difference between doping and contamination from these supplements,” said Schaenzer.
Reuters
Demise of Dr Death’s patients A high court judge opened an inquiry on Wednesday into the deaths of 466 patients of Britain’s biggest serial killer, Dr Harold Shipman. Shipman, dubbed “Dr Death” by the British media, was convicted in January of murdering 15 elderly women with lethal heroin injections. A chilling government report said the 55-year-old general practitioner may be responsible for the deaths of hundreds more patients since the start of his medical career 24 years ago. The judge, Dame Janet Smith, will hold the inquiry in Manchester in northern England.
Reuters |
Charity given to a worthy person, in the proper place and time and as a matter of duty, without consideration of the benefit one might derive for oneself, is said to be in the mode of goodness. ***** But charity performed with the expectation of some return, with a desire for fruitive results, or in a grudging mood, is said to be charity in the mode of passion. ***** Charity given in an unpurified place, at an unpurified time, to unsuitable persons, without proper attention and without respect is said to be in the mode of darkness. ***** The wise undertake sacrifices’, charities and penances, beginning always with OM, to attain the Supreme. ***** Sacrifices, charities and penances performed without faith in the Supreme are non-permanent. O son of Pritha (Arjuna), they are useless both in this life and in the next. — The Bhagavadgita, XVII, 20-22, 24, 28 ***** Charity is sometimes performed for elevation to the heavenly kingdom and sometimes with great trouble and with repentance afterward — “Why have I spent so much in this way?” Or charity is sometimes made under some obligation under the request of a superior. These kinds of charity are said to be made in the mode of passion. There are many charitable foundations which offer their gifts to institutions where sense gratification goes on. Such charities are not recommended in the Vedic scripture. —
His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Bhagavad-Gita As
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