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WWW.UPSCPORTAL.COM Vol. - 18

Hel lo! to new UPSC Aspirants of 2011

UPSC Civil Services Main exams are now over. Many of you have done very well and will be happy that you are going to crack the biggest challenge of the earth. But many of youare not sure of the future and few of them are hopeless. Dear friend! We would like to saythat worry is not solution of any problem.

Those must work hard, who are going to appear at personality test; and those, whoare sure that they are not going to qualify for interview, must acknowledged their week

points and prepare for next main examination and at the same time they must also insurethemselves to qualify for mains (written).

We also have something to say about those who have finished all attempts to appear in the Civil Services examination. They must seriously think about other career optionand overcome from the pain. They must not think that their efforts (time, money and knowledge) were thrown into dustbin. They must visualise the fact that if they want, theycan utilise their assets in other fields. So prepare for new area and new life.

And now we want to say Hello! to new UPSC Aspirants of 2011.

… "UPSC Portal Magazine" is always here to help you, and we will provide you all sufficient materials for the next preliminary test. We will also provide some exclusive materials for alternative careers in near future.

In this 19th volume of "UPSC Portal Magazine", you will find article on, Global Hunger Index 2010, Unique Identification Project – Aadhaar, UN Security Council non-

permanent membership and Caste Census. In the section of Hot Topics Karnataka Crisis, Last of Chile's 33 miners rescued, ordeal ends and Winners of Nobel Prize 2010 are in-cluded.

With Current Affairs, Sports and World of Awards you will find a very Special Study Package as Affairs about You must be aware.

With this We conclude, and hoping that all of you think seriously to face the fu-ture………….

Ram Kumar Pandey

and

UPSCPORTAL Team

Editorial

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GlobalHungerIndex

2010

Hunger haunts India

India is among 29 countries with

the highest levels of hunger,

stunted children and poorly fed

women, according to the Interna-

onal Food Policy Research Ins-

tute (IFPRI)’s “Global Hunger

Index 2010” released on Oct 11,

2010. Despite a strong economy

that was last week predicted to

overtake China’s within threeyears by The Economist maga-

zine, India ranked 67th among 85

countries in terms of access to

food.

The report points to wide-

spread hunger in a country that is

the world’s largest producer of

milk and edible oils, and the sec-

ond-largest producer of wheat

and sugar.The country has a high

“hunger score” of 24.1 and ranks

behind all its neighbours, barring

Bangladesh. Values between 20

and 29.9 on the index denote an

“alarming” hunger situaon.

Globally, the world is

nowhere near meeng the target

of the UN’s goal of halving the

proporon of hungry people.

India also runs the world’slargest free-meal programme for

school-going children. Yet, the

2010 hunger report reveals that

more than 90 per cent of the

world’s stunted children (whose

height is low for their age) live in

Asian countries, such as India and

Bangladesh, apart from some

Africa countries.

The highest regional hunger

indices — suggesng the worst

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performers —are almost the

same for South Asian countries,

such as India, and Sub-Saharan

African naons, such as Congo.

India is among countries with

“hunger levels considerably

higher that their gross naonalincome per capita would sug-

gest”. “It’s kind of ironic,” Ashok

Gula, Asia director of the Wash-

ington-based IFPRI said.

The IFPRI hunger index —

complied in partnership with Ger-

man NGO Welthungerhilfe, and

Concern Worldwide —ranks

countries on three equally

weighted indicators: the propor-

on of undernourished, the pro-poron of underweight children

under five, and the child mortal-

ity rate.

The UN Food and Agriculture

Organisaon (FAO) defines

hunger as the consumpon of

fewer than 1,800 kilocalories a

day — the minimum required to

live a healthy and producve life.

What is Global HungerIndex

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is

a muldimensional stascal tool

used to describe the state of

countries’ hunger situaon. The

GHI measures progress and fail-

ures in the global fight against

hunger. The GHI is updated once

a year.The Index was adopted and

further developed by the Interna-


tute (IFPRI), and was first

published in 2006 with the

Welthungerhilfe, a German non-

profit organizaon (NGO). Since

2007, the Irish NGO Concern

Worldwide joined the group as

co-publisher.

The 2009 GHI was calculatedfor 121 developing countries and

countries in transion, 84 of

which were ranked. Every year,

the GHI report focuses on a main

topic: in 2009 the Index measures

the connecon between hunger

and gender equality. In addion,

the impact of the financial crisis

on the hunger situaon was ana-

lyzed. In addional to the yearly

GHI, the Hunger Index for theStates of India (ISHI) was pub-

lished in 2008 and the Sub-Na-

onal Hunger Index for Ethiopia

was published in 2009.

Calculation of the Index

The Index ranks countries on a

100 point scale, with 0 being the

best score ("no hunger") and 100

being the worst, though neitherof these extremes is achieved in

pracce. The higher the score,

the worse the food situaon of a

country. Values less than 4.9 re-

flect "low hunger", values be-

tween 5 and 9.9 reflect

"moderate hunger", values be-

tween 10 and 19.9 indicate a "se-

rious", values between 20 and

29.9 are "alarming", and values

exceeding 30 are "extremelyalarming" hunger problem.

The GHI combines three

equally weighted indicators: 1)

the proporon of the undernour-

ished as a percentage of the pop-

ulaon; 2) the prevalence of

underweight children under the

age of five; and 3) the mortality

rate of children under the age of

five.

The data used for the 2009GHI are for the period from 2002

to 2007 – the most recent avail-

able global data for the three

components of the GHI. The data

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on the proporon of undernour-

ished come from the Food and

Agriculture Organizaon of the

UN (FAO) and are for 2003-2005.

Data on underweight of children

under 5 are based on data col-

lected by the World Health Or-ganizaon (WHO), UNICEF and

MEASURE DHS for the latest year

in the period 2002–07 for which

data are available and data on

child mortality are for 2007 from

UNICEF. The 2009 GHI and the re-

calculated base value of 1990 GHI

are not directly comparable to

previously calculated GHI values.

Global and regional trends

The 2009 GHI report shows how

the hunger situaon has devel-

oped since 1990 at global, re-

gional, and naonal levels.

Globally, the GHI fell nearly one

forth from 20 to 15.2 points. Re-

gardless of this posive trend, the

global fight against hunger is

stagnang and not reaching itsgoals fast enough. The global av-

erages hide dramac differences

among regions and countries. 29

countries sll have an alarming

(20-29.9) or extremely alarming

(≥ 30) hunger situaon. The 2009

GHI had fallen by 13% in Sub-Sa-

haran Africa compared with the

1990 GHI, by about 25% in South

Asia, and by 32% in the Near East

and North Africa. Progress inSoutheast Asia and Lan America

was especially great, with the GHI

decreasing by over 40%.

Sub-Saharan Africa and South

Asia share the highest regional

GHI scores (22.1 and 23.0 respec-

vely), but food insecurity in the

two regions stems from different

reasons: In South Asia, the major

problem is a high prevalence of

underweight children under five,

which is a result of lower nutri-

on and educaonal status of

women. In contrast, the high GHI

in Sub-Saharan Africa is due to

high child mortality rates and the

high proporon of people who

cannot meet their calorie re-quirements.

Hunger and Conflict

The report shows that conflict

and polical instability and eco-

nomic collapse have increased

hunger in a number of Sub-Saha-

ran African countries and North

Korea.

Hunger and GenderInequality

A comparison of the GHI 2009 re-

sults with the respecve rankings

in the World Economic Forum’s

2008 Global Gender Gap Index

shows that hunger and gender in-

equality—parcularly inequali-es in educaon and

health—oen go hand in hand.

Hunger in India: 'The real cause is

lack of polical will'

The poker is glowing red hot

in the flames of the burning

wood. Suklal Hembrom holds a

leaf against his stomach and war-

ily eyes the

older man sit-

ng on theother side of

the fire. Sud-

denly Thakur

Das takes hold

of the poker

and lunges to-

wards the

boy's stomach.

Everyone

in the village

knows what

should happen next. The child

will scream loudly as the flesh be-

gins to blister. Held down, he will

writhe in agony. Again and again,

the poker will jab at his belly. The

more the child screams, the hap-

pier everyone will be, becausethe villagers of Mirgitand in

India's Jharkhand state believe

the only way they can "cure" the

distended stomachs of their fam-

ished children is by branding

them with pokers.

Das sees nothing wrong with the

procedure. Nor does anyone in

the village – most have scars of

their own. Even though some

children have died, the villagersconnue because the alternave

– providing enough nutrious

food to sustain their children or

paying for medical treatment – is

simply not an opon. In common

with millions of others in the

world's 11th largest economy,

they face a daily bale to put

even the most basic meal on the

table.

A report out today warns thateven in a fast-growing economy

like India, failure to invest in agri-

culture and support small farms

has le nearly half the country's

children malnourished, with one

fih of the one billion plus popu-

laon going hungry.

AconAid, which published

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the report ahead of next week's

summit in New York to discuss

progress on the millennium de-

velopment goals, says hunger is

cosng the world's poorest na-

ons £290bn a year – more than

10 mes the esmated amountneeded to meet the goal of halv-

ing global hunger by 2015.

India now has worse rates of

malnutrion than sub-Saharan

Africa: 43.5% of children under

five are underweight and India

ranks below Sudan and Zim-

babwe in the Global Hunger

Index. Even without last year's

disastrous monsoon and the en-

suing drought and crop failures,hunger was on the increase.

The government has prom-

ised a new food security bill to

provide cheap food for the poor,

but progress has been slow. The

reality is that a country desperate

to take its place at the world's top

table is unwilling to commit to

feeding its own populaon.

Last month the country's

supreme court casgated thegovernment for allowing 67,000

tonnes of badly stored grain to

rot – enough to feed 190,000

people for a month – and or-

dered it to distribute 17.8m

tonnes in imminent danger of

rong.

India's prime minister, Man-

mohan Singh, protested, saying

the court had crossed the line

into policy-making and warningthat distribung free food to the

esmated 37% of the populaon

living below the poverty line de-

stroyed any incenves for farm-

ers to produce. The court stood

firm. It was an order, not a sug-

geson, the judges said.

According to AconAid,

global hunger in 2009 was at the

same level as in 1990. The charity

urged developed countries to

make good on £14bn pledge to

fight hunger, announced at last

year's G8 summit in Italy.

"On the eve of the most im-

portant development summit for

five years, a billion people will be

going to bed hungry," saidMeredith Alexander, the charity's

policy head. "Despite promises to

the contrary, one-sixth of human-

ity doesn't get enough to eat. But

we grow enough food to feed

every man, woman and child on

the planet. The real cause of

hunger isn't lack of food, it is lack

of polical will."

The UN Food and Agricultural

Organisaon announced todaythat the number of hungry peo-

ple worldwide has dropped by 98

million to 925 million in the past

year. However, Oxfam warned

the decline is largely down to

luck, such as two years of

favourable weather paerns,

rather than acon from world

leaders.

Abandoned to its fate

Mirgitand lies in hills about

195km east of the state capital

Ranchi, at the end of a stony, ver-

ginous track. It is part of India,

but at the same me not part of

it: abandoned to its fate by the

state, in the hands of Maoist Nax-

alite guerillas who hold the secu-

rity forces at bay with apparentease.

Das squats next to the fire,

poking it with a sck. The poker

lies cooling on the ground. This

me he did not make contact,

warned in advance that the child

must not be harmed for the

demonstraon, though he came

worryingly close.

Instead, the villagers instruct

the children to show their scars.

Molilal Kisku lis his shirt. He is

five, with a large, distended belly.

There are dark circles on the skin

from where the poker was ap-

plied. There is not a child un-

scarred.

Manoranjan Mahta, 44, sitson a log, watching. He works for

the post office, he says: he is an

educated man. Yet he submied

his son, Hemanth, to the process.

"My son had a protruding

belly. We went to many doctors,

but they didn't cure it," he says.

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"In this village when a child has a

big pot belly we put a piece of ba-

nana leaf on the skin and then we

put burning charcoal or a burning

rod on the leaf. If the child is

writhing in pain, the noon is

that the germs are dying."But it was Hemanth who suc-

cumbed. The wound became in-

fected and he died on 21

December 2007. He was seven

years old.

Struggle for survival

India may be thriving economi-

cally but it is sll dogged by

poverty and hunger.

A recent Oxford University re-

port found 410 million people

were living in poverty in just eight

Indian states – more than in the

26 countries of sub-SaharanAfrica.

Last year's Global Hunger

Index placed India in the "alarm-

ing" category, ranked 65 out of 84

countries, below even North

Korea. Across the country, hun-

dreds of millions are malnour-

ished. A study released in May

warned that 66% of children

under the age of six in Delhi's

slums were malnourished. The

report noted that the most vul-

nerable secons of society were

not covered under governmentschemes which were supposed to

support them.

In Jharkhand state, a study of

20 villages carried out last year

recorded 13 deaths from starva-

on and 1,000 families suffering

from chronic hunger syndrome. It

is esmated that each year,

nearly 50,000 children in the

state die before their first birth-

day. It does not help that Jhark-hand's doctors are among the

most poorly paid in India, earning

barely half what their contempo-

raries in Delhi might earn. This

may explain why 2,200 of the

2,468 doctors recruited by the

state five years ago have moved

on. The state is said to need more

than 800 primary health centres,

although it has just 330.

The situaon in the centralIndian state of Madhya Pradesh

is, if anything, worse than in

Jharkhand. More than half a mil-

lion children below the age of five

have died in the past five years

and 60% of its children are cate-

gorised as malnourished. The

government esmates that 37%

of the populaon subsist on less

than the official poverty line of

327 rupees (£4.57) per month inrural areas and 570 rupees in

urban areas. In May, television

and newspaper pictures showed

100,000 tonnes of wheat rong

in the open in the state.

And in Ganne, in Uar

Pradesh, children have resorted

to eang mud. When the reports

began to surface, officials appar-

ently sent some food and told the

villagers to keep quiet.

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rime Minister Manmohan

Singh and Congress Presi-

dent Sonia Gandhihanded out the first set of Unique

Idenficaon Number to tribals

in Tembhli village of Maharash-

tra's Nandurbar district on Sep

29, 2010.

Ten tribals from Tembhli vil-

lage got their Unique Idenfica-

on Numbers (Aadhaar) from

Singh and Sonia. They were ran-

domly selected by the Nandan

Nilekani-headed Unique Idenfi-

caon Authority of India.Aadhaar will help the unem-

ployed poor. UID is a historical

step to help the poor and Tembhli

is the first Aadhaar village.

Unique Idenficaon Authority

of India Chairman Nandan

Nilekani said that UID would help

all the cizens of India who don't

have any identy card.

Many people in our country

don't have their identy cards.

UID will help them. UID will berecognised everywhere. One UID

will be issued to one person.

About 1400 villagers have

been enrolled in the inaugural

programme. The Unique Idenfi-

caon Number is a unique 12

digit number that will store infor-

maon like an individual's name,

face and biometric scans.

Multipurpose

NationalIdentity Card

P

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Unique IdentificationAuthority of India

The Unique Idenficaon Author-

ity of India (UIDAI) is an agency of

the Government of India respon-

sible for implemenng the envi-

sioned Mulpurpose Naonal

Identy Card or Unique Idenfi-

caon card (UID Card) project in

India. It was established in Febru-

ary 2009, and will own and oper-

ate the Unique Idenficaon

Number database. The authority

will aim at providing a unique

number to all Indians, but not

smart cards. The authority would

provide a database of residents

containing very simple data in

biometrics.

The agency is headed by a

chairman, holds a cabinet rank.

The UIDAI is part of the Planning

Commission of India. Nandan

Nilekani, a former co-chairman of

Infosys Technologies, was ap-

pointed as the first Chairman of

the authority in June 2009. Ram

Sewak Sharma, an IAS Officer of

Jharkhand Government cadre has

been appointed as the Director

General and Mission Director of

the Authority. He is known for his

best effort in e-Governance proj-

ect for Jharkhand State and work-

ing as an IT secretary he received

a number of awards for best In-

formaon Technology Trends

State in India.

Launch

UIDAI launched AADHAAR pro-

gram in the tribal village, Tembhli,

in Nandurbar, Maharashtra on

29th September, 2010. The pro-

gram was inaguated by Prime

Minister, Manmohan Singh along

with UPA chairperson Sonia

Gandhi. The first resident to re-

ceive an AADHAAR was Rajana

Sonawane of Tembhli village.

Coverage, goals and

logistics

It is believed that Unique Na-

onal IDs will help address the

rigged state elecons, wide-

spread embezzlement that af-

fects subsidies and poverty

alleviaon programs such as

NREGA. Addressing illegal immi-

graon into India and terrorist

threats is another goal of the pro-

gram.

Most reports suggest that the

plan is for each Indian cizen to

have a unique idenficaon num-

ber with associated idenfying

biometric data and photographs

by 2011. However, other reports

claim that obtaining a uniquenumber would be voluntary, but

those that opt to stay out of the

system "will find it very inconven-

ient: they will not have access to

facilies that require you to cite

your ID number."

Government issued IDs are frag-

mented by purpose and region in

India, which results in wide-

spread bribery, denial of public

services and loss of income, espe-

cially afflicng poor cizens. As

the unique identy database

comes into existence, the various

identy databases (voter ID, pass-

ports, raon cards, licenses, fish-

ing permits, border area id cards)

that already exist in India are

planned to be linked to it. The Au-

thority is liaising with various na-

onal, state and local

government enes to begin this

process. The Union Labor Min-

istry has offered its verified Em-

ployment Provident Fund (EPFO)

database of 42 million cizens as

the first database to be inte-

grated into the unique ID system.

Other UID projects implemented

on a smaller scale in India can

also facilitate in the development

of the naonal project. An exam-

ple is a project developed by Wolf

Frameworks Cloud Compung

vendor and Social Educaon andDevelopment Society (SEDS) for

profiling and generang Unique

Idenficaon for more than

40,000 members in the Ananta-

pur district of Andhra Pradesh.

The UID will link a person's Pass-

port Number, Driving License,

PAN card, Bank Accounts, Ad-

dress, Voter ID etc and all this in-

formaon will be checked

through a database. So, if some-

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one has a different addresses on

PAN and driving license, is liable

to get caught. Those who will opt

out of this program will have

much inconvenience in doingbusiness, operang bank ac-

counts and other offices which

will require a UID.

UIDAI has headquarters in

Delhi and a technology centre in

Bangalore. It also has 6 regional

offices in Chandigarh, Delhi, Luc-

know, Ranchi, Guwaha, Mum-

bai, Hyderabad and Bangalore.

Name and logo

UID project is known as AAD-

HAAR meaning 'support' or 'foun-

daon', and its logo is a yellow

sun with a fingerprint embedded

in its centre.

Projected costs and

business opportunities

One esmate of the cost to com-

pletely roll-out Naonal IDs to all

Indian residents above the age of

18 has been placed at Indian

rupee 150,000 crore (US$33.15

billion). A different esmate puts

it at US$ 6 billion. A sum of Indian

rupee 100 crore (US$22.1 million)

was approved in the 2009-2010

union budget to fund the agency

for its first year of existence. UID

has received a huge boost with Dr

Pranab Mukherjee, Minister of Fi-

nance, allocang Rs 1900 crore to

the Unique Idenficaon Author-

ity of India (UIDAI) for 2010-11.

Inial esmates project thatthe iniave will create 1000 new

jobs in the country, and business

opportunies worth Indian rupee

6,500 crore (US$1.44 billion) in

the first phase of implementa-

on.

Criticism

There are many potenal privacyfallouts of this project, not the

least of which is triggered by the

Government's official plan to link

the databases together.

Although there is somemes

a tension between individual pri-

vacy rights and naonal security,

internaonal law and India’s do-

mesc law expressly set a stan-

dard in tort law and through

constuonal law to protect anindividual’s privacy from unlawful

invasion. Under the Internaonal

Covenant on Civil and Polical

Rights (ICCPR), rafied by India,

an individual’s right to privacy is

protected from arbitrary or un-

lawful interference by the state.

The Supreme Court also held

the right to privacy to be implicit

under arcle 21 of the Indian

Constuon in Rajgopal v. Stateof Tamil Nadu. Moreover, India

has enacted a number of laws

that provide some protecon for

privacy. For example the Hindu

Marriage Act, the Copyright Act,

Juvenile Jusce (Care and Protec-

on of Children) Act, 2000 and

the Code of Criminal Procedure

all place restricons on the re-

lease of personal informaon.

Privacy is a key concern with re-

spect to the MNIC scheme as all

of an individual’s personal infor-

maon will be stored in one data-

base where the possibility of

corrupon and exploitaon of

data is far greater than when hav-

ing the informaon disbursed.Risks that arise from this cen-

tralizaon include possible errors

in the collecon of informaon,

recording of inaccurate data, cor-

rupon of data from anonymous

sources, and unauthorized access

to or disclosure of personal infor-

maon.Other countries with na-

onal idenficaon systems have

confronted numerous problems

with similar risks such as tradingand selling of informaon, and

India, which has no generally es-

tablished data protecon laws

such as the U.S. Federal Privacy

Statute or the European Direcve

on Data Protecon, is ill-

equipped to deal with such prob-

lems. The centralized nature of

data collecon inherent in the

MNIC proposal only heightens

the risk of misuse of personal in-formaon and therefore poten-

ally violates privacy rights. In

consideraon of the risks in-

volved in the creaon of a cen-

tralized database of personal

informaon, it is imperave that

such a programme not be estab-

lished without the proper mecha-

nisms to ensure the security of

each individual privacy rights. Un-

fortunately, India’s proposedMNIC programme lacks any pro-

vision for judicial review at the

present me. Without credible

and independent oversight, there

is a risk of ‘mission creep’ for

MNICs; the government may add

features and addional data to

the MNIC database bureaucra-

cally and reflexively, without

reevaluang the effects on pri-

vacy in each instance

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er a gap of 19 years,

India was elected as a

non-permanent member

of the UN Security Council on 12

Oct, 2010, a posion which

would help it push more aggres-

sively for the reform of the world

body's top organ. India secured

an emphac win, with 187 of the

191 member states in the Gen-eral Assembly backing its candi-

dature and one member state

abstaining from the vote.

India, which is a founding

member of the UN, has been on

the Council six mes earlier, but

not since 1992. In 1996, India lost

to Japan by a huge margin of 100

votes. This me, however, it is

taking over the Asia seat from

Japan, being the sole candidatefrom the region in the race as

Kazakhstan pulled out earlier this

year.

In the run-up to the vote, Ex-

ternal Affairs Minister S M Kr-

ishna, who was in New York for

10 days last month, met leaders

of a record 56 countries on the

margins of the UN General As-

sembly's annual session.

In February, India's candida-

ture was en-

dorsed by the

Asian Group but

it sll had to get

support of 128

countries, two-

thirds of the

192 members

of the UN Gen-

eral Assembly.Other "clean

slate" candi-

dates included

South Africa

that got the

Africa seat re-

placing Uganda

with the vote of 182 members in

its favour, and Colombia, which

secured the seat for the Group of

Lan American and CaribbeanStates, replacing Mexico.

The elected members take their

spots on January 1, 2011 and will

serve for two years.

South Africa has returned to the

Council aer a break of two years

when it had served its first term

from 2007-2008. Colombia, like

India, has previously served six

terms.

The five new countries will be

replacing Austria, Japan, Mexico,

Turkey and Uganda. The two

seats for Western Europe andOthers Group were fought for by

Canada, Germany and Portugal.

India, which is among the three

largest troop contribung coun-

tries to the UN, has already high-

lighted the significance of all the

BRIC naons (Brazil, Russia, India

and China) being on the Council

together, which could present a

united front on several con-

tenous internaonal issues.

India elected to UNSC as non-permanent member

UN SECURITY

COUNCILNON-PERMANENTMEMBERSHIP

By : Dr. Sachchidanand

A

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It has also underlined that the

IBSA (India, Brazil and South

Africa) will also be on the Council

together. New Delhi, which is

seeking expansion in both the

permanent and non-permanent

categories of the UN Security

Council as part of its reform, is

hoping that change comes in the

next two years while it is already

in the Council.

New Members

Germany, India, South Africa and

Colombia have won two-year

seats on the UN Security Council.

Portugal got the other available

place when Canada withdrew its

bid aer the second round of vot-

ing at the UN General Assemblyin New York.

China, Britain, France, the US

and Russia are the five perma-

nent members. The 15-seat Secu-

rity Council is one of the most

important UN organs and is

charged with maintaining inter-

naonal peace and security.

Every year, five of the non-

permanent members step down

aer compleng two years, and

other countries bale to fill the

seats.

India, South Africa and

Colombia all secured their places

in uncontested votes. Among re-

cent calls for reform of UN ins-

tuons, there have been

proposals to expand the number

of permanent members. Brazil,

Germany, India and Japan have

all argued that they should havea permanent seat on the council.

United Nations SecurityCouncil

The United Naons Security

Council (UNSC) is one of the prin-

cipal organs of the United Na-

ons and is charged with the

maintenance of internaonalpeace and security. Its powers,

outlined in the United Na-

ons Charter, include the es-

tablishment of peacekeeping

operaons, the establish-

ment of internaonal sanc-

ons, and the authorizaon

of military acon. Its powersare exercised through United

Naons Security Council Res-

oluons.

The Security Council held its

first session on 17 January

1946 at Church House, Lon-

don. Since its first meeng,

the Council, which exists in

connuous session, has trav-

eled widely, holding meengs

in many cies, such as Parisand Addis Ababa, as well as at its

current permanent home in the

United Naons building in New

York City.

There are 15 members of

the Security Council, consisng of

5 veto-wielding permanent mem-

bers (China, France, Russia,

United Kingdom, and United

States) and 10 elected non-per-

manent members with two-yearterms. This basic structure is set

out in Chapter V of the UN Char-

ter. Security Council members

must always be present at UN

headquarters in New York so that

the Security Council can meet at

any me. This requirement of the

United Naons Charter was

adopted to address a weakness

of the League of Naons since

that organizaon was oen un-able to respond quickly to a crisis.

Permanent members

The Security Council's five perma-

nent members have the power to

veto any substanve resoluon:

* China

* France

* Russia

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* United Kingdom

* United States

The five permanent members

(also known as the P5 or Big 5)

were drawn from the victorious

powers of World War II, and at

the UN's founding in 1946, theSecurity Council consisted of

France, the Republic of China, the

United Kingdom, the United

States, and the USSR. There have

been two seat changes since

then, although not reflected in

Arcle 23 of the Charter of the

United Naons as it has not been

accordingly amended:

* China's seat was originally

filled by the Republic of China, but due to the stale-

mate of the Chinese Civil War

in 1949, there have been two

states claiming to represent

China since then, and both of-

ficially claim each other's ter-

ritory. In 1971, the People's

Republic of China was

awarded China's seat in the

United Naons by UN Gen-

eral Assembly Resoluon2758, and the Republic of

China (based in Taiwan) soon

lost membership in

all UN organiza-

ons.

* Russia, being the

legal successor

state to the Soviet

Union aer the lat-

ter's collapse in

1991, acquired theoriginally-Soviet

seat, including the

Soviet Union's for-

mer representaon

in the Security

Council.

The five permanent

members of the Secu-

rity Council are also the

only countries recog-

nized as nuclear-

weapon states (NWS) under the

Nuclear Non-Proliferaon Treaty.

However, their nuclear weapons

status derives from the fact that

they are the five countries that

tested nuclear weapons before

1967; it is not linked to theirmembership of the UN Security

Council and membership of the

UN Security Council is not de-

pendent on nuclear weapons sta-

tus.The Permanent Representa-

ves of the U.N. Security Council

permanent members are Li

Baodong (China), Gérard Araud

(France), Vitaly Churkin (Russia),

Mark Lyall Grant (United King-

dom), and Susan Rice (UnitedStates).

Non-permanentMembers

Ten other members are elected

by the General Assembly for two-

year terms starng on 1 January,

with five replaced each year. The

members are chosen by regionalgroups and confirmed by the

United Naons General Assem-

bly. The African bloc chooses

three members; the Lan Amer-

ica and the Caribbean, Asian, and

Western European and Others

blocs choose two members each;

and the Eastern European bloc

chooses one member. Also, oneof these members is an "Arab

country," alternately from the

Asian or African bloc.

President

The role of president of the Secu-

rity Council involves seng the

agenda, presiding at its meengs

and overseeing any crisis. ThePresident is authorized to issue

both presidenal statements

(subject to consensus among

Council members) and notes,

which are used to make declara-

ons of intent that the full Secu-

rity Council can then pursue. The

Presidency rotates monthly in al-

phabecal order of the Security

Council member naons' names

in English and is held by Turkeyfor the month of September

2010.

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Veto power

Under Arcle 27 of the UN Char-

ter, Security Council decisions on

all substanve maers requirethe affirmave votes of nine

members. A negave vote, or

veto, also known as the rule of

"great Power unanimity", by a

permanent member prevents

adopon of a pro-

posal, even if it has

received the required

number of affirma-

ve votes (9). Absten-

on is not regardedas a veto despite the

wording of the Char-

ter. Since the Security

Council's incepon,

China (ROC/PRC) has

used its veto 6 mes;

France 18 mes; Rus-

sia/USSR 123 mes;

the United Kingdom

32 mes; and the

United States 82mes. The majority of

Russian/Soviet vetoes

were in the first ten

years of the Council's

existence. Since 1984,

China and France

have vetoed three

resoluons each; Rus-

sia/USSR four; the

United Kingdom ten;

and the United States43.

Procedural maers are not sub-

ject to a veto, so the veto cannot

be used to avoid discussion of an

issue.

Status of non-members

A state that is a member of the

UN, but not of the Security Coun-

cil, may parcipate in Security

Council discussions in maers by

which the Council agrees that the

country's interests are parcu-

larly affected. In recent years, the

Council has interpreted this

loosely, allowing many countriesto take part in its discussions.

Non-members are rounely in-

vited to take part when they are

pares to disputes being consid-

ered by the Council.

Role

Under Chapter Six of the Charter,

"Pacific Selement of Disputes",

the Security Council "may inves-

gate any dispute or any situa-

on which might lead to

internaonal fricon or give rise

to a dispute". The Council may

"recommend appropriate proce-

dures or methods of adjustment"

if it determines that the situaon

might endanger internaonal

peace and security. These recom-

mendaons are not binding on

UN members.

Under Chapter Seven, the Council

has broader power to decide

what measures are to be taken insituaons involving "threats to

the peace, breaches of the peace,

or acts of aggression". In such sit-

uaons, the Council is not limited

to recommendaons but may

take acon, including the use of

armed force "to maintain or re-

store internaonal peace and se-

curity". This was the basis for UN

armed acon in Korea in 1950

during the Korean War and the

use of coalion forces in Iraq and

Kuwait in 1991. Decisions taken

under Chapter Seven, such as

economic sancons, are binding

on UN members.

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The UN's role in internaonal col-

lecve security is defined by the

UN Charter, which gives the Secu-

rity Council the power to:

• Invesgate any situaon

threatening internaonal

peace;• Recommend procedures for

peaceful resoluon of a dis-

pute;

• Call upon other member na-

ons to completely or par-

ally interrupt economic

relaons as well as sea, air,

postal, and radio communi-

caons, or to sever diplo-

mac relaons;

• Enforce its decisions militar-

ily, or by any means neces-

sary;

• Avoid conflict and maintain

focus on cooperaon.

They also recommend the

new Secretary-General to the

General Assembly.

The Rome Statute of the In-

ternaonal Criminal Court recog-

nizes that the Security Council

has authority to refer cases to the

Court, where the Court could nototherwise exercise jurisdicon.

The Council exercised this power

for the first me in March 2005,

when it referred to the Court “the

situaon prevailing in Darfur

since 1 July 2002”; since Sudan is

not a party to the Rome Statute,

the Court could not otherwise

have exercised jurisdicon.

Responsibility to protect

Security Council Resoluon 1674,

adopted on 28 April 2006, "reaf-

firms the provisions of para-

graphs 138 and 139 of the 2005

World Summit Outcome Docu-

ment regarding the responsibility

to protect populaons from

genocide, war crimes, ethnic

cleansing and crimes against hu-manity". The resoluon commits

the Council to acon to protect

civilians in armed conflict.

Resolutions

The UN Charter is a mullateral

treaty. It is the constuonal doc-

ument that distributes powers

and funcons among the variousUN organs. It authorizes the Se-

curity Council to take acon on

behalf of the members, and to

make decisions and recommen-

daons. The Charter menons

neither binding nor non-binding

resoluons. The Internaonal

Court of Jusce (ICJ) advisory

opinion in the 1949 "Repara-

ons" case indicated that the

United Naons Organizaon had

both explicit and implied powers.

The Court cited Arcles 104 and

2(5) of the Charter, and noted

that the members had granted

the Organizaon the necessary

legal authority to exercise its

funcons and fulfill its purposesas specified or implied in the

Charter, and that they had agreed

to give the United Naons every

assistance in any acon taken in

accordance with the Charter.

Arcle 25 of the Charter says

that "The Members of the United

Naons agree to accept and carry

out the decisions of the Security

Council in accordance with the

present Charter". The Repertoryof Pracce of United Naons Or-

gans, is a UN legal publicaon

that is published, says that during

the United Naons Conference

on Internaonal Organizaon

which met in San Francisco in

1945, aempts to limit obliga-

ons of Members under Arcle

25 of the Charter to those deci-

sions taken by the Council in the

exercise of its specific powersunder Chapters VI, VII and VIII of

the Charter failed. It was stated at

the me that those obligaons

also flowed from the authority

conferred on the Council under

Arcle 24(1) to act on the behalf

of the members while exercising

its responsibility for the mainte-

nance of internaonal peace and

security.

Arcle 24, interpreted in thissense, becomes a source of au-

thority which can be drawn upon

to meet situaons which are not

covered by the more detailed

provisions in the succeeding ar-

cles. The Repertory on Arcle 24

says: "The queson whether Ar-

cle 24 confers general powers on

the Security Council ceased to be

a subject of discussion following

the advisory opinion of the Inter-

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naonal Court of Jusce ren-

dered on 21 June 1971 in connec-

on with the queson of Namibia

(ICJ Reports, 1971, page 16)".

In exercising its powers the

Security Council seldom bothersto cite the parcular arcle or ar-

cles of the UN Charter that its

decisions are based upon. In

cases where none are men-

oned, a constuonal interpre-

taon is required. This

somemes presents ambiguies

as to what amounts to a decision

as opposed to a recommenda-

on, and also the relevance and

interpretaon of the phrase "inaccordance with the present

Charter".

In the preliminary rulings of

the "Lockerbie" cases the ICJ held

that the provisions of the Mon-

treal Convenon could be pre-

empted by Security Council

resoluons pursuant to Arcle 25

and Arcle 103 of the UN Charter.

Arcle 103 provides that in the

event of conflicts with other

treaty obligaons, the members

obligaons under the Charter

prevail. There is consensus that

the treaty-based powers of the

Security Council are limited to

preempon of other treaes. TheUN cannot circumvent peremp-

tory norms and its resoluons are

subject to judicial review.

Security Council Resoluons

are legally binding if they are

made under Chapter VII (Acon

with Respect to Threats to the

Peace, Breaches of the Peace,

and Acts of Aggression) of the

Charter.

There is a general agreementamong legal scholars outside the

organizaon that resoluons

made under Chapter VI (Pacific

Selement of Disputes) are not

legally binding. One argument is

that since they have no enforce-

ment mechanism, except self-

help, they may not be legally

binding. Some States give cons-

tuonal or special legal status to

the UN Charter and Security

Council resoluons. In

such cases non-recog-

nion regimes or

other sancons can be

implemented under

the provisions of the

laws of the individualmember states.

The Repertory of Prac-

ce of United Naons

Organs was estab-

lished because

"Records of the cumu-

lang pracce of in-

t e r n a o n a l

organizaons may be

regarded as evidence

of customary interna-onal law with refer-

ence to States'

relaons to the organ-

izaons." The reper-

tory cites the remarks

made by the representave of Is-

rael, Mr Eban, regarding a Chap-

ter VI resoluon. He maintained

that the Security Council's resolu-

on of 1 September 1951 pos-

sessed, within the meaning of Arcle 25, a compelling force be-

yond that pertaining to any reso-

luon of any other organ of the

United Naons, in his view the

importance of the resoluon had

to be envisaged in the light of Ar-

cle 25, under which the deci-

sions of the Council on maers

affecng internaonal peace and

security assumed an obligatory

character for all Member States.The Egypan representave dis-

agreed.

Criticism

There has been cricism that the

five permanent members of the

United Naons Security Council,

who are all nuclear powers, have

created an exclusive nuclear club

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that only addresses the strategic

interests and polical moves of

the permanent members; for ex-

ample, protecng the oil-rich

Kuwais in 1991 but poorly pro-

tecng resource-poor Rwandans

in 1994. Crics have suggestedthat the number of permanent

members should be expanded to

include non-nuclear powers, or

abolishing the concept of perma-

nency altogether.

Another cricism of the Secu-

rity Council involves the veto

power of the five permanent na-

ons; a veto from any of the per-

manent members may cripple

any possible UN armed or diplo-mac response to a crisis. John J.

Mearsheimer claimed that "since

1982, the US has vetoed 32 Secu-

rity Council resoluons crical of

Israel, more than the total num-

ber of vetoes cast by all the other

Security Council members." The

pracce of the permanent mem-

bers meeng privately and then

presenng their resoluons to

the full council as a fait accomplihas also drawn fire. On the other

hand, a 2005 report by the Amer-

ican Instute for Peace on UN re-

form states that contrary to the

equality of rights for all naons

enshrined in the UN Charter, Is-

rael connues to be denied rights

enjoyed by all other member-

states, and a level of systemac

hoslity against it is rounely ex-

pressed, organized, and fundedwithin the United Naons sys-

tem. Since 1961, Israel has been

barred from the Asia regional

group and therefore could not

even theorecally be a member

of the Security Council. In 2000,

it was offered limited member-

ship in the Western European

and Others Group (WEOG).

Other crics and even propo-

nents of the Security Council

queson its effecveness and rel-

evance because in most high-pro-

file cases, there are essenally no

consequences for violang a Se-

curity Council resoluon. During

the Darfur crisis, Janjaweed mili-

as, allowed by elements of theSudanese government, commit-

ted violence against an indige-

nous populaon, killing

thousands of civilians. In the Sre-

brenica massacre, Serbian troops

commied genocide against

Bosniaks, although Srebrenica

had been declared a UN "safe

area" and was even protected by

400 armed Dutch peacekeepers.

Other crics call the UN undemo-crac, represenng the interests

of the governments of the na-

ons who form it and not neces-

sarily the individuals within those

naons. The UN Charter gives all

three powers of the legislave,

execuve, and judiciary branches

to the Security Council.

Another concern is that the

five permanent members of the

UN Security Council are five of the top ten largest arms dealing

countries in the world.

The amount of me devoted

to the Israeli-Arab conflict in the

UNSC has been described as ex-

cessive by some pro-Israel poli-

cal organizaons and academics,

like United Naons Watch, the

An-Defamaon League, Alan

Dershowitz, Marn Kramer, and

Mitchell Bard.

Membership reform

There has been discussion of in-

creasing the number of perma-

nent members. The countries

who have made the strongest de-

mands for permanent seats are

Brazil, Germany, India, and Japan.

Japan and Germany are the UN's

second and third largest funders

respecvely, while Brazil and

India are two of the largest con-

tributors of troops to UN-man-

dated peace-keeping missions.

This proposal has found opposi-

on in a group of countries calledUning for Consensus.

Former UN Secretary-General

Kofi Annan asked a team of advi-

sors to come up with recommen-

daons for reforming the United

Naons by the end of 2004. One

proposed measure is to increase

the number of permanent mem-

bers by five, which, in most pro-

posals, would include Brazil,

Germany, India, Japan (known asthe G4 naons), one seat from

Africa (most likely between

Egypt, Nigeria or South Africa)

and/or one seat from the Arab

League. On 21 September 2004,

the G4 naons issued a joint

statement mutually backing each

other's claim to permanent sta-

tus, together with two African

countries. Currently the proposal

has to be accepted by two-thirdsof the General Assembly (128

votes).

The permanent members,

each holding the right of veto, an-

nounced their posions on Secu-

rity Council reform reluctantly.

The United States supported the

permanent membership of Japan

and a small number of addional

non-permanent members. The

United Kingdom and France es-senally supported the G4 posi-

on, with the expansion of

permanent and non-permanent

members and the accession of

German, Brazil, India and Japan

to permanent member status, as

well as an increase the presence

by African countries on the Coun-

cil. China supported the stronger

representaon of development

countries.

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Caste CensusCabinet clears caste census in 2011

er several deliberaons

within the government on

the polically-sensive

issue, the Union cabinet decided

to carry out a separate house-to-

house caste enumeraon from

June to September next yearGiving in to demands from al-

most all polical pares, govern-

ment on Sep 9 2010. decided to

hold caste census next year

under an exercise to be carried

out separately from the enumer-

aon of populaon.

Aer several deliberaons within

the government on the poli-

cally-sensive issue, the Union

cabinet decided to carry out a

separate house-to-house caste

enumeraon from June to Sep-

tember next year.

According to home minister P.

Chidambaram, aer considering

various opons, the opon that

we have approved is, based onthe responses of various polical

pares, that caste must be can-

vassed and the integrity of the

headcount must not be affected.

The caste enumeraon will be

conducted in a phased manner

aer the populaon enumera-

on, which will include biometric

capture and headcount, is com-

pleted by March next year, he

said. He evaded a reply when

asked whether caste enumera-

on would be merged with the

headcount.

The decision has been taken

aer considering opons sug-

gested by the Group of Ministers

(GoM) set up on the issue andthe consultaons that finance

minister Pranab Mukherjee held

with leaders of various pares.

Pares like Rashtriya Janata

Dal, Samajwadi Party and Janata

Dal (United) had disrupted pro-

ceedings in Parliament for several

days during the Budget and Mon-

soon sessions while pressing for

caste census.

The Bharaya Janata Party,

By : Avadhesh Kumar Pandey

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which was divided inially, later

decided to support it. The issue

even divided the Congress as well

as the Union cabinet with some

favouring caste census and others

opposing it, prompng the gov-

ernment to set up a GoM to con-sider all aspects related to such a

move.

Chidambaram said a suitable

legal regime for collecon of data

on castes would be formulated in

consultaon with the ministry of

law and jusce.

There will be an addional

cost for the exercise which will be

assessed at a separate meeng.

The office of the Registrar Gen-eral and Census Commissioner

would conduct the field opera-

ons of the caste enumeraon.

The Central government will

constute an expert group to

classify the caste/tribe returns

aer the enumeraon is com-

pleted. The office of the Registrar

General and Census Commis-

sioner would hand over the de-

tails of the castes/tribes returnedin the enumeraon to the pro-

posed expert group.

The last caste-wise census

was held in 1931 and such a prac-

ce had been given up as a mat-

ter of policy aer Independence.

In response to the demands

for enumerang castes other

than Scheduled Castes and

Scheduled Tribes in the Census

2011 raised inside Parliament aswell as by various groups outside,

the ministry of home affairs sub-

mied a note to the Union cabi-

net in May 2010 pertaining to this

issue.

India launches Census

2011, the biggest-ever in

history

India on Apr 01, 2010 launched

“Census 2011,'' the biggest-ever

census aempted in the history

of mankind enumerang the

country's 1.2 billion populaon

and classifying usual residents ac-

cording to their gender, religion,

occupaon and educaon.The massive exercise, to be

spread over next 11 months, will

mark a milestone as the first-ever

Naonal Populaon Register

(NPR) will also be prepared in

which all persons aged over 15

years will be photographed and

fingerprinted to create a biomet-

ric naonal database. With this

India will probably become the

first democrac naon in theworld which would have got its

populaon fingerprinted in a year

from now.

As the first cizen of the

country, President Prabha De-

visingh Pal was the first person

to be listed in the decennial exer-

cise. She appealed to her compa-

triots to follow her example “for

the good of the naon.''

The 15th Naonal Census ex-ercise, since 1872, will see over

25 lakh officials

capturing the

socio-economic-

cultural profile of

its cizens. It will

cost around Rs.

2,209 crore while

the expenditure on

NPR will be Rs.

3,539.24 crore.The exercise will

also consume

more than 11 mil-

lion tonnes of

paper.

During the

massive exercise,

the enumerators

for the first me

will collect infor-

maon like owner-

ship of mobile phones, comput-

ers, internet, having treated or

untreated drinking water facility

and usage of banking services.

They will also seek addional in-

formaon for the creaon of

NPR. The government has al-ready said that no informaon

will be collected on castes as no

caste-based census has ever been

conducted in independent India.

The second phase, called the

Populaon Enumeraon phase,

will be conducted simultaneously

all over the country from Febru-

ary 9 to 28, 2011, and the enre

exercise would be completed by

March 5, 2011.All 640 districts, 5,767 tehsils,

7,742 towns and more than six

lakh villages will be covered.

What is Census

The Indian Census is the most

credible source of informaon on

Demography (Populaon charac-

teriscs), Economic Acvity, Liter-acy & Educaon, Housing &

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camps at every village and at the

ward level in every town. Each

household will be required to

bring the Acknowledgement Slip

to such camps. Those who miss

these camps will be given the op-

portunity to present themselvesat permanent NPR Centres to be

set up at the Tehsil/Town level. In

the next step, data will be printed

out and displayed at prominent

places within the village and ward

for the public to see. Objecons

will be sought and registered at

this stage. Each of these objec-

ons will then be enquired into

by the local Revenue Department

Officer and a proper disposalgiven in wring.

Persons aggrieved by such

order have a right of appeal to

the Tehsildar and then to the Dis-

trict Collector. Once this process

is over, the lists will be placed in

the Gram Sabha in villages and

the Ward Commiee in towns.

Claims and Objecons will be re-

ceived at this stage also and dealt

with in the same manner de-scribed above. The Gram

Sabha/Ward Commiee has to

give its clearance or objecon

within a fixed period of me aer

which it will be deemed that the

lists have been cleared. The lists

thus authencated will then be

sent to the Unique Identy Au-

thority of India (UIDAI) for de-du-

plicaon and issue of UID

Numbers. All duplicates will beeliminated at this stage based on

comparison of biometrics.

Unique ID numbers will also be

generated for every person. The

cleaned database along with the

UID Number will then be sent

back to the Office of the Registrar

General and Census Commis-

sioner, India (ORG&CCI) and

would form the Naonal Popula-

on Register. As the UID system

works on the basis of biometric

de-duplicaon, in the case of per-

sons of age 15 years and above

(for whom biometrics is avail-

able), the UID Number will be

available for each individual. For

those below the age of 15 years(for whom biometrics is not avail-

able), the UID Number will be

linked to the parent or guardian.

Will Caste Census in

India Change Anything?

The recent approval by the Gov-

ernment of India for caste based

census has aroused concernsamong polical pares as well as

social sciensts and ethnogra-

phers. For the self-proclaimed

‘modernists’ such regressive

measures are likely to heighten

caste consciousness among Indi-

ans. While the pragmasts argue

that data on caste can help the

government to beer target affir-

mave acon policies and

thereby address caste differencesraonally. The fact however is the

that caste as a social reality in

India draws succour from mul-

ple sources which will remain un-

touched by either the proposed

census or the resultant official

policies. Caste issues influence

everyday life of Indians in count-

less ways.

For those who think that

caste in India is merely a tool of polical opportunism or a rem-

nant of ancient Hindu culture,

visit to the rural regions of North

Kerala during the winter months

can be surprising and unnerving.

Every year as the winter sets in,

rural areas of North Kerala pre-

pare for a unique transformaon

of social relaons. Theyyam is an

art form where performers, be-

longing to lower castes, are be-

lieved to be incarnated by local

deies and members of higher

castes flock to seek their blessing.

For three months of the year indi-

viduals from the lower castes are

elevated to the status of God but

have to live as untouchables oncethe Theyyam season culminates.

Numerous rituals and cus-

toms like Theyyam connue to

nourish the pracce of caste dif-

ferences in India. One only needs

to skim through the matrimonial

columns in leading English dailies

to get a sense that caste is an im-

portant consideraon even for

the ‘modern’ elite segment of the

urban Indian populaon.Stephen P. Rosen in his book

Sociees and Military Power:

India and its Army discuss the

connuing salience of caste in

India’s army. Though many would

consider Rosen’s conclusions

somewhat extreme but he does

raise several valid concerns. The

baalions in the Indian Army con-

nue to be organised as the Jat,

Sikh, Dogra or Rajput regiments.The Poona Pact between Ma-

hatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambed-

kar in 1932 granng reservaon

for ‘depressed’ classes in the

provincial legislatures was a pre-

cursor for the phenomenal poli-

cal salience of caste in Indian

polics. From the Backward

Classes Commission’s endeavour

to create a master list of other

backwards classes in 1955 toKHAM (Kshatriyas, Harijans, Adi-

vasis and Muslims) polics of the

Congress (I) in the 1980s; from

the Mandal Commission uproar

in the 1990s to growing mass ap-

peal of Dalit based polical par-

es like the Bahujan Samaj Party,

India’s polical arena has wit-

nessed countless caste inspired

srrings. No observer of Indian

polics can ignore the role of

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caste in determining electoral

outcomes.

Moreover, even before the

on-going controversy over the

2010 caste census erupted, the

Government of India had been in-

volved in many projects catego-

rizing its populaon along caste

lines. Despite cricisms from his-

torians, polical sciensts and an-

thropologists the Government of

India did not abandon the colo-

nial state’s pracse of differen-

ang people along lines of caste

and religion in the People of India

projects. According to Susan

Bayly, in the late 1990s the An-

thropological Survey of India was

undertaking “massive exercise in

caste-based data collecon- the

People of India Project- with

funding from Planning Commis-

sion. The project has used DNA

sampling to idenfy difference

between individual castes and

tribes. Readers are told that as

composite ‘type’, the Schduled

Castes have ‘relavely broad

noses’; chamars says another

entry are characterized by a ‘long,

narrow head shape and a long

moderately broad nasal shape.”

Such, outrageous disncons

based on caste in a report spon-

sored by a State agency had gone

completely unnoced by the

‘modernists’ and pragmacs in-

volved in recent debate. Though

previous censuses have not in-

cluded quesons of caste directly,

the ethnographic notes in the

census reports have contributed

much to literature on caste in

India.

According to the pragma-

sts India cannot simply

assume ‘modernity’ by ig-

noring caste. They see

caste as a form of social

straficaon much likeclass in Britain or race in

the U.S. The U.S. census

and job applicaons have a vol-

untary disclosure segment requir-

ing informaon about the

individual’s race. Comparing

caste with class and race appears

incorrect if one realises that un-

like other forms of social strafi-

caons, caste in India is allegedly

sanconed by the sacred scrip-tures. Even though the scriptural

sancty of caste is open to de-

bate many Indians cite the

Manusmri and Bhagavad Gita to

support arguments in favour of

caste. It is much simpler to ad-

dress differenaons based on

skin colour or naonality than

straficaons perceived to be or-

dained by religious texts.

Caste based social praccesin India go beyond the more visi-

ble polical and economic dimen-

sions and these subtle aspects

are unlikely to be impacted by

the enumeraon of caste through

the census.

Brief History of Census

The earliest literature 'Rig-Veda'reveals that some kind of popula-

on count was maintained in dur-

ing 800-600 BC in India. The

celebrated 'Arthashastr' by 'Kau-

lya' wrien in the 3rd Century

BC prescribed the collecon of

populaon stascs as a measure

of state policy for taxaon. It con-

tained a detailed descripon of

methods of conducng popula-

on, economic and agricultural

censuses. During the regime of

the Mughal king Akbar, the ad-

ministrave report 'Ain-e-Akbari'

included comprehensive data

pertaining to populaon, indus-

try, wealth and many other char-

acteriscs.A systemac and modern

populaon census, in its present

form was conducted non syn-

chronously between 1865 and

1872 in different parts of the

country. This effort culminang in

1872 has been popularly labeled

as the first populaon census of

India However, the first synchro-

nous census in India was held in

1881. Since then, censuses havebeen undertaken uninterruptedly

once every ten year.

The Census of India 2001 was

the fourteenth census in the con-

nuous series as reckoned

from1872 and the sixth since in-

dependence. The giganc task of

census taking was completed in

two phases. In the first phase,

known as House -lisng Opera-

ons, all building and structures,residenal, partly residenal or

non- residenal were idenfied

and listed and the uses to which

they were put recorded. Informa-

on on houses, household

amenies and assets were also

collected. In the second phase,

known as Populaon Enumera-

on, more detailed informaon

on each individual residing in the

country, Indian naonal or other-wise, during the enumeraon pe-

riod was collected.

At the Census 2001, more

than 2 million (or 20 lakh) enu-

merators were deployed to col-

lect the informaon by vising

every household. The Indian Cen-

sus is one of the largest adminis-

trave exercises undertaken in

the world.

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acing the second trial of

strength in four days, Yed-

dyurappa's moon ex-

pressing confidence in his council

of ministers was carried by 106

votes supporng it and 100

against.

The BJP had the support of

105 MLAs and an Independent

MLA, while Congress had 73,

JD(S) 27 in a house of 206.

The proceedings were or-

derly and the vote was taken

through head count unlike the

pandemonium that surrounded

controversial vote that was de-

clared passed by a voice vote.

One Independent MLA, who was

with the Opposion, sided with

the Government.

Earlier, Speaker K G Bopaiah

rejected a plea of the Leader of

Opposion Siddaramaiah for

postponing vote in view of the

hearing on disqualificaon pe-

ons by the Karnataka High

Court. The House was adjourned

Karnataka CrisisKarnataka chief minister B S Yeddyurappa expectedly

won a vote of confidence in the truncated state As-sembly, a victory which will depend on the High Court'sdecision on the disqualificaon of 16 MLAs.

F

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. . .





sine die later.

Two MLAs-- Manappa Vajjal

from BJP and M C Ashwath of

JD(S) were absent from the

House, which brought down the

effecve strength of the 224-

member assembly to 206.Sixteen MLAs, 11 from BJP

and five Independents -- were

disqualified under an-defecon

law on October 10 by the Speaker

ahead of the Monday's vote

which has been challenged in the

High Court.

The court has reserved its or-

ders on the plea of the BJP MLAs

for quashing the Speaker's or-

ders, while it adjourned hearingon the plea of the Independent

MLAs.

Yeddyurappa was forced to

go in for the second trial of

strength aer Governor H R

Bhardwaj rejected the result of

the vote as "farce" and gave him

another chance on, which the BJP

accepted.

Governer Bhardwaj had rec-

ommended to the Centre imposi-

on of President's

rule in Karnataka

holding that the Con-

stuon machinery

had broken down.

The High Court

also did not provideinterim relief to dis-

qualified MLAs and

with the number

favouring him in the

assembly, Yeddyu-

rappa accepted the

Governor's offer to

take the floor test,

the second me

trust vote.

What is a trustvote?

A "trust vote" is a

process by which the council of

ministers establishes that it en-

joys the confidence of the major-

ity of the House of the People i.e.

the Lok Sabha. It is done by the

Prime Minister moving a resolu-on seeking support for his gov-

ernment. A trust vote would

generally be by way of a moon

(of confidence or no confidence

as the case may be). If the moon

(for confidence) is carried, it is

called a trust vote.

Trust vote is a generic term

used to check the confidence en-

joyed by the government in Par-

liament. It is generally tested by

means of two moons:

Moon of confidence: A mo-

on of confidence is a moon of

support proposed by the govern-

ment in Parliament or other as-

sembly of elected representaves

to give the Members of Parlia-ment (or other such assembly) a

chance to register their confi-

dence in the government.

The moon is passed or re-

jected by means of a parliamen-

tary vote (a vote of confidence).

No confidence moon: A mo-

on of no confidence (also vote

of no confidence, censure mo-

on, no-confidence moon, or

confidence moon) is a parlia-mentary moon tradionally put

before a Parliament by the Oppo-

sion in the hope of defeang or

weakening a government, or,

rarely by an erstwhile supporter

who has lost confidence in the

government.

The government proposes a

moon of confidence, whereas

the Opposion proposes a no

confidence moon.Defeat of a Moon of Confi-

dence in the Parliament generally

requires one of two acons:

• The resignaon of the gov-

ernment, or

• A request for a parliamentary

dissoluon and the calling of

a general elecon.

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Who iniates thetrust vote?

If the moon is a confidence mo-

on, the government proposes it

and if it's a no-confidence mo-on, it's proposed by the Opposi-

on.

What is a whip?

It is a vong instrucon issued to

the members of a polical party

by the leadership. Since legisla-

tures typically only require a ma-

jority of the quorum inaendance, a majority party can

be outvoted if a large number of

its legislators are absent and the

Opposion is in full aendance.

An important part of a govern-

ment whip's job is to ensure that

this situaon never arises.

What if an MP goes

against the whip?

If a party member violates the

whip, he may be disqualified. It

usually happens in case of a trust

vote. For example, the total num-

ber of seats in the Lok Sabha is

543 and majority is needed at

272. Every party issues a whip to

their members. Now if 10 mem-

bers of the Opposion go against

the whip and vote against the in-

strucons of the party, it be-comes easier for the government

to survive. It wins the trust vote.

But the respecve party may take

acon against the guilty mem-

bers and they may be disquali-

fied.

In another case, if members

abstain even aer the whip is is-

sued, the total becomes 533. The

majority required in this case be-

comes 267. Thus, the number

needed to save the governmentis reduced and if it secures the re-

quired seats, the government is

safe.

If there isn't any whip?

Then it is not absolutely essenal

for all the members present to

vote. Some may choose to ab-

stain or stay away. So, if somemembers don't come or don't

vote or ensure that their votes

are invalidated, then too the out-

come is valid.

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. . .





Luis Urzua, 54, who was

leading the shi at the

me of the collapse, was

the last of the miners to travel

through 2,050 feet (625 meters)of rock to the surface in a capsule

barely wider than a man's shoul-

ders.

Celebraons erupted across

the country as he emerged to a

hero's welcome above the San

Jose gold and copper mine in

Chile's northern Atacama desert,

wearing his hard-hat and dark

shades to protect his eyes aer

spending 69 days in a dimly-lit

tunnel. Urzua beamed as an

elated crowd chanted, yelled,

sobbed and waved red, white and

blue Chilean flags.

The miners have set a new world

record for survival trapped un-

derground. Rescue workers

opened the capsule door and

hugged Urzua, who had insisted

throughout that he would not

leave the tunnel unl all the

other miners were safely evacu-

ated. They are now all safe,

thanks to a meculously-planned

Last of Chile's 33miners rescued,

ordeal ends

F

All of Chile's 33 trapped miners

were rescued from the bowels of the

earth in a special capsule on October

14, 2010 as an extraordinary two-

month survival story many call a

miracle triggered wild celebrations.

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rescue oper-

aon that

went quicker

and more

s m o o t h l ythan anyone

dared to be-

lieve.

Now the res-

cue workers

who traveled

the down

the sha to

help evacu-

ate them will

themselves

be winched

to the surface in the metal cap-

sule, named Phoenix aer the

mythical bird that rose from the

ashes.

Church bells rang out in Chile

when the first miner was extri-

cated and Chileans were glued totheir televisions, proud of their

naon's ability to save the men in

a world class rescue operaon.

Euphoria

Euphoric rescuers, relaves and

friends broke into cheers -- and

tears -- as the miners emerged to

breathe fresh air for the first me

since the mine caved in on Aug 5.They were all inially believed to

be dead but rescue teams found

the men 17 days aer the col-

lapse with a bore hole the width

of a grapefruit.

The ny hole then became an

umbilical cord used to pass hydra-

on gels, water and food to keep

them alive during one of the

world's most ambious rescue

operaons. Their story of survival

captured global aenon.

Some 1,500 journalists were

at the mine to report on the res-

cue operaon, which was broad-

cast live around the world,including dramac live images of

the miners hugging rescuers who

traveled down the sha to their

refuge deep in the mine.

The flawless rescue was a big

success for Chilean President Se-

basan Pinera, who waited at the

mouth of the sha through the

night and day to greet and hug

the men as they emerged from

the red, white and blue capsule -- the Chilean colors.

Pinera, a billionaire entrepre-

neur who took office in March,

ordered an overhaul of Chile's

mine safety regulaons aer the

accident. His popularity rangs

have surged and his government

has won praise for its handling of

the crisis.

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Among millions of people

who watched television coverage

of the rescue of the first miner

was US President Barack Obama,

who hailed the operaon as an

inspiraon to the world.

Thirty-two of the

miners are Chilean but

one is from neighbor-

ing Bolivia and the res-

cue has helped

improve es between

the two countries,locked in a bier dis-

pute for more than a

century over Bolivia's

demands for access to

the Pacific. Bolivia's

President Evo Morales

was at the mine to

welcome the Bolivian

miner, Carlos Mamani,

as he was lied to

safety and he thankedPinera and his govern-

ment for rescuing him.

Chile will connue to

shut old, decrepit

mines aer the min-

ers' saga, but the

clampdown is unlikely

to hit output in the

world's top copper

producer, industry in-

siders say. The miningindustry has played a

central and oen

tragic role in Lan

American history,

starng with the

hunger for gold and

silver that drove the

Spanish conquest and

led to the enslave-

ment of indigenous

peoples.For centuries,

condions in Lan

American mines were

miserable but they

have improved dra-

macally in recent

decades and the in-

dustry has over the

last 10 years helped fuel a boom

in some of the region's

economies, including Chile.

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Nobel Peace PrizeWinner 2010 :

Liu XiaoboI

In Oslo, it was announced that

Chinese acvist and writer Liu Xi-

aobo has won a Nobel Peace

Prize. It has been reported that

the writer and acvist was cho-

sen for the award because of his

constant bale for human rights.

The commiee who chose the

winners of the awards stated that

there is a close connecon be-

tween peace and human rights,hence Liu being awarded the cov-

eted prize which is worth one

point five million dollars.

The Nobel Prize winner is cur-

rently serving an eleven year

prison sentence for incing sub-

version of state power in China.

The commiee chairman, Thorb-

jorn Jagland said that China was

in breach of several internaonal

convenons such as freedom of

speech as well as

freedom of assem-

bly. This year there

were a record num-

ber of nominaons

for the Nobel Peace

Prize at a staggeringtwo hundred and

thirty seven. Last

year President Bar-

rack Obama won a

Nobel Peace Prize

for his extraordi-

nary efforts in

strengthening inter-

naonal diplomacy.

The Nobel Peace

Prize awarded to LiuXiaobo is the fih

award in two thousand and ten.The other awards which are for

medicine, physics, chemistry, and

literature were announced to the

public earlier on in the week.

There are usually many nomina-

ons for Nobel Peace Prizes each

year, but this year it was more

than most, as menoned above.

Those lucky enough to win not

only have the privilege of winning

the award, but also the huge

amount of money that comes

with it.

China is of course angry at

the Nobel commiee for award-

ing the presgious award to Liu

Xiaobo. Obama has called on the

chine government to release theprisoner.

The Nobel Prize inPhysics 2010

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2010

was awarded jointly to Andre

Geim and Konstann Novoselov

"for groundbreaking experiments

regarding the two-dimensional

material graphene"

Nobel Prize for medicine

The intensely modest Brish sci-enst who pioneered IVF has

been honoured with a ‘long over-

due’ Nobel prize for medicine.

Just seven years ago Robert

Edwards joked that he wasn’t

bothered about being overlooked

for a knighthood, but a Nobel

would be nice.

Professor Edwards, emeritus

professor of human reproducon

at Cambridge University, was her-

Winners

of

Nobel

Prize2010

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. . .





alded as the creator of modern

reproducve medicine.

His work with gynaecologist and

fellow Briton Dr Patrick Steptoe

led to the birth in July 1978 of

Louise Brown, the world’s first

‘test tube baby’.Their research came against a

backdrop of significant opposi-

on from the medical and reli-

gious establishments. They

persevered, however, and in vitro

ferlisaon – whereby human

eggs are ferlised outside the

body and then implanted in the

womb – has since resulted in

4.3million births worldwide.

The Nobel prize commiee inStockholm said Professor Ed-

wards’s ‘achievements have

made it possible to treat inferl-

ity, a medical condion afflicng

a large proporon of humanity’.

Nobel Literature Prize

Peruvian writer Mario Vargas

Llosa has won the 2010 Nobel

prize for literature. The Nobel

Prize commiee said in a state-

ment Vargas Llosa received the

award "for his cartography of

structures of power and his

trenchant images of the individ-

ual's resistance, revolt and de-

feat".

The 74-year-old writer is the

first South American to win theNobel since Colombian magic-re-

alist innovator Gabriel Garcia

Marquez in 1982. Mexico's Oc-

tavio Paz won the prize in 1990.

Like Paz and many other Lan

American authors, Vargas Llosa

has dabbled in polics over the

years. He even ran, unsuccess-

fully, for the the Peruvian presi-

dency in 1990.

From the publicaon of hisfirst novel, 1963 -- The Time of

the Hero, based on his experi-

ences at a Peruvian military acad-

emy, Vargas Llosa is recognized as

a leading figure in the Lan Amer-

ican literature in the second half

of the 20th century.

He has wrien essays, non-

ficon, and ficon in a wide vari-

ety of genres and styles. The

Green House is widely considered

among his best works. It is a non-

chronological account of unrest

in Peru centered on the desert

brothel of the tle.

The bier 1969 novel Conver-

saons in the Cathedral embeds

a crique of the dictatorship of

Peruvian president Manuel Odria

in the story of one man's search

for the truth about his ministerfather's role in the murder of a

notorious underworld figure.

In the 2000 novel The Feast

of the Goat (published in the U.S.

in 2002), Vargas Llosa makes a

startlingly unsympathec, Shake-

speare-worthy villain of Rafael

Trujillo, the real-life military des-

pot who ruled the Dominican Re-

public from 1930-61.

Many Americans may knowVargas Llosa best for his 1977

comic novel, Aunt Julia and the

Screenwriter, which was adapted

into American director Jon

Amiel's widely praised movie

Tune in Tomorrow, starring Peter

Falk as a larger-than-life creator

of radio soap operas who manip-

ulates the May-December rela-

onship of a young aspiring

writer (Keanu Reeves) and hisolder, twice-divorced aunt by

marriage (Barbara Hershey).

(EW's Owen Gleiberman said the

film "crackles with romanc

heat.")

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Two Japanese sciensts and an

American researcher won theNobel Prize in Chemistry for de-

veloping chemical reacons that

help create large quanes of or-

ganic substances that can be used

for medicine.

Richard F. Heck of the Univer-

sity of Delaware in Newark,

Delaware, Akira Suzuki, 80, of

Hokkaido University in Sapporo,

Japan, and Ei-Ichi Negishi, 75 of

Purdue University in West

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Lafayee, Indiana, will share the

10 million-kronor ($1.5 million)

award, the Royal Swedish Acad-

emy of Sciences said at a press

conference in Stockholm.

Last year’s prize in chemistry

went to Venkatraman Ramakrish-

nan, of the United Kingdom;

Thomas A. SteitzThomas A.

Steitz, of the United States; and

Ada E. Yonath, of Israel, for their

work on how the DNA code is

translated into life, findings that

have been used to fight infecousdisease.

Nobel Economic Prize

Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen

Dale Mortensen and Christopher

Pissarides won the 2010 Nobel

Prize in Economics Sciences.

Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen

and Christopher Pissarides re-ceived the 2010 Nobel Prize in

Economics Sciences for their re-

search on efficacy of service and

compensaon model. Peter Dia-

mond had also made contribu-

ons to the labor-market

consideraons along with the

other two sciensts that finally

led them to win the Nobel Prize

for Economic Sciences 2010.

Now that Peter Diamondmarked his name on the Nobel

Prize in economics Shelby must

rethink his objecon. Shelby, in

fact, by no means said that Peter

Diamond was not a good econo-

mist. He actually held that Peter

Diamond has no idea of mone-

tary economics. That too is a fool-

ish idea in itself.

“Peter Diamond has analyzed

the foundaons of search mar-kets. Dale Mortensen and

Christopher Pissarides have ex-

panded the theory and have ap-

plied it to the labor market. The

laureates’ models help us under-

stand the ways in which unem-

ployment, job vacancies, and

wages are affected by regulaon

and economic policy”, said the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sci-

ences.

Peter Diamond is seventy

years old. Peter Diamond is an

economics professor at the Mas-

sachuses Instute of Technol-

ogy. Peter Diamond has

conducted many researches on a

wide range of topics.

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India commied to en-suring safety of sea lanes

Indian Defence Minister AK

Antony said the country was

commied to fighng the "seri-ous challenge" of piracy and

called for "cooperave ap-

proaches" for ensuring the secu-

rity of sea lanes in the Asia-Pacific

region - "one of the most impor-

tant drivers of global economic

growth".

Addressing the first Associa-

on of Southeast Asian Naons

plus eight (Asean+) defence min-

isters' meeng in this Vietnam

capital, Antony said piracy was "a

serious challenge for the world

community".

"The security of sea lanes of

communicaon is vital in today's

world. It is in the common inter-

est of naons to keep sealanes open, secure and free

for navigaon, trade and en-

ergy supplies.

"The Indian Navy is ac-

vely engaged in providing

an-piracy patrolling and es-

cort operaons in the Gulf of

Aden for over two years

now. India is commied to

working together with other

countries in the efforts to

address piracy," he said.

He said the security of sea

lanes was "important for the

Asia-Pacific region, which is now

one of the most important driv-

ers of global economic growth".


India & World

Current Affairs



. . .





"Through the Regional Coop-

eraon Agreement on Combang

Piracy and Armed Robbery

against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP)

and the Malacca Straits mecha-

nisms, we are partnering with

other countries in the region toimprove the safety of navigaon

in the region," he said.

The Asean+ defence minis-

ters' meeng, which has no for-

mal name yet, is the creaon of

the South East Asian forum that

brings together all the 10 South

East Asian countries and their key

dialogue partners - Australia,

China, India, Japan, New Zealand,

Russia, South Korea, and the US.Antony also affirmed India's

"strong commitment" to the

forum for "peace and stability" in

the region. Antony is accompa-

nied by Defence Secretary

Pradeep Kumar on his visit to

Vietnam.

India closes in on free

trade deal with Japan

India moved one step closer to

signing a free trade agreement

with Japan as the cabinet cleared

a deal which could increase bilat-

eral commerce tenfold between

the two Asian powers.

"The cabinet has cleared it,"

government spokesperson Nee-

lam Kapoor, adding the deal was

expected to be finalised whenPrime Minister Manmohan Singh

visits Japan later in October.

The pact is one of several

India, with its economy growing

at 8.5 percent or more this year

and its potenal customer base

of 1.2 billion, is negoang.

Asia's third-largest economy

wants to sharply increase its

share of global trade, currently

less than two percent, in line with

its rising global he. A similar

deal with the European Union,

India's largest trade partner, may

also be concluded soon.

Trade between India and

Japan in 2009 was 940 billion yen

($11 billion), about 4 percent of Japan's trade with China, Japan-

ese government figures show.

The Japanese Foreign Minis-

ter has said the deal, which will

eliminate tariffs on 94 percent of

bilateral trade flows in 10 years,

could increase trade tenfold. The

pact follows years of wrangling

over issues such as tariffs on

Japanese car parts and tough

checks on Indian pharmaceucalgoods.

India-Japan StrategicDialogue

On August 21, 2010, vising

Japanese Foreign Minister Kat-

suya Okada held the fourth round

of strategic dialogue with Exter-

nal Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna.The two sides discussed the nu-

clear pact, comprehensive eco-

nomic partnership agreement

(CEPA), other bilateral and inter-

naonal issues, including UN re-

forms and the situaon in

Afghanistan and Pakistan.

However, the focus was

clearly on the nuke deal, the dis-

cussions on which the two coun-

tries propose to conclude as

quickly as possible without set-

ng any me-line.Addressing a joint press con-

ference with Krishna aer the

three-hour talks between the two

sides, Okada candidly admied

that iniang negoaons with

India on the nuclear pact was the

toughest decision he had taken

during his stewardship of the

Japanese Foreign Ministry, given

the fact that India was not a sig-

natory to the NPT. He also ac-knowledged that the proposal for

a nuclear agreement with India

was facing sharp cricism back

home, since Japan is the only

country to have experienced a

nuclear aack.

He also told the Indian side

that the philosophy of nuclear

disarmament and non-prolifera-

on must be incorporated in the

proposed accord on nuclear co-operaon.

Asked if Japan had advised

India against detonang another

nuclear device, Okada said: “I

don’t think we can suggest to

India to refrain from conducng a

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test…but if such a thing were to

happen, we shall have no opon

but to suspend our cooperaon

with India (in the field).”

The two countries will con-

nue and enhance consultaons

within the G-4 process for re-forms of the UN, including the Se-

curity Council. They also

welcomed the inclusion of the US

and Russia in the East Asia Sum-

mit (EAS).

Gas pipeline agreement

The Gas Pipeline Framework

Agreement (GPFA) for the Turk-menistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-

India (TAPI) pipeline has been

signed in Ashkhabad.

Aer signing the GPFA, the

four countries are planning to

enter another round of negoa-

ons to finalise the Gas Sales Pur-

chase Agreement during a

proposed TAPI summit in theTurkmenistan capital itself.

The TAPI pipeline project en-

visages transporng natural gas

from Turkmenistan through

Afghanistan to Pakistan and India.

India is a late entrant as the other

three countries had signed the

Inter Governmental Agreement

in 2002. For the inducon of

India, a revised GPFA was ini-

ated in 2008, the Ministry state-

ment said

The 1,680 km long pipeline is

expected to carry 3.2 billion cubic

feet per day (bcfd) gas from Turk-

menistan. It will deliver 0.5 bcfd

to Afghanistan and 1.35 bcfd to

Pakistan and to India.

Doha Round to missdeadline

The contenous

Doha Round of trade

talks of the World

trade Organizaon

(WTO) will miss the

2010 deadline due to

domesc compul-sions of U.S. that has

made the agreement

almost impossible.

Speaking at a

seminar organised by

the Confederaon of

Indian Industry on the issue,

Commerce Secretary Rahul

Khullar said the global trade

agreement would not happen

this year as was originally envis-aged in the Delhi declaraon

adopted in September last year.

“The deal is not going to get done

in 2010,'' Mr. Khullar said.

The U.S. demand for en-

hanced access to Chinese, Indian

and Brazilian markets, while at

the same me stepping up pro-

tecve trade measures, had fur-

ther mired the already stalled

Doha trade negoaons.

The mullateral

trade agreement under

negoaons among 153

members of the WTO

since 2001 was to be

concluded in 2004. Since

then, it has missed sev-eral deadlines in the face

of differences between

developing and devel-

oped countries on giving

commitments on market open-

ing.

The U.S. is not ready yet,

whatever be the compulsion, po-

lical or economic or very high

unemployment. Right now, it is

not happening. At this point of me we should primarily be fo-

cussing for the best in 2011,'' he

said.

He expressed hope that seri-

ous negoaons might begin

only from January 2011. With

Congress elecons in November,

polical rhetoric in the U.S. in

favour proteconism had in-

creased in the last few weeksleading to several proteconist

measures including ban by Ohio

on outsourcing.

India exhorts G-20naons to coordinate

policies

India exhorted the G-20 member

countries to work together to

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lished by the Khmer rulers, was

designated a Unesco World Her-

itage Site in 2001.

Work on the complex that

was started by the ASI in 2009

will be resumed under the pres-

ent agreement. At the talks, Ms.Pal informed her Laos' counter-

part that with the approval of the

Nalanda University Bill by Parlia-

ment, India was looking forward

to receiving students from the As-

sociaon of Southeast Asian Na-

ons (Asean) countries including

Laos.

India, Poland tostrengthen es

India and Poland discussed ways

to strengthen bilateral relaon-

ship, especially in defence, trade

and investment, during delega-

on-level talks between Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh and

his vising Polish counterpart,

Donald Tusk.

Defence cooperaon withPoland surged in the Cold War

era from the early 70s when

much of the Indian defence

equipment was of Soviet origin

and has connued, albeit at a low

key since.

India is at present looking to

Poland for maintenance of So-

viet\Russian equipment, includ-

ing aircra and for the supply of

auxiliary equipment such as tankrecovery vehicles.

India –US Civil Liability for

Nuclear Damage Bill, 2010

In its final form as legislated, the

Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage

Bill, 2010 represents an improve-

ment over the government's ini-

al and intermediate dras.Weaknesses remain but Parlia-

ment has done well to exclude

private nuclear operators from

the ambit of the law, widen the

scope of the operator's right of

recourse against suppliers, and

raise the liability cap of an opera-

tor in the event of an accident to

Rs.1,500 crore.

The earlier limit of Rs.500

crore was woefully inadequate.Even though the new cap will not

cover the scale or extent of nu-

clear damage in the event of a se-

rious accident, the law at least

allows future governments to

raise the cap.

The most important change

introduced is, of course, in Sec-

on 17(b), dealing with the right

of recourse. The first dra al-

lowed the operator to recoverdamages from a supplier in the

event an accident was caused by

gross negligence on the laer's

part.

Under pressure from foreign

companies and governments, the

United Progressive Alliance gov-

ernment tried to delete this sec-

on or nullify its significance by

linking its operaon to the exis-

tence of a contract or to mens reaon the part of the supplier. Even-

tually, however, it was forced to

swallow the strengthening of this

provision. The operator will now

have a right of recourse against

the supplier if a nuclear accident

is caused by equipment with la-

tent or patent defects or by sub-

standard services.

Predictably, foreign and In-

dian private sector lobbyists likethe U.S.-India Business Council

and various chambers of com-

merce have launched a campaign

against 17(b). They say the sec-

on is inconsistent with interna-

onal norms and will lead to a

collapse of the Indian nuclear in-

dustry because private vendors

won't supply equipment for fear

of being held liable.

These arguments are unten-able. Internaonal ‘norms' in

such maers do not fall from the

skies but are the product of mar-

ket condions. With India looking

to buy as many as 40 large reac-

tors over the next decade or so, it

has every right to expect that

suppliers shoulder at least the li-

ability burden from an accident

caused by defecve products.

Moreover, the operator will

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be able to make a claim only if it

can prove in court that an acci-

dent for which it has paid com-

pensaon was actually caused by

an act of the supplier. If some pri-

vate lobbyists are worried about

the supplier being held liableaer “80 years” for products sold

now, they should at least concede

that the operator will not find it

easy to establish fault liability

eight decades on. In any event,

with operator (and hence sup-

plier) liability capped around

$320 million for a plant likely to

be sold for more than $5 billion,

the insurance burden will be far

from onerous — especially if it isset against the human lives, wel-

fare, and futures at stake.

India to raise Ohiooutsourcing ban issue at

Trade Policy Forum

India will formally convey its dis-

appointment to the U.S. over the

ban imposed by the State of Ohioon offshore outsourcing at the

high-level bilateral Trade Policy

Forum (TPF) meeng in Washing-

ton later this month.

Mr. Sharma and U.S. Trade

Representave Ron Kirk will co-

chair the September 21 meeng

of the TPF, which is the principal

trade dialogue between the U.S.

and India.

Obama raises pitchagainst outsourcing

US President Barack Obama once

again targeted the outsourcing of

jobs overseas by American com-

panies, increasing the pressure

on local firms in an aempt to se-

cure some benefit in the polls

ahead of the crucial November

elecons in his country.

Obama’s party, the Democ-

rats, faces a hugely disillusioned

and angry electorate on Novem-

ber 2, and is widely expected to

lose control of the House of Rep-

resentaves. The US presidenthas spent the last few days trying

to rally his base with promises to

protect jobs and spur economic

growth.

His reference to ending tax

breaks does not mean that US

companies get tax breaks for

shipping jobs overseas. Instead,

the US tax code allows them to

keep the income they earn over-

seas without incurring a tax liabil-

ity. In order to encourage more

local hiring, Obama also gave aspeech in January this year where

he suggested a $5,000 credit for

every job a company created (net

new job) and an overall limit of

$500,000 credit per company for

availing such benefits.

While there is sll no specific

proposal elaborang how Obama

plans to end the tax breaks, such

measures could mean that large

outsourcing customers such as

GE and Cibank might have to

pay certain taxes on their income

from internaonal markets, mak-

ing it less aracve for customers

to send IT projects to cheaper off-

shore locaons such as India. To

this end, Obama is proposing re-forming the taxaon of the over-

seas income of mulnaonal

corporaons. Under current law,

firms don’t pay taxes to the US

government on income earned

abroad unl they bring the

money back to the United States.

Many experts say that ending

these tax breaks will not stop out-

sourcing. The economic logic of

sending jobs to low-cost centres

is so compelling that companies

will keep doing it.

Ohio bans off shoring of IT projects by govt depts

The US state of Ohio has banned

outsourcing of government IT

and backoffice projects to off-

shore locaons such as India,

raising fears of similar moves by

other American states struggling

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to cope with high unemployment

rates.

The move is yet another blow

to the Indian IT industry, which is

facing higher visa costs and rising

protests against outsourcing in

other US states. Offshoring workto India is a $50-billion industry,

and the Indian tech industry has

benefied immensely from

American firms wanng to take

advantage of its low wages and

top-quality skills. The industry

employs about three million peo-

ple across India and has largely

been responsible for the sea

change in the West’s percepon

about the country.Last month, the US Congress

passed a controversial legislaon

increasing visa fees for funding

the country’s Mexico Border Se-

curity program. States such as

Virginia are facing a massive

backlash against outsourcing that

could further affect the prospects

of Indian IT firms. Last week, the

West Virginia Public Workers

Union filed a lawsuit against pro-posed outsourcing of IT jobs by

the state’s office of technology.

Though Indian companies

largely rely on private companies

for the bulk of their business and

orders from state governments

are rare, that approach has slowly

been changing.

Nasscom, on its part, said at

a me when top American firms

such as IBM and Accenture aregaining more business from the

Indian government’s IT spend,

such measures by US states are

discriminatory.

Govt may ease normsto infuse funds into core

sector projects

The finance ministry has sought a

lower credit rang threshold for

investment in infrastructure sec-

tor by insurance companies to fa-

cilitate greater flow of the

long-term savings into creaon of

physical assets.

According to government es-mates, infrastructure sector

needs over $1 trillion funds in the

12th Five-Year Plan period begin-

ning 2012.

The current rules allow insur-

ance companies to invest only in

AAA or AA credit-rated debt

paper. Moreover, at least 75% of

investment in debt instruments

for every fund in the case of life

insurers and investment assets of

general insurers should have a

AAA rang.

These restricons has meant

that though life insurance compa-

nies are required to put at least

15% of their funds from tradi-

onal policies into infrastructureand housing, the actual allocaon

is a lot less.

At the end of March 2009,

less than 9% of life insurer’s fund

from tradional products were

invested in the housing and infra-

structure products.

The Deepak Parekh commit-

tee on infrastructure financing

had gone a step ahead and sug-

gested that insurance companies

be allowed to invest in secured

debt with a BBB rang, usually

considered investment grade.

Physical infrastructure has

emerged as the single biggest

constraint to the country’s at-

tempts to achieve 9%-plus eco-nomic growth. Channelling

long-term insurance funds to the

infrastructure sector has become

parcularly important as banks

cannot meet the needs given the

asset-liability mismatch such

lending causes. Banks’ deposit

funds that typically have a 3-5

year maturity and providing long-

term loans from such fund opens

them to risks if they are not ableto replace the deposits at the

same costs. Banks also have re-

stricons on how much they can

lend to an individual project. Pen-

sion and insurance funds have no

such constraints as their invest-

ments are also long-term.

India-U.S. discussions in

full swing prior toObama visit

In an unmistakable indicaon of

backroom discussions shiing up

a gear before U.S. President

Barack Obama's India visit in No-

vember, the State Department

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announced on that United States

Naonal Security Adviser General

Jim Jones met with Foreign Sec-

retary Nirupama Rao to “con-

nue preparaons for the

President's upcoming visit.”

Ms. Rao is in Washingtonprincipally to keep the discus-

sions moving forward and it has

been announced that next week

Industry Minister Anand Sharma

will be in town to similarly add

momentum to bilateral trade pol-

icy discussions.

The vising Indian officials

were said to be holding meengs

with senior U.S. counterparts, in-

cluding Under Secretary for Poli-cal Affairs William Burns, Under

Secretary for Defence Michèle

Flournoy, Under Secretary of the

Commerce Department's Bureau

of Industry and Security Eric

Hirschhorn, and Chairman of

House Foreign Affairs Commiee

Howard Berman.

While it would appear that

the U.S. has in general had a pos-

ive atude towards the bilat-eral relaonship, the Indian side

has been pressing for further

progress with issues such as the

H1-B visa fee hike, India's interest

in securing U.S. support for a per-

manent seat on the U.N. Security

Council and its hope that export

control restricons would be

eased. According to sources,

counter-terrorism, in parcular

its cross-border aspects includinginfiltraon, has been an impor-

tant component of the ongoing

talks between the two countries.

So has the civil nuclear liabil-

ity bill, even if progress on the

ground in this area was expected

to be gradual. In this sphere, the

main argument that India has

sought to convey to the U.S. was

that the liability bill passed in the

Indian Parliament did not contain

provisions that were addional to

what already existed in common

law and did not contradict the

Convenon on Supplementary

Compensaon for Nuclear Dam-

age.

Nuclear bill must becompable with global

standards, says U.S.

A senior United States officialonce again raised Washington's

discomfiture with the Nuclear

Limited Liability Bill approved by

Parliament last month and felt

India should harmonise it with in-

ternaonal laws.

“India has to make its own

decision but in making decisions,

it will be wise for India to look at

the pracces of other countries

and ensure that its regulaonsand its laws are consistent with

those of other countries,” said

U.S. Under Secretary of State for

Economic, Energy and Agricul-

tural Affairs Robert Hormats. He

was speaking to journalists aer

an interacve session on India-

U.S. bilateral economic relaon-

ship organised by the

Confederaon of Indian Industry

and the Aspen Instute.

The government here, on the

other hand, claims that the legis-

laon is compable with interna-

onal standards.

The Nuclear Liability Bill ran

into objecons from the U.S.

soon aer it was passed on Au-gust 30. The first off the block

was the U.S.-India Business Coun-

cil (USIBC), which suggested the

next day that the Indian law ap-

peared to be incompable with

the Convenon on Supplemen-tary Compensaon (CSC).

Indo-Nepal relaons

The Indian Embassy in Kath-

mandu is in the middle of a con-

troversy. It stands accused, yet

again, of ‘gross interference' and

‘aacking press freedom in an-

other country', and faces censurefrom a parliamentary commiee,

policians across the spectrum,

and civil society groups.

secons of the media, re-

cently including Kanpur televi-

sion which is a part of the larger

Kanpur group, reported that a

product of Dabur Nepal was sub-

standard and contained harmful

substances. On August 27, the

embassy said, “Indian joint ven-

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tures have informed the embassy

they have been approached by

such media houses for adverse-

ment and are being threatened

with negave publicity if thoserequests are not met.” It termed

the news reports as ‘baseless ad-

verse publicity against products

of such ventures' and said such

allegaons in the past had proven

to be false.

Marked by hoslity-The pres-

ent spat is essenally a reflecon

of the hosle relaonship be-

tween the Indian government

and the Kanpur group — thebiggest media house in Nepal.

The Hindu has been able to piece

together the broader context

based on conversaons with all

stakeholders, who wished to re-

main anonymous for obvious rea-

sons. Earlier this year, Indian

officials concluded that Kanpur's

coverage — reporng and edito-

rial line — was ‘disnctly an-In-

dian' and ‘insensive to security

concerns'. Several stories appear

to have contributed to this per-

cepon.

Jamim Shah, a Nepali entre-

preneur reported to have deeplinks with the underworld and

Dawood Ibrahim, was shot in

broad daylight in February this

year. Kanpur news reports al-

luded to the possibility of Indian

agencies being involved in the in-

cident. It also republished a re-

port from more than a decade

ago when a polical figure, Mirza

Dilshad Beg, with links to Ibrahim,

was shot dead — the speculaonthen was similar about how In-

dian security agencies may have

encouraged other underworld

groups, parcularly Choa Rajan,

to plan the killing. A few months

later, Kanpur reported exten-

sively on the localised clashes in

Meghalaya which resulted in the

killings of some Nepali naonals.

Indian officials felt the reports on

the incidents were ‘grossly exag-

gerated' to stoke ‘an-Indianism'.

The passport issue-Kanpur

was also at the forefront of op-

posing a government decision to

award contracts to supply ma-chine readable passports to India.

A parliamentary commiee, sec-

ons of the ruling alliance, and

the Maoists had opposed the

move, claiming the Indian bid

was higher and would ‘harm

Nepal's security'. Kanpur pub-

lished a leer — which was

leaked — wrien by Indian Am-

bassador Rakesh Sood to the

Nepali Foreign Minister SujataKoirala in which he requested the

government to cooperate be-

cause among other reasons, this

involved ‘India's security inter-

ests'. The domesc backlash

forced the Nepal cabinet to re-

voke the decision. Addionally,

while India was a firm backer of

the Madhav Kumar Nepal gov-

ernment and sought to isolate

the Maoists, Kanpur adopted an

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editorial stance asking for Prime

Minister Nepal's resignaon for

the sake of consensus.

Adversements, newsprint-

All of this seems to have fuelled

the Indian percepon — which

had first taken root aer a changein top editorial staff in Kanpur

publicaons last year — that the

media house, through ‘baseless

and unsubstanated reporng'

was targeng India's ‘core inter-

ests', stoking ‘ultra naonalism',

and ‘favouring the Maoists'.

India first stopped providing

embassy adversements to Kan-

pur. It then decided, someme

in May, to ratchet up the pressureand coordinated with other agen-

cies back home, especially the

Department of Revenue Inves-

gaon and customs, to stop

newsprint imported by Kanpur

from South Korea at the Kolkata

port. Simultaneously, Indian offi-

cials are learnt to have showed

files of Kanpur's ‘an-India re-

porng' to Indian joint venture

representaves in Nepal andasked them to stop all adverse-

ments in Kanpur television, the

Kanpur daily, and The Kath-

mandu Post. The corporate

houses complied.

In the third week of June,

Kanpur went public accusing

India of deliberately blocking

newsprint at Kolkata. The Em-

bassy called the allegaons base-

less, and aributed the delay to a‘roune administrave invesga-

on'. Polical pares, media or-

ganisaons and civil society

expressed solidarity with Kan-

pur.

Soon aer, Ambassador Sood

and Kanpur's owner Kailash

Sirohiya met for almost two

hours at the embassy. Sources

say the ‘open discussions' cen-

tred on Indian percepons about

Kanpur's an-India lt, with Mr.

Sirohiya saying there was no such

deliberate design and the em-

bassy had never conveyed these

concerns to them. A broad agree-

ment was struck where Kanpur

is understood to have assuredIndia that it would be more ‘sen-

sive' in its coverage while India

agreed to release newsprint.

India did gradually resume

newsprint supply and Kanpur's

editorial tone underwent a subtle

shi. It began to report less on

India-related maers with some

crical arcles being kept out.

But the issue of adversements

remained unresolved. The em-bassy line to the joint ventures

did not change, even as Kanpur

waited for the adversements to

resume and asked embassy offi-

cials for help. Meanwhile, some

of these adversements were

shiing to its arch-rivals in

Nepal's increasingly compeve

media market.

It is in this context that the

Dabur controversy erupted.

Some other media houses — a

tabloid paper and a television

channel — had been wring on

the issue of Dabur's alleged sub-

standard products since the end

of May. The company's represen-taves had refuted these reports

— it issued public interest no-

ces, co-operated with the cer-

ficaon authories, and wrote to

the press council asking it to cen-

sure ‘baseless reports'.

The ming of Kanpur's dis-

covery of the issue appears to be

directly related to the group los-

ing paence in its talks with In-

dian officials, and feelinginsecure. It seems to have con-

cluded that its ‘silence' over the

past two months was being con-

strued as a ‘sign of weakness',

and so thought that ratcheng up

the pressure by targeng compa-

nies and building public opinion

could challenge the Indians and

force it to change its posion. But

going public could well have the

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effect of strengthening the

‘tough' approach within the In-

dian establishment that had ad-

vocated such a course of acon in

the first place.

Introspecon-While Kan-

pur's dilemmas are understand-able, its recent coverage does

have traces of naonal chauvin-

ism and appears opportunisc,

linked to the adversement em-

bargo. While keeping big busi-

ness — both domesc and Indian

— to account, it should be careful

and responsible enough not to

tarnish companies whose contri-

buon to manufacturing, trading,

employment, and revenue is im-portant to the Nepali economy.

But it is the Indian govern-

ment that needs to do a serious

review. First, there is the ethical

propriety of using such strong-

arm taccs against the media in a

country where India claims to be

‘supporng democrac forces'.

But then there are real pragmac

issues. The Indian state used In-

dian big business operang inNepal for quesonable polical

purposes. The companies be-

came willing pawns in the bigger

game; this has boomeranged and

joint ventures are paying the

price.

India is now ranged against

not only the country's biggest po-

lical party, the Maoists, but also

its biggest media house, Kanpur.

It has opened up mulple frontsat the same me in Nepal, all in

the name of ‘naonal security',

and stands exposed, with even its

tradional allies finding it hard to

defend India in public. Delhi may

be smug about Nepal's over-

whelming structural dependence

on India, but it underesmates

the depth of resentment against

India in Nepal at its own peril.

Russia complains of ‘harsh' treatment to

overstayers

Senior Russian Embassy officials

met their Ministry of External Af-fairs counterparts here to under-

stand why their naonals,

accused of overstaying, were

being treated harshly by the po-

lice.

In parcular the Embassy has

flagged the case of two Russians

in Goa who have been sentenced

to one year's imprisonment and

fined Rs. 10,000 each for over-

staying. There is also the case of Olga Timoshik who is in custody

at a police staon in Ropar, Pun-

jab. In all Russia has submied a

list of 15 who, it feels, are being

treated rather harshly when they

had only overstayed and not

commied any other crime.

Fencing along Manipur-

Myanmar border pro-gressing well, says police

official

The erecon of an insurmount-

able fence along an eight km long

stretch of the Manipur-Myanmar

border is progressing sasfacto-

rily.

Disclosing this to journalists

here on Monday, Major General

C.A. Krishanan, Inspector General

of Assam Rifles (South), said the

work would be completed on

schedule. The fence, once com-

pleted, will help State and secu-

rity forces to check the free

movement of rebels and theirnew recruits to their base camps

on no man's land.

‘G-20 must surmount ef-fects of economic crisis'

Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K.

Rahman Khan has advocated

greater coordinaon and effort

among the G-20 countries to

overcome the effects of the

global economic crisis.

Taking part in a G-20 Speak-

ers' Consultaon at Oawa, Mr.

Khan felt the central problem was

how to ensure sustained global

recovery at a me when markets

had become very nervous about

debt sustainability, the RajyaSabha Secretariat said in a re-

lease here on Monday.

Prudent policies-Referring to

India, he said prudent policies

that prevented financial instu-

ons from taking excessive risks

went a long way in maintaining fi-

nancial stability at the me of

global crisis.

Coordinaon between the

Government of India and the Re-

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serve Bank of India in making the

right mix of monetary and fiscal

policies, significant domesc sav-

ings, plus domesc reforms of the

producve sectors, were among

the other factors behind it.

India's commitment-Mr. Khanreiterated India's commitment to

the wellbeing of people, espe-

cially the poor and the deprived.

He referred to Mahatma Gandhi's

talisman to policy makers, which

read: ‘whenever you are in

doubt, recall the face of the poor-

est and the weakest man whom

you may have seen and ask your-

self, if the step you contemplate

is going to be of any use to him'.Highlighng the need to build

a sustainable development

model based on Gandhian ap-

proach of enlightened unselfish

ethical life of plain-living and high

thinking, he emphasised need for

the advanced world to reduce

consumpon and simplify life.

The G-20 Speakers' Consulta-

on - Presiding Officers of the

Upper and Unicameral Houses of the G-20 was held from Septem-

ber 2 to 5.

Caste discriminaon -U.K. Dalits win theargument, nearly

There's a palpable mood of op-

mism among Britain's 2,00,000-

strong Dalit community as it

waits for the Government to take

a decision on its long-standing

campaign for caste discriminaon

to be recognised as racism. The

buzz is that, barring a last-minute

hiccup, Britain could soon be-come the first European, indeed

Western, country to declare caste

prejudice unlawful under its race

laws — a move which will not

please New Delhi which has con-

sistently opposed caste being

clubbed with race.

Britain's new Equality Act al-

ready empowers the Govern-

ment to declare “caste to be an

aspect of race” without seekingfresh parliamentary approval.

Clause 9 of the Act says: “The

fact that a racial group comprises

two or more disnct racial groups

does not prevent it from cons-

tung a parcular racial group. A

Minister of the Crown may by

order — (a) amend this secon so

as to provide for caste to be an

aspect of race …”

China to work with Indiaon curbing ger

poaching

India and China this week agreed

to cooperate in sharing intelli-

gence on illegal trade in ger

parts between the countries,

which conservaonists say is se-

riously endangering India's gerpopulaon.

Chinese officials in the State

Forestry Administraon told vis-

ing Indian counterparts in talks

that they were open to exchang-

ing aconable intelligence on

wildlife crimes, also acknowledg-

ing that poaching and illegal traf-

ficking were “the biggest threat”

to wildlife conservaon in the re-

gion.

The two countries have

agreed to set up nodal officers to

facilitate the sharing of real-me

informaon, as well as iniate

collaborave invesgaons into“the backward and forward link-

ages of wildlife crimes” and or-

ganised criminal syndicates

operang in the region.

No troops deployed inGilgit-Balstan, says

China

China denied the presence of its

troops in Gilgit-Balstan, butvoiced support to Islamabad's

claims on the disputed region by

describing it in a statement as “a

northern part of Pakistan.”

India views the region as an

integral part of Jammu and Kash-

mir that is under illegal occupa-

on. China has, in the past,

refrained from voicing its support

to either Indian or Pakistani

claims to the disputed region.

India monitoring China'sintenon in Indian

Ocean, says Krishna

India on Tuesday said it was

closely monitoring China's inten-

on as it was showing “more

than the normal interest” in the

Indian Ocean affairs.

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“The Government of Indiahas come to realise that China

has been showing more than the

normal interest in the Indian

Ocean affairs. So we are closely

monitoring the Chinese inten-

ons,” External Affairs Minister

S.M. Krishna said in the Lok

Sabha.

Responding to queries during

a call-aenon moon on “The

situaon arising out of the recentaacks on Indian fishermen by

the Sri Lankan Navy,” Mr. Krishna

assured the House that “appro-

priate acon and measures”

would be taken to safeguard the

country's territorial integrity and

the welfare of its fishermen.

Iniang the moon, Dravida

Munnetra Kazhagam leader T.R.

Baalu said that when the Indo-Sri

Lanka agreement was signed on

the Katchatheevu islands in 1974,the then External Affairs Minister,

Swaran Singh, had said that fish-

ing and navigaon rights had

been safeguarded for the future.

Under the agreement on the is-

land, which falls in the Sri Lankan

territory, Indian fishermen can

rest and dry their nets during

fishing in internaonal waters.

Mr. Baalu asked the Centre to

revisit the agreement and in-crease patrolling in the waters to

protect the fishermen.

Mr. Krishna, however, ruled it

out, saying: “We cannot go back

on the solemn agreement be-

tween two governments.” India

and Sri Lanka were discussing,

through the Joint Working Group

— constuted to deal with issues

related to fishermen and to work

out bilateral instuonal arrange-

ments for ensuring the safety andsecurity of the fishermen of both

countries — and addressing such

issues in a humane and praccal

way.

Sri Lanka is a friendly country,

an aspect that is needed to be

kept in mind, the Minister said,

adding that Foreign Secretary

Nirupama Rao is currently in

Colombo discussing such maers.

Mr. Krishna said he was planningto travel to Colombo in October,

when issues related to fishermen

would be discussed further.

India had consistently taken

up issues relang to incidents of

firing on or apprehension of fish-

ermen with the Sri Lankan gov-

ernment to ensure that its Navy

acted with restraint and our fish-

ermen were treated in a humane

manner.

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Unhappy over the reply, All-

India Anna Dravida Munnetra

Kazhagam members, led by M.

Thambidurai, staged a walkout,

while Mr. Baalu raised several

other quesons.

The Minister said that aerthe October 2008 understanding

between the two countries on

fishing arrangements, incidents

of apprehension and firing on In-

dian fishermen in the waters be-

tween India and Sri Lanka had

come down significantly.

In 2008, a total of 1,456 In-

dian fishermen were appre-

hended by the Sri Lankan Navy,

while in 2009, the number hadcome down to 127 fishermen,

and ll July this year, only 26 fish-

ermen were apprehended.

India announces $20mmore aid for Pakistan

India has announced an addi-

onal monetary assistance of $20

million to Pakistan to help ittackle the worst-ever floods wit-

nessed in recent past.

Making the announcement in

the Lok Sabha, External Affairs

Minister S.M. Krishna said the de-

cision followed Pakistan's willing-

ness to accept India's inial offer

of $5 million, to be routed

through the United Naons. He

made a similar announcement in

the Rajya Sabha.

Of the total money, $20 mil-

lion would go to the ‘Pakistan Ini-

al Floods Emergency Response

Plan' through the U.N. Office for

the Coordinaon of Humanitar-

ian Efforts. The rest would be

contributed to the U.N. WorldFood Programme. Mr. Krishna re-

called that India offered $5 mil-

lion, when he spoke on the

telephone to his Pakistan coun-

terpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi

on August 13. On August 19,

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

told his Pakistan counterpart

Yusuf Raza Gilani that India wasready to do more.

Inially, Pakistan was reluc-

tant to accept the aid, but agreed

aer the U.S. intervened. How-

ever, Pakistan asked India last

week to route the aid through the

U.N.

Why is ASEAN dragging

its feet on RTA for serv-ices with India?

Most countries in the powerful

economic bloc fear “being

swamped” with professionals

from the country, especially in

areas such as educaon, health,

IT and accountancy. New Delhi

feels the Associaon of South

East Asian Naons (Asean) is get-

ng panic aacks in the midst of

trade talks aimed at opening up

its services segment to players

from India.

Experts watching the situa-

on say Indian negoators made

a big mistake by entering into a

deal on goods before signing apact on services. They add that

while Asean stood to gain a lot

from the agreement already

signed, India sll awaits a break-

through in talks to sign a services

deal, which will be manna for its

services industry.

Gi to Germany’s far-

Right

Senior figures in central banks

rarely hit the headlines but Thilo

Sarrazin of the German central

bank, the Bundesbank, has done

just that. His recent book on Ger-

man society has been aacked

for xenophobia, racism, and seri-

ous factual errors.

Senior policians, including

Chancellor Angela Merkel, havecondemned Mr. Sarrazin.

He has apologised for wring

passages on a “Jewish gene,” and

faces expulsion from the Social

Democrac Party. It is clear how-

ever that he has tapped into a

vein of deep disquiet.

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UID Project


and Congress President Sonia

Gandhi handed out the first set

of Unique Idenficaon Number

to tribals in Tembhli village of Ma-

harashtra's Nandurbar district on

Sep 29, 2010.

Ten tribals from Tembhli vil-

lage got their Unique Idenfica-

on Numbers (Aadhaar) from

Singh and Sonia. They were ran-

domly selected by the Nandan

Nilekani-headed Unique Idenfi-

caon Authority of India.

"It is our ambious project.

Every Indian should get an iden-

ty. It will empower Schedule

Castes and Schedule Tribes and

all under privileged secons. Aad-

haar covers various rural develop-

ment programmes. I congratulate

Nandan Nilekani for this. He has

achieved it in just 14 months,"

said Singh while launching the

project.

"Aadhaar will help the unem-

ployed poor. UID is a historical

step to help the poor and Tembhli

is the first Aadhaar village," said

Sonia.

Unique Idenficaon Author-ity of India Chairman Nandan

Nilekani said that UID would help

all the cizens of India who don't

have any identy card.

"Many people in our country

don't have their identy cards.

UID will help them. UID will be

recognised everywhere. One UID

will be issued to one person," he

said.

About 1400 villagers havebeen enrolled in the inaugural

programme. The Unique Idenfi-

caon Number is a unique 12

digit number that will store infor-

maon like an individual's name,

face and biometric scans.

Nilekani plans to cover 60%

of the people in the country in

the next three years. The project

will be launched in Karnataka in

October.

Hidden language discov-ered in Northeast

A "hidden" language spoken by

only about 1200 people has been

discovered by researchers in a re-

mote corner of Arunachal

Pradesh, the home to diverse

ethnic tribes and the cauldron of

language diversity.

Koro, a Tibeto-Burman lan-

guage on the verge of exncon,has been discovered recently in

West Kameng district during a

Naonal Geographic expedion

for its 'Enduring Voices' project.

According to researchers, he

Northeast is known as a hot spot

of language diversity.

Confirming the existence of

such a language, Director of Re-

search Tage Tada said, "Arunachal

with diverse ethnic tribes hasmany languages sll undiscov-

ered. We are undertaking re-

search works on lingua-franca of

different major tribes in the

state...Since the language is spo-

ken by a handful of people from

Aka and Miji communies, we

have not carried out any research

work on Koro."

The three-member linguists'

comprising two researchers from

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Naonal Geographic and one

from Ranchi University said Koro

is spoken by a handful of people

from Aka and Miji communies.

"Culturally, Koro speakers are

part of the Aka community and

both groups merely considered ita dialect of the Aka language.

However, Koro has enrely differ-

ent vocabulary and linguisc

structure," linguist K David Harri-

son, a member of the research

team, had said in Washington on

Tuesday.

Even the Koro speakers did

not realise they had a disnct lan-

guage. But researchers studying

the groups found they used dif-ferent words for body parts,

numbers and other concepts, es-

tablishing Koro as a separate lan-

guage, he said.

"Koro is quite disnct from

Aka...It is a distant sister lan-

guage," linguist Gregory Ander-

son, another member of the

research team said.

According to linguists,

Arunachal hosts a rich diversity of languages, many unwrien,

which are lile studied or docu-

mented.

"Koro brings an enrely dif-

ferent perspecve, history,

mythology, technology and gram-

mar to what was known before.

Surprisingly, it has been main-

tained within the Aka community,

even though there is inter-mar-

riage and the groups share vil-

lages, tradions, fesvals and

food," Harrison wrote in his book

'The Last Speakers'.

"The Koro speakers consider

themselves to be a part of Aka,

though linguiscally they are

Koro. It's an unusual condion,

such arrangement does not usu-

ally allow for maintenance of the

minor language," Anderson said.

The researchers hoped to fig-ure out how Koro managed to

survive within the Aka commu-

nity.

Naonal InnovaonCouncil


has approved the seng up of a

Naonal Innovaon Council toprepare a road map for the

'Decade of Innovaon 2011-

2020'. Sam Pitroda, adviser to the

Prime Minister on public informa-

on infrastructure and innova-

ons, will head the Naonal

Innovaon Council.

The Council has been given

the mandate to evolve an Indian

model of innovaon focussing on

inclusive growth and creang an

appropriate eco-system con-

ducive to fostering inclusive inno-

vaon.

It will delineate appropriate

policy iniaves within the gov-

ernment required to spur innova-

on. It will also promote theseng up of sectoral innovaon

councils and state innovaon

councils.

While encouraging all impor-

tant sectors of the economy to in-

novate, the NIC will take special

efforts to facilitate innovaon by

micro, small and medium enter-

prises.

Innovaon in public services

delivery and encouraging mul-disciplinary and globally compe-

ve approaches for innovaons

would be focused on by the coun-

cil.

Foreign ContribuonRegulaon Bill

Organisaons of polical nature

and those involved in religiousconversions will henceforth be

barred from accepng foreign

funds. Also, persons holding po-

lical posions like MPs and

MLAs can no longer enjoy foreign

hospitality and must inmate the

government of their visits

abroad, personal or official.

Aer leng private organisa-

ons bring in unaccounted for-

eign remiances for 34 years, thegovernment has brought to the

Lok Sabha the Foreign Contribu-

on Regulaon Bill, 2010, to reg-

ulate the acceptance and

ulisaon of foreign contribuon

of hospitality by certain individu-

als or associaons and to prohibit

such acceptances for acvies

detrimental to naonal interest.

The Lower House passed the Bill,

which the Rajya Sabha had al-

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ready cleared.

At the root of the law is the

concern that out of 40,173 NGOs(in 1993 there were just 1,500)

accepng foreign funding, only

18,796 have submied their au-

dited accounts. For the rest, the

government doesn’t know the

source of funding.

So far, Rs 12,000 crore has

“officially” come through the for-

eign route, of which 60 per cent

has come from religious organisa-

ons, some from countries assmall in populaon as Canada,

Maurius and Luxembourg.

The government’s data

shows that in 2005 and 2006,

there were over 32,144 organisa-

ons taking foreign funds in

India. Only 18,000 declared their

funding. In 2005-2006, of the Rs

7,000 crore that came from for-

eign sources, Rs 3,075 crore came

for religious organisaons. Thisexplains why the new law (which

replaces the 1976 legislaon)

bans foreign funds for conversion

purposes.

Significant amounts (to the

tune of Rs 7,229 crore) have also

come in for educaon, with no

monitoring. In the run-up to the

new FCR Bill 2010, the govern-

ment banned 41 ouits from tak-

ing foreign remiances; sealed

accounts of 11 and asked 45 to

take permission first.

With the new law, the gov-

ernment has also capped admin-

istrave expenses at 50 per cent

of all inflows to NGOs (India has

about 20 lakh).

Nuclear Liability Bill

On August 25, 2001, the UPA gov-

ernment successfully shepherded

the Civil Liability for Nuclear

Damage Bill, 2010, through the

Lok Sabha, with acve support

from the BJP and strategic ab-

sence of some fence-siers suchas the Samajwadi Party.

Quashing opposion from

the Le Bloc and other crics,


denied that the Bill was rail-

roaded through the House to

serve US interests. “This Bill is a

compleon of a journey to end

the nuclear apartheid, which the

world had imposed on India in

the year 1974,” he said.”The government managed to

bring the BJP on board in return

for accepng amendments to the

controversial Clause 17(b) and

dropping the word “intent”. The

new formulaon of 17(b), now

states that suppliers would be li-

able where “the accident has re-

sulted as a consequence of an act

of a supplier or his employees,

done to cause nuclear damage,

and such act includes supply of equipment or material with

patent or latent defects or sub-

standard services”.

While his government

achieved what appeared even a

few months ago to be an impossi-

ble task—geng the Lok Sabha

to pass the Bill— Manmohan

Singh announced that the gov-

ernment would give safety issues

top priority. “Concern about nu-clear safety is one, which I fully

share. I assure (you) we will do

everything to strengthen the Nu-

clear Regulatory Board to ensure

that safety concerns receive the

aenon that they must, if we

are to use nuclear power as a

major source for generang and

meeng India’s need for energy,”

he said.

The key points of the Bill are:

• Controversial Clause 17(b)

amended by dropping the

word ‘intent’.

• Compensaon cap to be paid

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by the operator at Rs 1500

crore provided in the Bill is

not the ‘limit’.

• Compensaon will be de-

cided by the Claims Commis-

sioner and the operator will

have to pay.• Government assumes full lia-

bility for even a plant not op-

erated by it.

• The Bill is necessary for full

implementaon of civil nu-

clear deal signed with the

USA in 2006.

Bill to provide women

equal guardianshiprights

A Bill paving way for the women

to get equal rights in guardian-

ship and adopon of children has

been passed by the Rajya Sabha.

The Personal Laws Amend-ment Bill seeks to amend the

Guardians and Wards Act, 1890

and the Hindu Adopons and

Maintenance Act, 1956. It also

seeks to allow the mother, along

with the father, to be appointed

as a guardian, making the process

gender-neutral.

Besides, it aims at removing

hurdles in the way of a married

woman to adopt. She can give a

son or daughter for adopon.

For adopon and guardian-

ship, under the exisng Act, only

the father is considered to be the

natural guardian of the child in a

Hindu family and only unmarried,

divorced women and widows areallowed to adopt a child. Women

separated from their husbands

and engaged in lengthy divorce

bales cannot adopt a child.

Cabinet agrees for givingstatutory powers to

UIDAI

The government on Fridaycleared the decks for the forma-

on of a statutory body to be

christened — Naonal Idenfica-

on Authority of India (NIAI), in

order to give collecon of data

for allocang unique id numbers,

a legal sancon. The approval by

the cabinet paves way for intro-

ducon of the NIAI Bill 2010, in

winter session of the Parliament.

The legal sancon is for collecon

of private data of cizens and

makes it difficult to challenge in a

court of law. The sancon is

needed as the government plans

to allocate the first set of num-

bers to cizens in a few weeks in

Maharashtra. In 2009, the UniqueIdenficaon Authority of India

(UIDAI) had already made it clear

that an Act of Parliament will set

it up as a statutory body. But, al-

ready many NGOs are planning to

challenge the proposed Bill.

Once passed, the NIAI Act

2010 will contain a prescripon

against collecng any other infor-

maon than the informaon per-

mied, with specific prohibionsagainst collecon of informaon

regarding religion, race, ethnicity

and caste. It will also contain

penal provisions against persons

employed by, or associated di-

rectly or indirectly with, the data

repository, registrars, enrolling

agencies and other service

providers for failing to comply

with the direcons issued under

the Act.

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The Ayodhya-BabriMasjid dispute

The longest-running legal bale

in India is a dispute over the 60 sq

feet by 40 sq feet land in Ayodhya

where Babri Masjid stood ll Dec

6, 1992. Since 1950, five tle suits

were filed in the Allahabad HC,

staking claim to the tle of the

plot of land of the Babri Masjid.

Of these, four are to be decided

by the Lucknow bench of HC.

The bench comprising Jus-

ces S U Khan, Sudhir Agarwal

and D V Sharma will give its ver-dict on the following quesons:

Did a temple exist at the dis-

puted site before 1528 when Mir

Baqi constructed the Babri

Masjid?

Was the suit filed by Sunni

Waqf Board in 1961 barred by

me limitaon?

Was Ayodhya Lord Ram’s

birth place & is there evidence to

show that Hindus have been wor-

shipping at this place for a long

me?

Two separate civil suits were

filed in 1950 by Hindu Ma-

hasabha member late Gopal

Singh Visharad and the

Paramhansa Ramchandra Das,

keeper of the Digambar Akhada

in Ayodhya, seeking permission

for pooja at the disputed site

The second suit was filed by

Paramhans Ramchandra Das, also

in 1950, seeking the same injunc-

on but this suit was later with-

drawn

The third suit was filed in

1959 by the Nirmohi Akhara,

seeking direcon to hand overcharge of the disputed site from

the receiver

The fourth suit was filed in

1961 by the UP Sunni Central

Board of Waqfs for declaraon

and possession of the site

The fih suit was moved in

1989 in the name of Bhagwan

Shree Ram Lalla Virajman for dec-

laraon and possession

However, one suit was with-

drawn and the others were pend-

ing with the Faizabad civil court

ll 1989, when they were trans-

ferred to the Allahabad high

court

The first suit dates back to

1885, when Mahant RaghubarDas filed a tle suit in a Faizabad

court to build a chabutra on the

outer courtyard of the mosque

structure. It was dismissed on the

ground that the alleged demoli-

on of an original Ram temple in

1528 had occurred over 350

years ago, and so it was “too late

now” to remedy the grievance

However, in December 1949

some people broke open thestructure’s locks and installed a

Ram statue and arcles of wor-

ship, and the administraon or-

dered status quo

Some details aboutthe rehashed land

acquision bill

The Land Acquision (Amend-ment) Bill sets aside three cate-

gories of projects for which the

government can acquire 100%

land. These include establish-

ment of installaons pertaining

to naonal security, infrastruc-

ture and facilies designated as

“social infrastructure,” such as

health, educaon and space re-

search.

For any project other thanthe above, land could be ac-

quired in the 70:30 rao, with the

company planning to set up the

facility on that land being asked

to purchase 70% of it. The state

government would step into the

picture only aer the private

player had done its bit, by agree-

ing to take over the remaining

30% if it felt the project fell in the

“public purpose” domain.

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On the compensaon pack-

age, the Reselement and Reha-

bilitaon Bill wanted the

displaced persons to be granted

60% solaum over and above the

market rate of the land being

taken over. Market rate was de-fined as the average of the high-

est transacons in the last three

in the same area on a similar tract

of land.

Even these highly liberalised

provisions are not going to con-

vince the Trinamool Congress as

it has been saying that it is op-

posed to the governments -- ei-

ther at the Centre or at the State

level having anything to do withland acquision.

IITs to offer medicalcourses

IITs will now be able to offer med-

ical educaon, permanent faculty

posions to foreign naonals and

admit foreign students at the

post-graduate level. These deci-sions were taken at a meeng of

the IIT Council headed by human

resource development minister

Kapil Sibal on Friday. The Instute

of Technologies Act will have to

be amended to enable IITs to

offer medical courses.

The health ministry has been

opposed to the idea of IITs seng

up their own medical schools. It

asked that the engineeringschools start courses on health

informaon technology, biomed-

ical engineering and e-health

rather than running a hospital or

starng MBBS courses.

At present, only IIT Kharagpur

has expressed an interest in set-

ng up a full fledged medical

school. IIT Kharagpur has argued

that there are no hospitals or

medical colleges in the area and

that it would actually be address-

ing a need.

A bit of history aboutPeriyar and the move-

ments led by him

Periyar is known for his an-Brah-

min movement in Tamilnadu.

The seeds of the movement were

sown in 1925 when EV Ra-

masamy Naicker, known as Peri-

yar, or the elder, walked out of

the Indian Naonal Congress con-

venon aer the then Brahmin-

dominated party refused toconsider a resoluon seeking pro-

poronal representaon. Peri-

yar’s reasons for seeking change

were strong. In 1914, of the of

the 650 graduates in then Madras

Province, 452 were from the

Brahmin community. Of the 15

elected for the All India Congress

Commiee, 14 were Brahmins.

Periyar led the Self-Respect

and the An-Hindi movements of the aristocrats-led Jusce Party

formed to further the non-Brah-

min interests in the four southern

states. The party was renamed

Dravidar Kazhagam in 1944 with

raonalism and atheism as its

main planks and Karunanidhi and

his mentor CN Annadurai among

the top leadership.

Karunanidhi, Jayalalithaa and

Ramachandran have their roots

in the Dravidian Movement.

Country's new CentralVigilance Commissioner

Former telecom secretary P JThomas was sworn in as the new

Central Vigilance Commissioner

(CVC).

BJP objected to the choice in

the light of he being under a

cloud in the palmolein scam in

Kerala in the early 90s and al-

leged that it was a “cover up” for

the 2G spectrum scam.

Govt rot earns SupremeCourt's wrath

The Centre’s failure to prevent

wastage of millions of tonnes of

grain stored in godowns invited

the Supreme Court’s ire. In a

snging indictment, the Supreme

Court charged the government

with a callous approach and sug-

gested remedial measures.The court said it was con-

cerned the government was al-

lowing rong of grain when

millions in the country were

going without two square meals

a day. A Bench comprising Jus-

ces Dalveer Bhandari and

Deepak Verma, who subjected

Mr Sharad Pawar to some verbal

caning, said the food ministry

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was not serious about handling

the peculiar situaon of over-

flowing granaries and hungry

stomachs.

Prime Minister's remarkstermed “an-poor”

The steering group of the Right to

Food Campaign expressed its

“shock” at Prime Minister Man-

mohan Singh's statement asking

the Supreme Court not to inter-

fere with policy and said it

showed how “completely an-

poor” the government was.

The Campaign — a conglom-

eraon of rights and civil society

groups — said that when, under

the Constuon, people had the

Right to Life as well as the right to

approach courts, “the statement

showed that the head of the Ex-

ecuve, does not want the Fun-

damental Right of the people tobe realised, and worse, interferes

with their right to get jusce.”

Kanishka bomb-makerReyat found guilty of

perjury

Inderjit Singh Reyat, the sole per-

son convicted in the 1985 bomb-

ing of Air India's Kanishka flight

that killed 329 people, has been

found guilty of perjury by a Cana-

dian court for lying under oath

during the trial of the world's

deadliest airline bombing.

Reyat (58), who had earlier

confessed to helping make thebomb that destroyed the Air

India Flight 182, showed lile

emoon as the verdict was read

in a Vancouver courtroom on Sat-

urday aer jurors deliberated for

more than 20 hours.

Husain's works fetchRs.11.69 crore

Fieen works of art by painter

M.F. Husain, including a canvas

work he gied to Italian film di-

rector Roberto Rossellini and his

Indian wife, have fetched

Rs.11.69 crore at a Sotheby's auc-

on here.

The highlight of the South

Asian Art sale was undoubtedly

Cinq Sens (Five Senses) by Hu-

sain, who celebrated his 95thbirthday on September 16. The

large canvas, painted at the Ital-

ian home of Rossellini and his

wife Sonali Sen Roy Dasgupta in

1958, went for Rs.3.6 crore.

Husain spent an extended pe-

riod of me in Italy with the

Rossellinis during the late 1950s

and gied this painng to the

couple, from whom it was ac-

quired by the current owner.

Stray gress caught inthe Sunderbans

A gress that had strayed into a

village and taken shelter in a hut

in the Sunderbans created panic

before it was tranquillised and

caught by the authories of the

Tiger Reserve early Sunday morn-

ing.

The gress had strayed into a

village near Budhbarer Bazaar at

Kumirmari in South 24-Parganas

district on Saturday night. Vil-

lagers found that it had taken

shelter in a hut and informed theReserve authories at 5 a.m.,

Subrat Mukherjee, STR field di-

rector, told The Hindu over tele-

phone.

Naga blockade of Manipur resumes

The United Naga Council, (UNC),

a frontal organisaon of the Na-onal Socialist Council of Nagalim

(Isak-Muivah group), imposed an

indefinite blockade against Ma-

nipur from Saturday morning.

This follows the expiry of the 113-

day blockade spread over three

phases.

In a press release, the UNC

said the blockade would connue

ll the demands relang to the

Naga issues were conceded. Itsaid the Autonomous District

Council elecons in the hill dis-

tricts were held against the

“wishes” of the tribals. The ADCs

would not be allowed to funcon

in the “Naga areas.”

AFPSA related AFSPAdiluon postponed

The Cabinet Commiee on Secu-

rity (CCS) put off plans to parally

revoke the Armed Forced Special

Powers Act (AFSPA), following

fresh violence in the Kashmir Val-

ley over alleged desecraon of

Koran in the US.

It was of the view that larger

consensus was required on the

‘way forward’ and the govern-

ment announced convening of an

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all-party meeng in the Capital

on Wednesday.

The proposal for a makeover

for AFSPA sll looks a tough task

as the Army connues to main-

tain that “special laws are needed

to tackle a special situaon.”With paramilitary forces and the

police failing to contain the situ-

aon that seems to be going

worse, a secon of the CCS was

of the view that the government

should not do anything that

would sap the morale of the

Army. “The Army is needed to

maintain some semblance of

order in the chaos-ridden Valley,”

said a leader during the meeng.

AFSPA, Cricism & Need

The Armed Forces (Special Pow-

ers) Act has come in for wide-

spread cricism in Jammu and

Kashmir, Manipur and other parts

of the northeast because of the

human rights abuses that have

come to be associated with itsoperaon.

So strong is the senment

against AFSPA in Kashmir that in

recent months Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh, Union Home

Minister P. Chidambaram and

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minis-

ter Omar Abdullah have all spo-

ken of the need to re-examine

the law. The Army, on the other

hand, says this is unnecessary.The Army Chief, General V.K.

Singh, has gone so far as to say

that the demand for the diluon

of AFSPA is being made for “nar-

row polical gains.”

On paper, AFSPA is a decep-

vely simple law. First passed in

1958, it comes into play when the

government declares a parcular

part of the northeast (or Jammu

and Kashmir under a parallel

1990 law) a “disturbed area.”

Within that area, an officer of the

armed forces has the power to

“fire upon or otherwise use force,

even to the causing of death,

against any person who is acng

in contravenon of any law ororder for the me being in force

in the disturbed area prohibing

the assembly of five or more per-

sons or the carrying of weapons

or of things capable of being used

as weapons or of fire-arms, am-

munion or explosive sub-

stances.”

Cricism- giving soldiers the

“right to kill” , support- AFSPA's

principal flaw. Aer all, if a ‘lawand order' situaon has arisen

which compels the government

to deploy the Army, soldiers have

to be allowed to use deadly force.

Even a private cizen has the

right to kill someone in self-de-

fence, though the final word on

the legality of her or his acon

belongs to the courts. Similarly, a

civilised society expects that the

use of deadly force by the Armymust at all mes be lawful, nec-

essary and proporonate.

Here, the Act suffers from

two infirmies: the requirement

of prior sancon for prosecuon

contained in Secon 6 oen

comes in the way when quesons

arise about the lawfulness of par-

cular acons. Second, AFSPA

does not disnguish between a

peaceful gathering of five or

more persons (even if held in

contravenon of Secon 144 of

the Criminal Procedure Code)

and a violent mob. Firing upon

the laer may somemes be jus-

fied by necessity; shoong into

a peaceful assembly would surelyfail any test of reasonableness.

Leaving this issue aside, how-

ever, it is important to recognise

that AFSPA does not give an offi-

cer the unqualified right to fire

upon and cause the death of any

person in a Disturbed Area.

At a minimum, that person

should have been carrying

weapons or explosives. The

shoong of an unarmed individ-ual, and the killing of a person in

custody, are not acts that are per-

missible under AFSPA. Force is al-

lowed in order to arrest a suspect

but the fact that the Act autho-

rises the use of “necessary”

rather than “deadly” force in such

a circumstance means the tests

of necessity and proporonality

must be met.

Over the years that AFSPAhas been in operaon, the Army

has opened fire countless mes

and killed hundreds, if not thou-

sands, of people. Whenever

those killed have been armed in-

surgents or terrorists, there has

been lile or no public clamour

against the Act. It is only when

the armed forces violate the pro-

visions of the law and indulge in

the unlawful killing of persons —especially unarmed civilians —

that voices get raised against

AFSPA. The protests in Manipur in

2004 reached a crescendo be-

cause of the death in custody of

Th. Manorama and scores of oth-

ers like her. In Kashmir, sen-

ments against the Armed Forces

Act got inflamed because of fake

encounter incidents like Pathribal

and Macchhil.

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Indian industrial outputgrowth slows to 15-

month low

India's industrial output grew

5.6% year-on-year in August, its

slowest rate for 15 months, as

capital goods output shrank dur-

ing the month. The growth figure

marked a decline from the re-

vised 15.2% increase seen in July,

government figures showed.

Output of capital goods,

which includes everything from

heavy machinery to cabling, con-

tracted 2.6% in August aer

growing a revised 72% in July. The

sector's volality has led some to

queson the reliability of the

data.

The overall growth figure was

much lower than expected. Ana-

lysts had forecast growth of 9.9%.

India's imports of sensi-ve items up 21 pc

India's imports of sensive items

went up by 21.8 per cent to Rs

23,039 crore during the April-July

period of the current fiscal as

against Rs 18,916 crore in the

year-ago period, government an-

nounced on Oct 7.

Import of milk and dairy

products soared to Rs 370.4 crore

during the first four months of

2010-11 from a meagre Rs 3.5

crore, while that of foodgrains

went up to Rs 111.7 crore from Rs

87.3, data released by the Com-

merce Ministry said.

The rise in imports of fruit

and vegetables was 10.8 per cent

to Rs 2,178.3 crore and of edible

oil by 18.9 per cent to Rs 8,763.7

crore, according to the data.Inward shipments of automo-

biles, alcoholic beverages and

rubber also increased by 87.4 per

cent, 85.2 per cent and 41.6 per

cent, respecvely.

However, imports of pulses,

coon and silk contracted by 10

per cent (Rs 2,485.2 crore) and

16.6 per cent (Rs 658.1 crore)

during the period under review.

Import of sensive items

amounted to 4.5 per cent of the

country's total imports during the

period, against 4.6 per cent in the

previous year, the statement said.

The gross import of all com-

modies during the current pe-riod was Rs 3,15,302 crore in

these four months as against Rs

2,56,739 crore in the same period

last year.

Items such as foodgrains,

milk and beverages fall in the sen-

sive category and these imports

are monitored by the govern-

ment to see if there is any ad-

verse impact on the domesc

industry.

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ICAI inks pact withUnited Stock Exchange

for training

The Instute of Chartered Ac-countants of India (ICAI) has

signed an agreement with United

Stock Exchange for training in

currency derivaves. As part of

memorandum of understanding

(MoU), members of ICAI will be

educated by United Stock Ex-

change through seminars, panel

discussions and workshops on fi-

nancial markets and corporate

governance.ICAI, the second largest ac-

counng body in the world, will

provide instuonal support and

facilitate interacons with its

members wherein United Stock

Exchange would impart relevant

knowledge in currency deriva-

ves.

"The MoU has been signed

for a term of three years and

would be renewed subsequentlyon mutual consent," the state-

ment said.

United Stock Exchange of

India, the country's newest stock

exchange for currency deriva-

ves, offer a plaorm for the

companies to manage currency

risks.

India's hotel industry focusing

on next-generaon technologies

India has emerged as an arac-ve tourist desnaon with an in-

creasing number of mul-nao-

nal hospitality companies invest-

ing in India.

There has been a steep in-

crease in hotel occupancy levels,

with the industry expected to

grow at 15 percent per year. To

sustain its growth and connue

to aract overseas travelers to

India, the industry is exploring

the latest customer-centric next

generaon technologies.

According to sources, India's

hotel pipeline is the second

largest in the Asia-Pacific region

and the industry is set to be the

second largest employer in theworld by 2019. It is also es-

mated that the hospitality indus-

try in India will contribute 187.3

billion dollars to the GDP by 2019.

Today's guests arrive at a

hotel with a high level of expec-

taons - a hotel room needs to be

their home away from home, and

offer new services. The industry's

biggest challenge currently is

maintaining a balance of achiev-ing a healthy boom line while

enhancing the guest experience,

creang guest loyalty and aract-

ing new guests.

The key to creang the new

guest-centric environment is to

integrate the right technologies in

the right way to create a ubiqui-

tous and efficient network that

can support guest services and

hotel operaons.

In a recent survey conducted

by IQPC, it was found that over 50

percent of respondents were

spending the majority of their IT

budgets on in-room entertain-

ment as a way to stay ahead of

their competors.

In an effort to contribute to

the growth of the hotel industry

in India and drive innovaon,IQPC will launch Hotel Technol-

ogy India 2010, the Indian edion

of its global hotel technology con-

ferences.

The event which will take

place on November 11 and 12 in

Goa aims to provide a plaorm to

explore latest technologies for

the hotel industry in order to

maximise revenue and enhance

guest experience.Hotel Technology India 2010,

will bring together experts from

across the globe to discuss new

strategies and trends to imple-

ment state-of-the art soluons.

One of the aendees of

IQPC's hotel technology events,

the CIO of Movenpick Hotels and

Resorts Management said that

"Hotel Technology 2010 is an ex-

cellent forum for informaon ex-

change and to keep up to date

about hotel technology chal-

lenges".

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Hotel Technology India 2010

will also feature some of the lead-

ing soluon providers like AGC

Networks and MSR IT Soluons

who specialise in soluons for al-

leviang the challenges facing the

industry over two days of incisivelearning and excessive knowl-

edge exchange.

Haryana becomes firststate to use treated seed

Haryana achieved yet another

milestone as the state becomes

the first state to use only the

'treated seed'. The decision to

permit only treated seed in the

state to provide protecon

against the three prevalent dis-

eases was taken at a meeng

held under the chairmanship of

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh

Hooda here today.In a major farmer-friendly ini-

ave, Mr Hooda directed for

treatment of seeds in totality and

to provide effecve protecon

against three diseases. The deci-

sion would also help in lowering

the usage of pescides and re-

ducon in the producon cost for

the farmers. Now even the pri-

vate producers would also have

to get their seeds treated. It

would be comprehensive treat-

ment against three diseases.

He asked the officers to get

the seeds treated as per the lat-

est technical and scienfic know-

how. "We should go by the

technical experse and take suchdecisions only which are in the

best interest of the farmers", he

said.

"My concern is for my farmer

and to give them the best seed",

he added and asked the Haryana

Seed Development Corporaon

(HSDC) to not to charge extra

money for further treatment of

the seeds as the state govern-

ment would provide the neces-

sary subsidy.

Mr Hooda directed the offi-

cers to assure quality checking

and sale of treated seeds only in

the state. He also asked them to

ensure sufficient supply of seeds

for the farmers.

India set to grow at 9.7percent: IMF

Even as the world slowly recovers

from its worst economic crisis in

decades, the Internaonal Mon-

etary Fund (IMF) on Oct 6 raised

India's projected growth to 9.7

percent in 2010 and 8.4 percent

in 2011, led increasingly by do-

mesc demand.

"India's macroeconomic per-

formance has also been vigorous,

with industrial producon at a

two-year high," it said raising In-

dian growth esmate by 0.3 per-centage points in its latest World

Economic Outlook (WEO) ahead

of the annual meengs of the

IMF and the World Bank Group

here over the weekend.

"Leading indicators - the pro-

ducon manufacturing index and

measures of business and con-

sumer confidence - connue to

point up" in India, said the WEO

while around the world "thus far,economic recovery is proceeding

broadly as expected, although

downside risks remain elevated".

With most advanced and a

few emerging economies sll fac-

ing major adjustments and the fi-

nancial sector sll vulnerable to

shocks, IMF said "global acvity is

forecast to expand by 4.8 percent

in 2010 and 4.2 percent in 2011,

with a temporary slowdown dur-ing the second half of 2010 and

the first half of 2011."

While output "of emerging

and developing economies is pro-

jected to expand at rates of 7.1

percent and 6.4 percent in 2010

and 2011, respecvely", in ad-

vanced economies, however, it

projected growth to be only 2.7

percent and 2.2 percent, respec-

vely.In the case of India "robust

corporate profits and favourable

external financing will encourage

investment", the IMF said nong

recent acvity (10 percent year-

over-year growth in real GDP at

market prices in the second quar-

ter) was driven largely by invest-

ment.

But the contribuon from net

exports is projected to turn nega-

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ve in 2011, as the strength in in-

vestment further boosts imports,

it said nong "that the rapid pace

of domesc acvity, evidenced by

rapidly rising inflaon, led the

central bank to increase the repo

policy rate, in steps, by a cumula-ve 125 basis points".

Growth in emerging Asia as a

whole reached about 9.5 per-

cent, as robust domesc demand

spread from China, India, and In-

donesia to other Asian

economies, the IMF said.

A number of emerging

economies have effected mone-

tary ghtening, with rate hikes

(Brazil, India, Malaysia, Peru), in-creased cash reserve require-

ments (China, India, Turkey), or

direct limits on credit growth

(China).

The ghtening is expected to

proceed at a gradual pace, as in-

flaon is generally projected to

be contained. The more pressing

concern in a few economies ishigh credit growth for real estate

purchases, IMF said.

Inflaon is projected in gen-

eral to stay low amid connued

excess capacity and high unem-

ployment. The recovery of com-

modity prices, however, has

raised the level of consumer

prices during 2010, it said.

With market indicators sug-

gesng that commodity prices

should remain stable and with

downward pressure on wages

gradually diminishing, headline

and core inflaon in advanced

economies should converge to

about 1.25 percent in 2011 and in

emerging and developingeconomies to about 5 percent.

Among some major emerging

economies, capacity constraints

are beginning to boost prices:

Brazil, for example, has experi-

enced gradual increases in infla-

on pressure, while India has

seen a sharp rise in inflaon.

Stressing the need to strike a

balance between supporng a

self-sustained recovery in privateacvity over the near and

medium term and avoiding fiscal

risk or overheang pressure, the

IMF suggested: "Fiscal policy - in

parcular the unwinding of sm-

ulus -needs to be carefully cali-

brated."

Global Hunger Index

2010

India is among 29 countries with

the highest levels of hunger,

stunted children and poorly fed

women, according to the Interna-


tute (IFPRI)’s “Global Hunger

Index 2010”. Despite a strong

economy that was predicted to

overtake China’s within three

years by The Economist maga-

zine, India ranked 67th among 85countries in terms of access to

food.

The report points to wide-

spread hunger in a country that is

the world’s largest producer of

milk and edible oils, and the sec-

ond-largest producer of wheat

and sugar.

The country has a high

“hunger score” of 24.1 and ranks

behind all its neighbours, barringBangladesh. Values between 20

and 29.9 on the index denote an

“alarming” hunger situaon.

Globally, the world is nowhere

near meeng the target of the

UN’s goal of halving the pro-poron of hungry people.

India also runs the world’s

largest free-meal programme for

school-going children. Yet, the

2010 hunger report reveals thatmore than 90 per cent of the

world’s stunted children (whose

height is low for their age) live in

Asian countries, such as India and

Bangladesh, apart from some

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that since July 1, 2010 it had been

granng zero-tariff treatment on

4,762 tariff lines for products ex-

ported by 33 LDCs. Brazil said it

has set up an inter-ministerial

working group to discuss legal

procedures for working out itsscheme, which it said would

eventually cover 100 per cent of

tariff lines. The European Union

said it was working to simplify the

rules of origin for its generalised

system of preferences (GSP)

scheme, which would parcularly

benefit LDCs, the WTO release

added.

Annual Supplement toForeign Trade Policy

2009-14

The government has extended

sops worth Rs 1,052 crore to ex-

porters, parcularly for the

labour-intensive texle, handi-

cras and leather sectors, to help

them see through the fragile eco-

nomic recovery globally. The rev-enue implicaon of these

measures would be Rs 1,052

crore. The government also made

it clear that the popular Duty En-

tlement Pass Book (DEPB)

scheme, which has been in vogue

for over a decade, is being ex-

tended for the last me.

Experts said drawing the cur-

tains on the DEPB scheme was in-

evitable as it was consideredincompable with the global

trade rules under WTO.

A number of addional prod-

ucts from sectors like engineer-

ing, leather, texles and jute have

also been added to the exisng

two per cent interest subvenon

scheme. Handloom, handicras,

carpet and the SMEs have been

geng this facility, which will

now be available ll March 31,

2011.

The government also ex-

tended the zero-duty Export Pro-

moon Capital Goods (EPCG)

scheme by one year to March 31,

2012. The scheme, which was an-

nounced in August 2009, was toexpire on March 31, 2011. Steps

to reduce transacon cost of ex-

ports too were announced in the

policy.

NACO signs MoU withGlobal Trust Fund onHIV/AIDS prevenon

India and the Global Fund to fightAIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

(GFATM) have signed a three-year

grant agreement for $128.4 mil-

lion or Rs.609.9 crore to support

the connuaon of flagship pro-

grammes of the Naonal AIDS

Control Organisaon (NACO).

The agreement was signed on

Wednesday between NACO di-

rector-general K. Chandramouli

and GFATM execuve directorMichel Kazatchkine.

The programmes covered

under the grant agreement in-

clude Integrated Counselling and

Tesng Services (ICTS), Preven-

on of Parent to Child Transmis-

sion (PPTCT) services and HIV-TB

collaborave services.

India emerges asshale gas hub

India could soon turn into a po-

tenal shale gas desnaon. Even

though the work has just begun

in India, inial studies by state-

owned Oil and Natural Gas Cor-

poraon of India (ONGC) on

reserve esmaon of shale gas in

some of the country's sedimen-

tary basins such as Damodar and

Cambay basin have revealed a re-

source potenal of about 35 and

90 trillion cubic feet of gas.

This, when compared with

the exisng gas resources in

India, such as the one from the

country's largest gas field of Re-liance Industries in the KG

basin—esmated to hold some

10 tcf of gas—is indeed a massive

reserve of gas.

ONGC, which took the inia-

ve some five years back to ex-

plore shale gas, said shale

sequences in well explored basins

are found to be promising in

Damodar, Cambay, Krishna Go-

davari and Cauvery basins.In the US, shale gas con-

tributes nearly 14 per cent of the

total gas producon.

Shale gas is natural gas

trapped under rocks. Its extrac-

on involves tapping natural gas

trapped between layers of shale

rock, similar to the extracon of

gas from between coal seems in

India.

US has the largest shale gas

resource and China comes sec-ond. India is esmated to be one

of the biggest holders of shale

gas. Large deposits are located in

the Gangec plain, Assam, Ra-

jasthan and the country’s exten-

sive coastline.

Experts are of the view that

shale gas promises to transform

the energy landscape by making

available clean gas to supplement

other energy sources.

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Pak Cabinet approvestransit trade agreement

with Afghanistan

On Oct 7, Pakistan's federal cabi-

net has approved the Pakistan-

Afghanistan Transit Trade

Agreement, according to which,

while Afghan trucks would be al-

lowed access up to the Wagah

border, they could carry only Pak-

istani export goods back to theircountry.

Briefing media persons fol-

lowing the cabinet meeng

chaired by Prime Minister Yousuf

Raza Gilani, Informaon Minister

Qamar Zaman Kaira stated that

although Afghan trucks were al-

lowed up to the Torkham border

since 1980, under the new agree-

ment they would be allowed ac-

cess up to Wagha."In return, Pakistani trucks

would be allowed to go through

Afghanistan to the Central Asian

Republics and Iran," he said.

"The trade between

Afghanistan and India is already

taking place under the 1965

agreement and since 1980,

Afghanistan is exporng through

the Wagha border between Pak-

istan and India," Kaira noted,adding, "The new agreement ap-

proved by the cabinet does not

allow export of Indian goods to

Afghanistan through the Wagha

border."

To curtail the menace of

smuggling, it has also been men-

oned in the agreement that fi-

nancial guarantees equal to the

amount of import

levies of Pakistanwill have to be de-

posited by autho-

rised brokers or

customs clearing

agents to check

u n a u t h o r i s e d

trade, and these

deposits will be re-

leased aer the

goods exit the

country.

However, in case the goods

do not exit the country within thespecified me, the customs au-

thories will confiscate the guar-

antees.

The agreement was signed

between Pakistan Commerce

Minister Makhdoom Amin Fahim

and his Afghan counterpart, Dr

Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady, in the pres-

ence of Gilani and US Secretary of

State Hilary Clinton on July 18 this

year.

China overtakes Japan assecond-largest economy

Aer three decades of spectacu-

lar growth, China has passed

Japan in the second quarter of

2010 to become the world’s sec-

ond-largest economy behind the

United States. The milestone,though ancipated for some

me, is the most striking evi-

dence yet that China’s ascen-

dancy is for real and that the rest

of the world will have to reckon

with a new economic super-

power.

The recognion came on Au-

gust 16, 2010, when Tokyo said

that Japan’s economy was valued

at about $1.28 trillion in the sec-

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. . .





ond quarter, slightly below

China’s $1.33 trillion. Japan’seconomy grew 0.4 percent in the

quarter, substanally less than

forecast. That weakness suggests

that China’s economy will race

past Japan’s for the full year.

Experts say unseang

Japan—and in recent years pass-

ing Germany, France and Great

Britain—underscores China’s

growing clout and bolsters fore-

casts that China will pass theUnited States as the world’s

biggest economy as early as

2030.

For Japan, whose economy

has been stagnang for more

than a decade, the figures reflect

a decline in economic and poli-

cal power. Japan has had the

world’s second-largest economy

for much of the last four decades,

according to the World Bank. Andduring the 1980s, there was even

talk about Japan’s economy

someday overtaking that of the

United States. But, while Japan’s

economy is mature and its popu-

laon quickly aging, China is in

the throes of urbanizaon and is

far from developed, meaning it

has a much lower standard of liv-

ing, as well as a lot more room to

grow.

China is already a major

driver of global growth. Thecountry’s leaders have grown

more confident on the interna-

onal stage and have begun to

assert greater influence in Asia,

Africa and Lan America, with

things like special trade agree-

ments and mul-billion dollar re-

source deals. Beijing is also

beginning to shape global dia-

logues on a range of issues; for in-

stance, in 2009 it asserted thatthe dollar must be phased out as

the world’s primary reserve cur-

rency.

While the United States and

the European Union are strug-

gling to grow in the wake of the

worst economic crisis in decades,

China has connued to climb up

the economic league tables by in-

vesng heavily in infrastructure

and backing a $586 billion smu-lus plan.

There are huge challenges

ahead, though. Economists say

that China’s economy is too heav-

ily dependent on exports and in-

vestment and that it needs to

encourage greater domesc con-

sumpon—something China has

struggled to do. The country’s

largely state-run banks have re-

cently been cricized for lending

far too aggressively in 2009, while

shiing some loans off their bal-

ance sheet to disguise lending

and evade rules meant to curtail

lending growth.

China is also locked in a fierce

debate over its currency policy,with the United States, European

Union and others accusing Beijing

of keeping the Chinese currency,

the renminbi, arficially low to

bolster exports—leading to huge

trade surpluses for China but

major bilateral trade deficits for

the United States and the Euro-

pean Union. China says that its

currency is not substanally un-

dervalued and that it is movingahead with currency reform.

Regardless, China’s rapid

growth suggests that it will con-

nue to compete fiercely with

the United States and Europe for

natural resources but also offer

big opportunies for companies

eager to tap its market.

US ends combat mis-sion in Iraq

On August 31, 2010, US President

Barack Obama announced an end

to the US combat mission in Iraq,

not with a declaraon of victory

but rather a sombre admission

that the US had paid a “huge

price.”

Announcing an end to Oper-

aon Iraqi Freedom in a naon-ally televised speech from the

White House, the President said

the Iraqi people now have lead

responsibility for the security of

their country.

But as US troops roll out of

Iraq, the country connues to be

locked in a polical stalemate

with disagreement over who will

lead it, aer elecons failed to

throw up a clear winner.

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Obama urged Iraq’s leaders to

“move forward with a sense of

urgency to form an inclusive gov-

ernment that is just, representa-

ve, and accountable to the Iraqi

people.” “And when that govern-

ment is in place, there should be

no doubt: The Iraqi people will

have a strong partner in the

United States. Our combat mis-

sion is ending, but our commit-ment to Iraq’s future is not,” he

added.

Anthony Cordesman of the

Center for Strategic and Interna-

onal Studies said while US

troops may have withdrawn, the

Iraq war is not over, it is not

“won,” and any form of stable

end state in Iraq is probably im-

possible before 2020.

A transional US force will re-main in Iraq with a mission of ad-

vising and assisng Iraq’s security

forces, supporng Iraqi troops in

targeted counter-terrorism mis-

sions, and protecng US civilians.

Mid-East Summit

US President Barack Obama

waded into a new round of Mid-

dle East diplomacy September 1,

2010, seeking momentum for re-

vived peace talks clouded by a

flare-up of West Bank violence

and a deadlock over Jewish set-

tlements.

Obama met Israeli Prime Minister

Benjamin Netanyahu as he

launched a series of one-on-one

meengs with Middle East lead-ers aending a US-led peace

summit that culminated with the

first direct Israeli-Palesnian talks

in 20 months.

With Obama's peace bid fac-

ing broad skepcism and the

clock cking toward the Septem-

ber 26, 2010 expiraon of an Is-

raeli selement construcon

freeze, Israel's defence minister

sounded a conciliatory noteabout the prospects for sharing

Jerusalem, an issue at the heart

of the decades-old conflict. But

big obstacles remain to Obama's

quest for a peace deal that

eluded so many of his predeces-

sors.

Hamas militants declared war

on the talks even before they

began, killing four Jewish selers

in the occupied West Bank, vow-

ing more aacks and underscor-

ing the threat hard-liners pose to

the fragile peace process.

The summit marked Obama's

riskiest plunge into Middle East

diplomacy, not least because he

wants the two sides to forge adeal within 12 months, a target

many analysts call a long shot.

Cricket shamed again

Yet another match-fixing scandal

rocked Pakistan cricket on August

29, 2010, engulfing its captain

Salman Bu, brilliant pace duo of

Mohammad Asif and Moham-mad Amir and four other players,

leading to the arrest of a bookie

in London and quesoning of the

players by the Scotland Yard aer

a tabloid sng.

The ‘News of the World’

tabloid alleged that a Pakistani

man Mazhar Majeed had paid

bribes to the players to bowl no-

balls in the series and the Lord’s

Test. The video evidence that thetabloid has presented also shows

Majeed talking about his links

with Indian bookies.

The two Pakistanis who

bowled no-balls allegedly on di-

recons from Majeed were Asif

and Aamir. Both bowlers deliv-

ered three no-balls during the

Lord’s Test.

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Wheat genome codecracked

Brish sciensts have decoded

the genome of wheat, in a break-

through research that will prove

valuable to crop breeders in

countries like India, in increasing

the yield of the staple food crop.

Wheat producon worldwide is

under threat from climate changeat a me when there is an in-

crease in demand from a growing

human populaon.

Sciensts at the University of

Liverpool, in collaboraon with

the University of Bristol and the

John Innes Centre, have se-

quenced the enre wheat

genome and will make the DNA

data available to crop breeders tohelp them select key agricultural

traits for breeding.

Sciensts have analysed the

wheat genome, which is five

mes larger than the human

genome and is the largest

genome to be sequenced ll

date.

Sciensts discover rich-est planetary system yet

Astronomers have discovered a

planetary system containing at

least five planets and which orbit

a Sun-like star, HD 10180. They

said there was evidence of two

more planets in the same system,

which would make it similar to

our solar system in terms of the

number of planets and their

arrangement.

The planets and their sun-like

star are about 127 light years

from Earth, astronomers with the

European Southern Observatory

said. The system is one of only 15

known to have more than three

worlds.

The five planets circle their

parent star in a regular paern

like the planets of our solar sys-

tem, only in a more compactarrangement, the researchers

said. The confirmaon of the

extra planets would make it the

highest tally of alien worlds ever

spoed around a single star.

Of the two potenal addi-

onal planets that may be pres-

ent, one may have a mass that is

the closest to Earth's, if it is con-

firmed, they added.

The planet would be rocky,like Earth, but probably far too

hot to sustain life. With at least

five Neptune-sized planets cir-

cling inside an orbit equivalent to

that of Mars, the HD 10180 sys-

tem has a more populated inner

region than our solar system.

The five strongest signals cor-

respond to planets with Nep-

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tune-like masses—between 13

and 25 Earth masses—which

orbit the star with periods rang-

ing from about 6 to 600 days.

These planets are located be-tween 0.06 and 1.4 mes the

Earth-Sun distance from their

central star.

Among the other two planets

that could exist, one would be a

Saturn-like planet (with a mini-

mum mass of 65 Earth masses)

orbing in 2200 days. The other

would be the least massive exo-

planet ever discovered, with a

mass of about 1.4 mes that of Earth.

So far, astronomers know of

15 systems with at least three

planets. The last record-holder

was 55 Cancri, which contains

five planets, two of them being

giant planets.

It took astronomers six years

to study it using a planet-finding

instrument called the HARPS

spectrograph, aached to ESO's3.6 metre telescope at La Silla,

Chile.

Census of the seas

First global count of marine life

logs 230,000 species—but scien-

sts warns of mass exncons. It

has been the biggest and most

comprehensive aempt ever to

answer that age-old queson—

how many fish are there in the

sea? A 10-year study of the diver-

sity, distribuon and abundance

of life in the world’s oceans at-

tempts just that.

The Census of Marine Life es-mates there are over 230,000

species in our oceans.

A team of over 360 sciensts

around the world surveyed 25 re-

gions, from the Antarcc through

the temperate and tropical seas

to the Arcc.

Over fishing, degraded habi-

tats, polluon and the arrival of

invasive species are major threats

to the marine life. But more prob-lems are around the corner: rising

water temperatures and acidifi-

caon thanks to climate change

and the growth in areas of the

ocean that are low in oxygen and,

therefore, unable to support life.

Among the major findings are:• A fih of the world’s marine

species are crustaceans such

as crabs, lobsters, krill and

barnacles. Add in molluscs

(squid and octopus) and fish

and that accounts for nearly

half the species in world’s

seas.

• Species oen used in conser-

vaon campaigning—whales,

sea lions, turtles and sea

birds—account for less than

2% of the species in the

oceans.

• Enclosed seas such as the

Mediterranean, Gulf of Mex-

ico, China’s shelves, Balc,

and the Caribbean are havingthe most threatened biodi-

versity.

• The most diverse regions are

around Australia and south-

east Asia.

• Australian and Japanese wa-

ters contain more than

30,000 species each and are

among the most biologically

diverse in the world.

• The manylight viperfish(Chauliodus sloani) is the

most “cosmopolitan” marine

creature with a presence in

around a quarter of the

world’s seas.

• The number of marine fish

species known to science

stood at 16,764, and was

growing at around 100 a year.

There are believed to be

22,000 fish species in theworld.

Saturn's rings formed bydestrucon of Titan-

sized moon

A new study has suggested that

Saturn's rings may have been

formed aer the death of an

early Titan-sized moon whoseupper layers were ripped off as it

spiralled into the infant Saturn.

Planetary scienst Robin Canup

of the Southwest Research Ins-

tute said that one of the prob-

lems in working out where

Saturn''s rings came from is their

composion, reports Nature.

The rings are 90 percent-95

percent water ice—odd because

the primordial solar system

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would have been comprised of

about equal parts ice and rock.

Furthermore, the rings have been

collecng interplanetary dust

ever since they were formed. "So

they must have formed as essen-

ally pure ice," she said.

Prior theories suggested that

the rings were produced by the

break-up of a small moon that fell

too far into Saturn''s mammoth

gravity or by the breakup of a

very large comet that suffered

the same fate.

Canup''s hypothesis is thatthe rings were formed when a

Titan-sized moon with a rocky

core and an icy mantle spiralled

into Saturn early in solar system

history.

Tidal forces ripped off part of

the icy mantle, distribung it into

what would become the rings.

But the rocky core was made of

tougher stuff.

"It hits the planet''s surfacebefore it disrupts. The end result

is a pure ice ring," she said. Aer-

ward, some of that ice recon-

densed into new moons, she

added.

But due to changes in the

evolving Saturn system, these

"spawned" moons now spiralled

outward rather than inward.

Joseph Burns, a planetary sci-

enst from Cornell University

said: "It is a very clever new idea.

One of the things it can do is pro-

duce rings made out of quite

pure water ice, which has been a

problem in the past."

If Canup''s theory is correct,

Saturn would originally have hada ring much more massive than it

is now. That would mean the ring

contained enough material to

spawn icy moons like Enceladus,

Dione and Tethys.

The findings were presented

at a meeng of the American As-

tronomical Society''s Division for

Planetary Science in Pasadena,

California.

Google Cars DriveThemselves

Google researchers have created

cars that can drive on public high-

ways without a human at the

wheel.

Using technology developed

through parcipaon in a series

of autonomous vehicle racessponsored by the Defense Ad-

vanced Research Projects Agency

(DARPA), Google's self-driving

Toyota Prius has already logged

140,000 hours on roads between

the company's Mountain View,

Calif., headquarters and its office

in Santa Monica, Calif., with min-

imal human intervenon.

The robot cars resemble

Google's Street View vehicles. In-stead of a camera on the roof, the

autonomous cars have an opcal

LIDAR (Light Detecon And Rang-

ing) sensor on top, with addi-

onal radar sensors mounted on

chassis.

The researchers involved in

Google's project parcipated in

DARPA's challenges. They in-

clude: Chris Urmson, a Carnegie

Mellon robocs scienst, Mike

Montemerlo, senior research en-

gineer in Stanford's Arficial In-

telligence Lab, and Anthony

Levandowski, a product manager

at Google who's noted for modi-

fying a Prius so that it can deliver

pizza without a person inside.Google is pursuing self-dri-

ving cars to save us from our-

selves and to help the

environment. Nong that as

many as 1.2 million people are

killed every year as a result of

road accidents, Thrun suggests

that automated vehicle technol-

ogy has the potenal to reduce

car-related mortality by as much

as 50%. (The technology couldalso reduce movie budgets by

making car chases too boring to

film.)

Beyond increasing road usage

and fuel efficiency through the

creaon of "highway trains" --

closely coordinated lines of au-

tonomous vehicles -- Thrun says

that self-driving cars would allow

people to be more producve by

working rather than driving dur-

ing their commutes, which aver-

age 52 minutes per day,

according to the U.S. Department

of Transportaon.

Before such futurisc scenar-

ios can really be considered, how-

ever, there will have to be

changes in the legal system. Nei-

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ther Google nor automakers will

want to offer automated cars if

they're held liable accidents.

There will also have to be

changes in the American psyche.

Cars have long been associated

with independence and personalidenty in the U.S., and else-

where. It will take a major social

shi before most people will ac-

cept Google as their driver.

Indian warship INSShak launched in Italy

A new warship built for the Indian

Navy has been launched at anItalian shipyard in a ceremony

that included the recitaon of

Vedic hymns and the breaking of

a coconut.

Italian shipbuilder Fincaneri

launched the INS Shak tanker at

the Sestri Ponente yard in Genoa.

This is the second of the two

tankers built at the Italian ship-

yard.

INS Deepak was the first to

be designed and built in Italy and

is in an advanced stage of trials

before being delivered to the In-

dian Navy by year-end. Fin-caneri had signed a 300 million

euro contract in April 2008 to

build the two vessels. INS Shak

was launched by Homai Saha, the

wife of India's Ambassador to

Italy Debabrata Saha, with the

"recitaon of Vedic hymns and

the breaking of a coconut", the

official said. The christening cer-

emony also included smashing a

bole of champagne against theship's bow.

INS Shak is expected to be

commissioned within two years.

Trials will start in December. Both

the INS Shak and the INS

Deepak have been built with dou-

ble hulls to provide greater safety

and prevent oil spillage.

Navy’s fast aack craKalpeni commissioned

The indigenous Water Jet Fast At-

tack Cra (FAC) Kalpeni was com-missioned by Chief Jusce of

Kerala Jas Chelameswar at a for-

mal ceremony held at the South-

ern Naval Command here on

October 14, 2010. INS Kalpeni is

the seventh of the 10 new gener-

aon Car Nicobar class FACs de-

signed and built by Garden Reach

Shipbuilders and Engineers

(GRSE), Kolkata.

Jusce Chelameswar, in hisaddress, pointed out that it was

as important to develop the capa-

bility to indigenously build mod-

ern vessels as to equip the forces

with modern weapons. “Tradi-

onally, India is a peace-loving

country, but even a peace lover is

required to be always prepared

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to exert pressure,” he said. Theacquision of modern technology

and hardware, he hoped, would

be an incenve for younger gen-

eraons to join the services.

Kalpeni, propelled by three

powerful water jets, can achieve

speeds in excess of 35 Knots.

Based at the Southern Naval

Command, it will bolster the ca-

pabilies of the command in

coastal surveillance and searchand destrucon of fast moving

targets. The main armament of

the ship is a 30mm CRN-91 Gun

with an Optronic Pedestal Sight

as its director. In addion, the

ship has been fied with 11 ma-

chine guns of various types and

shoulder-fired IGLA Surface-to-

Air Missiles (SAM) to thwart aer-

ial threats. Commanded by

Lieutenant Commander SubhalNathan, it has a crew of 3 officers

and 38 sailors.

Tailored therapy a curefor breast cancer

With the increasing prevalence of

breast cancer, doctors are now

resorng to a newer form of

treatment - individualisaon of

breast cancer treat-

ment, popularly

termed as 'tailored

therapy'.

Recent research

conducted by a

team of oncologistsat the Naonal Can-

cer Instute, United

States, came up

with a finding that

adding chemother-

apy to hormone

therapy in the adju-

vant (aer surgery)

treatment of

women with breast

cancer has shown toreduce the risk of breast cancer

recurrence.

Dr Ni Narang, HoD, breast

oncology, HCG Hospital, said,

"Through this tailored therapy,

maximum result can be achieved.

Based on evidence and guidelines

and ongoing research carried out

in India and America, we proceedwith the treatment."

About the working of tailored

therapy, she says, "Based on the

age group, gene profiling and

hormonal suitability we plan the

treatment."

"Aer a thorough checkup,

we categorise the paents under

high risk group or low risk groups.

Since paents under high risk

group have a higher chance of re-

currence, we have to deal very

carefully. For paents, especially

under the high risk group, tai-

lored therapy is best suited.

Treatment is mainly with surgery

breast conserving or mastectomy,

radiaon therapy, chemotherapyand hormonal therapy," she said.

Earlier, most of the paents

with breast cancer used to be

aged 40 years and above, nor-

mally aer their menopause. But,

of late, even girls in their teens

and 20s are affected. "Women,

especially those with a family his-

tory of breast cancer are at a

higher risk. The number seems to

be high among urban women andthis is basically because of change

in lifestyle. Use of alcohol and

smoking are among other con-

tributory factors," she says.

At the same me, awareness

level seems to be increasing, as

many of those affected are com-

ing for treatment at an early

stage, opines Dr Ni.

Says another specialist, Dr

Poonam Pal, HoD and consult-ant medical oncologist, Manipal

Hospital, "Tailored therapy, a

treatment designed for the

breast cancer paents based on

the individual risk criteria, is a

new trend. Compared to the gen-

eral treatment available, tailored

therapy is yielding beer results."

Sashi Venkat, a breast cancer sur-

vivor from city, says, "Tailored

therapy I believe is the right op-on for those suffering from

breast cancer. For me, I did not

want surgery. According to the in-

formaon gathered from the In-

ternet and doctors, treatment

was designed accordingly for me.

I went through chemotherapy,

cyber knife procedure, followed

by vaccinaon. Till date I have

had no sideeffects and I am re-

covering."

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ATHLETICS

Naonal AthlecMeet, 50th

Kerala, Punjab and Haryana stood

overall first, second and third, re-

specvely, in the Naonal Ath-

lec Senior Championship held at

NIS Paala.

FOOTBALL

Santosh Trophy, 2010

Kerala lad Denson Devdas struck

twice as Bengal made a spectacu-

lar comeback to beat Punjab 2-1,

ending their 11 years tle

drought in the Naonal Football

Championship for Santosh Tro-

phy.


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GAMES

Youth Olympic Games

Singapore hosted the first Youth

Olympics from August 14 to 26,

2010. A total of 3,531 athletes

between 14 and 18 years of age

from 204 Naonal Olympic Com-

miees (NOCs) competed in 201

events in 26 sports.

The opening ceremony of the

Games was held on 14 August atThe Float@Marina Bay, a floang

stage near downtown Singapore.

Approximately 27,000 spectators

aended the event, which took

place against a backdrop of the

city's skyline.

Lyo and Merly were the offi-

cial mascots. The duo ere made

up of a red male lion and a blue

female Merlion. A contest held to

name the two mascots was wonby two Singaporeans. It took de-

signers from Cubix Internaonal

about six months to complete de-

signing the mascots.

China topped the medals tally

with 30 gold medals, followed by

Russia (18) and South Korea (11).

India was ranked 58 with 6 silver

medals and 2 bronze medals in its

kiy.

It was during the 119th ses-

sion of the Internaonal Olympic

Commiee (IOC) in Guatemala

City on the July 5, 2007 when the

IOC decided to create Youth

Olympic Games (YOG). The vision

of the innovave concept for the

new sport event is to inspire

young people all around the

world to parcipate in sport and

adopt and live by the Olympic val-

ues (excellence, friendship, re-

spect).

Innsbruck and Seefeld will

host the first Winter Youth

Olympic Games from January 13-22, 2012.

GOLF

Atwal first Indian to winUS PGA tle

Arjun Atwal has become the firstIndian ever to win a US PGA tle

when he won the Wyndham Golf

Championship.

HOCKEY

Champions Trophy, 2010

Australia won their third succes-

sive Champions Trophy, and 11th

in all, with a comprehensive 4-0

win over England. Netherlands

secured the third place. The

championship was held at

Monchengladbach, Germany.

SHOOTING

Tejaswini becomes firstIndian woman to win

gold at World Champi-onships

Tejaswani Sawant scripted history

by becoming the first Indian

woman shooter to clinch a gold

medal at the World Champi-

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onships, with a world-record

equalling score in 50m Rifle

Prone event in Munich, Germany.

CRICKETSri Lanka-New Zealand-India One-Day Tri-series

Sri Lanka rode on Tillakaratne Dil-

shan’s century to clinch the tri-se-

ries tle with an emphac 74-run

win over India, ending M.S.

Dhoni’s sequence of four consec-

uve series triumphs on Sri Lankasoil.

England-PakistanTest series

England crushed Pakistan by an

innings and 225 runs to win the

fourth and final Test at Lord’s,

London. England ended up win-

ning the series 3-1.

Pakistan overcame a late bat-

ng collapse to beat England by

four wickets in the third Test.

England batsmen Jonathan

Tro and Stuart Broad set a world

record eighth wicket partnership

when they extended their stand

to 332 on the third day of fourth

Test. The record was earlier held

by Pakistan’s Wasim Akram and

Saqlain Mushtaq.

Earlier, in the first Test, James

Anderson took ten wickets in a

Test for the first me to help Eng-

land crush Pakistan by 354 runs.

In their second innings, Pakistan

were bundled out for just 80

runs, their lowest total againstEngland, replacing the 87 they

made at Lord’s in 1954.

Sri Lanka-IndiaTest Series

Veteran V.V.S. Laxman cracked a

fighng unbeaten 103 as India

pulled off a five-wicket win in the

third Test to level the three-Testseries 1-1. Laxman was adjudged

the man of the match while

Virender Sehwag was adjudged

man of the series.

Tendulkar becomesmost-capped player

Iconic Indian batsman Sachin Ten-

dulkar has become the most-

capped Test cricketer (169 Test

matches). This feat was achieved

in the third and final Test against

Sri Lanka, played in August 2010.

Steve Waugh (168 Test matches)

of Australia had held the record

earlier.

India v Australia TestCricket Series

1st Test, Mohali, Oct 1-5

VVS Laxman struck a superb

unbeaten 73 as India fought back

from the brink of defeat to beat

Australia by one wicket in a

thrilling first Test in Mohali. Lax-

man, bang with a runner due to

a back injury, was ably assisted by

tail-ender Ishant Sharma as India

rallied from 124-8 to within sight

of victory. Sharma made 31 be-

fore being trapped leg before

4 Vol. - 19

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wicket by Ben Hilfenhaus. With

11 sll needed, Laxman was

joined by last-man Pragyan Ojha

and they got India home in a nail-

bing finish.

This was India's first one-

wicket victory in Tests. The 81-run

partnership for the ninth wicket

between VVS Laxman and Ishant

Sharma was the second-highest

against Australia, behind the 89-

run stand between Harbhajan

Singh and Irfan Pathan in 2004.

IND v AUS, Mohali Test: India

405 (Tendulkar 98, Raina 86,

Johnson 5-64) and 216 for 9 (Lax-

man 73*, Hilfenhaus 4-57,

Bollinger 3-32) beat Australia 428(Watson 126, Paine 92, Zaheer 5-

94) and 192 (Watson 56, Ishant 3-

34, Zaheer 3-43) by 1 wicket

2nd Test, Bangalore, Oct 9-13

First innings double century-

maker Sachin Tendulkar scored

the winning runs in India's seven-

wicket victory over Australia to

take the two-test series 2-0. It

was India's first victory at the M.

Chinnaswamy stadium in 15years.

Australia was bowled out for

223 earlier, seng India a target

of 207 to win. Tendulkar, who

scored 214 in the first innings,

took his series aggregate to 403

runs, at an amazing average of

134.5. Rahul Dravid, who shared

in a 61-run unbroken fourth-

wicket partnership with Ten-

dulkar, remained unbeaten on 21.Playing his first test and pro-

moted to bat at No. 3,

Cheteswara Pujara set the pace

of the innings with a 72 with

seven boundaries.

With this win, India have con-

solidated their posion at the top

of the ICC Test Championship

table, while Australia have

dropped behind England to fih

posion aer racking up two

losses - in Mohali last week and

Bangalore - to Mahendra Dhoni's

men.IND v AUS, Bangalore Test:

India 495 and 207 for 3 (Pujara

72, Tendulkar 53*) beat Australia

478 and 223 (Ponng 72, Zaheer

3-41, Ojha 3-57) by 7 wickets

14,000 Runs in TestCricket for Sachin Ten-

dulkar

Sachin Tendulkar became the firstbatsman in history of test cricket

to score 14, 000 runs on day two

of the second test against Aus-

tralia at the Chinnaswamy Sta-

dium on 10 October 2010.

The loudest cheers of the day

were heard when the Master

reached another milestone as hepunched Hauritz off the Back-foot

to the covers boundary to reach

14,000 runs in test cricket.

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Business India's 'Best Bank' Award

Bank of Baroda (BOB) was pre-

sented the 'Business India BestBank 2010' award by Union Min-

ister for Road Transport and High-

ways, Kamal Nath at a funcon in

the Mumbai on Oct 7. M D

Mallya, Chairman and Managing

Director, Bank of Baroda, ac-

cepted the Award on behalf of

the bank.

BOB has entered new ver-

cals like insurance and invest-

ment banking. Its recent foray,

into the insurance space resulted

in over 100,000 policies sold in

nine months of operaon, and

plans to collect new business pre-

mium of Rs 700 crore, in the first

year of operaon. BOB Capital,

the investment banking arm, has

also been revived. Refurbished

branches under 'BarodaNext' are

expected to touch 34 naonwide.

During Financial Year 2009-

10, the bank was fourth biggest in

India by total assets, fourth most

profitable, third by total business,

and fourth by advances. All its

3,200 branches are core bankingsoluon-enabled, with plans to

add another 350 branches by

March 2011.

Golden Peacock Award

IBM India has been conferred

with The Golden Peacock award

2010 for its Corporate Social Re-

sponsibility (CSR) iniaves in

India on Oct 7.

IBM India is the first IT Com-

pany to win this award since itsincepon in 2002. The company

was also been rated as the 'first

among equals' for its CSR prac-

ces amongst other recipients of

the award this year.

IBM's BPO arm in India, IBM

Daksh was also recognized with a

'Special Commendaon' for the

Golden Peacock Environment

Management Award for this year

at the 2010 Global Sustainability

Summit.

IBM spends US Dollar 150

million annually on CSR iniaves

worldwide and connues to chal-

lenge itself to find beer and

more impacul ways to con-

tribute to society. IBM's CC and

CA are on constant lookout for

World of

Awards

4 Vol. - 19

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new areas where they can make a

difference.

The Golden Peacock is a very

presgious and well-known

award in the field of CSR in India.

We are privileged to receive this

award.

Maulana Abul KalamAzad Trophy for Sports

The Punjabi University and Guru

Nanak Dev University have been

awarded the trophy for academic

session 2008-09 and 2009-10, re-

specvely.

Gallantry Awards, 2010

Ashok Chakra: Major Laishram Jy-

on Singh, an unarmed army

doctor serving in Kabul, who took

on a suicide bomber and killed

him, has been awarded Ashok

Chakra (posthumously), the high-

est peaceme gallantry award.

Kir Chakra: Captain Davin-der Singh Juss of the Parachute

Regiment and Vinod Kumar

Choubey, SP, Chhasgarh, have

been awarded India’s second

highest peace me gallantry

award. Juss killed a foreign terror-

ist in February 2010 during an en-

counter in J&K and Choubey

fought against more than 300

naxalites.

Tendulkar isCricketer of Year

Sachin Tendulkar became only

the second player from India

aer Rahul Dravid, winner of the

inaugural edion in 2004, to

claim the Sir Garfield Sobers Tro-

phy. Tendulkar beat back the

challenge of Hashim Amla, Viren-

der Sehwag -- who was crowned

the Test Player of the Year -- and

English off-spinner Graeme

Swann.

This was probably the

only individual trophy

missing from Tendulkar’scabinet, and aer an

evenul season during

which period he stacked

up runs in tons both in

Tests and one-dayers, the

Mumbaikar bagged the

top honours. Tendulkar

amassed 1064 runs in Tests at an

average of 81.25 and notched up

914 (65.29 average) runs in one-

day internaonals, including an

incredible 200 not out against

South Africa in Gwalior earlier

this year. The performances of

players between August 24, 2009

and August 10, 2010 were taken

into account whilst deciding the

awards.

It’s a way of appreciang

one’s performances,” observed

the right-hander, who also found

places in both the One-day and

Test teams of the years. Ten-

dulkar was also in race for the

One-day Player of the Year, which

went to South African AB de Vil-

liers.

India’s cup of joy fairly over-flowed. Sehwag was declared the

Test Cricketer of the Year while

Dhoni was named the skipper of

the Test team of the Year, voted

by a 25-person independent

panel comprising former players,

cricket journalists, ICC match ref-

erees and umpires’ representa-

ves, and chairman of the ICC’s

Cricket Commiee, Clive Lloyd.

During the awards period, Se-hwag stacked up 1282 runs in 12

Tests.

Australian skipper Ricky

Ponng was named the captain

of the One-day team of the year,

while Pakistan’s Aleem Dar was

adjudged the umpire of the year

for the second me in succession.

Australian Shelly Nitschke took

home the Women’s Cricketer of

the Year honours.

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Award Winners

• Cricketer of the Year : Sachin Tendulkar (India).

• Test Player of the Year : Virender Sehwag (India).

• ODI Player of the Year : AB de Villiers (South Africa).• Emerging Player : Steven Finn (England).

• Azsociate and Affiliate Player of the Year : Ryan ten Doeschate (Netherlands).

• Twenty20 Internaonal Performance of the Year : Brendon McCullum (New Zealand) for his un-

beaten 116 in 56 balls against Australia on Feb 28.

• Woman Cricketer of the Year : Shelly Nitschke (Australia).

• Umpire of the Year: Aleem Dar (Pakistan).

• Spirit of Cricket : New Zealand.

• People’s choice award : Sachin Tendulkar.

• Test team of the Year : Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt), Virender Sehwag, Simon Kach, Sachin Ten-

dulkar, Hashim Amla, Kumar Sangakkara, Jacques Kallis, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Dale Steyn,

Doug Bollinger.

• One-day team of the Year: Ricky Ponng (capt), Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Watson, Michael Hussey,

AB de Villiers, Paul Collingwood, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Daniel Veori, Chris Broad, Doug Bollinger,

Ryan Harris.

• ICC Hall of Fame inductees: Joel Garner, Courtney Walsh (both West Indies), Ken Barrington and

Rachael Hayhoe Fint (both England).

2010 Nobel Prizes Announcements

Physiology or Medicine :

• Robert G. Edwards

Physics :

• Andre Geim

• Konstann Novoselov

Chemistry :

• Richard F. Heck

• Ei-ichi Negishi

• Akira Suzuki

Literature :

• Mario Vargas Llosa

Peace :

• Liu Xiaobo

Economic Sciences :

• Peter A. Diamond

• Dale T. Mortensen

• Christopher A. Pissarides

4 Vol. - 19

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Affairs about You must be aware

World TradeOrganizaon

The World Trade Organizaon

(WTO) is an organizaon that in-

tends to supervise and liberalizeinternaonal trade. The organiza-

on officially commenced on Jan-

uary 1, 1995 under the

Marrakech Agreement, replacing

the General Agreement on Tariffs

and Trade (GATT), which com-

menced in 1948. The organiza-

on deals with regulaon of

trade between parcipang

countries; it provides a frame-

work for negoang and formal-izing trade agreements, and a

dispute resoluon process aimed

at enforcing parcipants' adher-

ence to WTO agreements which

ar signed by representaves of

member governments and ra-

fied by their parliaments. Most of

the issues that the WTO focuses

on derive from previous trade ne-

goaons, especially from the

Uruguay Round (1986-1994).

The organizaon is currently

endeavoring to persist with a

trade negoaon called the Doha

Development Agenda (or Doha

Round), which was launched in

2001 to enhance equitable par-

cipaon of poorer countries

which represent a majority of the

world's populaon. However, the

negoaon has been dogged by

"disagreement between ex-

porters of agricultural bulk com-

modies and countries with large

numbers of subsistence farmers

on the precise terms of a 'special

safeguard measure' to protect

farmers from surges in imports.

At this me, the future of theDoha Round is uncertain."

The WTO has 153 members,

represenng more than 97% of

total world trade and 30 ob-

servers, most seeking member-

ship. The WTO is governed by a

ministerial conference, meeng

every two years; a general coun-

cil, which implements the confer-

ence's policy decisions and is

responsible for day-to-day admin-istraon; and a director-general,

who is appointed by the ministe-

rial conference. The WTO's head-

quarters is at the Centre William

Rappard, Geneva, Switzerland.

ITO and GATT 1945

The WTO's predecessor, the Gen-

eral Agreement on Tariffs and

Trade (GATT), was established

aer World War II in the wake of

other new mullateral instu-

ons dedicated to internaonal

economic cooperaon — notably

the Breon Woods instuons

known as the World Bank and the

Internaonal Monetary Fund. A

comparable internaonal instu-

on for trade, named the Interna-

onal Trade Organizaon was

successfully negoated. The ITO

was to be a United Naons spe-

cialized agency and would ad-

dress not only trade barriers but

other issues indirectly related to

trade, including employment, in-

vestment, restricve businesspracces, and commodity agree-

ments. But the ITO treaty was not

approved by the U.S. and a few

other signatories and never went

into effect.

In the absence of an interna-

onal organizaon for trade, the

GATT would over the years

"transform itself" into a de facto

internaonal organizaon.

GATT rounds of negoa-ons

The GATT was the only mullat-

eral instrument governing inter-

naonal trade from 1948 unl

the WTO was established in 1995.

Despite aempts in the mid

1950s and 1960s to create some

form of instuonal mechanism

for internaonal trade, the GATT

connued to operate for almost

half a century as a semi-instu-

onalized mullateral treaty

regime on a provisional basis.

From Genève to Tokyo

Seven rounds of negoaons oc-

curred under the GATT. The first

Special Study Package


. . .





real GATT trade rounds concen-

trated on further reducing tariffs.

Then, the Kennedy Round in the

mid-sixes brought about a GATT

an-dumping Agreement and a

secon on development. The

Tokyo Round during the seveneswas the first major aempt to

tackle trade barriers that do not

take the form of tariffs, and to im-

prove the system, adopng a se-

ries of agreements on non-tariff

barriers, which in some cases in-

terpreted exisng GATT rules,

and in others broke enrely new

ground. Because these plurilat-

eral agreements were not ac-

cepted by the full GATTmembership, they were oen in-

formally called "codes". Several

of these codes were amended in

the Uruguay Round, and turned

into mullateral commitments

accepted by all WTO members.

Only four remained plurilateral

(those on government procure-

ment, bovine meat, civil aircra

and dairy products), but in 1997

WTO members agreed to termi-nate the bovine meat and dairy

agreements, leaving only two.

Uruguay Round

Well before GATT's 40th anniver-

sary, its members concluded that

the GATT system was straining to

adapt to a new globalizing world

economy. In response to theproblems idenfied in the 1982

Ministerial Declaraon (structural

deficiencies, spill-over impacts of

certain countries' policies on

world trade GATT could not man-

age etc.), the eighth GATT round

— known as the Uruguay Round

— was launched in September

1986, in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

It was the biggest negoang

mandate on trade ever agreed:

the talks were going to extend

the trading system into several

new areas, notably trade in serv-

ices and intellectual property, and

to reform trade in the sensive

sectors of agriculture and texles;

all the original GATT arcles wereup for review. The Final Act con-

cluding the Uruguay Round and

officially establishing the WTO

regime was signed during the

April 1994 ministerial meeng at

Marrakesh, Morocco, and hence

is known as the Marrakesh Agree-

ment.

The GATT sll exists as the

WTO's umbrella treaty for trade

in goods, updated as a result of the Uruguay Round negoaons

(a disncon is made between

GATT 1994, the updated parts of

GATT, and GATT 1947, the original

agreement which is sll the heart

of GATT 1994). GATT 1994 is not

however the only legally binding

agreement included via the Final

Act at Marrakesh; a long list of

about 60 agreements, annexes,

decisions and understandingswas adopted. The agreements fall

into a structure with six main

parts:

• The Agreement Establishing

the WTO

• Goods and investment — the

Mullateral Agreements on

Trade in Goods including the

GATT 1994 and the Trade Re-

lated Investment Measures

• Services — the GeneralAgreement on Trade in Serv-

ices

• Intellectual property — the

Agreement on Trade-Related

Aspects of Intellectual Prop-

erty Rights (TRIPS)

• Dispute selement (DSU)

• Reviews of governments'

trade policies (TPRM)

Ministerial Conferences

The topmost decision-making

body of the WTO is the Ministe-

rial Conference, which usually

meets every two years. It brings

together all members of the

WTO, all of which are countries or

customs unions. The Ministerial

Conference can take decisions on

all maers under any of the mul-

lateral trade agreements. The

inaugural ministerial conference

was held in Singapore in 1996.

Disagreements between largely

developed and developing

economies emerged during this

conference over four issues ini-

ated by this conference, which

led to them being collecvely re-

ferred to as the "Singapore is-

sues". The second ministerial

conference was held in Geneva in

Switzerland.

The third conference in Seat-

tle, Washington ended in failure,

with massive demonstraons and

police and Naonal Guard crowd

control efforts drawing world-wide aenon. The fourth minis-

terial conference was held in

Doha in the Persian Gulf naon of

Qatar. The Doha Development

Round was launched at the con-

ference. The conference also ap-

proved the joining of China,

which became the 143rd mem-

ber to join. The fih ministerial

conference was held in Cancún,

Mexico, aiming at forging agree-ment on the Doha round. An al-

liance of 22 southern states, the

G20 developing naons (led by

India, China, Brazil, ASEAN led by

the Philippines), resisted de-

mands from the North for agree-

ments on the so-called

"Singapore issues" and called for

an end to agricultural subsidies

within the EU and the US. The

talks broke down without

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progress.

The sixth WTO ministerial

conference was held in Hong

Kong from 13-18 December

2005. It was considered vital if

the four-year-old Doha Develop-

ment Agenda negoaons wereto move forward sufficiently to

conclude the round in 2006. In

this meeng, countries agreed to

phase out all their agricultural ex-

port subsidies by the end of

2013, and terminate any coon

export subsidies by the end of

2006. Further concessions to de-

veloping countries included an

agreement to introduce duty

free, tariff free access for goodsfrom the Least Developed Coun-

tries, following the Everything but

Arms iniave of the European

Union — but with up to 3% of tar-

iff lines exempted. Other major

issues were le for further nego-

aon to be completed by the

end of 2010. The WTO General

Council, on 26 May 2009, agreed

to hold a seventh WTO ministe-

rial conference session in Genevafrom 30 November-3 December

2009. A statement by chairman

Amb. Mario Matus acknowl-

edged that the prime purpose

was to remedy a breach of proto-

col requiring two-yearly "regular"

meengs, which had lapsed with

the Doha Round failure in 2005,

and that the "scaled-down"

meeng would not be a negoat-

ing session, but "emphasis will beon transparency and open discus-

sion rather than on small group

processes and informal negoat-

ing structures". The general

theme for discussion was "The

WTO, the Mullateral Trading

System and the Current Global

Economic Environment"

Doha Round

The WTO launched the current

round of negoaons, the Doha

Development Agenda (DDA) or

Doha Round, at the fourth minis-terial conference in Doha, Qatar

in November 2001. The Doha

round was to be an ambious ef-

fort to make globalizaon more

inclusive and help the world's

poor, parcularly by slashing bar-

riers and subsidies in farming.

The inial agenda comprised

both further trade liberalizaon

and new rule-making, under-

pinned by commitments tostrengthen substanal assistance

to developing countries.

The negoaons have been

highly contenous and agree-

ment has not been reached, de-

spite the intense negoaons at

several ministerial conferences

and at other sessions. Disagree-

ments sll connue over several

key areas including agriculture

subsidies.

Funcons

Among the various funcons of

the WTO, these are regarded by

analysts as the most important:

• It oversees the implementa-

on, administraon and op-

eraon of the covered

agreements.• It provides a forum for nego-

aons and for seling dis-

putes.

Addionally, it is the WTO's duty

to review and propagate the na-

onal trade policies, and to en-

sure the coherence and

transparency of trade policies

through surveillance in global

economic policy-making. Another

priority of the WTO is the assis-

tance of developing, least-devel-

oped and low-income countries

in transion to adjust to WTO

rules and disciplines through

technical cooperaon and train-

ing.

The WTO is also a center of economic research and analysis:

regular assessments of the global

trade picture in its annual publi-

caons and research reports on

specific topics are produced by

the organizaon. Finally, the WTO

cooperates closely with the two

other components of the Breon

Woods system, the IMF and the

World Bank.

Principles of the tradingsystem

The WTO establishes a frame-

work for trade policies; it does

not define or specify outcomes.

That is, it is concerned with set-

ng the rules of the trade policy

games. Five principles are of par-

cular importance in understand-ing both the pre-1994 GATT and

the WTO:

1. Non-Discriminaon. It has

two major components: the most

favoured naon (MFN) rule, and

the naonal treatment policy.

Both are embedded in the main

WTO rules on goods, services,

and intellectual property, but

their precise scope and naturediffer across these areas. The

MFN rule requires that a WTO

member must apply the same

condions on all trade with other

WTO members, i.e. a WTO mem-

ber has to grant the most favor-

able condions under which it

allows trade in a certain product

type to all other WTO members.

"Grant someone a special favour

and you have to do the same for

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. . .





all other WTO members." Na-

onal treatment means that im-

ported goods should be treated

no less favorably than domes-

cally produced goods (at least

aer the foreign goods have en-

tered the market) and was intro-duced to tackle non-tariff barriers

to trade (e.g. technical standards,

security standards et al. discrimi-

nang against imported goods).

2. Reciprocity. It reflects both

a desire to limit the scope of free-

riding that may arise because of

the MFN rule, and a desire to ob-

tain beer access to foreign mar-

kets. A related point is that for a

naon to negoate, it is neces-sary that the gain from doing so

be greater than the gain available

from unilateral liberalizaon; re-

ciprocal concessions intend to en-

sure that such gains will

materialise.

3. Binding and enforceable

commitments. The tariff commit-

ments made by WTO members in

a mullateral trade negoaon

and on accession are enumeratedin a schedule (list) of concessions.

These schedules establish "ceiling

bindings": a country can change

its bindings, but only aer nego-

ang with its trading partners,

which could mean compensang

them for loss of trade. If sasfac-

on is not obtained, the com-

plaining country may invoke the

WTO dispute selement proce-

dures.4. Transparency. The WTO

members are required to publish

their trade regulaons, to main-

tain instuons allowing for the

review of administrave deci-

sions affecng trade, to respond

to requests for informaon by

other members, and to nofy

changes in trade policies to the

WTO. These internal trans-

parency requirements are sup-

plemented and facilitated by pe-

riodic country-specific reports

(trade policy reviews) through

the Trade Policy Review Mecha-

nism (TPRM). The WTO system

tries also to improve predictabil-

ity and stability, discouraging theuse of quotas and other meas-

ures used to set limits on quan-

es of imports.

5. Safety valves. In specific

circumstances, governments are

able to restrict trade. There are

three types of provisions in this

direcon: arcles allowing for the

use of trade measures to aain

noneconomic objecves; arcles

aimed at ensuring "fair compe-on"; and provisions perming

intervenon in trade for eco-

nomic reasons. Excepons to the

MFN principle also allow for pref-

erenal treatment of developing

countries, regional free trade

areas and customs unions.

Organizaonal structure

The General Council has mulple

bodies which oversee commit-

tees in different areas, and they

are the following:

Council for Trade in GoodsThere are 11 commiees under

the jurisdicon of the Goods

Council each with a specific task.

All members of the WTO parci-

pate in the commiees. The Tex-les Monitoring Body is separate

from the other commiees but

sll under the jurisdicon of

Goods Council. The body has its

own chairman and only 10 mem-

bers. The body also has several

groups relang to texles.

Council for Trade-Related As-

pects of Intellectual Property

Rights

Informaon on intellectual

property in the WTO, news and

official records of the acvies of

the TRIPS Council, and details of

the WTO’s work with other inter-

naonal organizaons in the

field.

Council for Trade in Services

The Council for Trade in Serv-

ices operates under the guidance

of the General Council and is re-

sponsible for overseeing the

funconing of the General Agree-

ment on Trade in Services (GATS).

It is open to all WTO members,

and can create subsidiary bodies

as required.

Trade NegoaonsCommiee

The Trade Negoaons Commit-

tee (TNC) is the commiee that

deals with the current trade talks

round. The chair is WTO’s direc-

tor-general. The commiee is

currently tasked with the DohaDevelopment Round.

The Service Council has three

subsidiary bodies: financial serv-

ices, domesc regulaons, GATS

rules and specific commitments.

The General council has several

different commiees, working

groups, and working pares.

There are commiees on the fol-

lowing: Trade and Environment;

Trade and Development (Sub-commiee on Least-Developed

Countries); Regional Trade Agree-

ments; Balance of Payments Re-

stricons; and Budget, Finance

and Administraon. There are

working pares on the following:

Accession. There are working

groups on the following: Trade,

debt and finance; and Trade and

technology transfer.

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Vong system

The WTO operates on a one

country, one vote system, but ac-

tual votes have never been taken.

Decision making is generally by

consensus, and relave market

size is the primary source of bar-

gaining power. The advantage of

consensus decision-making is

that it encourages efforts to find

the most widely acceptable deci-

sion. Main disadvantages include

large me requirements and

many rounds of negoaon to

develop a consensus decision,

and the tendency for final agree-

ments to use ambiguous lan-

guage on contenous points that

makes future interpretaon of

treaes difficult.

In reality, WTO negoaons

proceed not by consensus of all

members, but by a process of in-

formal negoaons between

small groups of countries. Such

negoaons are oen called

"Green Room" negoaons (aer

the colour of the WTO Director-General's Office in Geneva), or

"Mini-Ministerials", when they

occur in other countries. These

processes have been regularly

cricised by many of the WTO's

developing country members

which are oen totally excluded

from the negoaons.

Richard Harold Steinberg

(2002) argues that although the

WTO's consensus governancemodel provides law-based inial

bargaining, trading rounds close

through power-based bargaining

favouring Europe and the U.S.,

and may not lead to Pareto im-

provement.

Dispute selement

In 1994, the WTO members

agreed on the Understanding on

Rules and Procedures Governing

the Selement of Disputes (DSU)

annexed to the "Final Act" signed

in Marrakesh in 1994. Dispute

selement is regarded by the

WTO as the central pillar of the

mullateral trading system, andas a "unique contribuon to the

stability of the global economy".

WTO members have agreed that,

if they believe fellow-members

are violang trade rules, they will

use the mullateral system of set-

tling disputes instead of taking

acon unilaterally.

The operaon of the WTO

dispute selement process in-

volves the DSB panels, the Appel-late Body, the WTO Secretariat,

arbitrators, independent experts

and several specialized instu-

ons. Several commentators

have pointed out the praccal dif-

ficulty in establishing legal ele-

ments required to bring trade

remedy claim under WTO law.

Accession and

membership

The process of becoming a WTO

member is unique to each appli-

cant country, and the terms of ac-

cession are dependent upon the

country's stage of economic de-

velopment and current trade

regime. The process takes about

five years, on average, but it can

last more if the country is less

than fully commied to theprocess or if polical issues inter-

fere. As is typical of WTO proce-

dures, an offer of accession is

only given once consensus is

reached among interested par-

es.

Accession process

A country wishing to accede to

the WTO submits an applicaon

to the General Council, and has to

describe all aspects of its trade

and economic policies that have

a bearing on WTO agreements.

The applicaon is submied to

the WTO in a memorandum

which is examined by a workingparty open to all interested WTO

Members.

Aer all necessary back-

ground informaon has been ac-

quired, the working party focuses

on issues of discrepancy between

the WTO rules and the applicant's

internaonal and domesc trade

policies and laws. The working

party determines the terms and

condions of entry into the WTOfor the applicant naon, and may

consider transional periods to

allow countries some leeway in

complying with the WTO rules.

The final phase of accession

involves bilateral negoaons be-

tween the applicant naon and

other working party members re-

garding the concessions and com-

mitments on tariff levels and

market access for goods and serv-ices. The new member's commit-

ments are to apply equally to all

WTO members under normal

non-discriminaon rules, even

though they are negoated bilat-

erally.

When the bilateral talks con-

clude, the working party sends to

the general council or ministerial

conference an accession package,

which includes a summary of allthe working party meengs, the

Protocol of Accession (a dra

membership treaty), and lists

("schedules") of the member-to-

be's commitments. Once the gen-

eral council or ministerial

conference approves of the terms

of accession, the applicant's par-

liament must rafy the Protocol

of Accession before it can be-

come a member.

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Members andobservers

The WTO has 153 members (al-

most all of the 123 naons parc-

ipang in the Uruguay Roundsigned on at its foundaon, and

the rest had to get membership).

The 27 states of the European

Union are represented also as the

European Communies. WTO

members do not have to be full

sovereign naon-members. In-

stead, they must be a customs

territory with full autonomy in

the conduct of their external

commercial relaons. Thus HongKong (as "Hong Kong, China"

since 1997) became a GATT con-

tracng party, and the Republic

of China (ROC) (commonly known

as Taiwan, whose sovereignty has

been disputed by the People's

Republic of China or PRC) ac-

ceded to the WTO in 2002 under

the name of "Separate Customs

Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kin-

men and Matsu" (Chinese Taipei).A number of non-members

(30) are observers at WTO pro-

ceedings and are currently nego-

ang their membership. As

observers, Iran, Iraq and Russia

are not yet members. Russia is

the biggest economy outside

WTO and aer the compleon of

Russia's accession, Iran would be

the biggest economy outside the

WTO. With the excepon of theHoly See, observers must start ac-

cession negoaons within five

years of becoming observers.

Some internaonal intergovern-

mental organizaons are also

granted observer status to WTO

bodies. 14 states and 2 territories

so far have no official interacon

with the WTO.

Agreements

The WTO oversees about 60 dif-

ferent agreements which have

the status of internaonal legal

texts. Member countries mustsign and rafy all WTO agree-

ments on accession. A discussion

of some of the most important

agreements follows. The Agree-

ment on Agriculture came into ef-

fect with the establishment of the

WTO at the beginning of 1995.

The AoA has three central con-

cepts, or "pillars": domesc sup-

port, market access and export

subsidies. The General Agree-ment on Trade in Services was

created to extend the mullateral

trading system to service sector,

in the same way the General

Agreement on Tariffs and Trade

(GATT) provides such a system for

merchandise trade. The Agree-

ment entered into force in Janu-

ary 1995. The Agreement on

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellec-

tual Property Rights sets downminimum standards for many

forms of intellectual property (IP)

regulaon. It was negoated at

the end of the Uruguay Round of

the General Agreement on Tariffs

and Trade (GATT) in 1994.

The Agreement on the Appli-

caon of Sanitary and Phytosani-

tary Measures — also known as

the SPS Agreement was nego-

ated during the Uruguay Roundof the General Agreement on Tar-

iffs and Trade, and entered into

force with the establishment of

the WTO at the beginning of

1995. Under the SPS agreement,

the WTO sets constraints on

members' policies relang to

food safety (bacterial contami-

nants, pescides, inspecon and

labelling) as well as animal and

plant health (imported pests and

diseases). The Agreement on

Technical Barriers to Trade is an

internaonal treaty of the World

Trade Organizaon. It was nego-

ated during the Uruguay Round

of the General Agreement on Tar-

iffs and Trade, and entered intoforce with the establishment of

the WTO at the end of 1994. The

object ensures that technical ne-

goaons and standards, as well

as tesng and cerficaon proce-

dures, do not create unnecessary

obstacles to trade". The Agree-

ment on Customs Valuaon, for-

mally known as the Agreement

on Implementaon of Arcle VII

of GATT, prescribes methods of customs valuaon that Members

are to follow. Chiefly, it adopts

the "transacon value" approach.

Cricism of the WorldTrade Organizaon

The stated aim of the World

Trade Organizaon (WTO) is to

promote free trade and smu-late economic growth. The ac-

ons, method, and fundame-

ntalism, of the World Trade Or-

ganizaon evokes strong an-

pathies. Among other things,

the WTO is accused of widening

the sociological gap between rich

and poor it claims to be fixing.

Developing countries

Crics contend that small coun-

tries in the WTO wield lile influ-

ence, and despite the WTO aim

of helping the developing coun-

tries, the policians represenng

the most influenal naons in the

WTO (and within those countries

or between them, influenal pri-

vate business interests) focus on

the commercial interests of

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profit-making companies rather

than the interests of all. Marn

Khor argues that the WTO does

not manage the global economy

imparally, but in its operaon

has a systemac bias toward rich

countries and mulnaonal cor-poraons, harming smaller coun-

tries which have less negoaon

power. Some examples of this

bias are:

• Rich countries are able to

maintain high import dues

and quotas in certain prod-

ucts, blocking imports from

developing countries (e.g.

clothing);

• The increase in non-tariff bar-riers such as an-dumping

measures allowed against de-

veloping countries;

• The maintenance of high pro-

tecon of agriculture in de-

veloped countries while

developing ones are pressed

to open their markets;

• Many developing countries

do not have the capacity to

follow the negoaons andparcipate acvely in the

Uruguay Round; and

• The TRIPs agreement which

limits developing countries

from ulizing some technol-

ogy that originates from

abroad in their local systems

(including medicines and

agricultural products).

Khor argues that developing

countries have not benefitedfrom the WTO Agreements of the

Uruguay Round, and, therefore,

the credibility of the WTO trade

system could be eroded. Accord-

ing to Khor, "one of the major cat-

egories of 'problems of

implementaon of the Uruguay

Round' is the way the Northern

countries have not lived up to the

spirit of their commitments in im-

plemenng (or not implement-

ing) their obligaons agreed to in

the various Agreements." Khor

also believes that the Doha

Round negoaons "have veered

from their proclaimed direcon

oriented to a development-

friendly outcome, towards a'market access' direcon in which

developing countries are pres-

surised to open up their agricul-

tural, industrial and services

sectors." Jagdish Bhagwa as-

serts however that there is

greater tariff protecon on man-

ufacturers in the poor countries,

which are also overtaking the rich

naons in the number of an-

dumping filings.

Labour and environment

Other crics claim that the issues

of labor and environment are

steadfastly ignored. Steve

Charnovitz, former Director of

the Global Environment and

Trade Study (GETS), believes that

the WTO "should begin to ad-dress the link between trade and

labor and environmental con-

cerns." He also argues that "in

the absence of proper environ-

mental regulaon and resource

management, increased trade

might cause so much adverse

damage that the gains from trade

would be less than the environ-

mental costs." Further, labor

unions condemn the labor rightsrecord of developing countries,

arguing that to the extent the

WTO succeeds at promong

globalizaon, then in equal meas-

ure do the environment and

labor rights suffer. On the other

side, Khor responds that "if envi-

ronment and labor were to enter

the WTO system, it would be

conceptually difficult to argue

why other social and cultural is-

sues should also not enter." He

also argues that "trade measures

have become a vehicle for big

corporaons and social organiza-

ons in promong their inter-

ests."

Bhagwa is also crical to-wards "rich-country lobbies seek-

ing on imposing their unrelated

agendas on trade agreements."

According to Bhagwa, these lob-

bies and especially the "rich char-

ies have now turned to agitang

about trade issues with much en-

ergy understanding." Therefore,

both Bhagwa and Arvind Pana-

gariya have cricized the intro-

ducon of TRIPs into the WTOframework, fearing that such

non-trade agendas might over-

whelm the organizaon's func-

on. According to Panagariya,

"taken in isolaon, TRIPs resulted

in reduced welfare for developing

countries and the world as a

whole." Bhagwa asserts that

"intellectual property does not

belong in the WTO, since protect-

ing it is simply a maer of royaltycollecon. The maer was forced

onto the WTO's agenda during

the Uruguay Round by the phar-

maceucal and soware indus-

tries, even though this risked

turning the WTO into a glorified

collecon agency."

For a discussion on the incor-

poraon of labor rights into the

WTO, see The Recognion of

Labour Standards within theWorld Trade Organizaon.

Decision making

Other crics have characterized

the decision making in the WTO

as complicated, ineffecve, un-

representave and non-inclusive;

more acve parcipants, repre-

senng more diverse interests

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and objecves, have complicated

WTO decision-making, and the

process of "consensus-building"

has broken down. They argue

that the GATT decision making

worked in the past because there

were fewer countries acvely en-gaged and there was no compul-

sion for all countries to adhere to

the results. They have thus pro-

posed the establishment of a

small, informal steering commit-

tee (a "consultave board") that

can be delegated responsibility

for developing consensus on

trade issues among the member

countries. The Third World Net-

work has called the WTO "themost non-transparent of interna-

onal organisaons", because

"the vast majority of developing

countries have very lile real say

in the WTO system".

Many non-governmental or-

ganizaons, such as the World

Federalist Movement, are calling

for the creaon of a WTO parlia-

mentary assembly to allow for

more democrac parcipaon inWTO decision making. Dr Caro-

line Lucas recommended that

such an assembly "have a more

prominent role to play in the

form of parliamentary scruny,

and also in the wider efforts to re-

form the WTO processes, and its

rules". However, Dr Raoul Marc

Jennar argues that a consultave

parliamentary assembly would

be ineffecve for the followingreasons:

• It does not resolve the prob-

lem of "informal meengs"

whereby industrialized coun-

tries negoate the most im-

portant decisions;

• It does not reduce the de

facto inequality which exists

between countries with re-

gards to an effecve and effi-

cient parcipaon to all

acvies within all WTO bod-

ies;

• It does not recfy the mul-

ple violaons of the general

principles of law which affect

the dispute selement mech-

anism.The lack of transparency is

oen seen as a problem for

democracy. Policians can nego-

ate for regulaons that would

not be possible accepted in a

democrac process in their own

naons. "Some countries push

for certain regulatory standards

in internaonal bodies and then

bring those regulaons home

under the requirement of harmo-nizaon and the guise of mullat-

eralism." This is oen referred to

as Policy Laundering.

Globalizaon

The human society around the

world, over a period of me, has

established greater contact, but

the pace has increased rapidlysince the mid 1980’s.The term

globalizaon means internaonal

integraon. It includes an array of

social, polical and economic

changes. Unimaginable progress

in modes of communicaons,

transportaon and computer

technology have given the

process a new lease of life.

The world is more interde-

pendent now than ever before.Mulnaonal companies manu-

facture products across many

countries and sell to consumers

across the globe. Money, technol-

ogy and raw materials have bro-

ken the Internaonal barriers.

Not only products and finances,

but also ideas and cultures have

breached the naonal bound-

aries.

Laws, economies and social

movements have become inter-

naonal in nature and not only

the Globalizaon of the Economy

but also the Globalizaon of Pol-

ics, Culture and Law is the order

of the day. The formaon of Gen-eral Agreement on Tariffs and

Trade (GATT), Internaonal Mon-

etary Fund and the concept of

free trade has boosted globaliza-

on.

Globalizaon in India

In early 1990s the Indian econ-

omy had witnessed dramac pol-icy changes. The idea behind the

new economic model known as

Liberalizaon, Privazaon and

Globalizaon in India (LPG), was

to make the Indian economy one

of the fastest growing economies

in the world. An array of reforms

was iniated with regard to in-

dustrial, trade and social sector to

make the economy more com-

peve. The economic changesiniated have had a dramac ef-

fect on the overall growth of the

economy. It also heralded the in-

tegraon of the Indian economy

into the global economy. The In-

dian economy was in major crisis

in 1991 when foreign currency re-

serves went down to $1 billion

and inflaon was as high as 17%.

Fiscal deficit was also high and

NRI's were not interested in in-vesng in India. Then the follow-

ing measures were taken to

liberalize and globalize the econ-

omy.

Steps Taken to GlobalizeIndian Economy

Some of the steps taken to liber-

alize and globalize our economy

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were:

1. Devaluaon : To solve the

balance of payment problem

Indian currency were devalu-

ated by 18 to 19%.

2. Disinvestment : To make the

LPG model smooth many of the public sectors were sold

to the private sector.

3. Allowing Foreign Direct In-

vestment (FDI): FDI was al-

lowed in a wide range of

sectors such as Insurance

(26%), defense industries

(26%) etc.

4. NRI Scheme : The facilies

which were available to for-

eign investors were alsogiven to NRI's.

Merits and Demerits of Globalizaon

The Merits of Globalizaon are

as follows:

• There is an Internaonal mar-

ket for companies and for

consumers there is a wider

range of products to choosefrom.

• Increase in flow of invest-

ments from developed coun-

tries to developing countries,

which can be used for eco-

nomic reconstrucon.

• Greater and faster flow of in-

formaon between countries

and greater cultural interac-

on has helped to overcome

cultural barriers.• Technological development

has resulted in reverse brain

drain in developing countries.

The Demerits of Globalizaon

are as follows:

• The outsourcing of jobs to

developing countries has re-

sulted in loss of jobs in devel-

oped countries.

• There is a greater threat of

spread of communicable dis-

eases.

• There is an underlying threat

of mulnaonal corporaons

with immense power ruling

the globe.

• For smaller developing na-ons at the receiving end, it

could indirectly lead to a sub-

tle form of colonizaon.

Summary

India gained highly from the LPG

model as its GDP increased to

9.7% in 2007-2008. In respect of

market capitalizaon, India ranksfourth in the world. But even

aer globalizaon, condion of

agriculture has not improved. The

share of agriculture in the GDP is

only 17%. The number of landless

families has increased and farm-

ers are sll comming suicide.

But seeing the posive effects of

globalizaon, it can be said that

very soon India will overcome

these hurdles too and marchstrongly on its path of develop-

ment.

Economy of India

Post Independence

The post independence period of

economy of India was a litmustest for the economic planners.

Having come out of the shadow

of colonial rule, the naon had a

huge challenge of undoing the

exploitaon of colonial era. The

founding fathers had to use eco-

nomic upliment as a tool for na-

on building. The economy then

was backward in nature.

Industry was characterized by

ill equipped technology and un-

scienfic management. Agricul-

ture was sll feudal in nature and

characterized by low producvity.

Transport and communicaon

systems were not properly devel-

oped, educaonal and health fa-

cilies insufficient and thecomplete absence of social secu-

rity measures.

Poverty was visible and un-

employment widespread, result-

ing in a low standard of living. To

guide the Indian economy to-

wards a path of growth and de-

velopment, the economic

planners decided to adopt a

course of mixed economy, assign-

ing a vital role to public sector en-terprises and economic planning.

Private enterprise parcipaon

was negligible. A system of Li-

cense Raj developed, by which

entrepreneurs had to seek per-

mission from government to set

up manufacturing units. The gov-

ernment effecvely controlled

everything. During this period the

banks were naonalized between

late 1960's and early 1970's. Indiaresorted to economic planning by

the way of five year plans for eco-

nomic development.

Crisis in the Economy

By the beginning of 1990’s, the

Indian Economy was under great

crisis and faced its sffest chal-

lenge. India faced a serious bal-ance of payment problem and

foreign exchange reserves were

at record low. That is when the

government decided to alter the

course of the Indian economy.

Post Reforms

The introducon of reforms in

1991 resulted in sweeping

changes in the Indian Economy.

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The reforms process consisted of

three processes, liberalizaon,

privazaon and globalizaon

(LPG model). Under liberalizaon

markets were deregulated, under

privazaon private parcipaon

was encouraged and many a pub-lic sector undertaking (PSU) were

privazed and under globaliza-

on restricons on foreign invest-

ments were removed. The Indian

economy moved away from its

isolaon, to be integrated with

the global economy and to com-

pevely ulize its advantages to

make rapid strides in terms of

growth.

In India today 60% of thepopulaon is dependent directly

and indirectly on agriculture and

agriculture contributes 17% of

GDP.

The Industrial sector has wit-

nessed massive restructuring by

the way of mergers and acquisi-

ons, process reengineering, for-

eign joint ventures, technological

up gradaon. Certain sectors like

cement, steel, aluminium, phar-maceucals, and automobiles

have been witnessing unprece-

dented growth.

The service sector has been

one of the major beneficiaries of

the economic boom. The out-

sourcing industry comprising of IT

and ITE’S became the new poster

boy of the Indian economy. The

huge pool of engineering talent

was absorbed by the IT industry,while graduates could carve out a

career in the ITE'S industry. The

purchasing power of the boom-

ing middle class was enhanced,

who went on a consumpon

spree, which in turn allowed the

retail sector to flourish. The

booming economy also created a

wave of real estate boom across

the country.

The supply of money into the

economy has increased steadily

due to FDI’s. (Between April 2008

and January 2009, India received

total foreign investments of US $

15,545 million).The Foreign Ins-

tuonal Investors (FII’s) have in-vested heavily in the stock

market, resulng in a connual

bull run for an extended period of

me. The BSE indices scaled a

new peak of 21,000 in January

2008.

Summary

To summarise, post liberalizaonthe Indian economy is one of the

fastest growing economies in the

world. It can also be said that the

Indian economy has coped well

to the pressures of the global re-

cession, far beer than most

other naons. The future looks

posive for India and one can ex-

pect the naon to progress

strongly in the path of develop-

ment.

Indian Currency

Currency System From The An-

cient Times To The Brish Period

Ever since the dawn of civiliza-

on, man has been trading with

each other. In the ancient mes

when there was no concept of

money, people used barter sys-tem. In this system goods were

exchanged with each other in-

stead of paying money. Gradually,

with development, metals were

used to cast coins.

In India, during the rule of the

slave dynasty, silver coins known

as tanka and copper coins known

as jintal were introduced by Iltut-

mish. During his brief rule, Sher

Shah Suri introduced a silver coin

known as Rupiya. Mughal

coinage highlighted originality

and innovave skills. Earliest is-

sues of paper rupees were by

Bank of Hindustan (1770-1832)

and Bengal Bank (1784-91). Dur-

ing the Brish rule, and even inthe first decade of independence,

rupee was divided into 16 annas,

which was divided into 4 paisa.

Currency SystemAer

Independence

Pre Decimal Issues

(1950 - 57)

The first coins were introduced in

1950's. They were 1 paisa, 1/2, 1

and 2 annas, 1/4, 1/2 and 1 rupee

denominaons.

Decimal Issues(1957 - ll date)

The first decimal issues of India

consisted of 1,2,5,10,25 and 50paisa along with 1 rupee. The 1

naya paisa was made of bronze

while the 2, 5 and 10 naya paisa

was of cupro-nickel. The 25 and

50 naya paisa and the 1 rupee

were made of nickel. In 1964, the

term naya was eliminated from

all coins. In 1964 and 1967, alu-

minum 1,2,3,5 and 10 paisa were

introduced.

In 1968, nickel brass 20 paisawas introduced which was re-

placed by aluminum coins in

1982. In 1982, cupro nickel 2

rupee coins were introduced. In

1988, stainless steel 10, 25 and

50 paisa were introduced, fol-

lowed by 1 rupee coins in 1992.

In 1992 5 rupee coins were also

introduced.

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Disqualificaon

A member may be disqualified if:

• He is of unsound mind.

• He is involved in a vile act.

• If his interests are likely to af

fect the smooth funconing

of the Commission.

GDP of India

The Indian economy is the 12th

largest in USD exchange rate

terms. India is the second fastest

growing economy in the world.

India’s GDP has touched US$1.25

trillion. The crossing of Indian

GDP over a trillion dollar mark in

2007 puts India in the elite group

of 12 countries with trillion dollar

economy. The tremendous

growth rate has coincided with

beer macroeconomic stability.

India has made remarkable

progress in informaon technol-

ogy, high end services and knowl-

edge process services.However cause for concern

would be this rapid growth has

not been an inclusive in nature, in

the sense it has not been accom-

panied by a just and equitable

distribuon of wealth among all

secons of the populaon. This

economic growth has been loca-

on specific and sector specific.

For e.g. it has not percolated to

sectors were labor is intensive(agriculture) and in states were

poverty is acute (Bihar, Orissa,

Madhya Pradesh and Uar

Pradesh).

Though India has the second

highest growth rate in the world,

its rank in terms of human devel-

opment index (which is broadly

used has a measure of life ex-

pectancy, adult literacy and stan-

dard of living) has gone down to

128 among 177 countries in 2007

compared to 126 in 2006.

Indian GDP –Trend of Growth

Rate

1960-1980 : 3.5%

1980-1990 : 5.4%

1990-2000 : 4.4%2000-2009 : 6.4%

Contribuon of Various Sectors

in GDP

The contribuons of various sec-

tors in the Indian GDP for 1990-

1991 are as follows:

Agriculture - 32%

Industry - 27%

Service Sector - 41%


tors in the Indian GDP for 2005-2006 are as follows:

Agriculture - 20%

Industry: - 26%



tors in the Indian GDP for 2007-

2008 are as follows:

Agriculture - 17%

Industry - 29%


It is great news that today theservice sector is contribung

more than half of the Indian GDP.

It takes India one step closer to

the developed economies of the

world. Earlier it was agriculture

which mainly contributed to the

Indian GDP.

The Indian government is sll

looking up to improve the GDP of

the country and so several steps

have been taken to boost theeconomy. Policies of FDI, SEZs

and NRI investment have been

framed to give a push to the

economy and hence the GDP.

Finance Commission of India

The Finance Commission of India

came into existence in 1951. The

Finance commission is estab-

lished under arcle 280 of the In-

dian Constuon of India by the

President of India. The Indian Fi-

nance Commission Act was

passed to give a structured for-mat to the Finance Commission

of India as per the world stan-

dard. The need for the Finance

Commission was felt by the

Brish for guiding the finance of

India. The structure of the mod-

ern Act was laid in the early

1920's. The Finance Commission

is formed to define the financial

relaons between the centre and

the state. The Finance Commis-sion Act of 1951 tells about the

qualificaon, appointment, term,

eligibility, disqualificaon, powers

etc of the Finance Commission.

Funcons of the FinanceCommission

The Finance Commission's duty is

to recommend to the President

as to-• The distribuon of net pro-

ceeds of taxes between the

Union and the States.

• To evaluate the increase in

the Consolidated Fund of a

state to affix the resources of

the Panchayat in the state.

• To evaluate the increase in

the Consolidated Fund of a

state to affix the resources of

the Municipalies in thestate.

Implementaon Of TheRecommendaon Of Fi-

nance Commission

The recommendaon of the Fi-

nance Commission are imple-

mented

• By an order of the President

or by execuve orders.

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Powers of theCommission

The Finance Commission has the

following powers:

• The Commission shall have allthe powers of the Civil Court

as per the Code of Civil Proce-

dure, 1908.

• It can call any witness, or can

ask for the producon of any

public record or document

from any court or office.

• It can ask any person to give

informaon or document on

maers as it may feel to be

useful or relevant.• It can funcon as a civil court

in discharging its dues.

Qualificaons forappointment and themanner of selecon

The Chairman of the Finance

Commission is selected among

persons who have had the expe-rience of public affairs, and four

other members are selected

among persons who

• Are, or have been, or are

qualified as judges of High

Court, or

• Have knowledge of finance,

or

• Have vast experience in finan-

cial maers and are in admin-

istraon, or• Have knowledge of econom-

ics

Term of Office of themembers

Every member of the commission

shall be in the office as specified

by the President. He can also be

reappointed, provided that he

has already addressed a leer to

the President for his resignaon.

Condions of service and salar-

ies and allowance of members

• Each member should provide

whole me or part me serv-

ice to the Commission as thePresident with respect to

each case might specify.

• Each member shall receive

salaries according to the pro-

visions made by the central

government.

Disqualificaon

A member may be disqualified if:• He is of unsound mind.

• He is involved in a vile act.

• If his interests are likely to af-

fect the smooth funconing of

the Commission.

Inflaon in India

Inflaon is caused due to several

economic factors:• When the government of a

country print money in ex-

cess, prices increase to keep

up with the increase in cur-

rency, leading to inflaon.

• Increase in producon and

labor costs, have a direct im-

pact on the price of the final

product, resulng in inflaon.

• When countries borrow

money, they have to copewith the interest burden. This

interest burden results in in-

flaon.

• High taxes on consumer prod-

ucts, can also lead to infla-

on.

• Demands pull inflaon,

wherein the economy de-

mands more goods and serv-

ices than what is produced.

• Cost push inflaon or supply

shock inflaon, wherein non

availability of a commodity

would lead to increase in

prices.

Problems

The problems due to inflaon

would be:

• When the balance between

supply and demand goes out

of control, consumers could

change their buying habits,

forcing manufacturers to cut

down producon.

• The mortgage crisis of 2007

in USA could best illustrate

the ill effects of inflaon.Housing prices increases sub-

stanally from 2002 on-

wards, resulng in a dramac

decrease in demand.

• Inflaon can create major

problems in the economy.

Price increase can worsen

the poverty affecng low in-

come household,

• Inflaon creates economic

uncertainty and is a damp-ener to the investment cli-

mate slowing growth and

finally it reduce savings and

thereby consumpon.

• The producers would not be

able to control the cost of

raw material and labor and

hence the price of the final

product. This could result in

less profit or in some ex-

treme case no profit, forcingthem out of business.

• Manufacturers would not

have an incenve to invest in

new equipment and new

technology.

• Uncertainty would force peo-

ple to withdraw money from

the bank and convert it into

product with long lasng

value like gold, arfacts.

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Inflaon in IndianEconomy

On March 19, 2010, the Reserve

Bank of India raised its bench-

mark reverse repurchase rate to3.5% percent, aer this rate

touched record lows of 3.25%.

The repurchase rate was raised to

5% from 4.75% as well, in an at-

tempt to curb Indian inflaon.

India’s 2009-10 Economic

Survey Report suggests a high

double-digit increase in food in-

flaon, with signs of inflaon

spreading to various other sec-

tors as well. The Deputy Gover-nor of the Reserve Bank of India,

however, expressed his opmism

in March 2010 about an immi-

nent easing of Indian wholesale

price index-based inflaon, on

the back of falling oil and food

prices.

For 2009, Indian inflaon

stood at 11.49% Y-o-Y. This rate

reflects the general increase in

prices, taking into account thepurchasing power of the com-

mon man. According to the Eco-

nomic Survey Report for 2009-10,

economic growth decelerated to

6.7% in 2008-09, from 9% in

2007-08. The economy is ex-

pected to grow by 8.7% in 2010-

11, with a return to a growth rate

of 9% in 2011-12.

The Indian method for calcu-

lang inflaon, the WholesalePrice Index, is different from the

rest of world. Each week, the

wholesale price of a set of 435

goods is calculated by the Indian

government. Since these are

wholesale prices, the actual

prices paid by consumers are far

higher.

In mes of rising inflaon,

this also means that the cost of

living increases are much higher

for the populace. Cooking gas

prices, for example, have in-

creased by around 20% in 2008.

With most of India’s vast pop-

ulaon living close to or below

the poverty line, inflaon acts as

a ‘Poor Man’s Tax’. This effect isamplified when food prices rise,

since food represents more than

half of the expenditure of this

group.

The dramac increase in in-

flaon will have both economic

and polical implicaons for the

government, with an elecon

due within the year.

Naonal Income

The study of Naonal Income is

important because of the follow-

ing reasons:

• To see the economic develop-

ment of the country.

• To assess the developmental

objecves.

• To know the contribuon of

the various sectors to Na-onal Income.

Internaonally some coun-

tries are wealthy, some countries

are not wealthy and some coun-

tries are in-between. Under such

circumstances, it would be diffi-

cult to evaluate the performance

of an economy. Performance of

an economy is directly propor-

onate to the amount of goods

and services produced in aneconomy. Measuring naonal in-

come is also important to chalk

out the future course of the econ-

omy. It also broadly indicates

people’s standard of living.

Income can be measured by

Gross Naonal Product (GNP),

Gross Domesc Product (GDP),

Gross Naonal Income (GNI), Net

Naonal Product (NNP) and Net

Naonal Income (NNI).

In India the Central Stascal

Organizaon has been formulat-

ing naonal income.

However some economists

have felt that GNP has a measure

of naonal income has limitaon,

since they exclude poverty, liter-acy, public health, gender equity

and other measures of human

prosperity.

Instead they formulated

other measures of welfare like

Human Development Index (HDI)

Calculang NaonalIncome

There are various methods for

calculang the naonal income

such as producon method, in-

come method, expenditure

method etc.

Producon Method

The producon method gives us

naonal income or naonal prod-uct based on the final value of

the produce and the origin of the

produce in terms of the industry.

All producing units are classified

sector wise.

• Primary sector is divided into

agriculture, fisheries, animal

husbandry.

• Secondary sector consists of

manufacturing.

• Terary sector is divided intotrade, transport, communica-

on, banking, insurance etc.

Income Method

Different factors of producon

are paid for their producve serv-

ices rendered to an organizaon.

The various incomes that in-

cludes in these methods are

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wages, income of self employed,

interest, profit, dividend, rents,

and surplus of public sector and

net flow of income from abroad.

Expenditure Method

The various sectors – the house-

hold sector, the government sec-

tor, the business sector, either

spend their income on consumer

goods and services or they save a

part of their income. These can

be categorized as private con-

sumpon expenditure, private in-

vestment, public consumpon,

public investment etc.

Calculaon of NaonalIncome of India: A Brief

History

The first aempt to calculate Na-

onal Income of India was made

by Dadabhai Naroji in 1867 -68.

This was followed by several

other methods. The first scienficmethod was made by Prof. V.K.R

Rao in 1931-32. But this was not

very sasfactory. The first official

aempt was made by

Prof.P.C.Mahalnobis in 1948-49,

who submied his report in

1954.

Difficules in Calculaon

of Naonal Income

In India there are various difficul-

es in calculang the naonal in-

comes .The most severe one is

the finding of reliable data. Most

of the me, it is based on as-

sumpons. Soon aer independ-

ence the Naonal Income

Commiee was formed to collect

data and esmate Naonal In-

come. The two major problems

which remain in the calculaon of

Naonal Income are:

• Most of the data is not from

the current year.

• Even if current data are avail-

able then values are underre-

ported.

Obstacles in HighGrowth of Naonal

Income of India

Even if the Indian economy grows

faster than the BRIC countries

and G 6, the benefits of the

growth would not be evenly dis-

tributed. India’s progress in edu-

caon cannot be termed assasfactory. In terms of higher

educaon it has achieved

tremendous success, but its un-

sasfactory performance in pri-

mary educaon and secondary

educaon has been a major ob-

stacle to growth. Similarly India’s

healthcare system is in a less than

desirable state. Governments’

spending on public health has not

been up to the required levels.

Pay Commission

Pay Commission of India: History

Pay commission is a panel con-

sisng of the members of the

Union Cabinet of India for hiking

the salaries of the government

employees.

First Pay Commission

The first pay commission of India

was constuted in May 1946,

which submied its report in a

year.

Second Pay Commission

The second pay commission was

set up in August 1957 and it gave

its report aer two years. The

recommendaons of the second

pay commission had a financial

impact of Rs 396 million.

Third Pay Commission

The third Pay Commission wasset up in April 1970 and it gave its

report in March 1973. The third

pay commission created propos-

als cost the government Rs 1.44

billion.

Fourth Pay Commission

The fourth Pay Commission was

constuted in June 1983, whichgave its report in three phases

within four years. The proposals

of the fourth Pay Commission

cost the government Rs 12.8 bil-

lion.

Fih Pay Commission

The fih Pay Commission was set

up was set up in 1994 and its pro-posals were implemented in

1997, which cost the government

about Rs 17,000 crores.

Sixth Pay Commission

In July 2006, the sixth pay com-

mission was set and its proposals

will cost the government about

Rs 20,000 crores. The govern-ment employees had threatened

to go on a strike if their salaries

were not raised. The government

employees want a hike in their

salaries mainly because the In-

dian economy is facing a serious

problem called inflaon. The

class 1 officers of the Indian gov-

ernment are not adequately paid

and the salaries of IAS officers are

also very stumpy.

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Members of the SixthPay Commission

Following are the members of

the sixth Pay Commission:

Chairman: Mr. Jusce B.N.Srikr-ishna

Members: Prof. Ravindra Dho-

lakia, Mr. J.S.Mathur

Member-Secretary: Smt. Susha-

ma Nath

Per Capita Income

Meaning and Significance :

Per capita Income means how

much an individual earns, of theyearly income that is generated in

the country through producve

acvies. It means the share of

each individual when the income

from the producve acvies is

divided equally among the ci-

zens. Per capita income is re-

ported in units of currency. Per

capita income reflects the gross

naonal product of a country. Per

capita income is also a measureof the wealth of a populaon of a

naon when compared with

other countries. It is expressed in

terms of commonly used interna-

onal currency such as Euro, Dol-

lars because these currencies are

widely known.

Per Capita Income

in India

India's per capita income is found

by the Atlas method and by em-

ploying official exchange rates for

conversion. Further, this Atlas

method of calculang the per

capita income of India is not de-

termined by using purchasing

power parity, which essenally

adjusts exchange rates for pur-

chasing power of currencies.

Economist have been giving

considerable importance to the

performance of states vis a vis

each other in terms of per capita

income. It has been observed

that those states that were more

open and beer adapted to eco-nomic liberalizaon have overall

shown faster rate of growth.

Per Capita Income of Various Indian States

The two backward states of the

Indian republic Jharkhand and

Orissa are growing at a rapid rate

in terms of the per capita incomebecause of rise of industrial acv-

ies in these two states. Kar-

nataka is at the top of the chart

with the fastest growing per

capita income (nearly 9.28%) fol-

lowed by Gujarat with 8.92%.The

per capita income in 17 states is

below the naonal average of

8.4%. Per capita income shows

the purchasing power of the

states and so it is very importantfor the states to increase the per

capita income of each person.

History of India PerCapita GDP

• In 2002-03 the Per Capita In-

come in India was Rs 19040.

• In2003-04 the Per Capita In-

come in India was Rs 20989.

• In2004-05 the Per Capita In-come in India was Rs 23241.

• In2008-2009 the Per Capita

Income in India was37490.

• GDP at factor cost at constant

(1999-2000) prices in the

year 2008-2009 is likely to at-

tain a level of Rs

3351653.India achieved a

growth rate of 7.1 per cent in

2008-2009.

• Agriculture, forestry and fish-

ing had a combined growth

rate of 2.6 per cent during

2008-2009

• Industry had growth rate of

3.4 per cent during 2008-

2009

• Service sector had a growthrate of 10.3 per cent during

2008-2009

In spite of the global melt-

down, India has performed well

in comparison to the rest of the

world.

Planning Commission

The Planning Commission in Indiawas set up on March 1950 to pro-

mote a rapid rise in the standard

of living of the people by ulizing

the resources of the country, in-

creasing producon and offering

employment opportunies to all.

The Planning Commission has the

responsibility for formulang

plans as to how the resources can

be used in the most effecve way.

The Planning Commission hasto make periodic assessment of

all resources in the country, boost

up insufficient resources and for-

mulate plans for the most effi-

cient and judicious ulizaon of

resources.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the

first chairman of the Planning

Commission.

Structure of the PlanningCommission

The Prime minister is the chair-

man of the Planning Commission.

The Deputy Chairman and the full

me members give advice and

guidance for the formulaon of

Five Year Plan, Annual Plans,

State Plans, Projects and

Schemes etc. Currently the struc-

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ture of the planning commission

is like this:

1. Chairman - Dr. Manmohan

Singh

2. Deputy Chairman- Shri Mon-

tek Singh Ahluwalia

3 Minister of State- Shri M.V.Rajshekharan

4. Members - Dr. Kirit Parikh,

Prof. Abhijit Sen ,Dr. V.L.

Chopra, Dr. Bhalchandra

Mungekar ,Dr.(Ms.) Syeda

Hameed ,Shri B.N. Yugandhar

,Shri Anwar-ul-Hoda, Shri B.

K. Chaturvedi

5. Secretary- Dr. Subhas Pani

Funcons of thePlanning Commission

India

Following are the funcons of the

Planning Commission of India:

• To make an assessment of

the resources of the country

and to see which resources

are deficient.

• To formulate plans for the

most effecve and balancedulizaon of country's re-

sources.

• To indicate the factors which

are hampering economic de-

velopment.

• To determine the machinery,

that would be necessary for

the successful implementa-

on of each stage of plan.

• Periodical assessment of the

progress of the plan.• With the changing mes, the

Planning commission is

preparing itself for long term

vision for the future. The

commission is seeing to max-

imize the output with mini-

mum resources.

• From being a centralized

planning system, the Indian

economy is slowly progress-

ing towards indicave plan-

ning wherein the Planning

Commission has set the goal

of construcng a long term

strategic vision for the future.

• It sets sectoral targets and

provides the catalyst to the

economy to grow in the rightdirecon.

• The Planning Commission

plays an integrave role in

the development of a holisc

approach to the formulaon

of policies in crical areas of

human and economic devel-

opment.

Five Year Plans

When India gained independ-

ence, its economy was groveling

in dust. The Brish had le the In-

dian economy crippled and the

fathers of development formu-

lated 5 years plan to develop the

Indian economy. The five years

plan in India is framed, executed

and monitored by the Planning

Commission of India. Currently,

India is in its 11th five year plan.Let's see the journey of five year's

plan in India and the objecves in

each plan.

Objecves of all the FiveYear's Plan

1st Plan (1951-56)

• The first five year plan was

presented by Jawaharlal

Nehru in 1951. The First FiveYear Plan was iniated at the

end of the turmoil of par-

on of the country. It gave

importance to agriculture, ir-

rigaon and power projects

to decrease the countries re-

liance on food grain imports,

resolve the food crisis and

ease the raw material prob-

lem especially in jute and cot-

ton. Nearly 45% of the

resources were designated

for agriculture, while industry

got a modest 4.9%.The focus

was to maximize the output

from agriculture, which

would then provide the impe-

tus for industrial growth.• Though the first plan was for-

mulated hurriedly, it suc-

ceeded in fulfilling the

targets. Agriculture produc-

on increased dramacally,

naonal income went up by

18%, per capita income by

11% and per capita consump-

on by 9%

2nd Plan (1956-61)• The second five year plan was

iniated in a climate of eco-

nomic prosperity, industry

gained in prominence. Agri-

culture programmes were

formulated to meet the raw

material needs of industry,

besides covering the food

needs of the increasing popu-

laon. The Industrial Policy of

1956 was socialisc in nature.The plan aimed at 25% in-

crease in naonal income.

• In comparison to First Five

Year plan, the Second Five

Year Plan was a moderate

success. Unfavorable mon-

soon in 1957-58 and 1959-60

impacted agricultural produc-

on and also the Suez crisis

blocked Internaonal Trading

increasing commodity prices.

3rd Plan (1961-66)

• While formulang the third

plan, it was realized that agri-

culture producon was the

destabilizing factor in eco-

nomic growth. Hence agricul-

ture was given due

importance. Also allotment

for power sector was in-

creased to 14.6% of the total

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disbursement.

• Emphasis was on becoming

self reliant in agriculture and

industry. The objecve of im-

port substuon was seen as

sacrosanct. In order to pre-

vent monopolies and to pro-mote economic

developments in backward

areas, unfeasible manufac-

turing units were augmented

with subsidies. The plan

aimed to increase naonal in-

come by 30% and agriculture

producon by 30%.

• The wars with China in 1962

and Pakistan 1965 and bad

monsoon in almost all theyears, meant the actual per-

formance was way of the tar-

get.

4th Plan (1969-74)

• At the me of iniang the

fourth plan it was realized

that GDP growth and rapid

growth of capital accumula-

on alone would not help im-

prove standard of living or tobecome economically self-re-

liant. Importance was given

to providing benefits to the

marginalized secon of the

society through employment

and educaon.

• Disbursement to agricultural

sector was increased to

23.3% .Family planning pro-

gramme was given a big sm-

ulus.• The achievements of the

fourth plan were below tar-

gets. Agriculture growth was

just at 2.8% and green revo-

luon did not perform as ex-

pected. Industry too grew at

3.9%.

5th Plan (1974-79)

• As a result of inflaonary

pressure faced during the

fourth plan, the fih plan fo-

cused on checking inflaon.

Several new economic and

non-economic variables such

as nutrional requirements,

health, family planning etc

were incorporated in theplanning process. Investment

mix was also formulated

based on demand esmated

for final domesc consump-

on.

• Industry got the highest allo-

caon of 24.3% and the plan

forecasted a growth rate of

5.5% in naonal income.

• The fih plan was disconn-

ued by the new Janata gov-ernment in the fourth year

itself.

6th Plan (1980-85)

• The Janata government

moved away from GNP ap-

proach to development, in-

stead sought to achieve

higher producon targets

with an aim to provide em-

ployment opportunies tothe marginalized secon of

the society. But the plan

lacked the polical will.

• The Congress government on

taking office in 1980 formu-

lated a new plan with a strat-

egy to lay equal focus on

infrastructure and agricul-

ture.

• The plan achieved a growth

of 6% pa.

7th Plan (1985-89)

• The first three years of the

seventh plan saw severe

drought condions, despite

which the food grain produc-

on rose by 3.2%.Special pro-

grammes like Jawahar Rozgar

Yojana were introduced. Sec-

tors like welfare, educaon,

health, family planning, em-

ployment etc got a larger dis-

bursement.

8th Plan (1992-97)

• The eighth plan was iniated

just aer a severe balance of

payment crisis, which was in-tensified by the Gulf war in

1990.several structural modi-

ficaon policies were brought

in to put the country in a path

of high growth rate. They

were devaluaon of rupees,

dismantling of license prereq-

uisite and decrease trade bar-

riers.

• The plan targeted an annual

growth rate of 5.6% in GDPand at the same me keeping

inflaon under control.

9th Plan (1997-2002)

• It was observed in the eighth

plan that, even though the

economy performed well, the

gains did not percolate to the

weaker secons of the soci-

ety. The ninth plans therefore

laid greater impetus on in-creasing agricultural and rural

incomes and alleviate the

condions of the marginal

farmer and landless laborers.

10th Plan (2002-2007)

• The aim of the tenth plan was

to make the Indian economy

the fastest growing economy

in the world, with a growth

target of 10%.It wanted tobring in investor friendly mar-

ket reforms and create a

friendly environment for

growth. It sought acve par-

cipaon by the private sec-

tor and increased FDI's in the

financial sector.

• Emphasis was laid on corpo-

rate transparency and im-

proving the infrastructure.

• It sought to reduce poverty

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rao by 5 percentage points

by 2007and increase in liter-

acy rates to 75 per cent by

the end of the plan.

• Increase in forest and tree

cover to 25 per cent by 2007

and all villages to have sus-tained access to potable

drinking water.

11th Plan (2007-2012)

• The eleventh plan has the ob-

jecve to increase GDP

growth to 10%.

• Increase agricultural GDP

growth to 4% per year to en-

sure a wider spread of bene-

fits. Create 70 million newwork opportunies. Augment

minimum standards of edu-

caon in primary school.

• Reduce infant mortality rate

to 28 and malnutrion

among children of age group

0-3 to half of its present level.

Ensure electricity connecon

to all villages and increase

forest and tree cover by five

percentage points.

Poverty in India

Current Situaon :

Poverty is one of the main issues,

aracng the aenon of sociol-

ogists and economists. It indi-

cates a condion in which a

person fails to maintain a living

standard adequate for a comfort-able lifestyle.

Though India boasts of a high

economic growth, it is shameful

that there is sll large scale

poverty in India. Poverty in India

can be defined as a situaon

when a certain secon of people

are unable to fulfill their basic

needs. India has the world's

largest number of poor people

living in a single country. Out of

its total populaon of more than

1 billion, 350 to 400 million peo-

ple are living below the poverty

line. Nearly 75% of the poor peo-

ple are in rural areas, most of

them are daily wagers, landless

laborers and self employed householders. There are a number of

reasons for poverty in India.

Poverty in India can be classified

into two categories namely rural

poverty and urban poverty.

Reasons for RuralPoverty

Some of the basic reasons of rural

poverty in India are:

• Unequal distribuon of in-come.

• High populaon growth.

• Illiteracy.

• Large families.

• Caste system.

Problems of RuralPoverty

• Presence of malnutrion, illit-eracy, diseases and long term

health problems.

• Unhygienic living condions,

lack of proper housing, high

infant mortality rate, injusce

to women and social ill-treat-

ment of certain secons of

society.

Steps Taken by Govern-ment to Reduce Rural

Poverty

The government of India has

been trying its best to remove

poverty. Some of the measures

which the government has taken

to remove rural poverty are:

• Small farmer’s development

Programme.

• Drought area development

Programme.

• Minimum needs Programme.

• Naonal rural employment

Programme.

• Assurance on employment.

• Causes for Urban Poverty.

Causes for UrbanPoverty

The causes of urban poverty in

India are:

• Improper training

• Slow job growth.

• Failure of PDS system

Problems of UrbanPoverty

• Restricted access to employ-

ment opportunies and in-

come.

• Lack of proper housing facili-

es

• Unhygienic environments

• No social security schemes

• Lack of opportunity to qualityhealth and educaonal serv-

ices.

The steps taken by government

to remove urban poverty are:

• Nehru Rozgar Yojna.

• Prime Minister Rozgar Yojna.

• Urban Basic services for the

poor Programme.

• Naonal social Assistance

Programme.But these processes can be

helpful only if the policies go to

those people for whom it is

meant. The clash between the

central government and the state

government oen results in the

lack of implementaon of these

policies. So it is very important

that the governments do not play

power polics when it comes to

a serious issue such as poverty.

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Natural resources inIndia

India's total culvable area is

1,269,219 km² (56.78% of total

land area), which is decreasingdue to constant pressure from an

ever-growing populaon and in-

creased urbanizaon.

India has a total water sur-

face area of 314,40 km² and re-

ceives an average annual rainfall

of 1,100 mm. Irrigaon accounts

for 92% of the water ulisaon,

and comprised 380 km² in 1974,

and is expected to rise to 1,050

km² by 2025, with the balance ac-counted for by industrial and do-

mesc consumers. India's inland

water resources comprising

rivers, canals, ponds and lakes

and marine resources comprising

the east and west coasts of the

Indian ocean and other gulfs and

bays provide employment to

nearly 6 million people in the

fisheries sector. In 2008, India

had the world's third largest fish-ing industry.

India's major mineral re-

sources include Coal (third-

largest reserves in the world),

Iron ore, Manganese, Mica, Baux-

ite, Titanium ore, Chromite, Nat-

ural gas, Diamonds, Petroleum,

Limestone and Thorium (world's

largest along Kerala's shores).

India's oil reserves, found in Bom-

bay High off the coast of Maha-rashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and in

eastern Assam meet 25% of the

country's demand.

Rising energy demand con-

comitant with economic growth

has created a perpetual state of

energy crunch in India. India is

poor in oil resources and is cur-

rently heavily dependent on coal

and foreign oil imports for its en-

ergy needs. Though India is rich

in Thorium, but not in Uranium,

which it might get access to in

light of the nuclear deal with US.

India is rich in certain energy re-

sources which promise significant

future potenal - clean / renew-

able energy resources like solar,wind, biofuels (jatropha, sugar-

cane).

Consumpon

Oil

India had about 5.6 billion barrels

(890,000,000 m3) plus another 4

billion barrels (as of March 2010,)

of proven oil reserves as of Janu-ary 2007, which is the second-

largest amount in the Asia-Pacific

region behind China. Most of

India's crude oil reserves are lo-

cated in the western coast (Mum-

bai High) and in the northeastern

parts of the country, although

considerable undeveloped re-

serves are also located in the off-

shore Bay of Bengal and in the

state of Rajasthan.The combinaon of rising oil

consumpon and fairly unwaver-

ing producon levels leaves India

highly dependent on imports to

meet the consumpon needs. In

2006, India produced an average

of about 846,000 barrels per day

(bbl/d) of total oil liquids, of

which 77%, or 648,000 bbl/d

(103,000 m3/d), was crude oil.

During 2006, India consumed anesmated 2.63 Mbbl/d (418,000

m3/d) of oil. The Energy Informa-

on Administraon (EIA) es-

mates that India registered oil

demand growth of 100,000 bbl/d

(16,000 m3/d) during 2006. EIA

forecasts suggest that country is

likely to experience similar profits

during 2007 and 2008.

Sector organisaon

India’s oil sector is dominated by

state-owned enterprises, al-

though the government has

taken steps in past recent years toderegulate the hydrocarbons in-

dustry and support greater for-

eign involvement. India’s

state-owned Oil and Natural Gas

Corporaon is the largest oil com-

pany, and also the country’s

largest company overall by mar-

ket capitalizaon. ONGC is the

leading player in India’s upstream

sector, accounng for roughly

75% of the country’s oil outputduring 2006, as per Indian gov-

ernment esmates.

As a net importer of all oil,

the Government of India has in-

troduced policies aimed at grow-

ing domesc oil producon and

oil exploraon acvies. As part

of the effort, the Ministry of Pe-

troleum and Natural Gas craed

the New Exploraon License Pol-

icy (NELP) in 2000, which permitsforeign companies to hold 100%

equity possession in oil and nat-

ural gas projects. However, to

date, only a handful of oil fields

are controlled by foreign firms.

India’s downstream sector is also

dominated by state-owned en-

es, though private companies

have enlarged their market share

in past recent years.

Natural gas

As per the Oil and Gas Journal,

India had 38 trillion cubic feet

(Tcf) of confirmed natural gas re-

serves as of January 2007.A huge

mass of India’s natural gas pro-

ducon comes from the western

offshore regions, parcularly the

Mumbai High complex. The on-

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shore fields in Assam, Andhra

Pradesh, and Gujarat states are

also major producers of natural

gas. As per EIA data, India pro-

duced 996 billion cubic feet of

natural gas in 2004.

India imports small amountsof natural gas. In 2004, India con-

sumed about 1,089×10^9 cu

(3.08×1010 m3) of natural gas,

the first year in which the country

showed net natural gas imports.

During 2004, India imported

93×10^9 cu (2.6×109 m3) of liq-

uefied natural gas (LNG) from

Qatar.

Sector Organizaon

As in the oil sector, India’s state-

owned companies account for

the bulk of natural gas produc-

on. ONGC and Oil India Ltd.

(OIL) are the leading companies

with respect to producon vol-

ume, while some foreign compa-

nies take part in upstream

developments in joint-venturesand producon sharing contracts.

Reliance Industries, a privately-

owned Indian company, will also

have a bigger role in the natural

gas sector as a result of a large

natural gas find in 2002 in the Kr-

ishna Godavari basin.

The Gas Authority of India

Ltd. (GAIL) holds an effecve con-

trol on natural gas transmission

and allocaon acvies. In De-cember 2006, the Minister of Pe-

troleum and Natural Gas issued a

new policy that allows foreign in-

vestors, private domesc compa-

nies, and naonal oil companies

to hold up to 100% equity stakes

in pipeline projects. While GAIL’s

dominaon in natural gas trans-

mission and allocaon is not en-

sured by statute, it will connue

to be the leading player in the

sector because of its exisng nat-

ural gas infrastructure.

Economic liberalisa-on in India

The economic liberalisaon in

India refers to ongoing economic

reforms in India that started in

1991. Aer Independence in

1947, India adhered to socialist

policies. In the 1980s, Prime Min-

ister Rajiv Gandhi iniated some

reforms. In 1991, aer the Inter-

naonal Monetary Fund (IMF)

had bailed out the bankrupt

state, the government of P. V.Narasimha Rao and his finance

minister Manmohan Singh

started breakthrough reforms.

The new neo-liberal policies in-

cluded opening for internaonal

trade and investment, deregula-

on, iniaon of privazaon, tax

reforms, and inflaon-controlling

measures.

The overall direcon of liber-

alisaon has since remained thesame, irrespecve of the ruling

party, although no party has yet

tried to take on powerful lobbies

such as the trade unions and

farmers, or contenous issues

such as reforming labor laws and

reducing agricultural subsidies.

The main objecve of the govern-

ment was to transform the eco-

nomic system from socialism to

capitalism so that to achieve higheconomic growth and industrial-

ize the naon for the well-being

of Indian cizens. Today India is

mainly characterized as a market

economy.

As of 2009, about 300 million

people—equivalent to the enre

populaon of the United States—

have escaped extreme poverty.

The fruits of liberalisaon

reached their peak in 2007, when

India recorded its highest GDP

growth rate of 9%. With this,

India became the second fastest

growing major economy in the

world, next only to China.[8] An

Organisaon for Economic Co-op-

eraon and Development (OECD)report states that the average

growth rate 7.5% will double the

average income in a decade, and

more reforms would speed up

the pace.

Indian government coalions

have been advised to connue

liberalisaon. India grows at

slower pace than China, which

has been liberalising its economy

since 1978. McKinsey states thatremoving main obstacles "would

free India’s economy to grow as

fast as China’s, at 10 percent a

year".

Pre-liberalisaon policies

Indian economic policy aer in-

dependence was influenced by

the colonial experience (whichwas seen by Indian leaders as ex-

ploitave in nature) and by those

leaders' exposure to Fabian so-

cialism. Policy tended towards

proteconism, with a strong em-

phasis on import substuon, in-

dustrializaon, state intervenon

in labor and financial markets, a

large public sector, business regu-

laon, and central planning. Five-

Year Plans of India resembledcentral planning in the Soviet

Union. Steel, mining, machine

tools, water, telecommunica-

ons, insurance, and electrical

plants, among other industries,

were effecvely naonalized in

the mid-1950s. Elaborate li-

cences, regulaons and the ac-

companying red tape, commonly

referred to as Licence Raj, were

required to set up business in

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• Streamlining procedures for

FDI approvals, and in at least

35 industries, automacally

approving projects within the

limits for foreign parcipa-

on.

• Opening up in 1992 of India'sequity markets to investment

by foreign instuonal in-

vestors and perming Indian

firms to raise capital on inter-

naonal markets by issuing

Global Depository Receipts

(GDRs).

• Marginal tax rates were re-

duced.

• Privazaon of large, ineffi-

cient and loss-inducing gov-ernment corporaons was

iniated.

Later reforms

• Atal Bihari Vajpayee's admin-

istraon surprised many by

connuing reforms, when it

was at the helm of affairs of

India for five years.

• The Vajpayee administraonconnued with privazaon,

reducon of taxes, a sound

fiscal policy aimed at reduc-

ing deficits and debts and in-

creased iniaves for public

works.

• The UF government at-

tempted a progressive

budget that encouraged re-

forms, but the 1997 Asian fi-

nancial crisis and policalinstability created economic

stagnaon.

• Right to Informaon Act

(2005)

• Mahatma Gandhi Naonal

Rural Employment Guarantee

Act (2005)

• Indo-US civilian nuclear

agreement (2008)

• Right to Educaon Bill (2008)

Impact of reforms

The impact of these reforms may

be gauged from the fact that total

foreign investment (including for-

eign direct investment, porolioinvestment, and investment

raised on internaonal capital

markets) in India grew from a mi-

nuscule US$132 million in 1991–

92 to $5.3 billion in 1995–96.

Cies like Gurgaon, Banga-

lore, Hyderabad, Pune and

Ahmedabad have risen in promi-

nence and economic importance,

became centres of rising indus-

tries and desnaon for foreigninvestment and firms.

Ongoing economic chal-lenges

• Problems in the agricultural

sector.

• Highly restricve and com-

plex labour laws.

• Inadequate infrastructure,which is oen government

monopoly.

• Failing educaon.

• Inefficient public sector.

• Inflaon in basic consumable

goods.

• Corrupon

• High fiscal deficit

Income in India

India's per capita income (nomi-

nal) is $1016, ranked 142th in the

world, while its per capita (PPP)

of US$2,762 is ranked 129th.

States of India have large dis-

paries. One of the crical prob-

lems facing India's economy is

the sharp and growing regional

variaons among India's different

states and territories in terms of

per capita income, poverty, avail-

ability of infrastructure and socio-

economic development.

Although income inequality in

India is relavely small (Gini coef-

ficient: 32.5 in year 1999- 2000)

it has been increasing of late.Wealth distribuon in India is

fairly uneven, with the top 10% of

income groups earning 33% of

the income. Despite significant

economic progress, a quarter of

the naon's populaon earns less

than the government-specified

poverty threshold of $0.40/day.

27.5% of the populaon was liv-

ing below the poverty line in

2004–2005.

States

Between 1999 and 2008, the an-

nualized growth rates for Maha-

rashtra (9.0%) Gujarat (8.8%),

Haryana (8.7%), or Delhi (7.4%)

were much higher than for Bihar

(5.1%), Uar Pradesh (4.4%), or

Madhya Pradesh (3.5%).According to a World Bank

paper Development Policy Re-

view, $1 a day poverty rates in

rural Orissa (43%) and rural Bihar

(40%) are some of the highest in

the world. Seven low-income

states - Bihar, Chhasgarh, Jhark-

hand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa,

Rajasthan, and Uar Pradesh -

are home to more than half of

India's populaon. Bihar's 80 mil-lion people are by far the poorest

in India.

On the other hand, rural

Haryana (5.7%) and rural Punjab

(2.4%) compare well with middle-

income countries.

The five-year plans have at-

tempted to reduce regional dis-

paries by encouraging industrial

development in the interior re-

gions, but industries sll tend to

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concentrate around urban areas

and port cies. Aer liberaliza-

on, the more advanced states

are beer placed to benefit from

them, with infrastructure like well

developed ports, urbanisaon

and an educated and skilledworkforce which aract manu-

facturing and service sectors. The

union and state governments of

backward regions are trying to re-

duce the disparies by offering

tax holidays, cheap land, etc., and

focusing more on sectors like

tourism, which although being

geographically and historically

determined, can become a

source of growth and is faster todevelop than other sectors.

Poverty in India

Poverty in India is widespread

with the naon esmated to have

a third of the world's poor. Ac-

cording to a 2005 World Bank es-

mate, 42% of India falls below

the internaonal poverty line of US$ 1.25 a day (PPP, in nominal

terms Indian rupee 21.6 a day in

urban areas and Indian rupee

14.3 in rural areas); having re-

duced from 60% in 1981. Accord-

ing to the criterion used by the

Planning Commission of India

27.5% of the populaon was liv-

ing below the poverty line in

2004–2005, down from 51.3% in

1977–1978, and 36% in 1993-1994. A study by the Oxford

Poverty and Human Develop-

ment Iniave using a Mul-di-

mensional Poverty Index (MPI)

found that there were 421 million

poor living under the MPI in eight

north India states of Bihar, Chat-

sgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya

Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uar

Pradesh and West Bengal. This

number is higher than the 410

million poor living in the 26 poor-

est African naons. However, lat-

est esmates by NCAER(Naonal

Council of Applied Economic Re-

search), show that 48% of the In-

dian households earn more than

Indian rupee 90,000 (US$2,025)annually(or more than US$3 PPP

per person). According to NCAER,

in 2009, of the 222 million house-

holds in India, the absolutely

poor households (annual in-

comes below Indian rupee

45,000) accounted for only 15.6

% of them or about 35 million

(about 200 million Indians). An-

other 80 million households are

in income levels of Indian rupee45,000-90,000 per year.

Since the 1950s, the Indian

government and non-govern-

mental organizaons have ini-

ated several programs to alleviate

poverty, including subsidizing

food and other necessies, in-

creased access to loans, improv-

ing agricultural techniques and

price supports, and promong

educaon and family planning.These measures have helped

eliminate famines, cut absolute

poverty levels by more than half,

and reduced illiteracy and malnu-

trion.

Poverty esmates

The World Bank esmates that

456 million Indians (41.6% of thetotal Indian populaon) now live

under the global poverty line of

US$ 1.25 per day (PPP). This

means that a third of the global

poor now reside in India. How-

ever, this also represents a signifi-

cant decline in poverty from the

60 percent level in 1981 to 42

percent in 2005. The rupee has

decreased in value since then,

while the official standard of In-

dian rupee538 (urban)/Indian

rupee356 (rural) per month has

remained the same. Income in-

equality in India is increasing,

with a Gini coefficient of 32.5 in

1999-2000. However, according

to the latest NCAER esmates, in2009, only 15.6% of the house-

holds or 200 million people, had

income levels less than Indian

rupee 45,000 annually(US$ 1.4

PPP per person). On the other

hand, the Planning Commission

of India uses its own criteria and

has esmated that 27.5% of the

populaon was living below the

poverty line in 2004–2005, down

from 51.3% in 1977–1978, and36% in 1993-1994. The source for

this was the 61st round of the Na-

onal Sample Survey (NSS) and

the criterion used was monthly

per capita consumpon expendi-

ture below Indian rupee356.35

for rural areas and Indian

rupee538.60 for urban areas.

75% of the poor are in rural

areas, most of them are daily wa-

gers, self-employed householdersand landless labourers.

Although the Indian economy

has grown steadily over the last

two decades, its growth has been

uneven when comparing differ-

ent social groups, economic

groups, geographic regions, and

rural and urban areas.[5] Be-

tween 1999 and 2008, the annu-

alized growth rates for Gujarat

(8.8%), Haryana (8.7%), or Delhi(7.4%) were much higher than for

Bihar (5.1%), Uar Pradesh

(4.4%), or Madhya Pradesh

(3.5%).

Poverty rates in rural Orissa

(43%) and rural Bihar (41%) are

among the world's most extreme.

A study by the Oxford Poverty

and Human Development Inia-

ve using a Mul-dimensional

Poverty Index (MPI) found that

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there were 421 million poor living

under the MPI in Bihar, Chas-

garh, Jharkhand, Madhya

Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uar

Pradesh and West Bengal. This

number is higher than the 410

million poor living in the 26 poor-est African naons.

Despite significant economic

progress, one quarter of the na-

on's populaon earns less than

the government-specified

poverty threshold of 12 rupees

per day (approximately US$

0.25). Official figures esmate

that 27.5% of Indians lived below

the naonal poverty line in 2004-

2005. A 2007 report by the state-run Naonal Commission for

Enterprises in the Unorganised

Sector (NCEUS) found that 77% of

Indians, or 836 million people,

lived on less than 20 rupees (ap-

proximately US$0.50 nominal;

US$2 PPP) per day. It is relevant

to view poverty in India on a PPP

basis as food etc. are purchased

in Rupees. So the annual income

of a family of four at US$2

PPP/day (current exchange rateof Indian rupee 47 = US$1) would

be Indian rupee 137,240 (i.e. In-

dian rupee1.37 lakh). According

to a recently released World Bank

report, India is on track to meet

its poverty reducon goals. How-

ever by 2015, an esmated 53

million people will sll live in ex-

treme poverty and 23.6% of the

populaon will sll live under

US$1.25 per day. This number isexpected to reduce to 20.3% or

268 million people by 2020. How-

ever, at the same me, the ef-

fects of the worldwide recession

in 2009 have plunged 100 million

more Indians into poverty than

there were in 2004, increasing

the effecve poverty rate from

27.5% to 37.2%.

As per the 2001 census,

35.5% of Indian households

availed of banking services,35.1% owned a radio or transis-

tor, 31.6% a television, 9.1% a

phone, 43.7% a bicycle, 11.7% a

scooter, motorcycle or a moped,

and 2.5% a car, jeep or van;

34.5% of the households had

none of these assets. According

to Department of Telecommuni-

caons of India the phone den-

sity has reached 33.23% by Dec

2008 and has an annual growthof 40%.. This tallies with the fact

that a family of four with an an-

nual income of 1.37 lakh Rupees

could afford some of these luxury

items.

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