Snag in NE power loan
by JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY
New Delhi, June 24: India will not seek loans from international agencies such as the World Bank for the Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim portions of a Rs 11,000-crore power transmission project in the Northeast.
India and China had last year clashed over the $60-million flood management project in Arunachal Pradesh, which was funded by the Asian Development Bank.
China had threatened to block ADB’s lending programme to India if all mention of Arunachal was not deleted from ADB's project documents for India.
Top officials in both the World Bank and the government said India had decided against seeking any loans from the World Bank for the Arunachal and Sikkim portions of a power transmission project that would link up the Northeast with the rest of the country’s power grid.
Though India had earlier denied reports that it would not place any project related to Arunachal Pradesh before the World Bank, officials said the government had decided against upsetting the Chinese at a time when India and China were trying to work together at the G20 and BRIC forums.
China claims that Tawang, a mountainous part of northern Arunachal Pradesh, has historically been part of Tibet and so should belong to China, which invaded Tibet in 1951. The Indian government and the Tibetan leaders in exile, however, point out that a self-governing Tibet had signed a treaty with British India in the early 20th century ceding Tawang to British-ruled India.
China has in the past made similar claims on Sikkim and Ladakh. China’s People’s Liberation Army has made repeated short incursions across the border in these areas.
World Bank officials say they have no problems funding projects in Arunachal Pradesh. However, India and China seemed to have decided to bilaterally discuss such issues and not bring up such projects for now, they added.
The hydel power generation potential of the Northeast and Bhutan is 58,000mw. Demand in this region is expected to peak at about 12,000mw. The region can, therefore, sell some 46,000mw.
The World Bank lent $9.3 billion between July 2009 and June 2010 to India. Spread across 25 new projects, the lending this year includes $2.6 billion as interest-free credits from the International Development Association and $6.7 billion in the form of long-term, low interest loans from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
source:the telegraph
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Petrol Prices Deregulated
Marginal Increase in HSD, PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG Prices
Government to bear a large part of Under Recoveries
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18:51 IST
PRESS NOTE
To arrive at a viable and sustainable system of pricing of petroleum products, Government had set up an Expert Group under the chairmanship of Dr. Kirit Parikh. In the light of Government’s budgetary constraints and the growing imperative for fiscal consolidation, and the need for allocating more funds to social sector schemes for the common man, the Government has decided that the pricing of Petrol and Diesel both at the refinery gate and the retail level will be market-determined. However, in respect of Diesel, the initial increase in retail selling price of Diesel will be Rs.2 per litre at Delhi, with corresponding increases in other parts of the country. Further increases will be made by the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in consultation with the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. It has also been decided that in case of a high rise and volatility in international oil prices, Government will suitably intervene in the pricing of Petrol and Diesel.
2. Market determined pricing of Petrol and Diesel is expected to do away with the OMCs’ under-recoveries on these two products, which are projected to be approximately Rs.22,000 crore during the remaining part of 2010-11. This will not only improve their financial health, it will also enable Government to allocate greater resources for social sector schemes. Market determined pricing is expected to attract higher investments in the fuel retail sector, and by spurring market competition, encourage OMCs to reduce costs, improve efficiency and service standards. Market determined pricing will also incentivise fuel conservation and encourage the consumer to adopt fuel efficiency practices.
3. In view of the importance of the household fuels, namely PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG, the Government has decided that the subsidies on these products will continue. The PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG Subsidy Scheme, 2002 and the Freight Subsidy (For Far-flung Areas) Scheme, 2002 have been extended till 31.03.2014.
4. The current prices of PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG are the lowest among the neighbouring countries. The consumer price of Kerosene is Rs.35.97/litre in Pakistan, Rs.29.43/litre in Bangladesh, Rs.21.02/litre in Sri Lanka and Rs.39.24/litre in Nepal. Similarly, the consumer price of LPG is Rs.577.18/ cylinder in Pakistan, Rs.537.37/ cylinder in Bangladesh, Rs.822.65/ cylinder in Sri Lanka and Rs.782.84/ cylinder in Nepal.
5. At current international oil prices, the OMCs are incurring an under-recovery of Rs.17.92 per litre on PDS Kerosene and Rs.261.90 per cylinder on Domestic LPG. To reduce this under-recovery burden of the OMCs as also to protect the common man, the Government has decided to increase the retail price of PDS Kerosene by only Rs.3 per litre and of Domestic LPG by only Rs. 35 per cylinder (at Delhi), with corresponding increases in other parts of the country.
6. Even after the above measures, the Government and the Public Sector oil companies are expected to bear an estimated under-recovery burden of about Rs.53,000 crore on the four sensitive petroleum products during 2010-11.
7. The Government is committed to making available the essential fuels, particularly the cooking fuels to the common man at affordable prices. The above decisions will not only continue to protect the vulnerable sections of society but also improve the financial health of the public sector OMCs, which need resources to invest in new refineries, marketing terminals, storage depots, pipelines, port facilities and other infrastructure for ensuring the country’s long-term energy security.
Marginal Increase in HSD, PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG Prices
Government to bear a large part of Under Recoveries
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
18:51 IST
PRESS NOTE
To arrive at a viable and sustainable system of pricing of petroleum products, Government had set up an Expert Group under the chairmanship of Dr. Kirit Parikh. In the light of Government’s budgetary constraints and the growing imperative for fiscal consolidation, and the need for allocating more funds to social sector schemes for the common man, the Government has decided that the pricing of Petrol and Diesel both at the refinery gate and the retail level will be market-determined. However, in respect of Diesel, the initial increase in retail selling price of Diesel will be Rs.2 per litre at Delhi, with corresponding increases in other parts of the country. Further increases will be made by the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in consultation with the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. It has also been decided that in case of a high rise and volatility in international oil prices, Government will suitably intervene in the pricing of Petrol and Diesel.
2. Market determined pricing of Petrol and Diesel is expected to do away with the OMCs’ under-recoveries on these two products, which are projected to be approximately Rs.22,000 crore during the remaining part of 2010-11. This will not only improve their financial health, it will also enable Government to allocate greater resources for social sector schemes. Market determined pricing is expected to attract higher investments in the fuel retail sector, and by spurring market competition, encourage OMCs to reduce costs, improve efficiency and service standards. Market determined pricing will also incentivise fuel conservation and encourage the consumer to adopt fuel efficiency practices.
3. In view of the importance of the household fuels, namely PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG, the Government has decided that the subsidies on these products will continue. The PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG Subsidy Scheme, 2002 and the Freight Subsidy (For Far-flung Areas) Scheme, 2002 have been extended till 31.03.2014.
4. The current prices of PDS Kerosene and Domestic LPG are the lowest among the neighbouring countries. The consumer price of Kerosene is Rs.35.97/litre in Pakistan, Rs.29.43/litre in Bangladesh, Rs.21.02/litre in Sri Lanka and Rs.39.24/litre in Nepal. Similarly, the consumer price of LPG is Rs.577.18/ cylinder in Pakistan, Rs.537.37/ cylinder in Bangladesh, Rs.822.65/ cylinder in Sri Lanka and Rs.782.84/ cylinder in Nepal.
5. At current international oil prices, the OMCs are incurring an under-recovery of Rs.17.92 per litre on PDS Kerosene and Rs.261.90 per cylinder on Domestic LPG. To reduce this under-recovery burden of the OMCs as also to protect the common man, the Government has decided to increase the retail price of PDS Kerosene by only Rs.3 per litre and of Domestic LPG by only Rs. 35 per cylinder (at Delhi), with corresponding increases in other parts of the country.
6. Even after the above measures, the Government and the Public Sector oil companies are expected to bear an estimated under-recovery burden of about Rs.53,000 crore on the four sensitive petroleum products during 2010-11.
7. The Government is committed to making available the essential fuels, particularly the cooking fuels to the common man at affordable prices. The above decisions will not only continue to protect the vulnerable sections of society but also improve the financial health of the public sector OMCs, which need resources to invest in new refineries, marketing terminals, storage depots, pipelines, port facilities and other infrastructure for ensuring the country’s long-term energy security.
Prime Minister’s Statement prior to departure for Toronto, Canada for the G-20 Summit
Following is the text of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s statement prior to his departure for the G-20 Summit in Toronto:
“I am leaving today to attend the G 20 Summit in Toronto at the invitation of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The theme of the Toronto Summit is “Recovery and the New Beginning”. The coordinated policy actions taken by the G 20 since the first Summit in Washington in November 2008 have not only helped to prevent a crisis of the type the world saw in the 1930s but also contributed to global economic recovery. This is a sign of the G 20’s success. At the same time, we have to be conscious that the recovery is still fragile and uneven. New worrying signs have emerged in the Euro zone.
The challenge of the Toronto Summit will be three fold - to ensure that global economic recovery is durable, balanced and sustainable; to calibrate exit strategies in the light of growing concerns over expansionary fiscal policies; and to focus on medium and long-term structural issues relating to governance issues. As the Indian economy grows and further integrates with the international system, we have an increasingly direct stake in all these matters. To meet our ambitious development targets it is necessary that the global economy continue to recover in a stable and predictable manner. We need investment and capital flows, as well as an open and rule based trading system that does not succumb to protectionist tendencies.
The Summit is expected to deliberate on a Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth. India will participate in this exercise and project our expectations from the global economic and financial system, and the kind of global growth processes that we seek. We will highlight the importance of development issues in the future work of the G20.
During my stay in Canada I will also hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Our relations with Canada are becoming broad based and there is a mutual desire on both sides to impart fresh vigour and vitality to them. India and Canada share the same values and there are many opportunities for us to contribute to each other’s welfare and prosperity.
I also look forward to having separate meetings with President Nicolas Sarkozy, President Barack Obama, Prime Minister David Cameron, Prime Minister Naoto Kan and to a meeting of the BRIC leaders.”
*****
Following is the text of the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh’s statement prior to his departure for the G-20 Summit in Toronto:
“I am leaving today to attend the G 20 Summit in Toronto at the invitation of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
The theme of the Toronto Summit is “Recovery and the New Beginning”. The coordinated policy actions taken by the G 20 since the first Summit in Washington in November 2008 have not only helped to prevent a crisis of the type the world saw in the 1930s but also contributed to global economic recovery. This is a sign of the G 20’s success. At the same time, we have to be conscious that the recovery is still fragile and uneven. New worrying signs have emerged in the Euro zone.
The challenge of the Toronto Summit will be three fold - to ensure that global economic recovery is durable, balanced and sustainable; to calibrate exit strategies in the light of growing concerns over expansionary fiscal policies; and to focus on medium and long-term structural issues relating to governance issues. As the Indian economy grows and further integrates with the international system, we have an increasingly direct stake in all these matters. To meet our ambitious development targets it is necessary that the global economy continue to recover in a stable and predictable manner. We need investment and capital flows, as well as an open and rule based trading system that does not succumb to protectionist tendencies.
The Summit is expected to deliberate on a Framework for Strong, Sustainable and Balanced Growth. India will participate in this exercise and project our expectations from the global economic and financial system, and the kind of global growth processes that we seek. We will highlight the importance of development issues in the future work of the G20.
During my stay in Canada I will also hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Our relations with Canada are becoming broad based and there is a mutual desire on both sides to impart fresh vigour and vitality to them. India and Canada share the same values and there are many opportunities for us to contribute to each other’s welfare and prosperity.
I also look forward to having separate meetings with President Nicolas Sarkozy, President Barack Obama, Prime Minister David Cameron, Prime Minister Naoto Kan and to a meeting of the BRIC leaders.”
*****
THE RIGHT MIX - How to make your investments inflation-proof
by SAMIR BIMAL
Iit were a living being, inflation would have felt flattered with the kind of attention it has been receiving lately from governments, institutions, industries and individuals. It is something which can act as both the reason or result of the ex- pected growth (or lack of it) of economies.
The expectation that inflation will rise in the future pushes up current prices. So one of the major objectives of the mone- tary policies in the recent past has been to control inflation ex- pectations. The initial inflationary pressure was predominantly conditioned by rising food and fuel prices, reflecting the effect of a deficient monsoon on agricultural output and increase in international crude prices. These coupled with strong econom- ic recovery created the ground for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to anchor inflation expectations.
Initially, RBI's inflation projection for March 2010 was 5.5%, which was revised to 6.5% in October 2009 and to 8.5% in Janu- ary 2010. The actual inflation figure was 9.9% in March. Now, RBI has an inflation target of 5.5% for March 2011. It is impor- tant to recognize that in the last decade, the average inflation rate had moderated to about 5% from the historical high of about 7.5%. As mentioned in the latest monetary policy, the con- duct of the monetary policy will continue to condition and con- tain perception of inflation in the range of 4-4.5%. This will be in line with the medium-term objective of 3% inflation consistent with India's broader integration into the global economy.
For the purpose of this note, let us limit ourselves to under- standing the effect of inflation on investments. But when we mention inflation, we will mean inflation expectation, as that is what would drive future payoffs. Also, investors expect higher returns to compensate for the higher expected inflation.
Different assets bear the impact of inflation differently. Value of all investments dip due to loss of purchasing power. Infla- tion, like taxes, is a cost and reduces the “real“ rate of return.
An investment portfolio should essentially address the objec- tives of returns, liquidity and ability to beat inflation, regular income and tax efficiency. Since it is rare to find all these in a single instrument, it is wise to have a diversified portfolio.
An inflation-proof portfolio would include long-term and short-term instruments, planned to generate a regular income stream and to make one's wealth grow. Investments in long- term instruments, too, should be done in a phased manner so that assets mature at different points of time.
While a specific investment plan would be unique to an in- vestor and needs to be customized, some portfolio pointers are shared here. On the fixed-income side, there are no inflation- linked bonds in India yet--bonds whose return are pegged to an inflation benchmark and rise with rising rates, such as Treasury Inflation Protected Security in the US. Conventional income products--savings, Public Provident Fund accounts, bank de- posits and debt mutual funds--would be subject to inflation risk but that can be mitigated to some extent by staggering invest- ments and maturity dates. A combination of some of the op- tions listed here would help you have a inflation-proof portfolio. Equity: It is an excellent way of managing inflation risk in a moderate inflation scenario. Whatever one's views on the short-term prospects of the market, a well-diversified portfolio of equity funds remains a good hedge against inflation. A monthly systematic investment plan in an index fund is the easiest way to do this. While short-term returns on equity may fluctuate, in the long run, appreciation in stock value can help combat the effects of inflation. Besides, reinvesting dividends is a good idea. Risk-averse investors may consider a capital-guar- anteed structured product, which provides 100% principal pro- tection with an equity upside.
Gold: The traditional hedge against inflation, gold as a quasi- currency does well when uncertainty goes up and vice-versa.
After March 2009, though the world economy has seen good re- covery, gold has not lost much value, indicating an undercur- rent that expects higher inflation as a by-product of economic recovery arising out of stimulus. In the recent past, exchange- traded funds (ETFs) have helped investors take a position on gold with minimum transaction cost and with least tax burden.
Commodities: Emerging economies, particularly India and China, will consume more energy and agricultural commodities for their growth. In this scenario, investors could look at going long on commodities. Investors in India can take advantage of the overseas investment facility to buy agricultural and oil com- modity ETFs abroad. Energy and food are the major compo- nents of an inflation index. Hence, one must look at hedging oneself by looking at ways to buy into these commodities.
Real estate: This offers a potential hedge against inflation. As the gross domestic product is expected to grow at 7% plus, in- flationary pressures should drive up property prices in the fu- ture. You can also invest in real estate funds. These are similar to equity funds and allow investors to spread their risk by pool- ing their assets with other investors to purchase commercial properties, which are then rented out to businesses. These funds offer investors high yields from the rental income they make and capital appreciation at the end of the term.
As mentioned above, along with inflation, tax management aspects needs to be considered in a portfolio. Going forward, watch for changes in investment taxes based on the proposed Direct Taxes Code. It could affect the tax treatment of capital gain and dividends, among other things. If that happens, you may need to review your investment mix. The portfolio con- structed using the options discussed, with proper asset alloca- tion, would be balanced, inflation-proof and risk-resistant.
Samir Bimal is country head, private banking (India), ING Vysya Bank Ltd.
by SAMIR BIMAL
Iit were a living being, inflation would have felt flattered with the kind of attention it has been receiving lately from governments, institutions, industries and individuals. It is something which can act as both the reason or result of the ex- pected growth (or lack of it) of economies.
The expectation that inflation will rise in the future pushes up current prices. So one of the major objectives of the mone- tary policies in the recent past has been to control inflation ex- pectations. The initial inflationary pressure was predominantly conditioned by rising food and fuel prices, reflecting the effect of a deficient monsoon on agricultural output and increase in international crude prices. These coupled with strong econom- ic recovery created the ground for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to anchor inflation expectations.
Initially, RBI's inflation projection for March 2010 was 5.5%, which was revised to 6.5% in October 2009 and to 8.5% in Janu- ary 2010. The actual inflation figure was 9.9% in March. Now, RBI has an inflation target of 5.5% for March 2011. It is impor- tant to recognize that in the last decade, the average inflation rate had moderated to about 5% from the historical high of about 7.5%. As mentioned in the latest monetary policy, the con- duct of the monetary policy will continue to condition and con- tain perception of inflation in the range of 4-4.5%. This will be in line with the medium-term objective of 3% inflation consistent with India's broader integration into the global economy.
For the purpose of this note, let us limit ourselves to under- standing the effect of inflation on investments. But when we mention inflation, we will mean inflation expectation, as that is what would drive future payoffs. Also, investors expect higher returns to compensate for the higher expected inflation.
Different assets bear the impact of inflation differently. Value of all investments dip due to loss of purchasing power. Infla- tion, like taxes, is a cost and reduces the “real“ rate of return.
An investment portfolio should essentially address the objec- tives of returns, liquidity and ability to beat inflation, regular income and tax efficiency. Since it is rare to find all these in a single instrument, it is wise to have a diversified portfolio.
An inflation-proof portfolio would include long-term and short-term instruments, planned to generate a regular income stream and to make one's wealth grow. Investments in long- term instruments, too, should be done in a phased manner so that assets mature at different points of time.
While a specific investment plan would be unique to an in- vestor and needs to be customized, some portfolio pointers are shared here. On the fixed-income side, there are no inflation- linked bonds in India yet--bonds whose return are pegged to an inflation benchmark and rise with rising rates, such as Treasury Inflation Protected Security in the US. Conventional income products--savings, Public Provident Fund accounts, bank de- posits and debt mutual funds--would be subject to inflation risk but that can be mitigated to some extent by staggering invest- ments and maturity dates. A combination of some of the op- tions listed here would help you have a inflation-proof portfolio. Equity: It is an excellent way of managing inflation risk in a moderate inflation scenario. Whatever one's views on the short-term prospects of the market, a well-diversified portfolio of equity funds remains a good hedge against inflation. A monthly systematic investment plan in an index fund is the easiest way to do this. While short-term returns on equity may fluctuate, in the long run, appreciation in stock value can help combat the effects of inflation. Besides, reinvesting dividends is a good idea. Risk-averse investors may consider a capital-guar- anteed structured product, which provides 100% principal pro- tection with an equity upside.
Gold: The traditional hedge against inflation, gold as a quasi- currency does well when uncertainty goes up and vice-versa.
After March 2009, though the world economy has seen good re- covery, gold has not lost much value, indicating an undercur- rent that expects higher inflation as a by-product of economic recovery arising out of stimulus. In the recent past, exchange- traded funds (ETFs) have helped investors take a position on gold with minimum transaction cost and with least tax burden.
Commodities: Emerging economies, particularly India and China, will consume more energy and agricultural commodities for their growth. In this scenario, investors could look at going long on commodities. Investors in India can take advantage of the overseas investment facility to buy agricultural and oil com- modity ETFs abroad. Energy and food are the major compo- nents of an inflation index. Hence, one must look at hedging oneself by looking at ways to buy into these commodities.
Real estate: This offers a potential hedge against inflation. As the gross domestic product is expected to grow at 7% plus, in- flationary pressures should drive up property prices in the fu- ture. You can also invest in real estate funds. These are similar to equity funds and allow investors to spread their risk by pool- ing their assets with other investors to purchase commercial properties, which are then rented out to businesses. These funds offer investors high yields from the rental income they make and capital appreciation at the end of the term.
As mentioned above, along with inflation, tax management aspects needs to be considered in a portfolio. Going forward, watch for changes in investment taxes based on the proposed Direct Taxes Code. It could affect the tax treatment of capital gain and dividends, among other things. If that happens, you may need to review your investment mix. The portfolio con- structed using the options discussed, with proper asset alloca- tion, would be balanced, inflation-proof and risk-resistant.
Samir Bimal is country head, private banking (India), ING Vysya Bank Ltd.
One man’s initiative ensures water-security in drought condition
by M. J. Prabu
Planting lakhs of trees, designing hundreds of check dams, and evolving new techniques of irrigating tree saplings in dry regions are feats of an out-of-the-box thinker named Mr. Premjibhai Patel, Rajkot, Gujarat.
Mr. Patel’s tree planting efforts first started from Rajkot, but soon spread to states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Every morning, carrying a bagful of seeds and a small spade, the farmer planted seeds on field bunds, along road sides, and vacant lands. Individuals and some institutions also volunteered to help in the farmer’s effort at ecological restoration.
Since manual seed planting proved laborious, Mr. Patel developed a petrol-driven mechanical blower mounted on a jeep back for broadcasting seeds.
The blower, which cost about Rs 12,000, blows seeds upto a distance of 15 meters, says the farmer. Using the blower he broadcasted 10 tonnes of tamarind seeds in several villages.
Mr. Patel also developed a unique technique for tree planting in drought prone regions of Kutch, Bhuj, and Saurashtra. He selected plastic pipes of about seven inches diameter and 1-1.5 feet height.
“Bore two small holes on opposite sides at the top end of the pipe and place it inside a half foot pit. Keep the root of the seedling next to the pipe inside the pit. Add a mixture of sand, soil and gravel to fill the pipe. Insert a small stick through the two holes at the top of the pipe and remove the pipe. Water poured on the sand reaches the roots of plants without wastage or evaporation,” he explains.
The rate of seedlings survival increases by this method, according to the farmer.
Now Mr. Patel is concentrating on watershed development through an organization called Vruksh Prem Seva Sanstha Trust. The trust works through about 150 nature clubs on nearly 1,000 hectares. The trust launched a campaign in several villages for ground water conservation through well recharge.
“Though the government introduced several schemes to encourage the development of checkdams’ in drought prone regions of Gujarat and offered subsidies, villagers did not evince interest in them because they often considered check dams as government projects. To motivate people to actively participate in building dams and to bring awareness on groundwater recharging I introduced a scheme for people,” says the farmer.
Mr. Patel himself bears the cost of checkdam construction except cement cost. (In some cases the farmer also bore the total cost including cement). Those interested in the scheme contacted him and he personally visited the area to get first hand information about the location and help them construct the dams.
Explaining the checkdam construction method Mr. Premjibhai says:
“I place large stones in the middle of the flowing water and use river sand, stones and cement to fill the gap between the stones. Iron rods are inserted into holes in the stones for added strength. The body wall of the dam is built in such a way that it slopes at an angle of 60 degrees and the width of the top wall maintained at one metre height (height can be increased in future)."
According to the farmer, circular dams are more economical than the straight ones, because the thin walls of the dams make them cost effective.
About 1,500 check dams and 50,000 feet of pipeline for recharging underground wells are his contribution to society.
Mr. Premjibhai’s initiative in water conservation ensures water security even in a drought season. Today farmers no longer remain idle even during summer as ground water table has increased considerably and there is timely water availability for agricultural activities. He also bagged the National Water Award recently from the Ministry of Water Resources.
For more information readers can contact Mr. Premjibhai Patel, Fulara Mill Godown, Furniture Gali, Rajmarg, Upleta, Rajkot, mobile: 9426202340.
by M. J. Prabu
Planting lakhs of trees, designing hundreds of check dams, and evolving new techniques of irrigating tree saplings in dry regions are feats of an out-of-the-box thinker named Mr. Premjibhai Patel, Rajkot, Gujarat.
Mr. Patel’s tree planting efforts first started from Rajkot, but soon spread to states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Every morning, carrying a bagful of seeds and a small spade, the farmer planted seeds on field bunds, along road sides, and vacant lands. Individuals and some institutions also volunteered to help in the farmer’s effort at ecological restoration.
Since manual seed planting proved laborious, Mr. Patel developed a petrol-driven mechanical blower mounted on a jeep back for broadcasting seeds.
The blower, which cost about Rs 12,000, blows seeds upto a distance of 15 meters, says the farmer. Using the blower he broadcasted 10 tonnes of tamarind seeds in several villages.
Mr. Patel also developed a unique technique for tree planting in drought prone regions of Kutch, Bhuj, and Saurashtra. He selected plastic pipes of about seven inches diameter and 1-1.5 feet height.
“Bore two small holes on opposite sides at the top end of the pipe and place it inside a half foot pit. Keep the root of the seedling next to the pipe inside the pit. Add a mixture of sand, soil and gravel to fill the pipe. Insert a small stick through the two holes at the top of the pipe and remove the pipe. Water poured on the sand reaches the roots of plants without wastage or evaporation,” he explains.
The rate of seedlings survival increases by this method, according to the farmer.
Now Mr. Patel is concentrating on watershed development through an organization called Vruksh Prem Seva Sanstha Trust. The trust works through about 150 nature clubs on nearly 1,000 hectares. The trust launched a campaign in several villages for ground water conservation through well recharge.
“Though the government introduced several schemes to encourage the development of checkdams’ in drought prone regions of Gujarat and offered subsidies, villagers did not evince interest in them because they often considered check dams as government projects. To motivate people to actively participate in building dams and to bring awareness on groundwater recharging I introduced a scheme for people,” says the farmer.
Mr. Patel himself bears the cost of checkdam construction except cement cost. (In some cases the farmer also bore the total cost including cement). Those interested in the scheme contacted him and he personally visited the area to get first hand information about the location and help them construct the dams.
Explaining the checkdam construction method Mr. Premjibhai says:
“I place large stones in the middle of the flowing water and use river sand, stones and cement to fill the gap between the stones. Iron rods are inserted into holes in the stones for added strength. The body wall of the dam is built in such a way that it slopes at an angle of 60 degrees and the width of the top wall maintained at one metre height (height can be increased in future)."
According to the farmer, circular dams are more economical than the straight ones, because the thin walls of the dams make them cost effective.
About 1,500 check dams and 50,000 feet of pipeline for recharging underground wells are his contribution to society.
Mr. Premjibhai’s initiative in water conservation ensures water security even in a drought season. Today farmers no longer remain idle even during summer as ground water table has increased considerably and there is timely water availability for agricultural activities. He also bagged the National Water Award recently from the Ministry of Water Resources.
For more information readers can contact Mr. Premjibhai Patel, Fulara Mill Godown, Furniture Gali, Rajmarg, Upleta, Rajkot, mobile: 9426202340.
Get an Orchid carpet welcome in Sikkim
By: Fiona Fernandez
Come June-July and the pint-sized, scenic state of Sikkim dons an even more colourful hue, as orchid beds take centrestage across its stunning landscape.
It's no surprise then that the region, along with the adjoining Darjeeling hill tracts is home to over 600 species of orchids.
Found mostly in the tropical regions of up to 7,000 feet elevations, some species inhabit altitudes as high as 10,000 feet and above.
Sikkim's orchids belong to two categories: epiphyte and terrestial; epiphytes are better known and more numerous.
The popular epiphytal orchids in Sikkim belong to the Dendrobium, Cymbidium, Vanda, Phalaenopsis, Caelogyne, Arachnanthe or Saccolabium.
Of these species, the Dendrobium Nobile has been adopted by the state as its official flower. In fact, as one explores the countryside, it's easy to spot Cymbidium orchids.
Introduced in the 1950s, it was meant for local aristocrats, and was grown inside the palace gardens. These days, it can be found in the eastern slopes of the Sikkim's Himalayas.
Today, Sikkim's orchids are exported to Japan, Malaysia, the Middle East, New Zealand and Singapore.
These orchid beds are part of several alpine sanctuaries and are protected areas. Special permission needs to be obtained before entering these parts.
Contact the Sikkim Tourism (www.sikkimtourism) for information on orchid trails.
By: Fiona Fernandez
Come June-July and the pint-sized, scenic state of Sikkim dons an even more colourful hue, as orchid beds take centrestage across its stunning landscape.
It's no surprise then that the region, along with the adjoining Darjeeling hill tracts is home to over 600 species of orchids.
Found mostly in the tropical regions of up to 7,000 feet elevations, some species inhabit altitudes as high as 10,000 feet and above.
Sikkim's orchids belong to two categories: epiphyte and terrestial; epiphytes are better known and more numerous.
The popular epiphytal orchids in Sikkim belong to the Dendrobium, Cymbidium, Vanda, Phalaenopsis, Caelogyne, Arachnanthe or Saccolabium.
Of these species, the Dendrobium Nobile has been adopted by the state as its official flower. In fact, as one explores the countryside, it's easy to spot Cymbidium orchids.
Introduced in the 1950s, it was meant for local aristocrats, and was grown inside the palace gardens. These days, it can be found in the eastern slopes of the Sikkim's Himalayas.
Today, Sikkim's orchids are exported to Japan, Malaysia, the Middle East, New Zealand and Singapore.
These orchid beds are part of several alpine sanctuaries and are protected areas. Special permission needs to be obtained before entering these parts.
Contact the Sikkim Tourism (www.sikkimtourism) for information on orchid trails.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Sikkim to observe Phase – II, ‘10 Minutes to Earth’ on 25 June
24 June, Gangtok: The State Government , in order to develop State-wide community participation in making Sikkim Greener, had initiated a unique programme, “Ten Minutes to Earth” since the year 2009. The programme which is the brainchild of the Chief Minister himself had gained popularity and wide response from all walks of life making it a 100 percent success last year. During the inaugural day on 15th July 2009, the entire State participated in planting more than six lakhs saplings all over the state This year, the Chief Minister during the commencement programme of Phase -V of the State Green Mission held here at Chintan Bhawan on 15th June had earmarked 25th June every year as the Day for “Ten Minutes to Earth”.
Similarly, the dawn of the Phase II of “Ten Minutes to Earth” will be held tomorrow on 25th June 2010 at 9.15 Am . His Excellency the Governor, Shri Balmiki Prasad Singh and the Hon’ble Chief Minister Dr.Pawan Chamling will be participating in the plantation drive at Bulbulay along with a host of other dignitaries.
The State Forest Department has announced that Several distribution points for saplings have been provided. The distribution points are Forest Secretariate Deorali, Zero Point near Technical, MP Golai, Bhojoghari Forest Check Post, Sichey Check Post, Syari Co-operative, Singtam Forest Check Post, Rangpo Bazar and Bagey Forest Nursery. The public can collect seedlings from these points. If the public are unable to collect the seedlings from the designated points then, the Forest Department shall provide the seedlings in the points suitable from them. Several variety of seedlings like Cherry, Chap, Lapsi, Okhar, Jacaranda, Bougainvillea, Tooli, Lampatey, Arupatey etc. It is also requested to all the general public , to participate in the plantation drive on 25th June, 2010 at 09.15 am to make the program a huge success.
24 June, Gangtok: The State Government , in order to develop State-wide community participation in making Sikkim Greener, had initiated a unique programme, “Ten Minutes to Earth” since the year 2009. The programme which is the brainchild of the Chief Minister himself had gained popularity and wide response from all walks of life making it a 100 percent success last year. During the inaugural day on 15th July 2009, the entire State participated in planting more than six lakhs saplings all over the state This year, the Chief Minister during the commencement programme of Phase -V of the State Green Mission held here at Chintan Bhawan on 15th June had earmarked 25th June every year as the Day for “Ten Minutes to Earth”.
Similarly, the dawn of the Phase II of “Ten Minutes to Earth” will be held tomorrow on 25th June 2010 at 9.15 Am . His Excellency the Governor, Shri Balmiki Prasad Singh and the Hon’ble Chief Minister Dr.Pawan Chamling will be participating in the plantation drive at Bulbulay along with a host of other dignitaries.
The State Forest Department has announced that Several distribution points for saplings have been provided. The distribution points are Forest Secretariate Deorali, Zero Point near Technical, MP Golai, Bhojoghari Forest Check Post, Sichey Check Post, Syari Co-operative, Singtam Forest Check Post, Rangpo Bazar and Bagey Forest Nursery. The public can collect seedlings from these points. If the public are unable to collect the seedlings from the designated points then, the Forest Department shall provide the seedlings in the points suitable from them. Several variety of seedlings like Cherry, Chap, Lapsi, Okhar, Jacaranda, Bougainvillea, Tooli, Lampatey, Arupatey etc. It is also requested to all the general public , to participate in the plantation drive on 25th June, 2010 at 09.15 am to make the program a huge success.
Endemic plants of lower belt of Sikkim are shifting to upward zone: Bikis
Mangan, June 23: The department of Forest, Wildlife Management, North Territorial Division organized a sensitization programme on Climate change for the officers of different department, members of Joint Forest Management Committee, Teachers and students of Mangan Sr. Sec. School at training Centre, Teesta Urja Ltd, Mangan today.
Yasmeen Bikis, Senior Researcher fellow, Delhi University who has extensively worked in north district to find indirect evidences with relation to the global climate change, spoke on the said topic. While, describing the biological responses of climate change in Sikkim Himalayas, she said that the alpine ‘eco-system’ of the mountains are considered to be highly sensitive to climate change.
Meanwhile, she revealed that in Sikkim the endemic plants of lower belt are now shifting to upward zone due to increase in temperature which will create risk of extinction. Further, she added that the continuous increase in temperature is also affecting the floral Phenology.
The programme was followed by plantation work under “State Green Mission”.
Mangan, June 23: The department of Forest, Wildlife Management, North Territorial Division organized a sensitization programme on Climate change for the officers of different department, members of Joint Forest Management Committee, Teachers and students of Mangan Sr. Sec. School at training Centre, Teesta Urja Ltd, Mangan today.
Yasmeen Bikis, Senior Researcher fellow, Delhi University who has extensively worked in north district to find indirect evidences with relation to the global climate change, spoke on the said topic. While, describing the biological responses of climate change in Sikkim Himalayas, she said that the alpine ‘eco-system’ of the mountains are considered to be highly sensitive to climate change.
Meanwhile, she revealed that in Sikkim the endemic plants of lower belt are now shifting to upward zone due to increase in temperature which will create risk of extinction. Further, she added that the continuous increase in temperature is also affecting the floral Phenology.
The programme was followed by plantation work under “State Green Mission”.
Criminal Intent and Militant Funding
By Scott Stewart
STRATFOR is currently putting the finishing touches on a detailed assessment of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the al Qaeda-inspired jihadist franchise in that country. As we got deeper into that project, one of the things we noticed was the group’s increasing reliance on criminal activity to fund its operations. In recent months, in addition to kidnappings for ransom and extortion of businessmen — which have been endemic in Iraq for many years — the ISI appears to have become increasingly involved in armed robbery directed against banks, currency exchanges, gold markets and jewelry shops.
This increase in criminal activity highlights how the ISI has fallen on hard times since its heyday in 2006-2007, when it was flush with cash from overseas donors and when its wealth led the apex leadership of al Qaeda in Pakistan to ask its Iraqi franchise for financial assistance. But when considered in a larger context, the ISI’s shift to criminal activity is certainly not surprising and, in fact, follows the pattern of many other ideologically motivated terrorist or insurgent groups that have been forced to resort to crime to support themselves.
The Cost of Doing Business
Whether we are talking about a small urban terrorist cell or a large-scale rural insurgency, it takes money to maintain a militant organization. It costs money to conduct even a rudimentary terrorist attack, and while there are a lot of variables in calculating the costs of a single attack, in order to simplify things, we’ll make a ballpark estimate of not more than $100 for an attack that involves a single operative detonating an improvised explosive device or using a firearm. (It certainly is possible to construct a lethal device for less, and many grassroots plots have cost far more, but we think $100 is a fair general estimate.) While that amount may seem quite modest by Western standards, it is important to remember that in the places where militant groups tend to thrive, like Somalia and Pakistan, the population is very poor. The typical Somali earns approximately $600 a year, and the typical Pakistani living in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas makes around $660. For many individuals living in such areas, the vehicle used in an attack deploying a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) is a luxury that they can never aspire to own for personal use, much less afford to buy only to destroy it in an attack. Indeed, even the $100 it may cost to conduct a basic terrorist attack is far more than they can afford.
To be sure, the expense of an individual terrorist attack can be marginal for a group like the ISI or the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). However, for such a group, the expenses required to operate are far more than just the amount required to conduct attacks —whether small roadside bombs or large VBIEDs. Such groups also need to establish and maintain the infrastructure required to operate a militant organization over a long period of time, not just during attacks but also between attacks. Setting up and operating such an infrastructure is far more costly than just paying for individual attacks.
In addition to the purchasing the materials required to conduct specific terrorist attacks, a militant organization also needs to pay wages to its fighters and provide food and lodging. Many also give stipends to the widows and families their fighters leave behind. In addition to the cost of personnel, the organization also needs to purchase safe-houses, modes of transportation (e.g., pickup trucks or motorcycles), communications equipment, weapons, munitions and facilities and equipment for training. If the militant organization hopes to use advanced weapons, like man-portable air defense systems, the costs can go even higher.
There are other costs involved in maintaining a large, professional militant group, such as travel, fraudulent identification documents (or legitimate documents obtained through fraud), payment for intelligence assets to monitor the activities of government forces, and even the direct bribery of security, border and other government officials. In some places, militant groups such as Hezbollah also pay for social services such as health care and education for the local population as a means of establishing and maintaining local support for the cause.
When added together, these various expenses amount to a substantial financial commitment, and operations are even more expensive in an environment where the local population is hostile to the militant organization and the government is persistently trying to cut off the group’s funding. In such an environment, the local people are less willing to provide support to the militants in the way of food, shelter and cash, and the militants are also forced to spend more money on operational security. Information about the government must also be purchased or coerced, and more “hush money” must be paid to keep people from telling the government about militant operations. In an environment where the local population is friendly, they will shelter militants and volunteer information about government forces and will not inform on militants to the government.
Sponsorship
One way to offset the steep cost of operating a large militant organization is by having a state sponsor. Indeed, funding rebel or insurgent groups to cause problems for a rival is an age-old tool of statecraft, and one that was exercised frequently during the Cold War. During that period, the United States worked to counter communist governments around the globe, and the Soviet Union and its partners operated a broad global array of proxy militant groups. In terms of geopolitical struggles, funding proxy groups is far less expensive than engaging in direct warfare in terms of both money and battlefield losses. Using proxies also provides benefits in terms of deniability for both domestic and international purposes.
For the militant group, the addition of a state sponsor can provide an array of modern weaponry and a great deal of useful training. For example, the FIM-92 Stinger missiles that the United States gave to Afghan militants fighting Soviet forces greatly enhanced the militants’ ability to counter the Soviets’ use of air power. The training provided by the Soviet KGB and its allies, the Cuban DGI and the East German Stasi, revolutionized the use of improvised explosive devices in terrorist attacks. Members of the groups these intelligence services trained at camps in Libya, Lebanon and Yemen, such as the German Red Brigades, the Provincial Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the Japanese Red Army and various Palestinian militant groups (among others), all became quite adept at using explosives in terrorist attacks.
The prevalence of Marxist terrorist groups during the Cold War led some observers to believe that the phenomenon of modern terrorism would die with the fall of the Soviet Union. Indeed, many militant groups, from urban Marxist organizations like the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in Peru to rural based insurgents like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), fell on hard financial times after the fall of the Soviet Union. While some of these groups withered away with their dwindling financial support (like the MRTA), others were more resourceful and found alternative ways to support their movement and continue their operations. The FARC, for example, was able to use its rural power in Colombia to offer protection to narcotics traffickers. In an ironic twist, elements of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a right-wing death squad set up to defend rich landowners against the FARC, have also gone on to play an important role in the Colombian Norte del Valle cartel and in various “bacrim” smuggling groups. Groups such as the PIRA and its splinters were able to fund themselves through robbery, extortion and “tiger kidnapping”.
In some places, the Marxist revolutionaries sought to keep the ideology of their cause separate from the criminal activities required to fund it following the loss of Soviet support. In the Philippines, for example, the New People’s Army formed what it termed “dirty job intelligence groups,” which were tasked with conducting kidnappings for ransom and robbing banks and armored cars. The groups also participated in a widespread campaign to shake down businesses for extortion payments, which it referred to as “revolutionary taxes.” In Central America, the Salvadoran Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) established a finance and logistics operation based out of Managua, Nicaragua, that conducted a string of kidnappings of wealthy industrialists in places like Mexico and Brazil. By targeting wealthy capitalists, the group sought to cast a Robin Hood-like light on this criminal activity. To further distance itself from the activity, the group used American and Canadian citizens to do much of its pre-operational surveillance and employed hired muscle from disbanded South American Marxist organizations to conduct the kidnappings and guard the hostages. The FMLN’s financial problems helped lead to the peace accords signed in 1992, and the FMLN has since become one of the main political parties in El Salvador. Its candidate, Mauricio Funes, was elected president of El Salvador in 2009.
Beyond the COMINTERN
The fall of the Soviet Union clearly did not end terrorism. Although Marxist militants funded themselves in Colombia, the Philippines and elsewhere through crime, Marxism was not the only flavor of terrorism on the planet. There are all sorts of motivations for terrorism as a militant tactic, from white supremacy to animal rights. But one of the most significant forces that arose in the 1980s as the Soviet Union was falling was militant Islamism. In addition to the ideals of the Iranian Revolution, which led to the creation of Hezbollah and other Iranian-sponsored groups, the Islamist fervor that was used to drum up support for the militants fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan eventually gave birth to al Qaeda and its jihadist spawn.
Although Hezbollah has always been funded by the governments of Iran and Syria, it has also become quite an entrepreneurial organization. Hezbollah has established a fundraising network that stretches across the globe and encompasses both legitimate businesses and criminal enterprises. In terms of its criminal operations, Hezbollah has a well-known presence in the tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, where the U.S. government estimates it has earned tens of millions of dollars from selling electronic goods, counterfeit luxury items and pirated software, movies and music. It also has an even more profitable network in West Africa that deals in “blood diamonds” from places like Sierra Leone and the Republic of the Congo. Cells in Asia procure and ship much of the counterfeit material sold elsewhere; nodes in North America deal in smuggled cigarettes, baby formula and counterfeit designer goods, among other things. In the United States, Hezbollah also has been involved in smuggling pseudoephedrine and selling counterfeit Viagra, and it has played a significant role in the production and worldwide propagation of counterfeit currencies. The business empire of the Shiite organization also extends into the narcotics trade, and Hezbollah earns large percentages of the estimated $1 billion in drug money flowing each year out of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
On the jihadist side of militant Islamism, jihadist groups have been conducting criminal activity to fund their movement since the 1990s. The jihadist cell that conducted the March 2004 Madrid Train Bombings was self-funded by selling illegal drugs, and jihadists have been involved in a number of criminal schemes ranging from welfare fraud to interstate transportation of stolen property.
In addition, many wealthy Muslims in Saudi Arabia the Persian Gulf states and elsewhere saw the jihadist groups as a way to export their conservative Wahhabi/Salafi strain of Islam, and many considered their gifts to jihadist groups to be their way of satisfying the Muslim religious obligation to give to charity. The governments of Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Pakistan saw jihadism as a foreign policy tool, and in some cases the jihadists were also seen as a tool to be used against domestic rivals. Pakistan was one of the most active countries playing the jihadist card, and it used it to influence its regional neighbors by supporting the growth of the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as Kashmiri militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for use against its archrival, India.
After 2003, however, when the al Qaeda franchise in Saudi Arabia declared war on the Saudi government (and the oil industry that funds it), sentiment in that country began to change and the donations sent by wealthy Saudis to al Qaeda or al Qaeda-related charities began to decline markedly. By 2006, the al Qaeda core leadership — and the larger jihadist movement — was experiencing significant financial difficulties. Today, with Pakistan also experiencing a backlash from supporting jihadists who have turned against the state, and with the Sunni sheikhs in Iraq turning against the ISI there, funding and sanctuary are becoming increasingly difficult for jihadists to find.
In recent years, the United States and the international community have taken a number of steps to monitor the international transfer of money, track charitable donations and scrutinize charities. These measures have begun to have an effect — not just in the case of the jihadist groups but for all major militant organizations. These systems are not foolproof, and there are still gaps that can be exploited, but overall, the legislation, procedures and tools now in place make financing from abroad much more difficult than it was prior to September 2001.
The Need to Survive
And this brings us where we are today regarding terrorism and funding. While countries like Venezuela and Nicaragua play around with supporting the export of Marxism through Latin America, the funding for Marxist movements in the Western Hemisphere is far below what it was before the fall of the Soviet Union. Indeed, transnational drug cartels and their allied street gangs pose a far greater threat to the stability of countries in the region today.
Groups that cannot find state sponsorship, such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in Nigeria, will be left to fund themselves through ransoms for kidnapped oil workers, selling stolen oil and from protection money. (It is worth noting, however, that MEND also has some powerful patrons inside Nigeria’s political structure.) And groups that still receive state funding, like Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas as well as Shiite militant groups in Iraq and the Persian Gulf region, will continue to get that support. (There are frequent rumors that Iran is supporting jihadist groups in places like Iraq and Afghanistan as a way to cause pain to the United States.)
Overall, state sponsorship of jihadist groups has been declining since supporting countries realized they were being attacked by militant groups of their own creation. Some countries, like Syria and Pakistan, still keep their fingers in the jihadist pie, but as time progresses more countries are coming to see the jihadists as threats rather than useful tools. For the past few years, we have seen groups like al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb resort to narcotics smuggling and the kidnapping of foreigners to fund their operations and that trend will likely increase. For one thing, the jump from militant attacks to criminal activity is relatively easy to make. Criminal activity (whether it’s robbing a bank or extorting business owners for “taxes”) requires the same physical force — or at least the threat of physical force — that militant groups perfect over years of carrying out insurgent or terrorist attacks.
While such criminal activity does allow a militant group to survive, it comes with a number of risks. First is the risk that members of the organization could become overly enamored with the criminal activity and the money it brings and abandon the cause — and the austere life of an ideological fighter — to pursue a more lucrative criminal career. (In many cases, they will attempt to retain some ideological facade for recruitment or legitimacy purposes. On the other hand, some jihadist groups believe that criminal activities allow them to emulate the actions of the Prophet Mohammed, who raided the caravans of his enemies to fund his movement and allowed his men to take booty.) Criminal activity can also cause ideological splits between the more pragmatic members of a militant organization and those who believe that criminal behavior tarnishes the image of their cause. And criminal activity can turn the local population against the militants — especially the population being targeted for crimes — while providing law enforcement with opportunities to arrest militant operatives on charges that are in many cases easier to prove than conspiring to conduct terrorist attacks. Lastly, reliance on criminal activity for funding a militant group requires a serious commitment of resources — men and guns — that cannot be allocated to other activities when they are being used to commit crimes.
As efforts to combat terrorism continue, militant leaders will increasingly be forced to choose between abandoning their cause or possibly tarnishing its public image. When faced with such a choice, many militant leaders — like those of the ISI — will follow the examples of groups like the FARC and the PIRA and choose to pursue criminal means to continue their struggle
source:STRATFOR
By Scott Stewart
STRATFOR is currently putting the finishing touches on a detailed assessment of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), the al Qaeda-inspired jihadist franchise in that country. As we got deeper into that project, one of the things we noticed was the group’s increasing reliance on criminal activity to fund its operations. In recent months, in addition to kidnappings for ransom and extortion of businessmen — which have been endemic in Iraq for many years — the ISI appears to have become increasingly involved in armed robbery directed against banks, currency exchanges, gold markets and jewelry shops.
This increase in criminal activity highlights how the ISI has fallen on hard times since its heyday in 2006-2007, when it was flush with cash from overseas donors and when its wealth led the apex leadership of al Qaeda in Pakistan to ask its Iraqi franchise for financial assistance. But when considered in a larger context, the ISI’s shift to criminal activity is certainly not surprising and, in fact, follows the pattern of many other ideologically motivated terrorist or insurgent groups that have been forced to resort to crime to support themselves.
The Cost of Doing Business
Whether we are talking about a small urban terrorist cell or a large-scale rural insurgency, it takes money to maintain a militant organization. It costs money to conduct even a rudimentary terrorist attack, and while there are a lot of variables in calculating the costs of a single attack, in order to simplify things, we’ll make a ballpark estimate of not more than $100 for an attack that involves a single operative detonating an improvised explosive device or using a firearm. (It certainly is possible to construct a lethal device for less, and many grassroots plots have cost far more, but we think $100 is a fair general estimate.) While that amount may seem quite modest by Western standards, it is important to remember that in the places where militant groups tend to thrive, like Somalia and Pakistan, the population is very poor. The typical Somali earns approximately $600 a year, and the typical Pakistani living in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas makes around $660. For many individuals living in such areas, the vehicle used in an attack deploying a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED) is a luxury that they can never aspire to own for personal use, much less afford to buy only to destroy it in an attack. Indeed, even the $100 it may cost to conduct a basic terrorist attack is far more than they can afford.
To be sure, the expense of an individual terrorist attack can be marginal for a group like the ISI or the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). However, for such a group, the expenses required to operate are far more than just the amount required to conduct attacks —whether small roadside bombs or large VBIEDs. Such groups also need to establish and maintain the infrastructure required to operate a militant organization over a long period of time, not just during attacks but also between attacks. Setting up and operating such an infrastructure is far more costly than just paying for individual attacks.
In addition to the purchasing the materials required to conduct specific terrorist attacks, a militant organization also needs to pay wages to its fighters and provide food and lodging. Many also give stipends to the widows and families their fighters leave behind. In addition to the cost of personnel, the organization also needs to purchase safe-houses, modes of transportation (e.g., pickup trucks or motorcycles), communications equipment, weapons, munitions and facilities and equipment for training. If the militant organization hopes to use advanced weapons, like man-portable air defense systems, the costs can go even higher.
There are other costs involved in maintaining a large, professional militant group, such as travel, fraudulent identification documents (or legitimate documents obtained through fraud), payment for intelligence assets to monitor the activities of government forces, and even the direct bribery of security, border and other government officials. In some places, militant groups such as Hezbollah also pay for social services such as health care and education for the local population as a means of establishing and maintaining local support for the cause.
When added together, these various expenses amount to a substantial financial commitment, and operations are even more expensive in an environment where the local population is hostile to the militant organization and the government is persistently trying to cut off the group’s funding. In such an environment, the local people are less willing to provide support to the militants in the way of food, shelter and cash, and the militants are also forced to spend more money on operational security. Information about the government must also be purchased or coerced, and more “hush money” must be paid to keep people from telling the government about militant operations. In an environment where the local population is friendly, they will shelter militants and volunteer information about government forces and will not inform on militants to the government.
Sponsorship
One way to offset the steep cost of operating a large militant organization is by having a state sponsor. Indeed, funding rebel or insurgent groups to cause problems for a rival is an age-old tool of statecraft, and one that was exercised frequently during the Cold War. During that period, the United States worked to counter communist governments around the globe, and the Soviet Union and its partners operated a broad global array of proxy militant groups. In terms of geopolitical struggles, funding proxy groups is far less expensive than engaging in direct warfare in terms of both money and battlefield losses. Using proxies also provides benefits in terms of deniability for both domestic and international purposes.
For the militant group, the addition of a state sponsor can provide an array of modern weaponry and a great deal of useful training. For example, the FIM-92 Stinger missiles that the United States gave to Afghan militants fighting Soviet forces greatly enhanced the militants’ ability to counter the Soviets’ use of air power. The training provided by the Soviet KGB and its allies, the Cuban DGI and the East German Stasi, revolutionized the use of improvised explosive devices in terrorist attacks. Members of the groups these intelligence services trained at camps in Libya, Lebanon and Yemen, such as the German Red Brigades, the Provincial Irish Republican Army (PIRA), the Japanese Red Army and various Palestinian militant groups (among others), all became quite adept at using explosives in terrorist attacks.
The prevalence of Marxist terrorist groups during the Cold War led some observers to believe that the phenomenon of modern terrorism would die with the fall of the Soviet Union. Indeed, many militant groups, from urban Marxist organizations like the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) in Peru to rural based insurgents like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), fell on hard financial times after the fall of the Soviet Union. While some of these groups withered away with their dwindling financial support (like the MRTA), others were more resourceful and found alternative ways to support their movement and continue their operations. The FARC, for example, was able to use its rural power in Colombia to offer protection to narcotics traffickers. In an ironic twist, elements of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, a right-wing death squad set up to defend rich landowners against the FARC, have also gone on to play an important role in the Colombian Norte del Valle cartel and in various “bacrim” smuggling groups. Groups such as the PIRA and its splinters were able to fund themselves through robbery, extortion and “tiger kidnapping”.
In some places, the Marxist revolutionaries sought to keep the ideology of their cause separate from the criminal activities required to fund it following the loss of Soviet support. In the Philippines, for example, the New People’s Army formed what it termed “dirty job intelligence groups,” which were tasked with conducting kidnappings for ransom and robbing banks and armored cars. The groups also participated in a widespread campaign to shake down businesses for extortion payments, which it referred to as “revolutionary taxes.” In Central America, the Salvadoran Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) established a finance and logistics operation based out of Managua, Nicaragua, that conducted a string of kidnappings of wealthy industrialists in places like Mexico and Brazil. By targeting wealthy capitalists, the group sought to cast a Robin Hood-like light on this criminal activity. To further distance itself from the activity, the group used American and Canadian citizens to do much of its pre-operational surveillance and employed hired muscle from disbanded South American Marxist organizations to conduct the kidnappings and guard the hostages. The FMLN’s financial problems helped lead to the peace accords signed in 1992, and the FMLN has since become one of the main political parties in El Salvador. Its candidate, Mauricio Funes, was elected president of El Salvador in 2009.
Beyond the COMINTERN
The fall of the Soviet Union clearly did not end terrorism. Although Marxist militants funded themselves in Colombia, the Philippines and elsewhere through crime, Marxism was not the only flavor of terrorism on the planet. There are all sorts of motivations for terrorism as a militant tactic, from white supremacy to animal rights. But one of the most significant forces that arose in the 1980s as the Soviet Union was falling was militant Islamism. In addition to the ideals of the Iranian Revolution, which led to the creation of Hezbollah and other Iranian-sponsored groups, the Islamist fervor that was used to drum up support for the militants fighting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan eventually gave birth to al Qaeda and its jihadist spawn.
Although Hezbollah has always been funded by the governments of Iran and Syria, it has also become quite an entrepreneurial organization. Hezbollah has established a fundraising network that stretches across the globe and encompasses both legitimate businesses and criminal enterprises. In terms of its criminal operations, Hezbollah has a well-known presence in the tri-border region of Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil, where the U.S. government estimates it has earned tens of millions of dollars from selling electronic goods, counterfeit luxury items and pirated software, movies and music. It also has an even more profitable network in West Africa that deals in “blood diamonds” from places like Sierra Leone and the Republic of the Congo. Cells in Asia procure and ship much of the counterfeit material sold elsewhere; nodes in North America deal in smuggled cigarettes, baby formula and counterfeit designer goods, among other things. In the United States, Hezbollah also has been involved in smuggling pseudoephedrine and selling counterfeit Viagra, and it has played a significant role in the production and worldwide propagation of counterfeit currencies. The business empire of the Shiite organization also extends into the narcotics trade, and Hezbollah earns large percentages of the estimated $1 billion in drug money flowing each year out of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.
On the jihadist side of militant Islamism, jihadist groups have been conducting criminal activity to fund their movement since the 1990s. The jihadist cell that conducted the March 2004 Madrid Train Bombings was self-funded by selling illegal drugs, and jihadists have been involved in a number of criminal schemes ranging from welfare fraud to interstate transportation of stolen property.
In addition, many wealthy Muslims in Saudi Arabia the Persian Gulf states and elsewhere saw the jihadist groups as a way to export their conservative Wahhabi/Salafi strain of Islam, and many considered their gifts to jihadist groups to be their way of satisfying the Muslim religious obligation to give to charity. The governments of Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Pakistan saw jihadism as a foreign policy tool, and in some cases the jihadists were also seen as a tool to be used against domestic rivals. Pakistan was one of the most active countries playing the jihadist card, and it used it to influence its regional neighbors by supporting the growth of the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as Kashmiri militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for use against its archrival, India.
After 2003, however, when the al Qaeda franchise in Saudi Arabia declared war on the Saudi government (and the oil industry that funds it), sentiment in that country began to change and the donations sent by wealthy Saudis to al Qaeda or al Qaeda-related charities began to decline markedly. By 2006, the al Qaeda core leadership — and the larger jihadist movement — was experiencing significant financial difficulties. Today, with Pakistan also experiencing a backlash from supporting jihadists who have turned against the state, and with the Sunni sheikhs in Iraq turning against the ISI there, funding and sanctuary are becoming increasingly difficult for jihadists to find.
In recent years, the United States and the international community have taken a number of steps to monitor the international transfer of money, track charitable donations and scrutinize charities. These measures have begun to have an effect — not just in the case of the jihadist groups but for all major militant organizations. These systems are not foolproof, and there are still gaps that can be exploited, but overall, the legislation, procedures and tools now in place make financing from abroad much more difficult than it was prior to September 2001.
The Need to Survive
And this brings us where we are today regarding terrorism and funding. While countries like Venezuela and Nicaragua play around with supporting the export of Marxism through Latin America, the funding for Marxist movements in the Western Hemisphere is far below what it was before the fall of the Soviet Union. Indeed, transnational drug cartels and their allied street gangs pose a far greater threat to the stability of countries in the region today.
Groups that cannot find state sponsorship, such as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) in Nigeria, will be left to fund themselves through ransoms for kidnapped oil workers, selling stolen oil and from protection money. (It is worth noting, however, that MEND also has some powerful patrons inside Nigeria’s political structure.) And groups that still receive state funding, like Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas as well as Shiite militant groups in Iraq and the Persian Gulf region, will continue to get that support. (There are frequent rumors that Iran is supporting jihadist groups in places like Iraq and Afghanistan as a way to cause pain to the United States.)
Overall, state sponsorship of jihadist groups has been declining since supporting countries realized they were being attacked by militant groups of their own creation. Some countries, like Syria and Pakistan, still keep their fingers in the jihadist pie, but as time progresses more countries are coming to see the jihadists as threats rather than useful tools. For the past few years, we have seen groups like al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb resort to narcotics smuggling and the kidnapping of foreigners to fund their operations and that trend will likely increase. For one thing, the jump from militant attacks to criminal activity is relatively easy to make. Criminal activity (whether it’s robbing a bank or extorting business owners for “taxes”) requires the same physical force — or at least the threat of physical force — that militant groups perfect over years of carrying out insurgent or terrorist attacks.
While such criminal activity does allow a militant group to survive, it comes with a number of risks. First is the risk that members of the organization could become overly enamored with the criminal activity and the money it brings and abandon the cause — and the austere life of an ideological fighter — to pursue a more lucrative criminal career. (In many cases, they will attempt to retain some ideological facade for recruitment or legitimacy purposes. On the other hand, some jihadist groups believe that criminal activities allow them to emulate the actions of the Prophet Mohammed, who raided the caravans of his enemies to fund his movement and allowed his men to take booty.) Criminal activity can also cause ideological splits between the more pragmatic members of a militant organization and those who believe that criminal behavior tarnishes the image of their cause. And criminal activity can turn the local population against the militants — especially the population being targeted for crimes — while providing law enforcement with opportunities to arrest militant operatives on charges that are in many cases easier to prove than conspiring to conduct terrorist attacks. Lastly, reliance on criminal activity for funding a militant group requires a serious commitment of resources — men and guns — that cannot be allocated to other activities when they are being used to commit crimes.
As efforts to combat terrorism continue, militant leaders will increasingly be forced to choose between abandoning their cause or possibly tarnishing its public image. When faced with such a choice, many militant leaders — like those of the ISI — will follow the examples of groups like the FARC and the PIRA and choose to pursue criminal means to continue their struggle
source:STRATFOR
Biodiversity plays a decisive role in development
After two years of debate, more than 90 countries have voted to create a scientific panel on biodiversity following a five-day UN meeting in Busan, South Korea recently.
Achim Steiner, the UN under-secretary general who oversaw the talks, said the creation of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was "the dream of many scientists" now made reality.
The establishment of the panel is aimed at addressing growing concern about the human impact on habitats and species around the world.
Steiner, who is also head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said the IPBES represents a major breakthrough in terms of organising a global response to the loss of living organisms and forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems.
The panel will peer-review science research on biodiversity and ecosystems to ensure that governments are receiving the best information and advice, and are able to act more decisively to reverse various trends in the natural world.
The panel will also focus on poverty alleviation, human well-being and sustainable development. The UN general assembly will have to approve the decision to set up the panel at a meeting in September. It will then be put to environment ministers for endorsement at UNEP's world ministerial meeting in February next year.
The creation of such a body has, according to many experts, become vital.
The current rate of species extinction as a result of human activity is more than 100 times faster than the rate of natural extinction, according to the UN.
More than 16,000 species are threatened with extinction, almost wholly as a result of human action, including habitat destruction, global warming, over-exploitation and pollution. This is the right time to remind ourselves that the disappearance of biodiversity plays a decisive role in development.
After two years of debate, more than 90 countries have voted to create a scientific panel on biodiversity following a five-day UN meeting in Busan, South Korea recently.
Achim Steiner, the UN under-secretary general who oversaw the talks, said the creation of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) was "the dream of many scientists" now made reality.
The establishment of the panel is aimed at addressing growing concern about the human impact on habitats and species around the world.
Steiner, who is also head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said the IPBES represents a major breakthrough in terms of organising a global response to the loss of living organisms and forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems.
The panel will peer-review science research on biodiversity and ecosystems to ensure that governments are receiving the best information and advice, and are able to act more decisively to reverse various trends in the natural world.
The panel will also focus on poverty alleviation, human well-being and sustainable development. The UN general assembly will have to approve the decision to set up the panel at a meeting in September. It will then be put to environment ministers for endorsement at UNEP's world ministerial meeting in February next year.
The creation of such a body has, according to many experts, become vital.
The current rate of species extinction as a result of human activity is more than 100 times faster than the rate of natural extinction, according to the UN.
More than 16,000 species are threatened with extinction, almost wholly as a result of human action, including habitat destruction, global warming, over-exploitation and pollution. This is the right time to remind ourselves that the disappearance of biodiversity plays a decisive role in development.
HRD Ministry Finalizes Scheme for Interest Subsidy for Education Loans
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14:11 IST
Ministry of Human Resource Development has finalized the modalities for implementation of a new Central Scheme to provide full interest subsidy during the period of moratorium on educational loans for students belonging to economically weaker sections (with parental family income from all sources of less than Rs.4.5 lakh annually) from scheduled banks under the Educational Loan Scheme of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) for pursuing courses of studies in professional/technical streams from recognized institutions in India. The modalities have been finalized in consultation with the Indian Banks’ Association. The Scheme is effective for all IBA approved educational loans sanctioned in form of eligible students’ in respect of approval course of studies from the academic year 2009-10.
Under the Scheme, proof of income is required to be certified by authorities to be designated by the State Governments. Accordingly, the Ministry has written to all Chief Secretaries of States/Union Territories to intimate the designated authority/authorities (at the District/Sub-District/Block, etc. levels) to the District Level Consultative Committee (DLCC) so that banking authorities at the branch level where students would be approaching for availing the benefit of the scheme would be aware of the same.
All Scheduled member banks of the IBA have also been advised to take necessary action to adopt and implement the Scheme so that the benefits of the Scheme accrue to the eligible students. Canara Bank is the nodal Bank, for the member Banks of IBA, for claiming reimbursement of interests credited to student accounts.
The details of the Scheme as well as the above communications are available on the website of this Ministry at www.education.nic.in.
All eligible students who wish to avail of the benefits of the Scheme are advised to approach the respective bank branch from where they availed of the education loan and complete the necessary formalities including obtaining the certification in respect of annual family income from the competent authority at the Block/Tehsil/District Level, so that the individual student accounts could be credited with the interest due on the Loan for the academic year 2009-10 onwards.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14:11 IST
Ministry of Human Resource Development has finalized the modalities for implementation of a new Central Scheme to provide full interest subsidy during the period of moratorium on educational loans for students belonging to economically weaker sections (with parental family income from all sources of less than Rs.4.5 lakh annually) from scheduled banks under the Educational Loan Scheme of the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) for pursuing courses of studies in professional/technical streams from recognized institutions in India. The modalities have been finalized in consultation with the Indian Banks’ Association. The Scheme is effective for all IBA approved educational loans sanctioned in form of eligible students’ in respect of approval course of studies from the academic year 2009-10.
Under the Scheme, proof of income is required to be certified by authorities to be designated by the State Governments. Accordingly, the Ministry has written to all Chief Secretaries of States/Union Territories to intimate the designated authority/authorities (at the District/Sub-District/Block, etc. levels) to the District Level Consultative Committee (DLCC) so that banking authorities at the branch level where students would be approaching for availing the benefit of the scheme would be aware of the same.
All Scheduled member banks of the IBA have also been advised to take necessary action to adopt and implement the Scheme so that the benefits of the Scheme accrue to the eligible students. Canara Bank is the nodal Bank, for the member Banks of IBA, for claiming reimbursement of interests credited to student accounts.
The details of the Scheme as well as the above communications are available on the website of this Ministry at www.education.nic.in.
All eligible students who wish to avail of the benefits of the Scheme are advised to approach the respective bank branch from where they availed of the education loan and complete the necessary formalities including obtaining the certification in respect of annual family income from the competent authority at the Block/Tehsil/District Level, so that the individual student accounts could be credited with the interest due on the Loan for the academic year 2009-10 onwards.
Health Ministry Gets Strict on Artificial Ripening of Fruits
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has asked the state authorities to keep a strict vigil on use of carbide gas for ripening of fruits. Use of carbide gas for ripening of fruits is prohibited under Rule 44 AA of Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules 1955. In a circular to all State Food (Health) authorities the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has stressed the need to take legal action for violation the PFA Rules. The circular also invited attention of the enforcement authorities in the states to the provisions that circumstantial evidence of presence of calcium carbide in godowns/wooden crates/premises kept together with fruits may be evidence for the courts that artificial ripening has been used by the vendor. The FSSAI has also circulated a copy of procedure for detection of acetylene in godown or treatment chamber for detection of artificial ripening of fruits.
The Union Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare, Shri Dinesh Trivedi directed the authorities to take up this issue with states. Shri Trivedi took up the issue as it compromises the health of millions of consumers. The minister felt that traders, retailers sometimes even growers, in order to, ensure a regular supply of fruits, much before their due time use all kinds of unscrupulous methods to ripen fruits artificially. It is also a violation of Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules 1955.
The implementation of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and Rules 1955 is entrusted to state authorities. Samples of various food items are taken regularly by the State UT authorities and action is taken in case of any adulteration of food items.
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has asked the state authorities to keep a strict vigil on use of carbide gas for ripening of fruits. Use of carbide gas for ripening of fruits is prohibited under Rule 44 AA of Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules 1955. In a circular to all State Food (Health) authorities the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has stressed the need to take legal action for violation the PFA Rules. The circular also invited attention of the enforcement authorities in the states to the provisions that circumstantial evidence of presence of calcium carbide in godowns/wooden crates/premises kept together with fruits may be evidence for the courts that artificial ripening has been used by the vendor. The FSSAI has also circulated a copy of procedure for detection of acetylene in godown or treatment chamber for detection of artificial ripening of fruits.
The Union Minister of State, Health and Family Welfare, Shri Dinesh Trivedi directed the authorities to take up this issue with states. Shri Trivedi took up the issue as it compromises the health of millions of consumers. The minister felt that traders, retailers sometimes even growers, in order to, ensure a regular supply of fruits, much before their due time use all kinds of unscrupulous methods to ripen fruits artificially. It is also a violation of Prevention of Food Adulteration Rules 1955.
The implementation of Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and Rules 1955 is entrusted to state authorities. Samples of various food items are taken regularly by the State UT authorities and action is taken in case of any adulteration of food items.
Mobile Towers Kill House Sparrows
House sparrows in endangered list
PTI
The population of house sparrows is fast declining due to dangers posed to their survival by a host of factors, including mobile phone towers, prompting a UK-based forum to enlist the tiny birds in the ’Red List’ of endangered avian species.
Britain’s Royal Society of Protection of Birds has enlisted the house sparrows (Passer domesticus) in the ‘Red List’ on the basis of the findings of researchers in different parts of the world including those from India.
Recent studies had shown that the population of house sparrows was on the decline in many parts of the country, including Kerala, said Dr Sainudeen Pattazhy, Associate Professor of Zoology at SN College at Kollam.
This trend was alarming especially in the urban areas due to a host of factors including “unscientific proliferation of mobile towers,” Pattazhy, who conducted a study on the subject, told PTI.
The study conducted during 2008-2009 in railway stations, foodgrain ware houses and human dwellings had shown that at present these small birds had virtually vanished in Kerala.
Many reasons could be cited for the situation like introduction of unleaded petrol, the combustion of which produces compounds such as methyl nitrite, a compound highly toxic for insects, the researcher said.
Widespread use of garden pesticides, which kills insects that are the vital diet of new-born sparrows, disappearance of open grass lands, rising temperature and avian-unfriendly modern architecture had also grievously harmed the sparrows.
According to Pattazhy, unscientific proliferation of mobile phone towers had in recent times emerged as a major factor in the decline of house sparrow population.
“These towers emit a frequency of 900-1800 MHz, continuous penetration of EMR (electromagnetic radiation) through the body of birds would affect their nervous system and their navigational skills. They become incapable for navigation and foraging. The birds which nests near towers are found to leave the nest within one week,” he said.
“One to eight eggs can be present in a clutch. The incubation lasts for 10 to 14 days. But the eggs which are laid in nests near towers failed to hatch even after 30 days.
The conservation of house sparrows is essential as it had proved to be well suited for studies of general biological problems and pest control,” Pattazhy said.
Based on his findings, Pattazhy submitted a memorandum to the Union Government and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) last year seeking steps to protect this birds from extinction, following which the government ordered a three year project to investigate into the decline of house sparrows.
PTI
The population of house sparrows is fast declining due to dangers posed to their survival by a host of factors, including mobile phone towers, prompting a UK-based forum to enlist the tiny birds in the ’Red List’ of endangered avian species.
Britain’s Royal Society of Protection of Birds has enlisted the house sparrows (Passer domesticus) in the ‘Red List’ on the basis of the findings of researchers in different parts of the world including those from India.
Recent studies had shown that the population of house sparrows was on the decline in many parts of the country, including Kerala, said Dr Sainudeen Pattazhy, Associate Professor of Zoology at SN College at Kollam.
This trend was alarming especially in the urban areas due to a host of factors including “unscientific proliferation of mobile towers,” Pattazhy, who conducted a study on the subject, told PTI.
The study conducted during 2008-2009 in railway stations, foodgrain ware houses and human dwellings had shown that at present these small birds had virtually vanished in Kerala.
Many reasons could be cited for the situation like introduction of unleaded petrol, the combustion of which produces compounds such as methyl nitrite, a compound highly toxic for insects, the researcher said.
Widespread use of garden pesticides, which kills insects that are the vital diet of new-born sparrows, disappearance of open grass lands, rising temperature and avian-unfriendly modern architecture had also grievously harmed the sparrows.
According to Pattazhy, unscientific proliferation of mobile phone towers had in recent times emerged as a major factor in the decline of house sparrow population.
“These towers emit a frequency of 900-1800 MHz, continuous penetration of EMR (electromagnetic radiation) through the body of birds would affect their nervous system and their navigational skills. They become incapable for navigation and foraging. The birds which nests near towers are found to leave the nest within one week,” he said.
“One to eight eggs can be present in a clutch. The incubation lasts for 10 to 14 days. But the eggs which are laid in nests near towers failed to hatch even after 30 days.
The conservation of house sparrows is essential as it had proved to be well suited for studies of general biological problems and pest control,” Pattazhy said.
Based on his findings, Pattazhy submitted a memorandum to the Union Government and IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) last year seeking steps to protect this birds from extinction, following which the government ordered a three year project to investigate into the decline of house sparrows.
ENVIRONMENT: Damming and damning the Teesta
FROM PROTECTERRA.COM
Kanchi Kohli reports.
22 June 2010 – The minutes of a meeting of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on River Valley and Hydroelectric Projects, held in January this year, include the following lines: The work of determining the “… carrying capacity of the Teesta basin with respect to hydropower development was entrusted by MoEF to the Center for Inter-Disciplinary Studies of Mountain & Hill Environment (CISMHE) in 2001, and completed in 2007. Based on the study, MoEF in October 2008 advised the Sikkim Government not go to ahead with the construction of dams and large scale development activities in the area above Chungthang due to ecological and geological sensitivity. This has affected the development of five hydropower projects in the state … The Sikkim Government has requested for reconsideration of the decision and sought to present their interpretation of the study before the EAC.”
This is a giveaway to the tale that I am to narrate. But to know and understand the future implications of what the EAC has finally decided, one needs to step back a bit. At least about 12 years or so.
The river Teesta that flows through Sikkim and north Bengal, is not just the lifeline of the state of Sikkim. It has interconnected within its rapids cultures, livelihoods, and deep spiritual connections. From Bengal the river traverses into Bangladesh where it finally joins the Brahmaputra as a tributary. Like many other Himalayan rivers in India, the Teesta presents a lucrative opportunity for power developers and dam engineers. The fast flowing river and its gorges suggest ample scope for several run-of-the-river energy projects in the river basin. Naturally, there has been no shortage of businesses wanting to exploit this.
Plans for the Teesta
In 1998, the expert committee on River Valley and Hydroelectric Projects was in the process of granting approval to the 510 MW Teesta V Hydro project. The matter had landed before the committee because such approval was required as part of the procedure prescribed under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 1994 (since amended in 2006).
According to an investigation report of 2004 by Manju Menon and Neeraj Vagholikar of Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group, the Teesta V project was an initiative of the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) and was to be the first of the 6-stage ‘cascade’ plan to harness a total of 3635 MW of hydropower, all over a 175-km section of the Teesta in Sikkim. The proposed run-of-the-river scheme, involved a concrete gravity dam 96.45 m high and 182.5 m long at Dikchu, which would raise the water level upstream before diverting it through a 17.5 km long ‘head race tunnel’ (HRT) to the powerhouse at Balutar.
The committee first decided that the Teesta V project could not be granted environment clearance unless and until a comprehensive study to determine the carrying capacity of the river was carried out. The purpose of such a study is to ascertain how much development can take place on the river without serious social, ecological and environmental impacts.
However, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and its EAC did not wait for the study to be completed. According to Tseten Lepcha of Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT, a leading organisation in Sikkim raising concerns with respect to dams on the Teesta River Basin), “In May 1999, following pressure from the Ministry of Power, the Teesta V project was granted clearance. The clearance came with a clear condition that no other project in Sikkim will be considered for environmental clearance till the study on the river’s carrying capacity is completed. However, in violation of this condition the clearance for Teesta Stage III project was granted, and therefore that approval is illegal”
Action in Sikkim
The task of carrying out the afore-mentioned study was given to the New Delhi-based Centre for Inter-Disciplinary Studies of Mountain and Hill Environment (CISMHE), and funded by the project proponent NHPC. CISMHE initiated the study in 2001 and took six years to complete it. But MoEF seemed to be in a hurry, and decided not to wait for the completion of the study. It granted approval to five projects on the Teesta River basin, in violation of the conditions prescribed for the Teesta V project, probably under pressure from other Government of India ministries. As the CISMHE study itself admits, “… after the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s 50,000 MW initiative in 2003, a number of schemes have been proposed on the Teesta and its tributaries.”
The report was candid in pointing out that the river held great potential for the development of power, but it also raised concerns about the ecological sensitivity of the region.
Around the time the study was completed, several local youth associated with the Affected Citizens of Teesta were sitting on the streets of Gangtok in an unending satyagraha. Representatives of the Lepcha tribal community were on an indefinite hunger strike to save Dzongu, their traditional homeland. It was one of the most inspiring youth-led campaigns of recent times, which received both national and international attention. The Lepcha and their supporters were deeply concerned that the free flow of the Teesta would be arrested, and it would impact their identity greatly. They were worried about their lands being acquired for the project, and also concerned about the influx of outside labour for dam construction, which they believed would lead to cultural erosion.
Their worries were real, especially given the number of projects proposed and their scale. The construction of ten more dams in Sikkim had been approved by the MoEF in violation of the environment clearance conditions of the Teesta V project. According to Neeraj Vagholikar of Kalpavriksh, “the MoEF justified these decisions by saying that they had referred to the interim report/recommendations of the study on carrying capacity while considering the projects for environmental clearance. However, it still amounts to a violation of the Teesta V environment clearance conditions and the MoEF had no answer for that.”
Lifting the restrictions
In an interesting twist in October 2008, the MoEF issued a letter to the Government of Sikkim that no activities related to dams (even investigations) should be taken up north of the Chungthang region in North Sikkim, home to the Lepcha and other communities. Whether this was in recognition of the satyagraha was not stated, but it was certainly a critical step forward for the struggling community members. What the MoEF admitted was that its decision was motivated by the CISMHE study, especially on the ecological sensitivity of the Teesta basin in North Sikkim. MoEF asked the state government to scrap five projects – Teesta I (300 MW), Teesta II (480 MW), Bhimkyong (99 MW), Bop (99 MW)and Lachung (99 MW), with a total installed capacity of 1077 MW.
Developer and government press on
The Government of Sikkim was not deterred. At the January 2010 meeting of the EAC, the Power Secretary of the Government of Sikkim was allowed to make a presentation. Also present was a resource person for the Government of Sikkim is P G Sastry – who had himself been the Chairperson of the EAC for River Valley projects as late as the year 2007. In less than 3 years after he shifted roles, Prof. Sastry now argued that the project developers were willing to take on board the concerns raised in the CISHME study and address them, and exploratory work in North Sikkim should therefore be permitted to determine if projects there could be carried out. To quote the minutes, “The presentation centered around the merits and demerits of sitting hydro projects north of Chungthang from environmental consideration”.
In February 2010, the EAC gave permission to Teesta I and II projects to conduct investigations, based on revised location and parameters. As the projects were close to the Kanchandzonga National Park, the Government of Sikkim was also asked to take the permission of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL). In March 2010, members of the EAC visited Sikkim and were hosted by the government – and as local activists allege, by the project authorities themselves. April 2010, the remaining three projects in North Sikkim were also allowed to carry out investigations. These were the Lachung, Bhimkyong and Bop hydroelectric projects.
In the judgment of the group that visited the sites of the above projects, the sites at Bop and Bhimkyong, do not have any rehabilitation issues and the 10-km stretch of the tunnelled river is intercepted by several perennial streams. Further, “using modern technology the impact of tunneling on land slide prone areas may be reduced.” These and other technical considerations noted in the minutes of the April 2010 meeting allowed the project authorities to invade into the ecological fragile North Sikkim. Recommendations from MoEF’s own processes, as well as large scale protests by affected people were just brushed aside.
And so once again, a familiar story is playing out. Hydropower corporations, supported by the processes and persons of government, are left free to exploit the resources of a region, with little regard to the wishes of the local people or even normal considerations of common sense in the management of an eco-system.
FROM PROTECTERRA.COM
Kanchi Kohli reports.
22 June 2010 – The minutes of a meeting of the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on River Valley and Hydroelectric Projects, held in January this year, include the following lines: The work of determining the “… carrying capacity of the Teesta basin with respect to hydropower development was entrusted by MoEF to the Center for Inter-Disciplinary Studies of Mountain & Hill Environment (CISMHE) in 2001, and completed in 2007. Based on the study, MoEF in October 2008 advised the Sikkim Government not go to ahead with the construction of dams and large scale development activities in the area above Chungthang due to ecological and geological sensitivity. This has affected the development of five hydropower projects in the state … The Sikkim Government has requested for reconsideration of the decision and sought to present their interpretation of the study before the EAC.”
This is a giveaway to the tale that I am to narrate. But to know and understand the future implications of what the EAC has finally decided, one needs to step back a bit. At least about 12 years or so.
The river Teesta that flows through Sikkim and north Bengal, is not just the lifeline of the state of Sikkim. It has interconnected within its rapids cultures, livelihoods, and deep spiritual connections. From Bengal the river traverses into Bangladesh where it finally joins the Brahmaputra as a tributary. Like many other Himalayan rivers in India, the Teesta presents a lucrative opportunity for power developers and dam engineers. The fast flowing river and its gorges suggest ample scope for several run-of-the-river energy projects in the river basin. Naturally, there has been no shortage of businesses wanting to exploit this.
Plans for the Teesta
In 1998, the expert committee on River Valley and Hydroelectric Projects was in the process of granting approval to the 510 MW Teesta V Hydro project. The matter had landed before the committee because such approval was required as part of the procedure prescribed under the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 1994 (since amended in 2006).
According to an investigation report of 2004 by Manju Menon and Neeraj Vagholikar of Kalpavriksh Environmental Action Group, the Teesta V project was an initiative of the National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) and was to be the first of the 6-stage ‘cascade’ plan to harness a total of 3635 MW of hydropower, all over a 175-km section of the Teesta in Sikkim. The proposed run-of-the-river scheme, involved a concrete gravity dam 96.45 m high and 182.5 m long at Dikchu, which would raise the water level upstream before diverting it through a 17.5 km long ‘head race tunnel’ (HRT) to the powerhouse at Balutar.
The committee first decided that the Teesta V project could not be granted environment clearance unless and until a comprehensive study to determine the carrying capacity of the river was carried out. The purpose of such a study is to ascertain how much development can take place on the river without serious social, ecological and environmental impacts.
However, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and its EAC did not wait for the study to be completed. According to Tseten Lepcha of Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT, a leading organisation in Sikkim raising concerns with respect to dams on the Teesta River Basin), “In May 1999, following pressure from the Ministry of Power, the Teesta V project was granted clearance. The clearance came with a clear condition that no other project in Sikkim will be considered for environmental clearance till the study on the river’s carrying capacity is completed. However, in violation of this condition the clearance for Teesta Stage III project was granted, and therefore that approval is illegal”
Action in Sikkim
The task of carrying out the afore-mentioned study was given to the New Delhi-based Centre for Inter-Disciplinary Studies of Mountain and Hill Environment (CISMHE), and funded by the project proponent NHPC. CISMHE initiated the study in 2001 and took six years to complete it. But MoEF seemed to be in a hurry, and decided not to wait for the completion of the study. It granted approval to five projects on the Teesta River basin, in violation of the conditions prescribed for the Teesta V project, probably under pressure from other Government of India ministries. As the CISMHE study itself admits, “… after the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s 50,000 MW initiative in 2003, a number of schemes have been proposed on the Teesta and its tributaries.”
The report was candid in pointing out that the river held great potential for the development of power, but it also raised concerns about the ecological sensitivity of the region.
Around the time the study was completed, several local youth associated with the Affected Citizens of Teesta were sitting on the streets of Gangtok in an unending satyagraha. Representatives of the Lepcha tribal community were on an indefinite hunger strike to save Dzongu, their traditional homeland. It was one of the most inspiring youth-led campaigns of recent times, which received both national and international attention. The Lepcha and their supporters were deeply concerned that the free flow of the Teesta would be arrested, and it would impact their identity greatly. They were worried about their lands being acquired for the project, and also concerned about the influx of outside labour for dam construction, which they believed would lead to cultural erosion.
Their worries were real, especially given the number of projects proposed and their scale. The construction of ten more dams in Sikkim had been approved by the MoEF in violation of the environment clearance conditions of the Teesta V project. According to Neeraj Vagholikar of Kalpavriksh, “the MoEF justified these decisions by saying that they had referred to the interim report/recommendations of the study on carrying capacity while considering the projects for environmental clearance. However, it still amounts to a violation of the Teesta V environment clearance conditions and the MoEF had no answer for that.”
Lifting the restrictions
In an interesting twist in October 2008, the MoEF issued a letter to the Government of Sikkim that no activities related to dams (even investigations) should be taken up north of the Chungthang region in North Sikkim, home to the Lepcha and other communities. Whether this was in recognition of the satyagraha was not stated, but it was certainly a critical step forward for the struggling community members. What the MoEF admitted was that its decision was motivated by the CISMHE study, especially on the ecological sensitivity of the Teesta basin in North Sikkim. MoEF asked the state government to scrap five projects – Teesta I (300 MW), Teesta II (480 MW), Bhimkyong (99 MW), Bop (99 MW)and Lachung (99 MW), with a total installed capacity of 1077 MW.
Developer and government press on
The Government of Sikkim was not deterred. At the January 2010 meeting of the EAC, the Power Secretary of the Government of Sikkim was allowed to make a presentation. Also present was a resource person for the Government of Sikkim is P G Sastry – who had himself been the Chairperson of the EAC for River Valley projects as late as the year 2007. In less than 3 years after he shifted roles, Prof. Sastry now argued that the project developers were willing to take on board the concerns raised in the CISHME study and address them, and exploratory work in North Sikkim should therefore be permitted to determine if projects there could be carried out. To quote the minutes, “The presentation centered around the merits and demerits of sitting hydro projects north of Chungthang from environmental consideration”.
In February 2010, the EAC gave permission to Teesta I and II projects to conduct investigations, based on revised location and parameters. As the projects were close to the Kanchandzonga National Park, the Government of Sikkim was also asked to take the permission of the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL). In March 2010, members of the EAC visited Sikkim and were hosted by the government – and as local activists allege, by the project authorities themselves. April 2010, the remaining three projects in North Sikkim were also allowed to carry out investigations. These were the Lachung, Bhimkyong and Bop hydroelectric projects.
In the judgment of the group that visited the sites of the above projects, the sites at Bop and Bhimkyong, do not have any rehabilitation issues and the 10-km stretch of the tunnelled river is intercepted by several perennial streams. Further, “using modern technology the impact of tunneling on land slide prone areas may be reduced.” These and other technical considerations noted in the minutes of the April 2010 meeting allowed the project authorities to invade into the ecological fragile North Sikkim. Recommendations from MoEF’s own processes, as well as large scale protests by affected people were just brushed aside.
And so once again, a familiar story is playing out. Hydropower corporations, supported by the processes and persons of government, are left free to exploit the resources of a region, with little regard to the wishes of the local people or even normal considerations of common sense in the management of an eco-system.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Sikkim Power 2012
23 June, Gangtok: According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data, around eight States are expected to generate surplus power by the end of the XI Five Year Plan (2007-2012). However, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand are States with greater probability of benefiting from a surplus. But these states too have their own share of glitches.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has listed eight States which will have surplus power by 2012. Out of these, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are most likely to generate significant surpluses
A CEA report dated April 2010 (‘Power Scenario at a Glance’) says that Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Delhi, West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram are the eight states likely to have surplus power at the end of the XI Five Year Plan.
At the end of 2012, Delhi (peak surplus: 2,023 megawatts (MW), energy surplus: 23,344 million units (MUs); Sikkim (peak surplus: 1,214MW, energy surplus: 3,137 MUs); Uttarakhand (peak surplus: 772MW, energy surplus: 4,344 MUs) and Himachal Pradesh (peak surplus: 1,472MW, energy surplus: 4,609 MUs) are the States which will have significant surplus power.
Sikkim, surprisingly, has added no capacity during the X Five Year Plan. Its current capacity is around 195.48MW (as on March 2010). During the XI Plan, it expects to add 775MW. The State is expected to have a surplus of 1,214MW against the current deficit of 1.2% or 1MW.
“Sikkim has 600MW share from the Teesta Stage III project (1,200MW) which eventually would result in surplus power. By the progress of the project it appears that Teesta would be commissioned in time, making Sikkim a surplus state,” said Mr Kumar. Teesta III is under construction and is expected to be commissioned in the year 2011-12.
source:Voice of sikkim
23 June, Gangtok: According to Central Electricity Authority (CEA) data, around eight States are expected to generate surplus power by the end of the XI Five Year Plan (2007-2012). However, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand are States with greater probability of benefiting from a surplus. But these states too have their own share of glitches.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has listed eight States which will have surplus power by 2012. Out of these, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are most likely to generate significant surpluses
A CEA report dated April 2010 (‘Power Scenario at a Glance’) says that Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Delhi, West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram are the eight states likely to have surplus power at the end of the XI Five Year Plan.
At the end of 2012, Delhi (peak surplus: 2,023 megawatts (MW), energy surplus: 23,344 million units (MUs); Sikkim (peak surplus: 1,214MW, energy surplus: 3,137 MUs); Uttarakhand (peak surplus: 772MW, energy surplus: 4,344 MUs) and Himachal Pradesh (peak surplus: 1,472MW, energy surplus: 4,609 MUs) are the States which will have significant surplus power.
Sikkim, surprisingly, has added no capacity during the X Five Year Plan. Its current capacity is around 195.48MW (as on March 2010). During the XI Plan, it expects to add 775MW. The State is expected to have a surplus of 1,214MW against the current deficit of 1.2% or 1MW.
“Sikkim has 600MW share from the Teesta Stage III project (1,200MW) which eventually would result in surplus power. By the progress of the project it appears that Teesta would be commissioned in time, making Sikkim a surplus state,” said Mr Kumar. Teesta III is under construction and is expected to be commissioned in the year 2011-12.
source:Voice of sikkim
Grants for 18 Departments passed by house
IPR News Sikkim
Day 3 Budget Session - Grants for 18 Departments passed by house
Gangtok June 23: The third day of the Budget Session 2010 of the Eighth Sikkim Legislative Assembly began with the Chief Minister and the Leader of the House and also the Minister in charge of Finance, Revenue and Expenditure Department move the Sikkim Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, Bill No 11 of 2010 which was unanimously passed by the House during the Legislative business hour.
During the Financial Business, Demands for Grants of Water Security& Public Health Engineering and Transport Departments, Roads and Bridges and Labour Departments, Human Resource Development Sports and Youth Affairs and Information Technology Departments, Health Care Human Services and Family Welfare, Animal Husbandry, Livestock, Fisheries and Veterinary Services and Parliamentary Affairs Departments, Commerce and Industries, Information and Public Relations, Printing and Stationary and Excise Departments, Energy and Power and Cultural Affairs and Heritage Departments, and Rural Management and Development and Cooperation Departments was presented in the House by the Ministers Mr. T.T Bhutia, Mr. R.B Subba, Mr. N.K Pradhan, Mr. D.N. Takarpa, Ms. Neeru Sewa, Mr. Sonam Gyatso Lepcha, and Mr. C.B. Karki respectively. The Demands for Grants of these departments were discussed and unanimously passed by the House.
During the discussion MLA Gangtok Mr. Dorjee Namgyal congratulated the department for Sports and Youth Affairs for coming up with the laying of the artificial turf in the Paljor stadium in the capital and also thanked the Leader of the House and the Chief Minister Mr. Pawan Chamling for initiating such a international class stadium in the state and also suggested the concerned Minister to construct a shade in the hill side gallery which is still uncovered. While MLAs Ms. Chandra Maya Subba, Mr. Am Prasad Sharma and Mr. Vinod Rai also participated in the discussion of the demands for grants of Energy and Power and Cultural Affairs and Heritage Departments, Roads and Bridges and Labour Departments, Rural Management and Development and Cooperation Departments, respectively.
The Minister for Rural Management Development Department, Mr.C.B. Karki during the presentation of Finance Commission Report presented the Report of the State Finance Commission, Sikkim (2010-2015) along with Explanatory Memorandum as to the Action taken on the Recommendation made by the Third State Finance Commission in its report submitted to the State Government on March 23, 2010.
IPR News Sikkim
Day 3 Budget Session - Grants for 18 Departments passed by house
Gangtok June 23: The third day of the Budget Session 2010 of the Eighth Sikkim Legislative Assembly began with the Chief Minister and the Leader of the House and also the Minister in charge of Finance, Revenue and Expenditure Department move the Sikkim Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, Bill No 11 of 2010 which was unanimously passed by the House during the Legislative business hour.
During the Financial Business, Demands for Grants of Water Security& Public Health Engineering and Transport Departments, Roads and Bridges and Labour Departments, Human Resource Development Sports and Youth Affairs and Information Technology Departments, Health Care Human Services and Family Welfare, Animal Husbandry, Livestock, Fisheries and Veterinary Services and Parliamentary Affairs Departments, Commerce and Industries, Information and Public Relations, Printing and Stationary and Excise Departments, Energy and Power and Cultural Affairs and Heritage Departments, and Rural Management and Development and Cooperation Departments was presented in the House by the Ministers Mr. T.T Bhutia, Mr. R.B Subba, Mr. N.K Pradhan, Mr. D.N. Takarpa, Ms. Neeru Sewa, Mr. Sonam Gyatso Lepcha, and Mr. C.B. Karki respectively. The Demands for Grants of these departments were discussed and unanimously passed by the House.
During the discussion MLA Gangtok Mr. Dorjee Namgyal congratulated the department for Sports and Youth Affairs for coming up with the laying of the artificial turf in the Paljor stadium in the capital and also thanked the Leader of the House and the Chief Minister Mr. Pawan Chamling for initiating such a international class stadium in the state and also suggested the concerned Minister to construct a shade in the hill side gallery which is still uncovered. While MLAs Ms. Chandra Maya Subba, Mr. Am Prasad Sharma and Mr. Vinod Rai also participated in the discussion of the demands for grants of Energy and Power and Cultural Affairs and Heritage Departments, Roads and Bridges and Labour Departments, Rural Management and Development and Cooperation Departments, respectively.
The Minister for Rural Management Development Department, Mr.C.B. Karki during the presentation of Finance Commission Report presented the Report of the State Finance Commission, Sikkim (2010-2015) along with Explanatory Memorandum as to the Action taken on the Recommendation made by the Third State Finance Commission in its report submitted to the State Government on March 23, 2010.
NIT Sikkim | NIT Sikkim Faculty recruitments | National Institute of Technology, Sikkim Faculty openings | www.nitc.ac.in
June 23rd, 2010 10:01 |
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SIKKIM ADVERTISEMENT FOR FACULTY OPENINGS
National Institute of Technology, Sikkim Institute invites applications from Indian nationals, possessing excellent academic background, commitment to quality teaching, potential for carrying out outstanding research, and an inclination towards institutional development for the faculty positions at the level of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor in various Disciplines of the Institute. Once selected, the candidate will have to join duty immediately.
The appointment will be in the regular cadre for those candidates who possess the requisite qualifications. Candidates without Ph.D. degree but possessing M.Tech/M.Phil may be considered for appointment on contract for a period of one year. Candidates who are already in regular service shall be considered for deputation/lien for a period not more than three years or as provided under the rules. Those who join on regular basis will join the New Pension Scheme as and when it becomes operational.
Approximate Number of Vacancies:
Professor – 1, Associate Profesor-2, Assistant Professor – 5
Qualification (for all levels): Ph.D degree with minimum of 1st class (60%) or equivalent grade (6.75/10) at the B.Tech./ M.Sc./ M.A. level
• Professor in the pay scale PB-4 Rs.37400- 67000/-) AGP 10000, Experience: At least 10 years of teaching/ research/ industrial experience, out of which at least 04 years should be at the level of Associate Professor in an IIT, NIT or comparable Institute of Higher learning or equivalent of 06 years at the level of Assistant Professor.
• Associate Professor in the pay scale PB-4 Rs.37400- 67000/- AGP 9000, Experience : At least 06 years of teaching/ research/ Industrial experience after obtaining Ph.d. Degree, out of which at least 03 years should be at the level of Assistant Professor in IIT, NIT or comparable institutions including CSIR Labs. and industries.
• Assistant Professor in the pay scale PB-3, Rs.15600-39100/- AGP 6000, No experience required
How to apply:
1. Interested candidates may apply in prescribed application form, which may be downloaded from the web site http://www.nitc.ac.in For obtaining the application form by post, please send a self addressed stamped envelope (30 cm X 21 cm) to the Registrar, NIT Calicut, NIT Campus P.O., Calicut 673 601, Kerala along with a Request for application form for faculty appointment-NIT SIKKIM enclosed.
2. There is no application fee/registration fee applicable at present.
3. Application forms complete in all respects along with Xerox copies of certificates ( Self attested), list of publication, reprints/preprints of publication and a detailed research plan should reach the Office of the Registrar on or before 10th July, 2010
June 23rd, 2010 10:01 |
NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY SIKKIM ADVERTISEMENT FOR FACULTY OPENINGS
National Institute of Technology, Sikkim Institute invites applications from Indian nationals, possessing excellent academic background, commitment to quality teaching, potential for carrying out outstanding research, and an inclination towards institutional development for the faculty positions at the level of Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor in various Disciplines of the Institute. Once selected, the candidate will have to join duty immediately.
The appointment will be in the regular cadre for those candidates who possess the requisite qualifications. Candidates without Ph.D. degree but possessing M.Tech/M.Phil may be considered for appointment on contract for a period of one year. Candidates who are already in regular service shall be considered for deputation/lien for a period not more than three years or as provided under the rules. Those who join on regular basis will join the New Pension Scheme as and when it becomes operational.
Approximate Number of Vacancies:
Professor – 1, Associate Profesor-2, Assistant Professor – 5
Qualification (for all levels): Ph.D degree with minimum of 1st class (60%) or equivalent grade (6.75/10) at the B.Tech./ M.Sc./ M.A. level
• Professor in the pay scale PB-4 Rs.37400- 67000/-) AGP 10000, Experience: At least 10 years of teaching/ research/ industrial experience, out of which at least 04 years should be at the level of Associate Professor in an IIT, NIT or comparable Institute of Higher learning or equivalent of 06 years at the level of Assistant Professor.
• Associate Professor in the pay scale PB-4 Rs.37400- 67000/- AGP 9000, Experience : At least 06 years of teaching/ research/ Industrial experience after obtaining Ph.d. Degree, out of which at least 03 years should be at the level of Assistant Professor in IIT, NIT or comparable institutions including CSIR Labs. and industries.
• Assistant Professor in the pay scale PB-3, Rs.15600-39100/- AGP 6000, No experience required
How to apply:
1. Interested candidates may apply in prescribed application form, which may be downloaded from the web site http://www.nitc.ac.in For obtaining the application form by post, please send a self addressed stamped envelope (30 cm X 21 cm) to the Registrar, NIT Calicut, NIT Campus P.O., Calicut 673 601, Kerala along with a Request for application form for faculty appointment-NIT SIKKIM enclosed.
2. There is no application fee/registration fee applicable at present.
3. Application forms complete in all respects along with Xerox copies of certificates ( Self attested), list of publication, reprints/preprints of publication and a detailed research plan should reach the Office of the Registrar on or before 10th July, 2010
Sikkim – The Land of Monasteries
Sujit Chakraborty**
Sikkim is quintessential a Buddhist State. The places of worship called the Gonpas or monasteries have a rich tradition. Buddhist iconography, frescos and murals are distinct in all of them.
Although the monasteries and monastic practices are of Tibetan descent, yet Tibet itself derived this tradition from India and transformed it according to its own needs. Besides, after reaching Sikkim, the Tibetan tradition also got transformed according to Sikkim’s own needs and aesthetics.
These monasteries, therefore, portray a fascinating mix of three traditions. If studied in its historical progression they can shed much light on the cultures and cultural exchanges that shaped the history of Sikkim.
Origin
The foundation of modern Sikkim in the mid-17th century was theocratic in nature. But secularism has been the hallmark of Sikkim’s polity. It was practised ardently by its erstwhile kings, the chogyals of the Namgyal dynasty. It is said that in Sikkim almost every hilltop has a monastery. This is not an overstatement.
The monasteries in Sikkim were built for different reasons - sometimes to honour local deities; some to follow specific orders laid down in the holy texts; sometimes when a sect or a sub-sect had decided to have its own monastery with distinct prayers and rituals; or some of the famous ones like the Dharma Chakra Centre at Rumtek village, which had been founded by the head of the Khagyu sect, His Holiness the 16th Karmapa.
However, the monasteries of the oldest sect of Vajrayana Buddhism, the Nyingmapa school, were ordained by Guru Padmasambhava, a Tantrik Buddhist reincarnate in the 17th century and were built in most cases according to the instructions laid down in the texts he had hidden in various places and later discovered by his followers.
The known oldest monastery in Sikkim is Drubdi, pronounced Dubdi and meaning ‘retreat’ or ‘hermitage’ which was the abode of Lhatsun Chenpo or Lhatsun Namkha Jigmed. He was the saint ordained by Guru Padmasambhava to bring Buddhism to Sikkim and set up the Dharma Raja system, called the Chogyal, in which temporal and spiritual leadership of the State was vested in one person.
The monasteries of the Karma Kagyud sect, which was the first reformist sect within the Vajrayana school, are among the most important ones.
After Tibet was taken over by China, the Kagyud sect also fled Tibet like Dalai Lama’s Gelug sect. His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa sought refuge in Bhutan. Later, he was invited by the Chogyal of Sikkim and offered a small piece of land with revenue rights to start his hermitage near the old Rumtek Monastery. This became the global centre for the Kagyud sect. They were known as Dharma Chakra Centre. However, two other monasteries of the Kagyud sect, Phodong in North District and Ralang in South District are much older than the Dharma Chakra Centre.
Pemayangtse or the Perfect Sublime Lotus is the cardinal monastery of Sikkim. It was established after the first Chogyal was consecrated and contains the best of texts and scriptures of Nyingma Buddhism.
Although the original chapel was built a long ago by Lhatsun Chenpo, the monastery as it now stands was constructed in 1705, during the reign of the third Chogyal, the learned Chagdor Namgyal. According to tradition, all the 108 monks of this monastery have to be Bhutias from the leading families of Sikkim. Previously, the Dorje Lupon, or the head monk of Pemayangtse, used to crown the Chogyals.
Pemayangtse has the distinction of being the referral centre on issues confronting Nyingma Buddhism. The Lamas here are the ones best trained in the rituals and dances, including Pang Lhabsol, which is the dance ritual for praying to Khangchendzonga and Mahakala – the protecting deities of Sikkim. Pemayangtse houses the massive Thankas depicting Sakya Mui Buddha and his two principal disciples. The frescos and idols in the main shrine are unique. In fact, the main idol of Guru Padmasambhava had been built in Patan, Nepal, piece by piece. It was then dismantled and brought from there, again piece by piece, and re-assembled here.
On the first floor of the monastery are the fabulous statues of the Eight Aspects of Guru Padmasambhava along with hundreds of original texts on Buddhism. The monastery also houses the fantastic Sangtoedpalri. This was made according to a Treasure Text by the Guru. In the 1960s the main Sangtoedpalri was dismantled. Then it was re-built by a holy person. There is not a single metal nail in the structure.
It is said that Guru Padmasambhava once shot an arrow and vowed to meditate wherever it landed. Tashiding, possibly one of the holiest monasteries of the Nyingma sect, stands where the arrow is said to have fallen. The Guru prayed here which gives this massive hill a spiritual aura that is unsurpassed by any of the other monasteries.
This Nyingma monastery was built in 1716 during the reign of the most learned of the early Chogyals, Chagdor Namgyal. The hill rises above the laps of the Rangit and Rathong rivers, both considered holy due to their link with religious practices. The hill itself is a major sacred grove teeming with medicinal plants. Once practically inaccessible to anyone but the most arduous Lamas, Tashiding was created as a hermitage for special Lamas. Today, the cobbled but motorable road ends half-way above the base of the Tashiding Hill.
The main shrine is not too large. But the real significance is that it is here that the mystical urns holding the sacred water is kept. This urn is worshipped during the mystical Bum Chu (Holy Water) festival sometime in February or March.
There are several other monasteries in Sikkim which are also revered by all. They hold an attraction for devotees and explorers alike. (PIB Features)
**Senior Journalist, Gangtok
Sujit Chakraborty**
Sikkim is quintessential a Buddhist State. The places of worship called the Gonpas or monasteries have a rich tradition. Buddhist iconography, frescos and murals are distinct in all of them.
Although the monasteries and monastic practices are of Tibetan descent, yet Tibet itself derived this tradition from India and transformed it according to its own needs. Besides, after reaching Sikkim, the Tibetan tradition also got transformed according to Sikkim’s own needs and aesthetics.
These monasteries, therefore, portray a fascinating mix of three traditions. If studied in its historical progression they can shed much light on the cultures and cultural exchanges that shaped the history of Sikkim.
Origin
The foundation of modern Sikkim in the mid-17th century was theocratic in nature. But secularism has been the hallmark of Sikkim’s polity. It was practised ardently by its erstwhile kings, the chogyals of the Namgyal dynasty. It is said that in Sikkim almost every hilltop has a monastery. This is not an overstatement.
The monasteries in Sikkim were built for different reasons - sometimes to honour local deities; some to follow specific orders laid down in the holy texts; sometimes when a sect or a sub-sect had decided to have its own monastery with distinct prayers and rituals; or some of the famous ones like the Dharma Chakra Centre at Rumtek village, which had been founded by the head of the Khagyu sect, His Holiness the 16th Karmapa.
However, the monasteries of the oldest sect of Vajrayana Buddhism, the Nyingmapa school, were ordained by Guru Padmasambhava, a Tantrik Buddhist reincarnate in the 17th century and were built in most cases according to the instructions laid down in the texts he had hidden in various places and later discovered by his followers.
The known oldest monastery in Sikkim is Drubdi, pronounced Dubdi and meaning ‘retreat’ or ‘hermitage’ which was the abode of Lhatsun Chenpo or Lhatsun Namkha Jigmed. He was the saint ordained by Guru Padmasambhava to bring Buddhism to Sikkim and set up the Dharma Raja system, called the Chogyal, in which temporal and spiritual leadership of the State was vested in one person.
The monasteries of the Karma Kagyud sect, which was the first reformist sect within the Vajrayana school, are among the most important ones.
After Tibet was taken over by China, the Kagyud sect also fled Tibet like Dalai Lama’s Gelug sect. His Holiness the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa sought refuge in Bhutan. Later, he was invited by the Chogyal of Sikkim and offered a small piece of land with revenue rights to start his hermitage near the old Rumtek Monastery. This became the global centre for the Kagyud sect. They were known as Dharma Chakra Centre. However, two other monasteries of the Kagyud sect, Phodong in North District and Ralang in South District are much older than the Dharma Chakra Centre.
Pemayangtse or the Perfect Sublime Lotus is the cardinal monastery of Sikkim. It was established after the first Chogyal was consecrated and contains the best of texts and scriptures of Nyingma Buddhism.
Although the original chapel was built a long ago by Lhatsun Chenpo, the monastery as it now stands was constructed in 1705, during the reign of the third Chogyal, the learned Chagdor Namgyal. According to tradition, all the 108 monks of this monastery have to be Bhutias from the leading families of Sikkim. Previously, the Dorje Lupon, or the head monk of Pemayangtse, used to crown the Chogyals.
Pemayangtse has the distinction of being the referral centre on issues confronting Nyingma Buddhism. The Lamas here are the ones best trained in the rituals and dances, including Pang Lhabsol, which is the dance ritual for praying to Khangchendzonga and Mahakala – the protecting deities of Sikkim. Pemayangtse houses the massive Thankas depicting Sakya Mui Buddha and his two principal disciples. The frescos and idols in the main shrine are unique. In fact, the main idol of Guru Padmasambhava had been built in Patan, Nepal, piece by piece. It was then dismantled and brought from there, again piece by piece, and re-assembled here.
On the first floor of the monastery are the fabulous statues of the Eight Aspects of Guru Padmasambhava along with hundreds of original texts on Buddhism. The monastery also houses the fantastic Sangtoedpalri. This was made according to a Treasure Text by the Guru. In the 1960s the main Sangtoedpalri was dismantled. Then it was re-built by a holy person. There is not a single metal nail in the structure.
It is said that Guru Padmasambhava once shot an arrow and vowed to meditate wherever it landed. Tashiding, possibly one of the holiest monasteries of the Nyingma sect, stands where the arrow is said to have fallen. The Guru prayed here which gives this massive hill a spiritual aura that is unsurpassed by any of the other monasteries.
This Nyingma monastery was built in 1716 during the reign of the most learned of the early Chogyals, Chagdor Namgyal. The hill rises above the laps of the Rangit and Rathong rivers, both considered holy due to their link with religious practices. The hill itself is a major sacred grove teeming with medicinal plants. Once practically inaccessible to anyone but the most arduous Lamas, Tashiding was created as a hermitage for special Lamas. Today, the cobbled but motorable road ends half-way above the base of the Tashiding Hill.
The main shrine is not too large. But the real significance is that it is here that the mystical urns holding the sacred water is kept. This urn is worshipped during the mystical Bum Chu (Holy Water) festival sometime in February or March.
There are several other monasteries in Sikkim which are also revered by all. They hold an attraction for devotees and explorers alike. (PIB Features)
**Senior Journalist, Gangtok
Auto, taxi fares up in Delhi
Auto and taxi fares on Tuesday went up by 35% in New Delhi following an increase in the price of compressed natural gas (CNG), The Delhi government also made it mandatory for three-wheelers to install global positioning systems (GPS) in their vehicles within six months.
The minimum fare for autorickshaws will now be Rs19 for the first 2km against the current Rs10 for the first kilometre. Subsequently, Rs6.50 will be charged for every kilometre thereafter instead of the current Rs4.50.
The minimum fare for yellow and black taxis will go up from Rs15 to Rs20 for the first 1km, while the rate will be Rs11 instead of current Rs8.50 for subsequent kilometres. No decision has been taken yet on the fares of radio taxis.
Auto and taxi fares on Tuesday went up by 35% in New Delhi following an increase in the price of compressed natural gas (CNG), The Delhi government also made it mandatory for three-wheelers to install global positioning systems (GPS) in their vehicles within six months.
The minimum fare for autorickshaws will now be Rs19 for the first 2km against the current Rs10 for the first kilometre. Subsequently, Rs6.50 will be charged for every kilometre thereafter instead of the current Rs4.50.
The minimum fare for yellow and black taxis will go up from Rs15 to Rs20 for the first 1km, while the rate will be Rs11 instead of current Rs8.50 for subsequent kilometres. No decision has been taken yet on the fares of radio taxis.
Financial inclusion and regulation
The case for financial inclusion, which means providing financial services to the vast sections of the population not covered by the formal banking system, is very strong. In India, it implies providing access to a bank account backed by deposit insurance, access to affordable credit and the payments system. For a number of reasons, it is the banks rather than the non-bank intermediaries that should take the lead. The financial agencies operating in the unbanked areas of rural India have not been equal to the task and in any case they offer a limited range of activities compared to banks. If financial intermediaries have to deliver affordable services, they need to scale up and use technology for which they require large capital. It stands to reason that lenders and investors will repose greater trust when the entity is regulated. And when it comes to credibility, banks score because they are tightly regulated. Recent experiences in India and elsewhere also show that regulation and financial inclusion far from working at cross purposes can go hand in hand. In fact, a number of inclusive practices have been fostered by the regulator, the Reserve Bank of India.
Priority sector lending mandated by the central bank has financial inclusion as one of its objectives. Licensing laws have been tweaked to persuade banks to open branches in remote areas. Since access to a bank deposit is considered a public good, the RBI has directed all banks to open “no-frills” accounts, characterised by low minimum balances and charges, but limited facilities. To further improve the access, the RBI has licensed business correspondents and other agents to undertake branchless banking. Newer regulatory guidelines, especially the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms, have stood in the way of financial inclusion because low-income earners and migrants rarely have acceptable identity papers. While the KYC rules have been relaxed selectively, the issue is yet to be fully addressed. Over the medium term, it is hoped, banks will rely on the Unique Identification Numbers (UID) to comply with the KYC rules. Technology is critical for the spread of banking among masses because it carries the promise of reducing transaction costs. By leveraging Indian strengths in mobile telephony with the UID, the reach of banks can be increased manifold. Yet technology has to be harnessed in a way that will benefit all types of customers. The benefits of inclusion will be nullified if technology creates a wall between the customer and the bank.
editorial-The Hindu
The case for financial inclusion, which means providing financial services to the vast sections of the population not covered by the formal banking system, is very strong. In India, it implies providing access to a bank account backed by deposit insurance, access to affordable credit and the payments system. For a number of reasons, it is the banks rather than the non-bank intermediaries that should take the lead. The financial agencies operating in the unbanked areas of rural India have not been equal to the task and in any case they offer a limited range of activities compared to banks. If financial intermediaries have to deliver affordable services, they need to scale up and use technology for which they require large capital. It stands to reason that lenders and investors will repose greater trust when the entity is regulated. And when it comes to credibility, banks score because they are tightly regulated. Recent experiences in India and elsewhere also show that regulation and financial inclusion far from working at cross purposes can go hand in hand. In fact, a number of inclusive practices have been fostered by the regulator, the Reserve Bank of India.
Priority sector lending mandated by the central bank has financial inclusion as one of its objectives. Licensing laws have been tweaked to persuade banks to open branches in remote areas. Since access to a bank deposit is considered a public good, the RBI has directed all banks to open “no-frills” accounts, characterised by low minimum balances and charges, but limited facilities. To further improve the access, the RBI has licensed business correspondents and other agents to undertake branchless banking. Newer regulatory guidelines, especially the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms, have stood in the way of financial inclusion because low-income earners and migrants rarely have acceptable identity papers. While the KYC rules have been relaxed selectively, the issue is yet to be fully addressed. Over the medium term, it is hoped, banks will rely on the Unique Identification Numbers (UID) to comply with the KYC rules. Technology is critical for the spread of banking among masses because it carries the promise of reducing transaction costs. By leveraging Indian strengths in mobile telephony with the UID, the reach of banks can be increased manifold. Yet technology has to be harnessed in a way that will benefit all types of customers. The benefits of inclusion will be nullified if technology creates a wall between the customer and the bank.
editorial-The Hindu
Making of the Constitution in Nepal
by Menaka Guruswamy
Nepal's political elites need to recognise the historical terms of reference of the Constituent Assembly. They need to set aside their personal quest for power, and focus on coming to a shared understanding of the idea of their country.
On May 28, 2010, shortly before the appointed midnight hour, Nepal came precariously close to the non-extension of its two-year old Constituent Assembly. After 12 years of bitter, armed conflict that claimed about 13,000 lives, the Constituent Assembly played a crucial role in bringing the erstwhile ‘rebel' combatants, the CPN (Maoist) party, into the mainstream politico-legal framework, following a carefully negotiated Comprehensive Peace Agreement and fresh elections. Constituent Assemblies, whose function is to draft Constitutions, have the ability to bring together former combatants within a framework, forcing them to arrive at a common understanding of the founding principles of a nation.
Interestingly, elections at the end of the conflict saw the Maoist party emerge as the largest political party, and therefore the single-largest drafting unit in the Constituent Assembly with 246 seats of around 600 seats. The other two major political parties — the Nepali Congress, and the CPN (United-Marxist-Leninist) — had a little over 100 seats each. The remaining seats were divided among 20 political parties. Significantly, the CPN (Maoists) did not have a simple majority or, better still, a two-thirds majority unlike other historical change-makers — the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa or the Indian National Congress (INC) at the time of independence, which in their times were in a position to draft a Constitution owing to their overwhelming strength in the Constituent Assemblies. Perhaps, they were less distracted by other political quests, and more focussed on drafting their nation's founding document.
Furthermore, in Nepal, India casts a giant shadow over all political activities, formulations and moves. India's foreign policy is oriented towards a position which apparently locates its national interest as being compromised by the single largest political party of Nepal either forming the government or shaping the country's Constitution. The CPN (Maoist) also made some less than astute moves, with its Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal — Prachanda's questionably-timed visits to China.
On that fateful day, as the midnight hour approached, some members of the Constituent Assembly did manage to rise above party politics. Amid swirling rumours of a possible Emergency being declared upon non-extension, I saw the women members of the house — whether they were Maoists or belonged to the Nepali Congress, the UML or other parties — cross party lines, and come together and commence a two-hour chant asking for the Constituent Assembly to be extended. This while their younger male colleagues, who were not involved in the power-plays of their seniors outside the house, sat and watched silently.
Finally the ‘big three' political parties arrived at a three-point programme — comprising a commitment to the peace process, a one-year extension for the Constituent Assembly and, finally, the resignation of the current ‘compromise' Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal of the UML. And so, 20 minutes before midnight of May 28, 2010, the process of extending the Constituent Assembly commenced which would culminate in a vote to resuscitate the faltering house.
Political gamesmanship and formulas for a ‘consensus' government, a code for who will really be Prime Minister, is the major concern of influential politicians in Nepal. The drafting of the Constitution doesn't quite seem to consume them as much as one hoped it would. Constitution-making itself is precariously positioned, in terms of disagreement over constitutional choices. Choices that shape the political and legal fabric of a nation, such as the form of government, presidential or parliamentary, and even the basis of the federal state — whether the federal units should be based on ethnicity or region — are in question. Other significant areas where convergence is needed include the appointment of judges and the nature and number of fundamental rights.
The Constituent Assembly's thematic subject committee reports which came to their conclusion on the basis of a majority vote, usually reflected the CPN (Maoist) position. For instance, in the context of the form of government, the Committee report on the Determination of the Forms of Governance of the State provided that all powers be concentrated in the President. The President is to be the head of state, the government and the military; and will be elected by popular election for a five-year term. This version of a strong presidential system, while suiting the ideology of a tightly regimented cadre-based party, is often at odds with the needs of a fledgling multi-ethnic democracy. A parliamentary system, with the space that it provides for the voices and narratives of all ethnicities and for regional diversity to manifest through a multi-party system, might be wiser. Alternatively, a convergence could be arrived at via a popularly elected Prime Minister in a parliamentary style democracy.
Another area of concern is the method of appointing judges. The Judicial Committee report provides that the head of state, on the ‘recommendation' of the ‘Federal Legislative Special Judicial Committee' (comprising the Vice-Chairman of the Federal Legislature, the Law Minister, and nine members from the Legislature), shall appoint the Chief Justice and other judges of the Supreme Court. Similar structures are in place at the other levels of the court system. Judges of the Supreme Court are to have a term of four years and are to retire at 65. Another cause of anxiety is that the powers of the Federal Judicial Committee astonishingly include interpretation of the Constitution. All of this disrupts the separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. This in tandem with a strong President structurally locates all power in the executive.
Finally, the Committee for Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles has provided for around 30 enforceable and justiciable rights. This includes the fundamental right to food, housing, employment and social security. While in principle, all nations must prioritise such guarantees, in terms of law and jurisprudence, creating fundamental rights that the state cannot implement due to financial considerations implies that the drafters inadvertently compromise the absolute mandate of such a category of rights. It is preferable to have a few generic fundamental rights, for instance the right to life, and within it progressively create jurisprudence that includes for instance the right to food that a state can afford to actively implement.
Back in the political arena, the former monarch, Gyanendra Shah, who was stripped of all power when Nepal abolished the monarchy, has been spotted in public with increasing frequency. Amidst the game of musical chairs for the Prime Minister's seat being played by all the major, and now even some minor, political parties, the obstinate terms of engagement of India and the coy appearances of a deposed despotic monarch in the business of making a Constitution and, therefore, a new nation, languishes. Nepal's political elites need to recognise the historical terms of reference of the Constituent Assembly. They need to set aside their personal quest for power, and focus on coming to a shared understanding of the idea of their country, and draft its character through a Constitution.
(The writer practises law at the Supreme Court of India.)
source; The Hindu
by Menaka Guruswamy
Nepal's political elites need to recognise the historical terms of reference of the Constituent Assembly. They need to set aside their personal quest for power, and focus on coming to a shared understanding of the idea of their country.
On May 28, 2010, shortly before the appointed midnight hour, Nepal came precariously close to the non-extension of its two-year old Constituent Assembly. After 12 years of bitter, armed conflict that claimed about 13,000 lives, the Constituent Assembly played a crucial role in bringing the erstwhile ‘rebel' combatants, the CPN (Maoist) party, into the mainstream politico-legal framework, following a carefully negotiated Comprehensive Peace Agreement and fresh elections. Constituent Assemblies, whose function is to draft Constitutions, have the ability to bring together former combatants within a framework, forcing them to arrive at a common understanding of the founding principles of a nation.
Interestingly, elections at the end of the conflict saw the Maoist party emerge as the largest political party, and therefore the single-largest drafting unit in the Constituent Assembly with 246 seats of around 600 seats. The other two major political parties — the Nepali Congress, and the CPN (United-Marxist-Leninist) — had a little over 100 seats each. The remaining seats were divided among 20 political parties. Significantly, the CPN (Maoists) did not have a simple majority or, better still, a two-thirds majority unlike other historical change-makers — the African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa or the Indian National Congress (INC) at the time of independence, which in their times were in a position to draft a Constitution owing to their overwhelming strength in the Constituent Assemblies. Perhaps, they were less distracted by other political quests, and more focussed on drafting their nation's founding document.
Furthermore, in Nepal, India casts a giant shadow over all political activities, formulations and moves. India's foreign policy is oriented towards a position which apparently locates its national interest as being compromised by the single largest political party of Nepal either forming the government or shaping the country's Constitution. The CPN (Maoist) also made some less than astute moves, with its Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal — Prachanda's questionably-timed visits to China.
On that fateful day, as the midnight hour approached, some members of the Constituent Assembly did manage to rise above party politics. Amid swirling rumours of a possible Emergency being declared upon non-extension, I saw the women members of the house — whether they were Maoists or belonged to the Nepali Congress, the UML or other parties — cross party lines, and come together and commence a two-hour chant asking for the Constituent Assembly to be extended. This while their younger male colleagues, who were not involved in the power-plays of their seniors outside the house, sat and watched silently.
Finally the ‘big three' political parties arrived at a three-point programme — comprising a commitment to the peace process, a one-year extension for the Constituent Assembly and, finally, the resignation of the current ‘compromise' Prime Minister, Madhav Kumar Nepal of the UML. And so, 20 minutes before midnight of May 28, 2010, the process of extending the Constituent Assembly commenced which would culminate in a vote to resuscitate the faltering house.
Political gamesmanship and formulas for a ‘consensus' government, a code for who will really be Prime Minister, is the major concern of influential politicians in Nepal. The drafting of the Constitution doesn't quite seem to consume them as much as one hoped it would. Constitution-making itself is precariously positioned, in terms of disagreement over constitutional choices. Choices that shape the political and legal fabric of a nation, such as the form of government, presidential or parliamentary, and even the basis of the federal state — whether the federal units should be based on ethnicity or region — are in question. Other significant areas where convergence is needed include the appointment of judges and the nature and number of fundamental rights.
The Constituent Assembly's thematic subject committee reports which came to their conclusion on the basis of a majority vote, usually reflected the CPN (Maoist) position. For instance, in the context of the form of government, the Committee report on the Determination of the Forms of Governance of the State provided that all powers be concentrated in the President. The President is to be the head of state, the government and the military; and will be elected by popular election for a five-year term. This version of a strong presidential system, while suiting the ideology of a tightly regimented cadre-based party, is often at odds with the needs of a fledgling multi-ethnic democracy. A parliamentary system, with the space that it provides for the voices and narratives of all ethnicities and for regional diversity to manifest through a multi-party system, might be wiser. Alternatively, a convergence could be arrived at via a popularly elected Prime Minister in a parliamentary style democracy.
Another area of concern is the method of appointing judges. The Judicial Committee report provides that the head of state, on the ‘recommendation' of the ‘Federal Legislative Special Judicial Committee' (comprising the Vice-Chairman of the Federal Legislature, the Law Minister, and nine members from the Legislature), shall appoint the Chief Justice and other judges of the Supreme Court. Similar structures are in place at the other levels of the court system. Judges of the Supreme Court are to have a term of four years and are to retire at 65. Another cause of anxiety is that the powers of the Federal Judicial Committee astonishingly include interpretation of the Constitution. All of this disrupts the separation of powers between the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. This in tandem with a strong President structurally locates all power in the executive.
Finally, the Committee for Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles has provided for around 30 enforceable and justiciable rights. This includes the fundamental right to food, housing, employment and social security. While in principle, all nations must prioritise such guarantees, in terms of law and jurisprudence, creating fundamental rights that the state cannot implement due to financial considerations implies that the drafters inadvertently compromise the absolute mandate of such a category of rights. It is preferable to have a few generic fundamental rights, for instance the right to life, and within it progressively create jurisprudence that includes for instance the right to food that a state can afford to actively implement.
Back in the political arena, the former monarch, Gyanendra Shah, who was stripped of all power when Nepal abolished the monarchy, has been spotted in public with increasing frequency. Amidst the game of musical chairs for the Prime Minister's seat being played by all the major, and now even some minor, political parties, the obstinate terms of engagement of India and the coy appearances of a deposed despotic monarch in the business of making a Constitution and, therefore, a new nation, languishes. Nepal's political elites need to recognise the historical terms of reference of the Constituent Assembly. They need to set aside their personal quest for power, and focus on coming to a shared understanding of the idea of their country, and draft its character through a Constitution.
(The writer practises law at the Supreme Court of India.)
source; The Hindu
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
I T will need 90,000 engineers this year:GRAB
With new contracts being awarded and deals in the pipeline, Indian IT firms are in desperate need for manpower. According to NASSCOM, the industry will hire around 90,000 employees this year, more than 4 times the number hired last year. The limited talent pool, however, has forced companies to employ new strategies to attract staff. Infosys and MphasiS are some companies trying to re-hire employees who had left during the crisis. They recently launched initiatives such as "Green Channel" and "Homecoming" for this purpose. Firms do not have to spend additional time training or interviewing these employees. They can directly be put on projects. With most IT companies having announced wage hikes, this is a profitable option for ex-employees as well. A win-win situation for everyone concerned.
With new contracts being awarded and deals in the pipeline, Indian IT firms are in desperate need for manpower. According to NASSCOM, the industry will hire around 90,000 employees this year, more than 4 times the number hired last year. The limited talent pool, however, has forced companies to employ new strategies to attract staff. Infosys and MphasiS are some companies trying to re-hire employees who had left during the crisis. They recently launched initiatives such as "Green Channel" and "Homecoming" for this purpose. Firms do not have to spend additional time training or interviewing these employees. They can directly be put on projects. With most IT companies having announced wage hikes, this is a profitable option for ex-employees as well. A win-win situation for everyone concerned.
Vice President’s Address at 12th Convocation of University of Hyderabad
The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that the youthful audience, blessed with a critical faculty and brimming with excellence in their chosen disciplines, knows only too well that responsibilities of citizenship cannot be forsaken nor can they be delegated or postponed since eternal vigilance is the only way to safeguard liberty and rights and, as Edmond Burke put it, ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’. He was addressing at the “12th Convocation of the University of Hyderabad” in Hyderabad today.
The Vice President has opined that it is clear that being a citizen and being a good citizen are far from being the same thing; the former is a legal fact while the latter demands participation in and contribution to the common good. Furthermore, and depending on the nature and extent of participation in civic burden and activities, it is possible to categorise citizens into three types: (a) those that are personally responsible, (b) those who participate in social activities within the established structures and values, and (c) those who go beyond the first two categories and critically assess situations to improve upon them and actively seek realisation of goals and values enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution. The first is essential and obligatory; the second is desirable and necessary; the third would set us upon the path of full realisation of our potential as a society.
Following is the text of the Vice President’s address :
“It is not customary to begin with a disclosure. Yet, I owe it to this audience to admit that the persuasive powers of the Chancellor and the formidable reputation of this seat of learning were sufficient to induce me to come here today and feel happy about it.
Add to these Hyderabad’s own cosmopolitan essence. The founder of the city in the sixteenth century decreed that it should be ‘a replica of paradise itself’. Few down the ages disagreed with the outcome. Diamonds from nearby mines gave it fame and centrality and textiles commercial significance. It spawned a charmingly rich language and a composite culture. A Qutb Shahi poet summed up its place in the world: Dakan hai angina, angoothi hai jag.
None would have then realised that the closing years of the 20th century would make the city a Koh-i-noor in terms of modern science and technology. It speaks volumes for Hyderabad’s genius for accommodation and change while holding on to the thread of excellence. The University of Hyderabad, occupying the first position in a recent ranking of Indian universities, is itself a good example.
Convocations are occasions to honour intellectual achievement. The pursuit of knowledge, however, is not subject to formal barriers and inquiry in any of its branches does not end with the acquisition of a university decree. The mind trained to think logically and critically does not cease to function. This often brings it face to face with reality at variance with tradition and to which it feels compelled to respond. It is here that the two worlds, within the academia and beyond it, come together.
There is a perception that in a gone by era a university was an idyllic and isolated enclosure where knowledge was pursued for its own sake unrelated to mundane utilitarian requirements of the lesser world beyond its portals. The reality, however, was somewhat less prosaic and not devoid of a carefully crafted umbilical cord to society and its spokes-persons. It was also subject to change. Today it is candidly accepted that teaching and research in a university, and the advances in knowledge it produces, should in considerable measure be related to the changing needs and demands of society. The centrality of social purpose thus stands underlined. The really teasing question pertains to its ambit.
Some weeks back I came across an introspective essay by Professor Stephen Chan, who teaches international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Seeking a new internationalism and exploring different cultural traditions, he dwells on the prevailing contest between what he calls “assertions of certainty’ and described them as ‘about the best form of coercion to apply in any international moral impasse’. He urges the need to speak publicly and with imagination about complex things, and challenge orthodoxy with correctives. ‘The idea’, he adds, ‘is to think, and not be either led or simply moved by images of distress.’ The concerned citizen, he concludes, should be motivated by five principles: transparency, lack of arbitrariness, accountability, compassion and redress.
There is nothing altogether novel about any of Chan’s five principles; yet, taken together, they do offer a road map for action. This youthful audience, blessed with a critical faculty and brimming with excellence in their chosen disciplines, knows only too well that responsibilities of citizenship cannot be forsaken nor can they be delegated or postponed since eternal vigilance is the only way to safeguard liberty and rights and, as Edmond Burke put it, ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’.
Some of you would, as I would, like to explore this further. What are the legal and the moral imperatives for the citizen? What is the most feasible manner in which his/her responsibilities can be undertaken? Both are inextricably linked to, and influenced by our perception of the human character and of the world we live in. It unavoidably influences the shaping of the future.
Let us consider the latter. The term human has a certain connotation. A random perusal of the dictionary suggests a number of associated terms: humane, humaneness, humanism, humanitarian, humanitarianism, humanity, humanize, humankind, and humanly. Each of these depicts an aspect being human and thereby becomes prescriptive in some measure if the claim to be human is to be sustained. It becomes clearer when put alongside its antonym which suggests its negation or opposite. Furthermore, and to use the words of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 1948, the ambit of humanity and therefore of human rights extends to ‘all peoples and all nations.’
Those of you familiar with political philosophy would recall the argument by which Aristotle had distinguished between ‘a good man’ and ‘a good citizen’ and concluded that the virtue of the two ‘cannot be always the same’ except in the case of a perfect state. He then defined a good citizen as one who should know ‘how to govern like a free man and how to obey like a free man’. He or she should, as a later philosopher put it, appreciate both the necessity and the moral imperative of being free.
These attributes of citizenship were refined down the ages. A famous example is the Funeral Oration of Pericles, recorded for posterity by the historian Thucydides. Two of the attributes cited by him have universal validity: firstly, that citizens ‘are fair judges of public matters’, and secondly that ‘instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it is an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.’
A citizen is endowed with rights, is a participant in public life not on sufferance but by right, does so as an equal and not as a subject. The raja-praja concept that has such an established place in our daily vocabulary is a relic of an earlier era and has no basis in today’s legal structure. Its persistence, nevertheless, sheds much light on the psychological baggage that we sub-consciously carry.
It is essential to remember that the modern democratic state has specified the citizen’s charter of rights; it also dwells on the duties of citizenship. We do not have to look for instances because we ourselves are the model. The Constitution of India is one of the best examples of a constitution that blends the rights and duties of citizenship harmoniously. In terms of sheer numbers and scale, the extent of human freedom and liberation that was granted was unprecedented in human history. It has stood the test of time and has been widely acclaimed.
The charter of rights of citizens is spelt out in the Constitution of India in the chapter relating to fundamental rights. These pertain to six broad categories: the right to equality, right to freedom, right against exploitation, right to freedom of religion, cultural and educational rights, and right to seek constitutional remedies. Some other rights are interspersed in other sections of the document, e.g. protection against arbitrary taxation, freedom of trade, commerce and intercourse, and group rights of certain classes. The text is underscored by an overarching framework of constitutional morality.
Many years after the Constitution was finalised and proclaimed, a section on Fundamental Duties was added, based on the perception that successful functioning of a democratic polity necessitates active participation by citizens in the processes of governance through assumption and discharge of responsibilities by the citizen body. This approach has been accepted by the courts of law.
You would note that Article 51A of our Constitution contains a set of eleven duties of citizens described as fundamental. Three of these need to be highlighted in the context of our discussion today. These pertain to the promotion of harmony and spirit of common brotherhood, development of a scientific temper, humanism and spirit of inquiry and reform, and striving for excellence in all levels of individual and collective activity. These have to be read with the requirements of justice and fraternity so clearly enunciated in the Preamble of the Constitution.
I dwell on this because you, the highly educated among our citizens, bear a special responsibility in this regard. As you leave the sanctuary of the university and step into the world beyond it, it is appropriate to remind you of this compendium of rights and duties and of the need to reiterate your commitment to them. This would assist you in assessing the direction in which we as a citizen-body are travelling, as also to explore correctives where needed.
It has been observed by an eminent public figure that we are today ‘desperately groping for a political culture based on integrity’. One obvious reason for this is the dilution of system of values at the individual and collective levels. Views to the contrary are also around. Some, espousing pragmatism, propel us towards the dogma that politics is the art of the possible. The first is reflective of anguish, the second of smugness.
Here again, as in the case of the conceptual framework of humanity, the ambit and implications of terms like integrity and possible have to be clearly understood. Integrity stands for moral excellence and honesty; its absence would suggest immorality and dishonesty. In the same way, a term like ‘possible’ leaves open a range of possibilities including the acceptance of the immoral and the dishonest.
It should therefore be possible to argue that our quest for humanity and integrity does, lead us to an approach in which we proactively seek and induce values that are human, humane, moral and honest, values and practices that contribute fully to the public good in terms defined and prescribed by the Constitution. Thus is made the transition from what is ordinarily possible to what may be perceived as impossible.
Many decades back Gandhiji had identified Seven Social Sins. They are inscribed on a tablet near his Samadhi at Rajghat. This identification is essential but not sufficient. The need of the hour is to redress the wrong, to apply the corrective, to change.
Lest it be suggested that the foregoing is in the realm of the philosophical and the ideal, let me hasten to stress that a deficit of integrity and constitutional morality is wasteful of resources and harmful to the public good in material terms. This is substantiated by the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament and the India chapter of the Transparency International. Thanks to the RTI, a good deal of information is otherwise also available in the public domain. Together they reveal a disturbing pattern of departures from norms of integrity.
Further a field, the same holds good in varying measure for our commitment to norms of human rights, humanity and justice inscribed in the Constitution and supplemented or amplified in customary international law and international covenants subscribed to by the Republic of India.
The need for correctives is thus evident. Public awareness is one aspect of the matter, focused public action is another.
It is clear that being a citizen and being a good citizen are far from being the same thing; the former is a legal fact while the latter demands participation in and contribution to the common good. Furthermore, and depending on the nature and extent of participation in civic burden and activities, it is possible to categorise citizens into three types: (a) those that are personally responsible, (b) those who participate in social activities within the established structures and values, and (c) those who go beyond the first two categories and critically assess situations to improve upon them and actively seek realisation of goals and values enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution. The first is essential and obligatory; the second is desirable and necessary; the third would set us upon the path of full realisation of our potential as a society.
There is, of course, a fourth – unmentionable - category of those who flout rules, evade responsibilities, and disgrace by their behaviour the civic community to which they belong. A mature society would ostracise them, a less mature one would endure the burden while seeking a corrective.
The commitment of a society and polity to educating, grooming and nurturing its citizens, eventually manifests itself in the latter’s approach to civic participation, standards of personal responsibility and adherence to constitutional morality. Thus a substantive contribution to the shaping of citizens can be made and educational institutions, including those of higher learning, can play a major role in this national effort.
One other aspect of the matter bears scrutiny. Technology and globalisation have ensured that isolation is no longer an option and that we have to live in the world and with the world. This necessitates an acceptance of global standards, rules, and norms of behaviour but without sacrificing our identity and values.
Pluralism and accommodation of diversity is a characteristic of our societal reality.. The Indian approach to multiculturalism, in the words of an eminent academic, is to ‘aspire towards a form of citizenship that is marked neither by a universalism generated by complete homogenisation, nor by particularism of self-identical and closed communities’. This model is of wider relevance in an era that seeks to define the contours of a 21st century citizen who would have a national as well as a transnational identity.
The foregoing considerations help us to recapitulate the three of the eleven aspects of Article 51A and assess their relevance. A diverse and stratified society like ours requires social harmony for its cohesion, and needs a scientific spirit and excellence to seek and attain all round development. To promote and attain these is among the principal duties of citizens and this is to be undertaken proactively rather than passively, with a spirit of seeking justice and achieving fraternity.
This then is the task for the citizen body, and particularly for those like yourselves who are stepping into world beyond the portals of this seat of learning. Every individual has an ideal, and an idiom for expressing it. This would be true of each of you. I have, speaking personally, often found a few couplets of the poet Mohammad Iqbal of considerable relevance and would like to share them with you:
Sitaroan ke aage jahan aur bhi hain
Abhi ishq ke imtihaan aur bhi hain
Qanaat na kar aalam-e-rang-o-boo par
Chaman aur bhi, aashiyaan aur bhi hain
Tu shaheen hai parwaz hai kaam tera
Tere saamne aasman aur bhi hain.
There are worlds beyond the stars
Tests of passion yet to come
Content be not with the colour and scent around you
There are other gardens, other nests too
Thou art a falcon, flight is thy destiny
There are other skies that await you.
I congratulate the select few rewarded for excellence and all those who have received their university degrees today. I wish them happiness in personal life and success in professional pursuits. I urge them to remember at all times that they are citizens of this country and, by virtue of that, claimants of rights and obligated to discharge duties.”
SK/AS
The Vice President of India Shri M. Hamid Ansari has said that the youthful audience, blessed with a critical faculty and brimming with excellence in their chosen disciplines, knows only too well that responsibilities of citizenship cannot be forsaken nor can they be delegated or postponed since eternal vigilance is the only way to safeguard liberty and rights and, as Edmond Burke put it, ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’. He was addressing at the “12th Convocation of the University of Hyderabad” in Hyderabad today.
The Vice President has opined that it is clear that being a citizen and being a good citizen are far from being the same thing; the former is a legal fact while the latter demands participation in and contribution to the common good. Furthermore, and depending on the nature and extent of participation in civic burden and activities, it is possible to categorise citizens into three types: (a) those that are personally responsible, (b) those who participate in social activities within the established structures and values, and (c) those who go beyond the first two categories and critically assess situations to improve upon them and actively seek realisation of goals and values enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution. The first is essential and obligatory; the second is desirable and necessary; the third would set us upon the path of full realisation of our potential as a society.
Following is the text of the Vice President’s address :
“It is not customary to begin with a disclosure. Yet, I owe it to this audience to admit that the persuasive powers of the Chancellor and the formidable reputation of this seat of learning were sufficient to induce me to come here today and feel happy about it.
Add to these Hyderabad’s own cosmopolitan essence. The founder of the city in the sixteenth century decreed that it should be ‘a replica of paradise itself’. Few down the ages disagreed with the outcome. Diamonds from nearby mines gave it fame and centrality and textiles commercial significance. It spawned a charmingly rich language and a composite culture. A Qutb Shahi poet summed up its place in the world: Dakan hai angina, angoothi hai jag.
None would have then realised that the closing years of the 20th century would make the city a Koh-i-noor in terms of modern science and technology. It speaks volumes for Hyderabad’s genius for accommodation and change while holding on to the thread of excellence. The University of Hyderabad, occupying the first position in a recent ranking of Indian universities, is itself a good example.
Convocations are occasions to honour intellectual achievement. The pursuit of knowledge, however, is not subject to formal barriers and inquiry in any of its branches does not end with the acquisition of a university decree. The mind trained to think logically and critically does not cease to function. This often brings it face to face with reality at variance with tradition and to which it feels compelled to respond. It is here that the two worlds, within the academia and beyond it, come together.
There is a perception that in a gone by era a university was an idyllic and isolated enclosure where knowledge was pursued for its own sake unrelated to mundane utilitarian requirements of the lesser world beyond its portals. The reality, however, was somewhat less prosaic and not devoid of a carefully crafted umbilical cord to society and its spokes-persons. It was also subject to change. Today it is candidly accepted that teaching and research in a university, and the advances in knowledge it produces, should in considerable measure be related to the changing needs and demands of society. The centrality of social purpose thus stands underlined. The really teasing question pertains to its ambit.
Some weeks back I came across an introspective essay by Professor Stephen Chan, who teaches international relations at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Seeking a new internationalism and exploring different cultural traditions, he dwells on the prevailing contest between what he calls “assertions of certainty’ and described them as ‘about the best form of coercion to apply in any international moral impasse’. He urges the need to speak publicly and with imagination about complex things, and challenge orthodoxy with correctives. ‘The idea’, he adds, ‘is to think, and not be either led or simply moved by images of distress.’ The concerned citizen, he concludes, should be motivated by five principles: transparency, lack of arbitrariness, accountability, compassion and redress.
There is nothing altogether novel about any of Chan’s five principles; yet, taken together, they do offer a road map for action. This youthful audience, blessed with a critical faculty and brimming with excellence in their chosen disciplines, knows only too well that responsibilities of citizenship cannot be forsaken nor can they be delegated or postponed since eternal vigilance is the only way to safeguard liberty and rights and, as Edmond Burke put it, ‘the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’.
Some of you would, as I would, like to explore this further. What are the legal and the moral imperatives for the citizen? What is the most feasible manner in which his/her responsibilities can be undertaken? Both are inextricably linked to, and influenced by our perception of the human character and of the world we live in. It unavoidably influences the shaping of the future.
Let us consider the latter. The term human has a certain connotation. A random perusal of the dictionary suggests a number of associated terms: humane, humaneness, humanism, humanitarian, humanitarianism, humanity, humanize, humankind, and humanly. Each of these depicts an aspect being human and thereby becomes prescriptive in some measure if the claim to be human is to be sustained. It becomes clearer when put alongside its antonym which suggests its negation or opposite. Furthermore, and to use the words of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights of December 1948, the ambit of humanity and therefore of human rights extends to ‘all peoples and all nations.’
Those of you familiar with political philosophy would recall the argument by which Aristotle had distinguished between ‘a good man’ and ‘a good citizen’ and concluded that the virtue of the two ‘cannot be always the same’ except in the case of a perfect state. He then defined a good citizen as one who should know ‘how to govern like a free man and how to obey like a free man’. He or she should, as a later philosopher put it, appreciate both the necessity and the moral imperative of being free.
These attributes of citizenship were refined down the ages. A famous example is the Funeral Oration of Pericles, recorded for posterity by the historian Thucydides. Two of the attributes cited by him have universal validity: firstly, that citizens ‘are fair judges of public matters’, and secondly that ‘instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling block in the way of action, we think it is an indispensable preliminary to any wise action at all.’
A citizen is endowed with rights, is a participant in public life not on sufferance but by right, does so as an equal and not as a subject. The raja-praja concept that has such an established place in our daily vocabulary is a relic of an earlier era and has no basis in today’s legal structure. Its persistence, nevertheless, sheds much light on the psychological baggage that we sub-consciously carry.
It is essential to remember that the modern democratic state has specified the citizen’s charter of rights; it also dwells on the duties of citizenship. We do not have to look for instances because we ourselves are the model. The Constitution of India is one of the best examples of a constitution that blends the rights and duties of citizenship harmoniously. In terms of sheer numbers and scale, the extent of human freedom and liberation that was granted was unprecedented in human history. It has stood the test of time and has been widely acclaimed.
The charter of rights of citizens is spelt out in the Constitution of India in the chapter relating to fundamental rights. These pertain to six broad categories: the right to equality, right to freedom, right against exploitation, right to freedom of religion, cultural and educational rights, and right to seek constitutional remedies. Some other rights are interspersed in other sections of the document, e.g. protection against arbitrary taxation, freedom of trade, commerce and intercourse, and group rights of certain classes. The text is underscored by an overarching framework of constitutional morality.
Many years after the Constitution was finalised and proclaimed, a section on Fundamental Duties was added, based on the perception that successful functioning of a democratic polity necessitates active participation by citizens in the processes of governance through assumption and discharge of responsibilities by the citizen body. This approach has been accepted by the courts of law.
You would note that Article 51A of our Constitution contains a set of eleven duties of citizens described as fundamental. Three of these need to be highlighted in the context of our discussion today. These pertain to the promotion of harmony and spirit of common brotherhood, development of a scientific temper, humanism and spirit of inquiry and reform, and striving for excellence in all levels of individual and collective activity. These have to be read with the requirements of justice and fraternity so clearly enunciated in the Preamble of the Constitution.
I dwell on this because you, the highly educated among our citizens, bear a special responsibility in this regard. As you leave the sanctuary of the university and step into the world beyond it, it is appropriate to remind you of this compendium of rights and duties and of the need to reiterate your commitment to them. This would assist you in assessing the direction in which we as a citizen-body are travelling, as also to explore correctives where needed.
It has been observed by an eminent public figure that we are today ‘desperately groping for a political culture based on integrity’. One obvious reason for this is the dilution of system of values at the individual and collective levels. Views to the contrary are also around. Some, espousing pragmatism, propel us towards the dogma that politics is the art of the possible. The first is reflective of anguish, the second of smugness.
Here again, as in the case of the conceptual framework of humanity, the ambit and implications of terms like integrity and possible have to be clearly understood. Integrity stands for moral excellence and honesty; its absence would suggest immorality and dishonesty. In the same way, a term like ‘possible’ leaves open a range of possibilities including the acceptance of the immoral and the dishonest.
It should therefore be possible to argue that our quest for humanity and integrity does, lead us to an approach in which we proactively seek and induce values that are human, humane, moral and honest, values and practices that contribute fully to the public good in terms defined and prescribed by the Constitution. Thus is made the transition from what is ordinarily possible to what may be perceived as impossible.
Many decades back Gandhiji had identified Seven Social Sins. They are inscribed on a tablet near his Samadhi at Rajghat. This identification is essential but not sufficient. The need of the hour is to redress the wrong, to apply the corrective, to change.
Lest it be suggested that the foregoing is in the realm of the philosophical and the ideal, let me hasten to stress that a deficit of integrity and constitutional morality is wasteful of resources and harmful to the public good in material terms. This is substantiated by the reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament and the India chapter of the Transparency International. Thanks to the RTI, a good deal of information is otherwise also available in the public domain. Together they reveal a disturbing pattern of departures from norms of integrity.
Further a field, the same holds good in varying measure for our commitment to norms of human rights, humanity and justice inscribed in the Constitution and supplemented or amplified in customary international law and international covenants subscribed to by the Republic of India.
The need for correctives is thus evident. Public awareness is one aspect of the matter, focused public action is another.
It is clear that being a citizen and being a good citizen are far from being the same thing; the former is a legal fact while the latter demands participation in and contribution to the common good. Furthermore, and depending on the nature and extent of participation in civic burden and activities, it is possible to categorise citizens into three types: (a) those that are personally responsible, (b) those who participate in social activities within the established structures and values, and (c) those who go beyond the first two categories and critically assess situations to improve upon them and actively seek realisation of goals and values enshrined in the Preamble of the Constitution. The first is essential and obligatory; the second is desirable and necessary; the third would set us upon the path of full realisation of our potential as a society.
There is, of course, a fourth – unmentionable - category of those who flout rules, evade responsibilities, and disgrace by their behaviour the civic community to which they belong. A mature society would ostracise them, a less mature one would endure the burden while seeking a corrective.
The commitment of a society and polity to educating, grooming and nurturing its citizens, eventually manifests itself in the latter’s approach to civic participation, standards of personal responsibility and adherence to constitutional morality. Thus a substantive contribution to the shaping of citizens can be made and educational institutions, including those of higher learning, can play a major role in this national effort.
One other aspect of the matter bears scrutiny. Technology and globalisation have ensured that isolation is no longer an option and that we have to live in the world and with the world. This necessitates an acceptance of global standards, rules, and norms of behaviour but without sacrificing our identity and values.
Pluralism and accommodation of diversity is a characteristic of our societal reality.. The Indian approach to multiculturalism, in the words of an eminent academic, is to ‘aspire towards a form of citizenship that is marked neither by a universalism generated by complete homogenisation, nor by particularism of self-identical and closed communities’. This model is of wider relevance in an era that seeks to define the contours of a 21st century citizen who would have a national as well as a transnational identity.
The foregoing considerations help us to recapitulate the three of the eleven aspects of Article 51A and assess their relevance. A diverse and stratified society like ours requires social harmony for its cohesion, and needs a scientific spirit and excellence to seek and attain all round development. To promote and attain these is among the principal duties of citizens and this is to be undertaken proactively rather than passively, with a spirit of seeking justice and achieving fraternity.
This then is the task for the citizen body, and particularly for those like yourselves who are stepping into world beyond the portals of this seat of learning. Every individual has an ideal, and an idiom for expressing it. This would be true of each of you. I have, speaking personally, often found a few couplets of the poet Mohammad Iqbal of considerable relevance and would like to share them with you:
Sitaroan ke aage jahan aur bhi hain
Abhi ishq ke imtihaan aur bhi hain
Qanaat na kar aalam-e-rang-o-boo par
Chaman aur bhi, aashiyaan aur bhi hain
Tu shaheen hai parwaz hai kaam tera
Tere saamne aasman aur bhi hain.
There are worlds beyond the stars
Tests of passion yet to come
Content be not with the colour and scent around you
There are other gardens, other nests too
Thou art a falcon, flight is thy destiny
There are other skies that await you.
I congratulate the select few rewarded for excellence and all those who have received their university degrees today. I wish them happiness in personal life and success in professional pursuits. I urge them to remember at all times that they are citizens of this country and, by virtue of that, claimants of rights and obligated to discharge duties.”
SK/AS
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