The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Roam free
DoT move will help telecom subscribers

Union Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal’s announcement that mobile phone subscribers will not have to pay roaming charges from next year will be welcome to many customers who pay about 60 paise a minute within their telecom circle and between Rs 1.25 and Rs 1.50 a minute while using their telephone outside their circle. Indeed, the National Telecom Policy-2012 envisages a unified licence regimen that will let mobile phone subscribers use the same number across the country without being charged extra when they are outside their circle. We, however, need to keep in mind the fact that only between 7 and 8 per cent of the mobile users avail of roaming facilities. For the other between 92 and 93 per cent of the users, the “one-nation-free roaming” policy may have an unwelcome side to it, telecom charges for mobile phones are likely to rise.

Industry estimates about the projected loss vary, but it is no secret that between 10 and 12 per cent of the overall revenue of mobile operators comes from roaming charges. Even though it is estimated that the number and duration of calls will increase, compensating the operators to a certain extent, the loss will still be significant and there is much likelihood of an increase in charges.

There is a need for the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to bring out guidelines on free roaming that keep the government’s objective and the inputs of the industry bodies in mind. India enjoys among the cheapest telecom services in the world. With 944.81 million subscribers; the telecom sector has transformed the way in which people communicate with each other, how they work and how they keep themselves entertained. Seamless telecommunication is often taken for granted these days, and the low tariffs have played a major role in the telecommunication revolution spreading to every corner of the nation. Now that the government envisages free roaming throughout the nation, the usage will boom, provided it does not become too expensive.

SAD’s predicament
To go with the farmer or BJP

The senior partner in the ruling SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab finds itself in a piquant situation. The BJP has announced its opposition to foreign direct investment (FDI) in organised retail, and the SAD, especially its patron and Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, has decided to support it on this, following ‘coalition dharma’. The SAD has to struggle to find a convincing argument against FDI, especially when its president and Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal had himself supported it unequivocally when the proposals were made last year. The politics is now almost becoming embarrassing. Bharti Kisan Union leader Ajmer Singh Lakhowal, appointed Punjab Mandi Board Chairman by the SAD-BJP government during its last stint, has now openly said he favours organised retail.

The dilemma for the government is who it should say is it protecting. Farmers want investment. They have seen glimpses of earlier small developments in this direction, with a couple of retailers procuring vegetables from the state. Himachal has had amazing success with apple marketing through big retailers. The Punjab Chief Minister has said the shopkeepers would be ruined. But Punjab has only Ludhiana and Amritsar with a population size that qualifies for FDI in retail under the rules laid down by the Centre. That a couple of large stores would ruin the well-established trading community of the two cities does not sound very credible. The huge investment that could come in the form of diversified food production, handling, storage and transportation would not only help the farmer and the consumer, but also galvanise the way the entire trading community looks at its business. Remember what Maruti did to the automobile industry?

As other states take to organised retail, and benefit from it, pressure on Punjab would only increase, which is happening even before any investment. It won’t be surprising if the state changes its decision sometime down the line. The only concern is it might have missed a few initial opportunities by then. In any case, for the ruling alliance, it would not be good politics to be seen having opposed a concept demanded by the farmers — mainstay of the economy — and then changing it, which would only show it was wrong in the first place.

Thought for the Day

There is no charm equal to tenderness of heart. — Jane Austen

ARTICLE

Arab Spring still alive
Islamism & West’s reaction complicate the picture
by S. Nihal Singh

What is the future of the Arab Spring? On December 7, 2010, a hawker named Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest against police harassment and lit a prairie fire that singed his country Tunisia and reverberated in Egypt and throughout the Arab world. The long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his pampered and corrupt clan went surprisingly quickly on January 14, 2011, fleeing to Saudi Arabia. But the main trophy was the head of Hosni Mubarak in the traditional Arab heartland of Egypt. It led to some bloodshed but relatively little by the standards of such transforming events.

Then it was Libya, Bahrain and Yemen as the march of the Arab Spring seemed unstoppable. But the dethroning of Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen took time and a measure of blood was spilled. The ultimate outcome was far from clear, with the Saleh clan still in positions of power and the power struggle among the main factions and tribes continuing. The US employed its familiar medicine of drone strikes in the battle against a branch of Al-Qaeda.

Bahrain, with its Sunni monarchy ruling over a Shia majority, proved to be a no-go area. Saudi Arabia, helped by the United Arab Emirates, intervened to save the monarchy. And the United States, mindful of the home of its Fifth Fleet, made deprecatory noises but did little to help the Shia majority. It was a warning of the limitations of the Arab Spring in which regional players and outside powers play their own games in line with their interests.

But the US and other Western powers decided to intervene directly in Libya, using the fig-leaf of a UN Security Council resolution. Muammar Gaddafi had few friends in the Arab world, and it proved easy enough for the Arab League to give its imprimatur to aerial surveillance and policing ostensibly to protect civilians. In reality, the US and other Western powers practically delivered Libya to Gaddafi’s opponents. But this intervention was to cast a pall over Western efforts to intervene in Syria because both Russia and China were adamant in denying the West the excuse of a UN Security Council resolution to employ their air power to change the status quo in Syria.

Indeed, the bloodshed in Syria is a reminder of the limits of the sway of the Arab Spring in changing the scenario. Tragically, the continuing bloodshed in what is now a civil war is an indication of the complexity of the ethnic and tribal mix and the fact that though President Bashar Assad is leader of the minority Alawaite clan in a Sunni majority nation, there are enough Alawites, Christians and others who are fearful of a future Sunni-majority rule to give heart to a desparate Assad regime to fight on, using its unchallenged air power.

Apart from the Western interest in seeing the end of the Assad regime, there are important regional players seeking the same goal, in particular Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey. On the opposite side are Iran, somewhat ambiguously a newly Shia-ruled Iraq and Russia and China. In Turkey’s case, it has been a great transformation of its neighbourhood policy, with the proclamation of a policy of “zero problems” with neighbours transformed into a publicly proclaimed declaration of support for change, hosting a large Syrian refugee population and high-level defectors while serving as a conduit for arms and essential supplies to rebels.

It would be an oversimplification to call the conflict a Shia-Sunni confrontation, but there are elements of such a contest, with Saudi Arabia and Iran leading the opposing camps. What then is the future of the Arab Spring? First, by lighting the flame of freedom against authoritarianism, the phenomenon has earned its place in Arab history proving that Arabs are not people perennially condemned to living under hereditary dictatorships. But after decades of military rule often dressed up in civilian clothes or other family-ruled corrupt fiefdoms, it would have been over-optimistic to assume that the path to the future would be smooth. Second, any more democratic dispensation in the Arab world results in more conservative Islamist mores, inevitably exploited by the more extremist elements to build new regimes in the mould of their own concepts.

The Arab Spring has a future because freedom and democracy are universal values. However, extremists would want to clothe them in the garb of a strict Islamic state. Conditions, of course, vary from country to country. Tunisia seemed to move in the direction of a moderate Islamist dispensation until the insulting American video set sections of the population on the rampage. But these disturbances, which have enveloped the Arab world and Muslim countries beyond it, have a different logic quite apart from the stirrings of the Arab Spring.

There are always fringe elements working against the moderate positions of Arab societies, and an insult to the Prophet falls in a unique category. Although Americans were cross with the Islamist President of Egypt, Mr Mohammed Morsi, for being tardy in condemning the anti-American rampage leading to loss to property and some blood spilled, the presidency was mindful of the balancing act it had to undertake in condemning the vulgar insult to the Prophet to appease the Muslim Brotherhood constituency while condemning anti-American disturbances.

In Libya, of course, the anti-American tumult led to a more tragic end in the deaths of the US ambassador and his three colleagues in the eastern city of Benghazi, with extremist elements making full use of the mayhem to burn down what served as the US consulate. Besides, it is easy enough to spread anti-American feelings in the Arab world, given the region’s views on American policies and its full support for Israel’s policies, however detrimental they might be for regional peace. Much of the debate is, of course, being framed in the context of Israel itching to bomb Iranian nuclear sites, provoking the US to come on board.

Despite these circumstances and the twists and turns the region will face in the future, the Arab Spring is very much alive and will continue to serve as a beacon for future reformers. It has demolished the myth that Arab peoples are different from others elsewhere in the world to remain under one form of dictatorship or another. Islamism and the West’s reaction to it complicate the picture for the Arab world’s forward march, but the fortuitous beginning of the revolt against authoritarianism will ensure that the future will be unlike the past. The Arab world has woken up.

MIDDLE

A long journey
by K.K. Paul

Last week at Khan Market, as soon as I entered my favourite book store, a tall pile of a new title greeted me. There were about 30 or 40 books, stacked one over the other, neatly, and kept on the floor near the entrance, so that one just did not miss the display. A clever ploy to promote and hard sell, I thought.

It was “Fifty Shades” of Grey by E.L. James, the most talked about and most written about book of this summer. I had read its reviews and excerpts in several magazines and newspapers and was generally aware that the book had adult content and was very ‘hot property’, indeed. The moment I saw the book, I pulled back my step instinctively, and was about to pick it up, but then, may be out of some perceived possible embarrassment, restraint saw the better of me. After all, during my career, I had seen the seizure of so many books with adult content and in violation of the law. Accordingly, I changed my mind and proceeded as usual towards the popular sciences section.

But that was not to be, as even while browsing through one of the latest titles, “Visions” by Michio Kaku, and making up my mind, I was constantly distracted by “Fifty Shades”. Finally, remembering Oscar Wilde “can resist anything but temptation” I obliged them both Kaku as well as Grey

And as I was completing my purchases at the counter, a very skimpily dressed young girl barely out of her teens, walked in, pointed at the books and enquired loudly, if all the three volumes of “Fifty Shades” were available. Though almost everybody in the book store must have heard her confident voice, loud enough to be heard, none appeared to react, or maybe, it was bad manners to look at an uninhibited young women demanding the potent “stuff”. Perhaps she was also justifying the survey, showing this best-seller being a favourite with the fairer sex.

The entire episode left me wondering whether I was truly getting old or was it a generation gap or do the kids these days get liberated very young or was society really in a fast forward mode or was it a combination of all of them.

Later, back home, as I quietly reflected and jogged the memory, back to my own teens, in the 1960s, the contrast became more than obvious. First of all, such books were never sold over the counter, much less being on display and, secondly, teenage girls neither showed so much of their skin nor announced their intentions so openly and within an earshot of virtually the entire neighbourhood.

Now by hindsight, one can analyse that some of the more significant social changes so visible nowadays, perhaps, had their roots in some of the events of half a century ago.

Henry Miller’s “Tropic of Capricorn”, first published in 1938, remained under proscription till 1961, when a US court declared it to be a work of literature and allowed its publication and open sale. Clockwork Orange, notoriously violent, and for depiction of woman as an object of sex, was made into a film by Kubrick. Though it was voluntarily withdrawn later, a strong message had gone across.

Back home, “Lady Chatterley’s lover” was prosecuted in Bombay in 1962. Mulk Raj Anand, the noted litterateur, defending, had said of the book, “In spite of its indelicate theme and the candidness, the novel was a work of considerable merit and a classic and could not be said to be obscene”. Adjudicating in 1964, the Supreme Court upheld this contention and lifted the ban on this book.

All these favourable pronouncements ushering in strong winds of cultural change and thought had literally set the printed word on fire, and there was no looking back thereafter. Finally, the decade of the sixties ended with the women’s liberation movement gaining ground through the “Female Eunuch” of Germaine Greer and “Sexual Politics” of Kate Millet, paving the way for a number of future landmark achievements.

Despite that, it has taken almost 50 years for a woman to write as explicit a book as the “Shades”, and remain on top of the best-seller list for months, now.

It has been a very long journey, indeed.

OPED AGRICULTURE

The fears of environmentalists and the public about genetically modified (GM) crops need to be addressed so that biotech research is not derailed
Should GM crops be banned?
Darshan Singh

Cotton is an important cash crop in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and western parts of UP and accounts for 22% of the area and 33% of the total production in the country. Photo: AFP

In a startling revelation on August 9, 2012, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Genetically Modified (GM) crops urged the Government of India to enforce a moratorium on any future release of GM crops unless and until its recommended regulatory measures are followed in the conduct of trials and their safety to humans and the environment is established.

This multi-party panel was set up as a follow-up of an indefinite moratorium on Bt brinjal in February 2010 imposed by the then Environment Minister, Jairam Ramesh, till its safety level is confirmed. The parliamentary panel recommended that in future all open field trials on GM crops be stopped and research and development ‘should only be done in strict containment’.

The permission granted by the Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) in October 2009 for the release of Bt brinjal be thoroughly enquired into as there was a suspicion of a ‘collusion of the worst kind’ in its approval. All GM products for sale in the market are labelled for public awareness and a law ‘ensuring the bio-safety, biodiversity, and human and livestock health’ is formulated and enforced.

Serious repercussions

Crop biotech scientists in the country are disillusioned by this recommendation, fearing serious repercussions, if implemented. Unfortunately, the public in the country is carried away easily by gimmicks of a few NGOs, funded by vested interests. The approval to Bt brinjal by the GEAC triggered widespread protests from environmentalists and several NGOs and even some state governments fell in line in opposing Bt brinjal. Their hue and cry supported by media hype drowned the viewpoint or concern of otherwise media-shy scientists.

GM crops mean plants in which a foreign gene is incorporated, enabling the recipient host to resist attacks by pests. These are also called Bt crops because in most a gene from a soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis
(Bt), is incorporated to impart a resistance trait.

GM crops were first introduced globally in 1996 and the area under these crops increased fast, exceeding 148 million ha at present. The US accounted for 50 per cent of the area and major GM crops grown are soy bean, corn, cotton and canola (a rapeseed oilseed). In India, GM cotton, approved in 2002, was adopted widely by farmers. At present 90 per cent of the cotton area in the country is under GM hybrids, covering 10 million ha grown by 70lakh farmers.

Misinformation campaign

Anti-GM or Bt seed lobbyists spew anger against this innovative technology by making unfounded sensational statements that they killed several hundreds of sheep, goats, peacocks and cattle. So much so, that they are said to have made several women sterile and young girls attaining early puberty. Thus some are demanding that GM crops are put on hold for at least 50 years of safety trials till their safety level is confirmed! Further, it is emphasised that BT seeds are monopolised by a multinational seed giant, Monsanto, who is out to fleece the hapless farmers without any economic benefit to them.

Every technology developed has its own merits and demerits. We need to know whether merits of technology outweigh its demerits or not. You do not avoid road travelling simply because road accidents occur frequently. The public, and more importantly the decision-makers, need to be educated objectively. The fact is that the use of Bt seeds has ushered a new era of non-toxic and comparatively less costly method of pest control.

Unfortunately, Bt cotton is effective only against a specific group of insects e.g. lepidopterous bollworms and the crop needs to be protected separately against other pests like jassids and aphids. New pest outbreaks like the mealy bug also occur in the Bt cotton fields due to the changed crop ecosystem. But their effectiveness against bollworms, the most problematic pests in limiting cotton production, is beyond doubt and justifies their adoption.

Bt cotton was introduced for cultivation in India during 2002. To rebut the criticism that Bt cotton has not benefited small farmers, the facts about their economic benefits speak otherwise. In India the total cotton production varied between 2.55-2.99 million tonnes and the cotton crop was never a sure crop till Bt cotton arrived on the scene. Thereafter, the production level increased and was at an all-time high of 5.35 million tonnes during 2007-08.

Rise in cotton yield

A comprehensive study carried out between 2002 and 2008 on ‘Economic impacts and dynamics of Bt cotton in India’ was published by Jonas Kathage and Matin Qaim in a prestigious US journal, ‘Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences’ in August, 2012. They report that in the Bt cotton fields of central and southern states, the average cotton yields increased by 24 per cent due to reduced pest damage and there was a 50 per cent increase in profit among small farmers. The consumption expenditure of Bt cotton farming families increased by 18 per cent, which is considered a common measure of household living standard.

Cotton is an important cash crop grown in northern states like Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and western parts of UP and accounts for 22% of the area and 33% of total production in the country. Cotton farmers were in real distress during the 1990s and many farmers of these states in desperation shifted to paddy cultivation.

In Punjab cotton production was the highest during 1990-91 with 25 lakh bales from area of 7.01 lakh ha and declined thereafter for a decade to an all-time low of only 6 lakh bales from 5.63 lakh ha area in 1998-99. Farmers resorted to frequent insecticidal sprays without any increased yields. Many farmers committed suicide due to the mounting pressure of increasing debt.

Low production was attributed to the epidemic appearance of American bollworm on account of the prevalent conducive humid conditions due to the cultivation of paddy on a large scale in the cotton belt. In 2003-04 Bt cotton, effective against bollworms, was approved for cultivation in northern states, including Punjab.

This proved a savior of cotton farmers in Punjab and the production bounced back to a maximum of 26 lakh bales in 2006 from an area of 6.07 lakh ha. Bt cotton not only increased yields, but also reduced the insecticide use by 40-50%. This hit hard the pesticide industry. The pesticide market scenario in Punjab changed so dramatically that in comparison to the period before Bt cotton, when every shopkeeper in the entire cotton belt towns yearned to procure a sale licence of the highly profitable business of pesticides, a majority shut their businesses due to the dismal pesticide sale on account of Bt cotton. Here lies the vested interest of the pesticide industry, backed by some NGOs, in opposing the Bt technology.

Upcoming GM products

As emphasised earlier, we need to examine the whole scenario critically and any hasty decision such as a national-level moratorium on GM crops will not only deprive our scientists of modern-day cutting-edge technology generation, but seriously jeopardise crop productivity and food security of the nation. Apart from multinational seed giants, many GM technologies, for instance, in Chickpea, Sorghum, Sugarcane, Castor, Rice. Potato, etc developed by institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and state universities are in the pipeline.

In fact, we are yet to harvest the potential benefits of upcoming GM crop products enriched with vitamin A and micro nutrients. Golden rice, a GM product enriched with Vitamin A, is due for release in 2013 in the Philippines followed by a release in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Vietnam to save the lives of thousands afflicted with Vitamin-A deficiency.

The adoption of such technologies will ensure both food and nutritional security of a nation. Instead of enforcing a blanket moratorium on the release of GM crops, there is an urgent need to ensure the sale of Bt seeds recommended only by the state agricultural universities or the ICAR institutes. Not surprisingly, as many as 620 (both descript as well as non-descript) GM cotton hybrids are available for cultivation across the country!

As such the hapless farmer is left at the mercy of the illegal and substandard sale of Bt cotton hybrids. Notably, in August this year, the Maharashtra Government has blacklisted a lead seed company, Mahyco, banning its Bt seed sale for selling sub-quality seeds in the state. Such regulatory measures are essential in view of the fact that this lead company sublisted as many as 28 other small seed companies, which led to a mad rush for mass production of substandard Bt cotton seeds.

The writer is a former Professor and Head, Department of Entomology and Dean, Postgraduate Studies, PAU, Ludhiana