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Over to people
Might and right |
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Save the child
After the N-deal
Gifts galore
Nobel for Krugman
GM, Ford threaten merger
Inside Pakistan
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Over to people
THE electoral process has begun in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Delhi and Mizoram. While Chhattisgarh will have a two-phase poll on November 14 and 20, elections will be held in MP on November 25, Delhi and Mizoram on November 29 and Rajasthan on December 4. The votes will be counted on December 8. The Election Commission will soon take a decision regarding Jammu and Kashmir. Elections in this state, too, should be held on time as there is no reason for postponing them, whatever some political parties may say. The three-member commission has already visited the state and held consultations with all the political parties and officials. Significantly, except in Chhattisgarh, elections in the other states have not been staggered this time. If elections are stretched over a long period, this will result in voters’ fatigue, loss of interest and excitement in the elections. The gap between the date of polling and the date of counting should have been shortened. For instance, though the people of Chhattisgarh in some districts will exercise their franchise on November 14, they will have to wait up to December 8 to know the results. This could have been easily avoided through better planning and coordination. Adequate deployment of police can be ensured in all the polling stations if there is the administrative will. The political parties have an onerous responsibility to ensure that only candidates with impeccable credentials are given tickets to contest the elections. They must shun those with criminal antecedents. The increasing problem of criminalisation of politics can be tackled at the entry level itself only if all the parties show the door to criminals, history sheeters, hoodlums and gangsters. Every political party should field more and more women candidates so that their number goes up substantially in all the representative institutions. The political parties should also conduct their campaigning on the basis of their programmes and achievements, rather than on communal and divisive issues. Free and fair elections can be ensured only if all the parties, including the ruling parties in the five states, follow the Election Commission’s model code of conduct scrupulously.
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Might and right
AS expected, the National Integration Council has made some welcome comments on the situation in states like Orissa, Karnataka and Assam where the minorities have come under fire from extremist forces. While expressing anguish over the assault on the Indian culture which is essentially multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has stressed the need to keep the perpetrators of violence on the leash. Except for an element of mutual blaming, the discussions centred on keeping India’s traditions of religious tolerance intact. From this point of view, the deliberations of the NIC were a fruitful exercise. But the pity is that even while the NIC was meeting in the Capital, victims of the mindless violence in Karnataka, Assam and, now, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, were in relief camps fighting against the elements. A society is judged on how it treats its weaker sections and minorities. No sensible person can support terrorism in any form but profiling of some communities in the name of terrorism is as objectionable as condoning violence. Similarly, activities of the Bajrang Dal and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, whose campaign against the Christians led to the ugly situation in Orissa and Karnataka, need to be condemned as severely as the acts of those who plant bombs in market places and kill the innocent. Those who support these organisations on the specious plea that they are “patriotic” are causing disrepute to the country. Nobody has the right to take the law into his own hands and it is the duty of the state to come down heavily on him. The state has three primary responsibilities - protect the life and property of its citizens, particularly the weaker sections among them, prosecute the violators of the law so that nobody dares to repeat such acts and provide relief and compensation to the victims of mass violence. It is on these counts that the governments in these states have failed forcing the Central Government to warn them, though without invoking Article 355 of the Constitution. Unless the chief ministers concerned do their best to honour the decisions of the NIC, Monday’s meeting will make no impact on the victims of violence. Might cannot be the right in a civilized society. |
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Save the child
LIKE most of the enabling laws in India, the child labour law, too, remains only on paper. Employment of children in households and hospitality sectors was banned under the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 a little over two years ago. Yet, the problem of child labour remains as rampant as the nation’s insularity towards its gravity. The society at large is to blame for the snatching of childhood from millions of children. According to the 2001 census, there were more than 12.6 million child workers in India. Some organisations peg the number at 50 million. Sadly, the enormity of child labour comes to the fore only when foreign firms rap the offending Indian exporters on the knuckles and cancel orders. The problem of child labour is not as simple as it seems. It gets compounded manifold as issues like child trafficking, sexual abuse and bonded labour find a significant correlation with it. The age-old argument, which links poverty and child labour, works only as a kind of rhetoric. Poverty has an obvious relationship with child labour. But it has been proved that child labour does little to alleviate deprivation, it only transfers poverty from one generation to another. The only way out of the vicious cycle is educational empowerment and rehabilitation of ‘rescued’ children. Theoretically, right from the beginning, India has been firmly committed to eradication of child labour. The world's largest child labour elimination programme is being implemented at the grassroots with primary education targeted for nearly 250 million. India is also a signatory to the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children. More recently exploration of ideas like ‘social audit’ and attempts to certify goods as ‘child labour free’ may appear ludicrous but are worth investigating. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has proposed new amendments. The ball is at present with the implementing agencies and society at large. Legislation alone will not shut the door on child labour. But a heightened sensitivity and sensibility by all those who matter and care can secure precious childhood. |
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Blackbirds are the cellos of the deep farms. — Anne Stevenson
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After the N-deal
With
the signing of the Indo-US nuclear deal and the announcement by President Bush that the safeguards built in the legislation will be taken as advisories only, the curtain has fallen on the longest running political soap opera, which had all the trappings of a Bollywood film with friends turning foes and vice versa. It also showed a dark side of our democratic system, which has reduced a serious political discourse of paramount strategic importance into a pedestrian tamasha, with hardly anyone debating on the long-term implications for the country. Some were carried away by their ideological myopia and others by political expediency, and the country was made a laughing stock before the whole world. The coming generations will remember Dr Manmohan Singh as a man of destiny who catapulted India, a nuclear outcaste, into a country being courted by the most powerful nations of the world. Now that the euphoria of the UPA and the despair of the Left and the BJP are coming to an end, there is need to take a pragmatic look at the challenges ahead so as to take full advantage of the deal for strengthening the energy security of the country. Contrary to what skeptics of the deal say, the life of India’s commercial energy sources such as oil, gas and coal at the present rate of consumption is only 20 years, 35 years and 75 years respectively. As a result of the shortfall in the availability of uranium in the country, power generation from the nuclear power reactors has fallen drastically since last year. By 2030, India will be the third largest user of energy in the world and will be importing 90 per cent of its oil requirements. As per the projections of the Planning Commission, India must at least triple its primary energy supply and quintuple its electricity generation to maintain the 8 per cent annual GDP rate needed to meet the goals of poverty eradication and human development. This deal will enhance the energy security of the country by contributing up to 20 per cent of the energy needs of the country in 2030. In addition, it will make substantial contribution to reducing our carbon emissions, which will become a major issue between developed and developing nations in the coming years. This is an important development, especially in view of the major share of coal in our power generation and the hurdles created by the environment lobby against hydel power. The Nuclear Power Corporation of India is already starved of funds, a huge financial requirement of nearly $50-100 billion for adding additional capacity would not be possible without foreign investment. Another important gain of this deal will be the transfer of dual technology in critical areas of the economy such as space, agriculture, weather forecasting, bio-technology, nano-technology and other cutting edge technologies, already available in the developed countries. This will jump-start a new technological revolution in the country after the IT revolution. However, India must remain vigilant of the fact that in spite of the verbal or otherwise assurances of Western countries, it will be denied the nuclear enrichment and reprocessing technologies under one pretext or the other till it signs the NPT. In the coming days, efforts will be made in the Nuclear Supplier Group to officially debar the transfer of these technologies to the countries not signatories to the NPT, which is only an advisory at present. In case there is a geopolitical necessity of conducting nuclear tests by India in future, there will be an immediate fallout in the form of retaliatory sanctions from the countries which have strong non-proliferation lobbies, irrespective of their professed commitments. Some countries may propose a joint action in such an eventuality in the NSG. Such issues should form the cornerstone of the negotiations with nuclear fuel and technology supplier countries. India must choose its strategic partners with care, keeping in view their track record and future political dispensations. In addition, following critical technical issues requires focused attention while operationalising the nuclear deals and bilateral agreements, so as to safeguard the long-term interest of the country against any possible catastrophic fallout. The areas which require focused attention are: sustainability of fuel supplies, suitability of reactor technologies, transfer of advanced fuel enriching, fuel processing and dual technologies, signing of additional protocol with the IAEA, a separation plan and scope of inspections, a proactive approach with regard to the IAEA and the NSG to safeguard the strategic nuclear programme from future policies, trading of indigenously developed Indian nuclear technologies and the membership of the NSG. India is not a member of the NSG. It cannot influence future events in this body which may be detrimental to its interest. It must develop strategic and technological relations with countries such as Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan which can help safeguard India’s interests in the NSG. India has technologies for small and medium-size nuclear reactors, suitable for most of the developing countries. It should start efforts in the trade in these technologies under the IAEA safeguards. This will also strengthen its claim for the NSG membership. India should immediately start building strategic uranium reserves to take advantage of the falling uranium prices and as a safeguard against any geopolitical fallout. It should also pick up equity in uranium mines in non-NSG countries such as Namibia, Niger and Uzbekistan which are producing sizeable amounts of uranium. Namibia has about 9 per cent of the global uranium reserves. An Indian company, Taurian Resources, has recently won an exclusive right to mine over a 3000 square-kilometre area in Niger. Russia has most of the technologies needed by India. It came to the rescue of India when the US terminated fuel supply to the Tarapur power station. Russia is building two 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactors in the southern town of Kudankulam, and a memorandum of understanding has been signed for four new reactors. India should enter into a long-term agreement with Russia for the supply of reactors, fuel and fuel enrichment and separation technologies before any changes in the NSG mandate. We must look for such nuclear technologies as can use vast reserves of thorium in the country. Advanced pressurised heavy water reactors, fast-breeder technologies and liquid fluoride thorium reactors (LFTR) can use natural or slightly enriched uranium and thorium. The LFTR and small sealed thorium breeder reactors use thorium fuel and have the benefit of distributive generation, making it suitable for the rural areas using a cluster approach. This is a vital need for India, as nearly 80 per cent of commercial energy is being used by less than 30 per cent population living in urban and semi-urban areas. India should immediately set up a multi-disciplinary working group to identify the suitable dual technologies available in different countries and work out the modalities for their transfer and integration with the existing systems. India is at the threshold of a quantum jump in technology renaissance, provided some bold and pragmatic strategic decisions are made to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by the nuclear deal.n The writer is an emeritus professor, Panjab University, Chandigarh.
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Gifts galore
The
festival season is round the corner and the whole atmosphere is abuzz with joy, celebrations, colours, music and dance and, of course, gifts. The markets have started getting a face-lift, waiting to be decorated with colourful lights, golden/silver bunting, loud music and what not. The markets have started making large-scale plans to attract gift-lovers with discounts, free gifts, scratch-and-win schemes and the lucky draw temptations. Every year people feel cheated, get disillusioned and frustrated and swear never to fall in these traps in future. But the very next year they (myself including) take a headlong plunge in it with extra vigour and thrill, very confident that this year they are going to win nothing less than one kilo gold. No doubt, we all feel obliged to the Three Magi for having initiated this concept of giving gifts, but looking at what we have made of this tradition today, I am sure the Magi must be having sleepless nights, twisting and turning in their graves. Can you imagine what type of gifts these markets survive and thrive on? I am always intrigued by the very name — it is the “corporate gifts”. These are the gifts people give to seek favours from others or to stay in the good books of their bosses, but these get legitimised under the garb of festival greetings. Even the newspapers are full of advertisements such as “Visit us for the best corporate gifts”, etc. The value of corporate gifts depends upon the kind of favour you are seeking or on the fact as to how “khadoos” your boss is. I wonder how one offers these gifts — “Please accept my ‘Pocket felt’…oh I’m sorry… ‘Heart felt’ greetings on the occasion!” One of my acquaintances was wrapping a corporate gift; I could see one small packet placed on a bigger one being wrapped. I, the duffer that I am, asked, “What is this small packet? Is it a pack of small phull jharis?” The hands wrapping it stopped, the eyes glared and pat came the growl, “You idiot! Mere bill phasse huen hain iss bande ke pass, and you think I am giving him phull jharis!” (In fact, it was a wrist-watch). But how do I know? We adhayapak gan hardly indulge in such exchanges of love…you see. Why would anyone waste such lavish gifts on us? We don’t have any nuisance value…my dear! And if we are victims of somebody else’s high-handedness, we are too complacent to bother about it – “Nahin to naa sahi!” But still the lure is very great. Every year during this season I wish I could change my job of college lecturer to a corporate one (I am only about two years away from my retirement), only to see if I have it in me to “extract” at least one corporate gift from
someone.
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Nobel for Krugman
Paul
Krugman occupies two spheres in the American intelligentsia. In one, he is a New York Times op-ed columnist known for his barbed opinions about President Bush’s policies. In the other, he is a Princeton University economist famous for his research on international trade and finance. Monday, it was Krugman the academic who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his study of international trade and the effects of globalisation. In announcing the prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited in particular Krugman’s work nearly 30 years ago in advancing a theory on trading patterns and why certain countries produce what they do. Perhaps owing to Krugman’s columnist perch, he was barely asked about his research during a news conference. Instead, he was asked about the US government’s $700 billion financial system bailout, about the causes of the credit crisis, and even about whether he would consider taking a Cabinet post in the next presidential administration. (He said no thanks.) Krugman has been fiercely critical of Bush administration policies in his columns for the Times. Monday, when asked a question about China, he said: “I’ve been spending my last few years trying to save my own damn republic.” Some economists questioned whether Krugman’s politics may have somehow swayed the Swedish Academy. Its selections in the past have been viewed as politically motivated, and Krugman’s selection came just weeks before a US presidential election in which Bush’s legacy is playing no small role. Krugman is still, at age 55, relatively young in economist years. “They could have waited and nobody would have asked that question,” said Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University who has closely followed Krugman’s research. Tore Ellingsen, a member of the prize committee, told the Associated Press in Sweden Monday, “We disregard everything except for the scientific merits.” Krugman, too, played down the influence of politics, saying a lot of intellectuals simply happened to be critical of the Bush administration. The Swedish Academy praised Krugman’s work in explaining how a theory of trade dating back to the 1800s had become less applicable. The theory suggested that trade could be defined by initial differences among countries. Some should specialise in industrial products because they have more labour, others in agricultural because of their location. Then they should trade with each other. But that doesn’t explain why, for instance, Sweden would come to both make cars and import them — why countries that dominate trade have similar conditions and trade similar products. Krugman thinks that’s because consumers prefer a diversity of products. “It becomes advantageous for a country to specialise in manufacturing a specific car, and to produce it for the world market, while another country specialises in a different brand of car,” the Swedish Academy wrote in a commentary that explained Krugman’s work. “This allows each country to take effective advantage of economies of scale, thereby implying that consumers worldwide will benefit from greater welfare due to lower prices and greater product diversity, as compared to a situation where each country produces solely for its own domestic market, without international trade.” Solow, Krugman’s former professor, said he had for years thought his former pupil would be awarded a Nobel Prize. In 1991, Krugman won the John Bates Clark Medal, given every two years to the best economist under age 40. But as the Times column took on more importance in Krugman’s life, taking him away from more traditional academic work, “I expected he would miss out,” Solow said. Krugman’s win, which includes a $1.4 million prize, marks the ninth consecutive year that an American has solely won or shared the economics prize. The award for economics was not among the original five established by Alfred Nobel’s will in 1895. Those were awards for physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace. The first economics prize was awarded in 1968. — By arrangement with
LA Times-Washington Post
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GM, Ford threaten merger Huge job losses are likely as credit crunch and fuel prices force carmakers to the edge. Extraordinary new plans are afoot to save themselves, including mergers, that could throw tens of thousands of workers out of their jobs. General Motors, the largest US car manufacturer, has talked in recent weeks with rivals Ford and Chrysler about combining forces with one or other of them, in the hope of finding the massive new cost savings that are required to make up for plunging sales. Talks to take over Chrysler have stalled because of the panic on the markets in recent days, but are expected to resume quickly. Any deal would dramatically reshape the industry and the companies’ native Detroit, the Motor City, whose slide has become emblematic of America’s industrial decline. The crisis in Detroit has become more acute with each day of the credit crunch, since all three major carmakers are relying on the debt markets to tide them over amid spiralling losses and investors doubt their ability to survive. Meanwhile, consumers who usually buy new cars using loans arranged at the showroom are finding that only those with the very highest credit ratings can get loans. Sales are at their worst level since the early Nineties. The two companies employ 130,000 people, mainly in Michigan, which has one of the worst rates of unemployment and declining house prices in the country. John McCain pulled his campaign staff from Michigan, ceding the state to Barack Obama, who is far ahead on the issue of the economy. GM and Chrysler are haemorrhaging money, despite cutting 100,000 jobs since the start of the decade. GM lost $15.5 billion in three months, according to its latest results, and has promised more production cuts across the world. It has been trying to take on new debt, using buildings as collateral, but the debt markets are frozen. Ford has even less room for manoeuvre, after having already mortgaged most of its assets last year, including its blue oval logo. Cerberus only bought Chrysler 18 months ago from the German firm Daimler. It had expected the company to return to profit next year after a deal with unions that offloaded billions of dollars in healthcare promises and cut new employees’ wages. All the big US carmakers pay billions per year in pension and healthcare benefits to retired employees from their heyday. In the past year, Toyota has overtaken GM as the world’s best-selling car company. The distress has been compounded by soaring petrol prices causing a slump in demand for SUVs and pick-up trucks. The credit crisis has proved the last straw. Cerberus is reportedly offering Chrysler for sale. GM would be best placed to extract cost savings by combining plants and axing competing models. “It will mean job cuts”, said Tim Ghriskey of Solaris Asset Management. Negotiations between GM and Chrysler come after talks between GM and Ford. GM is losing $1billion a month. — By arrangement with
The Independent
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Inside Pakistan That
the Taliban factions are well entrenched in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and most parts of the NWFP is too well known. But their fast growing influence in Pakistan’s cultural capital, Lahore, is surprising. The bomb blasts carried out in Lahore, besides other cities, have made the Lahorites nervous. This is evident from the way the trading community has been behaving for some time. When traders of Lahore came to know of a threat of a series of fresh bomb blasts at the shops selling VCDs and DVDs, they did not approach the police to provide them sufficient security. Instead they burned thousands of pornographic VCDs and DVDs to express their solidarity with the Taliban’s so-called drive against immorality. This happened in Lahore’s Hall Road area last week. Accordding to an article by Ahmad Rafay Alam in The News (Oct 13), the Anjuman-e-Tajiran, the most powerful association of traders, sent out a message “loud and clear: Don’t bomb us, we are as against immorality as you are”. There is another interesting development indicating the world’s inability to destroy the Taliban root and branch. Saudi Arabia and the UK together are engaged in a quiet attempt to clinch a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The two sides began their dialogue a little before Eid. In view of The Nation, “The talks were successful to a degree as both parties appeared willing to undergo a change of heart: the Taliban agreed to sever their links with Al-Qaeda while the government (of Afghanistan) was ready to give national reconciliation, including factions of Afghan resistance, a chance to contribute to peace-building efforts in the country.” According to The News, the “talks involving the Saudis and ‘facilitated’ by the British have been both denied and admitted, but the reality is that somebody, somewhere and somehow is going to have to talk to the Afghan Taliban.” After all, Taliban fighters control most parts of south and east Afghanistan. The chief of the British forces recently indicated weariness in the ranks of the anti-Taliban camp when he made it clear that it was almost impossible to militarily defeat these motivated insurgents.
Angry Pakhtoons While Pakistan’s anti-terrorism drive has failed to tame the monster, it has caused chaos in the tribal areas. The chaotic condition is more visible in the picturesque Swat valley, inhabited by Pakhtoons. According to an article in The Frontier Post by Ahmad Ali, “more than 215 schools and a number of colleges, 138 bridges, 20 police stations and 10 hospitals have been destroyed” in the military operation against militants. “The scenic valley of Swat, inhabited by 1. 2 million people stretching over an area of 12,209 sq km, has been turned into ruins. There is no work for daily wagers … as the tourism industry has been paralysed, which was considered as the main source of income for the local population.” In such a situation, the strong resentment against Islamabad and Punjab, the dominant province, is obvious. The Pakhtoons consider themselves as peace-loving people. They hate being projected as sympathisers of terrorists. Why did terrorists make an attempt on the life of their leader, ANP chief Abdul Wali Khan, on the second day of Eid if they were their supporters? The anti-Islamabad sentiment has been strengthened by the acute shortage of atta and other essential food items in the Pakhtoon-dominated areas.
Militancy hits economy The unending militancy in Pakistan has affected the country’s economy adversely. Very few investors are interested in setting up industrial units in Pakistan. The PPP-led federal government is unable to restore the investor confidence despite roping in an unelected expert to run the economic ministry. As Business Recorder says, “Little wonder then that during the past 11 months there has been a massive flight of capital. According to one estimate, capital outflows from Pakistan, mostly to Dubai, in the post-November 3 (2007) Emergency period are in the vicinity of $30 billion. That may be an exaggerated figure, yet there is no denying that the worsening law and order situation, and the drift that characterises the government’s style of functioning have badly eroded investor confidence with severe consequences for the economy. “At a time like this the government seems to have a befuddled sense of priorities, as reflected by its announcement the other day that the coalition government has decided to re-instate/re-employ some 5000 appointees of the second Benazir government who were sacked by its successors.”
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