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New frontiers of knowledge Profile |
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Wit of the week
Trade across Wagah Managing hazardous waste in Punjab
On Record
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New frontiers of knowledge None of us can refute that the foremost association of the word ‘education’ is with the written word focusing on the academic aspect of education. The progress of mankind does not consist merely in man’s mastery and understanding of the mysteries of nature. The ultimate aim of all education is the making of integrated personalities to avert the catastrophe towards which our civilisation is heading. Education is “what remains with us after we have forgotten what we have learnt”. T.S.Eliot has rightly stated: Between the idea/ And the reality/ Between the motion/ And the act/ Falls the shadow. All education must, therefore, necessarily direct us to fill the gaps in our living. Liberal education is an education for thought and for aesthetic appreciation. Both geometry and poetry are essential as turning lathes in our lives. The study of art and aesthetics should not be considered as an aristocratic education implying leisure. All scholars, educationists, administrators and policy makers now feel the absence of aesthetic education in our educational curriculum. Every man is an artist in his own way, giving concrete shape and form to ideas and dreams in his own unique way. The specific nature of human freedom manifests itself more in creative education and aesthetics. It is discerned more in the creative activity of all art forms and in the acts of the doers and the connoisseurs. One way of dealing with ‘what can be learned from art about life’ is by rejecting or deconstructing it. In general artworks, by transforming the spaces in which we live, function to reinforce certain habitual modes of acting and thinking rather than to impart knowledge. This human freedom is important but quite different from the liberty which man obtains by taming the powerful forces of nature through science and technology and mastering the vagaries of nature. Man and machines represent human power and it is the guarantee of man liberated from the pressures of the physical world. It does not relate men as a material and exterior instrument of their power but identifies them by projecting their inner life to which raw materials have become docile-wood and marble; canvas and paints; sound and words, etc and also the destiny which creates situations, events and the psychological experiences of man. The expression of human spirit is not confined to the world of texts. There are the arts and the sciences. Education must pass beyond the passive reception of the ideas of others. The primacy of academics over art in today’s world is an idea widely attested to by all. The difficulty, however, is to interpret the idea in way as to fall neither into triviality nor into error. Thus, the disappearance of art from the academic world would make no substantive difference to the wealth of human life…involves an error in interpreting the dependence of art upon life. One can only mourn that it has almost become unfashionable to talk about arts as stream. It is now perceived as associated with low aspirations or an area to be wandered about by failures in the other streams. Art exists so that we may know the deliverance of our sense as good. It heightens our sense-world. As education through art, extends beyond the narrow traditional limits of aesthetic education, it should include the training of the whole man, in the type of attitudes and the psychological experiences which art inducts into the world of human species. The habits and dispositions with which we approach matters in life generally bear in our engagement with art. The artworks can authoritatively seize hold of us, transform our current mood and force us to feel as if there were more to life than we are habitually aware of. Art confirms or challenges our experiences or even shows us the new possibilities of experience. The cognitive powers can appreciate the beautiful but it does not follow that those powers that are being exercised in a stand art cognitive act when something is judged or felt to be beautiful. The idea that to be valuable art must teach us something says more about high value we put on cognition in our culture than it does about any absence of value in art. The three main streams that are required in any national system of education are literary curriculum, scientific curriculum and technical curriculum. Every form of education should impart to the pupil a technique, a science and assortment of general ideas and aesthetic appreciation. The others should illuminate each side. Inventive genius requires pleasurable mental activity as a condition for its vigorous exercise. The most direct aesthetic training falls in the technical curriculum when the training is needed for some art and artistic craft. Moreover, it is equally relevant in both literary and scientific education. To become a servant and minister of nature, something more is required than literary or academic aptitude. Technical education, in one way, is training in the art of utilising knowledge for the manufacturing processes. This training focuses on manual skill and coordinated action of limbs and judgement in the control of the process of construction. Therefore, technical education is not necessarily allied exclusively to science on its mental side. It can be education for an artist and apprentices to craftwork. In the teaching of science, the art of thought can also be taught. Therefore, aesthetic appreciation is not alien to the traditional streams of education. All these considerations bring home the importance of the role played by art in man’s life and the need to incorporate aesthetic education in the formal system of learning. The real man emerges only through contact with the “unreal” world of art and this is precisely the cardinal principal of education through art.
The writer, a senior IAS officer, is the Divisional Commissioner, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
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Profile The humane side of his personality is well-known. In normal situation, ElBaradei’s visit to India would have been a routine affair. But he was much focus of attention because of the controversy whipped up by the Left over the Indo-US nuclear deal and the IAEA’s crucial role in firming up the agreement. All his utterances manifest that he is a friend of India and his career graph shows that he is not totally pro-US as some believe. He fully subscribes to the UPA government’s objective that India badly needs nuclear energy for development. An Egyptian diplomat, ElBaradei has been serving as the DG, IAEA, from December 1997, and is now well into his third, 4-year term. Election to his third term was opposed by the US, primarily because he had stoutly questioned its rationale for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Along with Hans Blix, he led a team of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq seeking evidence that Saddam Hussein had revived his efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction. The team could not find hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction in Baghdad and its vicinity. The US used several diplomatic channels to remove him from the IAEA, but failed. The US has also accused him of being lenient in dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme. He and IAEA have also been criticised for failing to detect the “nuclear supermarket” run by the Pakistan scientist A.Q. Khan. His response to the French fovernment’s warning that world had to be prepared for the possibility of war if Iran acquired atomic weapons, he was quite forthright: “I would not talk about any use of force. There are rules on how to use force, and I would hope that everybody would have gotten the lesson after the Iraq situation, where 70,000 innocent civilians have lost their lives on the suspicion that a country has nuclear weapons.” His sternest warning came five months back in a BCC interview on a possible misadventure in Iran. “…You do not want to give additional argument to some of the ‘new crazies’ who want to say let us go and bomb Iran”. Earlier, the New York Times quoted him as saying, “We must abandon the unworkable notion that it is morally reprehensible for some countries to pursue weapons of mass destruction, yet morally acceptable for others to rely on them for security — and indeed to continue to refine their capacities and postulate plans for their use”. The high watermark of ElBaradei’s career was in October, 2005 when he and The IAEA has a staff of 2300 men and women, hailing from over 90 countries. They work on every continent to put nuclear and radiation techniques in the service of humankind. In Vietnam, farmers plant rice with greater nutritional value that was developed with IAEA assistance. In Latin America, nuclear technology is being used to map underground aquifers and in Ghana, a new radiotherapy machine is offering cancer treatment to thousands of patients. In South Pacific, Japanese scientists are using nuclear techniques to study climate change. In India, eight new nuclear plants are designed to provide clean electricity to a growing nation. ElBaradei says, “these projects, and a thousand others, exemplify the IAEA idea: Atoms for Peace”.
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— Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh People are beginning to open up to different kinds of cinema. They realise we have stories to tell, touching tales to narrate. We are a people with history and culture in our blood. And we are very emotional too. And whatever language you speak, human emotions remain universal. — Satish Kaushik, actor I give advice to Hillary only when she asks for it. She knows so much more about presidential elections than I do because I’m far removed from it. — Bill Clinton, former US President We are not children. We are mature politicians. — CPI leader A.B. Bardhan Life is short, Mr Naipaul. Don’t tell us anymore whom you don’t like. Instead, tell us, is there anyone you like at all? — Navtej Sarna, author and IFS officer, in a letter to Sir Vidia Naipaul Believe in your dreams. They do come true. — Astronaut Sunita Williams The people I work and hang around with become great acquaintances, but not friends. I’m here to work, not to make friends. What I mean by friends is that people you can ring up at two in the morning. I don’t know anyone like that in the industry. — Priyanka Chopra — Sonal Mansingh — Compere Ameen Sayani
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Trade across Wagah October
1, 2007 is a momentous day in the trade history of India and Pakistan. Trucks laden with goods were allowed to cross the border, better known as the Radcliff Line for the first time since 1947. Earlier, porters were used to lift the goods. Two other trade routes are the railway link between Attari and Wagah and the Mumbai-Karachi sea route. Compared with other regions and blocks, the trade figures for South Asian nations are not very encouraging. According to the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER)), South Asia is the least integrated region as compared to Latin America, East and Central Asia and Europe. The SAARC countries’ trade with the rest of the world was a mere 3 per cent of the total world trade in 1991; it rose to 4.7 per cent by 2004. The intra-SAARC trade stands at 0.8 per cent of the total world trade, one eighth of the intra-Latin American trade. India and Pakistan had been no different and the armed conflicts marred the trade ties since 1947. During 1965-74, there was virtually no bilateral trade due to strained relations. For 30 years (1975-76 to 2005-06), the trade between the two nations was to the tune of US $ 3.96 billion (Indian exports $ 2.39 billion and that of Pakistan $ 1.57). Astonishingly, this much trade takes place every year, but through other countries or by unfair channels. From 1997-98 to 2002-03, the trade remained very erratic, rising and falling from year to year, depending upon the political relations between the two. The volume picked up a little in the recent times partially due to normalisation of relations and on account of SAFTA becoming operational from July 2006. It was worth $ 211 million in 2001-02 and rose by 8 times to $ 1.7 billion in 2006-07 in contrast to $ 34 million in 1985-86. Still SAFTA has not come to full bloom and many a tariff and non-tariff barriers remain, blocking the free movement of goods. Trade associations expect the annual trade between the two countries to go up to $ 7 billion. According to State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), there are 3827 items, which are on the common list of goods traded by both countries. Of these, 2646 are imported by Pakistan and exported by India whereas 1181 are exported by Pakistan and imported by India. The volume of trade can cross $ 5.2 billion if both countries agree to trade in these commodities. Pakistan has so far brought only 1075 items on the open list for import from India, though the latter has given the MFN status to the former since 1996. According to another study by Srinivasan and Cananero, India and Pakistan can increase trade with other SAARC countries by 13 and nine times respectively, if both reduce their tariff rates in line with SAFTA provisions. Lowering of tariff rates will further result in increasing India’s GNP by 3 per cent, Pakistan (7 per cent), Bangladesh (21 per cent), Sri Lanka (36 per cent) and Nepal (59 per cent) annually. Cross border investments and setting up of joint ventures are the other areas, where most players are interested in a tie-up. India’s Reliance industry has evinced interest in setting up a JV with ICI Pakistan Limited to manufacture soda ash, paint and other chemicals. Tata Steel is willing to set up a steel plant in Pakistan as the Pakistan Steel Mills is unable to meet the country’s domestic needs. Dabur India is keen to market its herbal products there by collaborating with local retailers. In health care, Escorts wants to set up a multi-specialty hospital as in Sri Lanka. Similarly, many a Pakistani leather goods and surgical equipment manufacturer are willing to find marketing partners in India. In the services sector, religious tourism, entertainment, health care and IT services are the major areas of trade and exchange. India’s NASSCOM is collaborating with the Pakistan Software Technology House and held the Indo-Pak IT summit in 2004. They want to collaborate in outsourcing, IT and ITeS. The highest employment generation in the 21st century is to emanate from tourism and hospitality industries and both countries have a huge potential in it. Religious tourism can get a boost because Sikhs have 173 historical shrines in Pakistan of which only 20 are visited now. Similarly, Hindus have their religious places in Sindh and Muslims want to visit Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan. Relaxing the visa regime will provide livelihood to millions in this new emerging industry. Of course, apart from tariff and non-tariff barriers, there are many a stumbling block in trade and exchange. On top of this is the banks’ non-issuance of Letter of Credit in both countries and its non-acceptance, if issued at all. Consequently, sizeable trade takes place through the Asian Clearing House (ACH). As most traders are not ACH members, they don’t have access to the bilateral trade. Another blockage was the non-availability of road route earlier and booking of the railway wagons took nine to 23 days for sending goods. During this delay, the LoC invariably expired hampering trade. Through the sea route, the Mumbai-Dubai- Karachi route is used in place of the direct Mumbai-Karachi route. For Mumbai-Dubai- Karachi route, a fresh bill of lading, known as Switch Bill Lading in mariner’s lingo, is prepared whereby the consignment is shown to have originated from another place instead of Mumbai and ‘Made in India’ stamps are compulsorily erased from the goods. Obtaining the SBL is a tough and costly affair. Through the land route, nearly 30 per cent of the freight component consists of bribes to be paid at various stages making it financially unviable. The new road route has enraged the porters on both sides. Though trade shall grow and they will get more opportunities to load and unload, underhand trade in the guise of open trade may increase. The porters on the Attari border are just for namesake. Otherwise, they have made fortunes from the hidden trade. Trucks across the border will cement the bilateral trade relations and link South Asia with Afghanistan and Central Asian
Regions.
The writer is a Senior Lecturer in
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Managing hazardous waste in Punjab THE Government of India is firm on expanding hazardous waste disposal technologies and services. Thus, opportunities to assist the industries that produce the majority of hazardous waste have increased. Primarily, the producers of asbestos, caustic soda, paints and dyes, pesticides and fertilisers, petroleum and petrochemicals, pharmaceutical and organic chemicals are the main producers of hazardous waste. As India is a signatory to the three Conventions (Basel, Rotterdam and Stockhom) on the hazardous chemicals and wastes, it has to effectively manage the hazardous waste generated within or while leaving the country or its geographical boundaries. The Hazardous Substances Management Division of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests is duty-bound to provide safe management and use of hazardous substances and waste. The industries in five states - Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu - generate over 80 per cent of the country’s hazardous waste. The total annual load of the hazardous material produced in India is put at 4.4 million tonnes of which 4 per cent is incinerable, 40 per cent constitute recyclable content and the rest requires to be disposed of in secured landfills. Punjab produces 1.24 lakh tonnes of hazardous waste annually, which forms hardly 2.8 per cent of the country’s total hazardous waste load. The break-up of Punjab’s hazardous waste is that 12 per cent requires to be incinerated, 78 per cent is recyclable and 10 per cent requires to be provided secured landfill treatment. Ludhiana district produces the maximum quantity of hazardous waste and Mansa district the lowest volume. There are some 2700 units producing hazardous waste material in Punjab. There are three Acts governing the hazardous waste management. These are the Hazardous Waste (Management and Handling) Rules (1989) amended in 2000, the Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules 2000, and the Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules 2000. According to these rules, hazardous wastes must be treated and disposed of in secured landfills and the toxic organic part incinerated. The task of monitoring these rules rest with the Central Pollution Control Board, State Pollution Control Board or State Control Committees. The Supreme Court monitors the progress of improving the management measures relating to the hazardous waste problem through an establish committee. Following its directive, the Pollution Control Boards have to send notices to the industrial units to create or improve safe waste disposal sites or risk closure. Innovative incinerators like autoclaves are required to be established instead of traditional incinerators for handling hazardous bio-medical and fuel wastes. The microwave technology is not recommended as it is expensive. In addition to 2700 industrial units producing hazardous waste, 450 bio-medical units are flouting the norms relating to bio-medical waste management (May 2007 figures). These units are not following the Bio-medical Waste (Management and Handling) Rules and continue to dispose of the waste in open places. Though the Act provides for stringent action against the violators, the Pollution Control Boards are yet to take strict action. At Nimbaun, 30 km from Chandigarh (Ludhiana side), a modern hazardous waste disposal facility is being established by the Nimbaun Greenfield Punjab Ltd (NGPL). It will cover an area of 20.64 acres. The secured waste disposal pit will be as large as 10 acres. Industrial houses, the Punjab government and the Centre have raised funds. Nearly two-thirds of the units producing hazardous waste have registered with the NGPL to use the facility. Adequate measures are being taken to protect the soil and groundwater from being polluted by the facility. The waste to be disposed of will be brought to the site from various points of the state through a chain of dedicated and leak-proof specialised tankers. The facility, with a modern incinerator, is expected to cover all the waste material for disposal for next 15 years. We need to safeguard and protect our environment. We can only hope that other governments and various industry associations work towards setting up similar facilities. We owe this to the future generations.
The writer is a former Chief Engineer (Research) and Director, Irrigation and Power, Punjab |
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On Record THE Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice has suggested drastic changes in the Judges Inquiry Bill, proposing a National Judicial Council to deal with the complaints of corruption and misconduct against the Supreme Court and high court judges. The Bill pending before Parliament deals only with the procedure of investigation and removal of an errant judge.
However, the Committee has suggested inclusion of the judges’ appointment procedure, making the inquiry broad-based with the provision of a five-member empowerment committee to scrutinise the complaints before referring them to the NJC. It favours Parliament retaining the power of impeachment and removal of judges and was against its transfer to the NJC. Dr E.M.S. Natchiappan, Chairman of the committee, speaks to The Sunday Tribune on its work and proposals. Excerpts: Q: Why did your committee raise the question of reservation in the judiciary? A: We felt that that the judges’ appointment needed a close look. After 1993, the Supreme Court took over the power of appointment. It has been found that preference is normally given to the relatives, friends and juniors of judges during their advocacy days for appointment. We thought the issue of “social justice” should also be considered. Q: What are the defects in the present system of appointment? A: In the post-1993 scenario, the system of collegium recommends the appointment. They could calculate in advance who will be the Supreme Court judge and the CJI after, say, 10 to 15 years. This has led to compromising with the quality. Q: But where does the question of reservation fit in? A: The committee thought that it is a sort of discrimination. We felt if judges with proper qualifications are appointed, the complaints against the judges can be checked. While examining the pre-1993 system, we discussed the social justice issue for giving wider representation in the judiciary. If reservation is applicable in the legislature and executive, judiciary can’t be exempted from it. Q: Why not look towards a new and much advanced system for the 21st century? A: In the pre-1993 system, advocates with good reputation in the Bar were identified by the high court chief justices for appointment as they had first-hand knowledge of their integrity and competence. But in the present system, the Supreme Court and High Court collegiums initiate the selection process with the final word by the former. In this system, the Law and Justice Department has little say. Even if there is some complaint against a nominee, they will not worry much about it. Q: Committee member Ram Jethmalani says the Bill will not stand the test of judicial scrutiny and Parliament should return it. What do you say? A: There were two opinions. One, amend Article 124 and two, status quo ante. After deliberations with constitutional experts and jurists, the final view was that we should have a fixture of both systems — the in-house probe by the judiciary and investigation by a body with a larger representation. Q: How will the two methods work? A: The empowerment panel felt that if you are so lenient to give the power of investigation and removal to the NJC comprising five judges, it will not serve the purpose. There should be non-judicial members as part of the inquiry. The other reason was that under the Constitution only Parliament is empowered to remove a judge and hence the NJC could not be delegated the same. Q: How will the empowerment panel work? A: It will have two MPs, one executive member nominated by the Prime Minister, one from the judiciary (the Supreme Court) and a member from the Bar Council who may be a known jurist. The panel will scrutinise the complaints received against a judge to sift frivolous ones. The purpose is to check malicious campaign against the judiciary. Q: Why is there so much stress on retaining Parliament’s power of impeachment though the Bill proposes to do away with it? A: Parliament’s power under Article 124 could not be given to the judiciary. That’s why it is mandatory under the 1968 Judges Inquiry Act that the impeachment proceedings could only be initiated with 50 signatures of the Rajya Sabha MPs or 100 signatures of the Lok Sabha MPs. Therefore, the system of filing the complaint, considering it and giving the final verdict should always remain with Parliament.  |
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Caught
Trait
Ours is not a one-issue government. If the nuclear deal does not come through, it will be a disappointment. But in life, one has to live with certain disappointments and move on to the next. If the deal doesn’t come through, it is not the end of life. In politics, we must survive short-term battles to address long-term concerns.
Higher education is a sick child of education either by design or by default. It is not serving the cause of the young people of India. The academic world needs to come to terms with today’s reality.
I don’t believe one can practise spirituality. It’s a state of being. I realised that life is a bubble than can burst anytime, yet we live thinking that the bubble will last till eternity. Live your life God size.
Tailpiece: I have compared almost all great singers on stage. Kishore Kumar not only sang and danced and pranced but also did some somersaults on stage. But while doing all this, he never went out of
tune.