30th April

A Smoking Gun

The article talks about the latest developments in the Bofors case that has raised new controversy as CBI requests Interpol to drop Ottavio Quattrocchi from its red corner notice list. CBI is often accused of being a puppet of the politicians which is not a healthy perception.

Bofors case has often been the reason for Congress’ discomfort; especially during elections with the opposition parties have made the case, an election issue to corner Congress. However, now the case has lost its potential as an election issue out of its over-usage. Also that out of last 19 years, centre has seen non-Congress government for 9 years and so the opposition cannot accuse Congress for the lethargy exhibited by CBI to get the main accused of this case behind the bars. As of now, Quattrocchi doesn’t fear arrest when he is out of Italy even when the case against him continues in India. However, Italian government can, at any time, extradite him to India on government’s request, if he is found guilty. Although CBI argues that the revoking of notice was only a legal opinion given by Attorney General in October 2008, which it followed since it feared that the warrant may lose its validity with respect to CBI’s failures to extradite him from Malaysia and Argentina, there are very few takers for this argument.

CBI has been viewed as a handmaiden to those people in power and has always worked with servility to the interests of the party in government. This is not a healthy perception for the country’s premier investigative agency. CBI’s credibility needs to be restored for the nation’s interest.

Ebb Tide

The article talks about decreasing water levels of some of the major rivers of the world and its reasons. The author calls for a strong check on the climate change and pollution that is causing these changes in the water flow.

As National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, USA, warns that the fresh water availability would be severely compromised in the coming years, it also reports a decrease in the water flow of some of the major rivers of the world like Ganga, Niger and Yellow. The research was carried out for 50 years on some 9000 rivers up to 2004. While the sea levels have increased over the years, it is mainly due to melting of tropical ice rather then the injection of fresh water from rivers. Rising temperatures have brought a change in the rainfall pattern and increased the rate of evaporation. Oceans are expanding due to warming of its waters and it is feared to gulp the coastal areas of India and Bangladesh and ofcourse San Francisco, London and NYC. Besides the climate change another major threat to rivers across the world is the water pollution that is increasing day by day. As the effluents, garbage, sewage and other solid/liquid waste goes into the rivers, it poses a grave threat to the aquatic life. Recently, thousands of liters of petrol spilled into the river Sutlej as the pipe burst at a local thermal power station in Punjab. Such accidents should be avoided as the oil obstructs the oxygen in the water which is much needed for the marine life. 

Thus, the only way to ensure the freshwater supply for our posterity is to deal with the problems of climate change and pollution on urgent basis.

27th April

Learning a Lesson

The article insists on schools across India to learn the lesson from the recent two incidents happened in the national capital and upgrade their medical facilities on urgent basis. The author strictly believes that an end to the corporal punishment must be enforced and followed. 

The incidents of Shanno Khatun and Akriti Bhatia are not the isolated ones. Such incidents have happened and continue to happen in the schools across India since ages. The doubt is to what extent schools are sensitive towards children especially the ones with medical conditions. Schools argue that they cannot function as hospitals. But there is certainly a need to upgrade the health facilities at schools with respect to human resource and medical equipments. First aid is the matter of past now and schools need to move ahead. Better life saving drugs, oxygen cylinders, stretchers, vehicle to move student quickly to hospital, an in-house doctor and a trained nurse is what is the idea of an ideal medical system in schools. Schools can even have arrangement with neighbouring hospitals to move students in case of emergency. Private schools that charge high fees can certainly afford this upgradation. For government schools, its time to improve their general conditions, be it staff or medical facilities. There should also be strict resistance to corporal punishment. 

While there is a ban on corporal punishments, seldom it is followed. Thus, rigorous enforcement of ban on corporal punishment is the only way out to stop such incidents. 

Virtual War

The article asserts that India needs to follow the steps of US to upgrade its cyber security systems to protect its precious data from being hacked. 

Recently, hackers successfully penetrated the Pentagon’s network and copied several terabytes of data of US DoD’s $300 billion Joint Strike Fighter, its costliest weapons programme ever, and its air force’s air traffic control system. Before that, US electricity grid was also hacked by a malware that could have caused disruptions in the grid, if activated. India’s National Informatics Centre (NIC) was also attacked in March this year by a worm originating from China. It’s high time that nations need to protect their data stored in computers and servers from falling into the wrong hands otherwise the time is not far when the countries would be attacked by computers rather then bombs. Taking a cue from the attacks, US govt has planned to set up a Pentagon cyber command that would coordinate computer-network defense and direct US cyber attack operations. India should also follow the lead and protect its NIC that can give access to all the departments, including defense and home, if attacked. It is all the more important considering the fact that NIC has been attacked as much as 12 times in the past two years. Worrying thing is still the nations aren’t all probing each other’s computer systems. Involvement of unofficial groups adds to complexity.

As the cyber espionage increased the attacks become more and more sophisticated. India needs to strengthen its cyber security in order to protect the country.

25th April

The Endgame

The article expresses concern over the events that are unfolding in Pakistan with respect to Taliban’s insurgency into the nation that began from NWFP. With military action, the only feasible option to stop this, India should also begin preparing for response in case Pakistan collapses.

With Taliban’s push into Buner, the situation in Pakistan is reaching its flashpoint. Even US has acknowledged that Pakistan is now a mortal threat to US and the world. But Pakistan has failed to realize that Taliban, and not India, is its enemy. Taliban’s push into Buner placed them very near to Mardan, the second largest city in NWFP, and the arterial road between Peshawar and Islamabad. Pakistan has in fact blamed India for insurgency in Baluchistan when the fact is that it wasn’t Delhi who called for Sharia laws throughout Pakistan or offered Osama Bin Laden a sanctuary in NWFP. More danger poses with the insurgency because several of the nuclear assets of Pakistan – believed to number about 85 weapons – are situated near Islamabad. If the Taliban advance remains unchecked these assets can be jeopardized, as told by PM Manmohan Singh. In this situation, compromise or political solution is not possible. Only military assertion is the way out if Pakistan wants to exist as a nation state. 

For Delhi, it is best to keep the communication open with Washington. Any unfolding of situation in Pakistan would have the most direct effect on India. This also requires Delhi to be ready with the contingency plans to respond in case Pakistan collapses. 

Urban Futures

The article talks about the speed of urbanization that is going in India and the pressure on building adequate infrastructure and providing services because of it. 

60% of the world population after 20 years would be in cities according to the State of World’s Cities Report 2008-09. For India, it might not be so good news since urbanization is happening at much faster rate then the growth in urban infrastructure expansion and development. The biggest cost of urbanization would be public health and environment. Water, electricity, transport, waste-management and energy-efficient buildings would be some basic urban services that needs to be in place. Governance would be the sixth most important service according to a report by The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI). Inadequate transport facilities lead to more private vehicles and in turn pollution, parking problems and traffic congestion. It also leads to cardiac and respiratory diseases among children. Thus, transport infrastructure is the major aspect of improving city life. India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change has called for intervention to improve quality of urban services to reduce emissions and energy use. TERI has recommended strengthening and empowering local bodies and encouraging PPP to provide urban services, which needs to be taken seriously. 

Thus, government should first of all collect data regarding system of indicators to monitor sustainability in provision of urban services followed by analysis. Actual delivery of services has to be done to put the public on new, urban growth trajectory. Better cities are the way out for a better future of India.

24th April

The Affluent Society

The article talks about the increasing number of millionaires entering the politics. This trend has its pros and cons. But the election funding system should be more transparent and reformed in order to prevent these millionaires from using our polity as money making machine.

With 193 crorepatis out of 1715 candidates in the first phase of LS elections, it, obviously, raises concerns. However, Indian polity has never been made up of poorest of the poor with average wealth of an MP being Rs 1.6 crore which is comparable to the wealth of urban middle class. Also a huge part of it might constitute of real estate properties inherited which have shot up in valuation many fold. However, these millionaires are not all from cities. They come from even the extremely poorest parts of the country. What has to be seen is whether it is mere coincidence that there are so many millionaires in our electoral politics or they have entered the arena with the intention of minting more money. It is important to note that elections in India are costly affair and not all political parties have money to fund the campaigns. So they invite candidates who can fund these campaigns. Even auctioning tickets is an increasing trend these days. All these invites a change in the way elections are funded. One way is to explore state funding of election campaigns but it will only invite additional load to the exchequer and an incentive for people to get into politics to access these funds only. Another way is to check each and every funding received by each and every political party and establish accountability. Using technology and mass media techniques to reach out more people would be more cost efficient.

Thus, curbing expenses and providing greater transparency in funding is the only way out to prevent electoral process from being favorable only to rich.

US and its Neighbours

The article talks about the change that US has been observing as their relationships with many of the neighbours taking a paradigm shift after the President Obama took over.

While it started with Russia and Iran, the US President has moved closer home to make amends with Cuba and Venezuela. In the recently concluded summit in Trinidad, Obama extended a hand to his counterparts in the region. Cuba is facing trade and travel embargo since J F Kennedy in 1962 and Venezuela, whose democratically elected leader, Hugo Chavez, acts like a dictator, holds no respect for US and even called Obama’s predecessor as devil. But with Obama the things are different and these countries seem positive about the relationships with US now. The travel and remittance restrictions have been lifted while the trade embargo stays. It is even naïve to expect lifting up of trade embargo at this stage when Obama is facing little resistance from within US itself with respect to his goodwill gestures so far. But he is on the right track and with present circumstances it is better for US to go for pursuance to get support rather then punishing these countries.

The way Obama has handled the things so far, reinforces his pre-election commitments to bring the change. Now it is up to Russia, Iran, Cuba and Venezuela to take the cue.

23rd April

Take the Cue

The article urges the banks to take the cue from the positive signals send by RBI by announcing the rate cut in repo rate and reverse repo rate by 25 basis points. It is only then the economic recovery is possible.

While RBI has been conservative on monetary policy in recent times, it claims that it has sent enough positive vibes in the market since October last year. But it has to keep its ammunitions dry since economic recovery hasn’t started yet although some of the sectors show some growth like auto, cement, steel and capital goods. Although RBI needs reserve power for future needs and the present rate cuts have struck the balance between present and the future. But gradualism in monetary policy leads to expectations of more rate cuts in the future and thus reluctant lending. What India needs presently is boosted consumption and investment. Government has two fold constraints because of poor fiscal situation as well as election code of conduct. Thus, it’s all on RBI to boost the growth and keep the engine running. But banks also need take some responsibility to boost demand especially from the urban middle-class. While blaming RBI for low credit growth, banks continue to sideline retail customers over government and big industry for lending. The conservatism for commercial interests is understandable but RBI has already created a platform for them to widen their lending base by cutting the rates six times in six months and thus decreasing their borrowing costs.

While ICICI has taken a cue from the RBI rate cuts, it is also the responsibility of other banks to do the same.

Desperate Tactics

The article talks about the desperate but unsuccessful attempts of Maoists to stall the election process but people of India hasn’t shaken from their trust in democracy and continue to exercise their right to vote.

While previously the Maoists used violence to scare the people on the day of election, this time they have done it a day before. Besides blowing up a railway station, they also hijacked a train in Jharkhand. This signals their desperation to seek attention and scare people away from polling booths. Despite killing 16 people in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, Maharashtra and Orissa, large number of people exercised their vote in these states which clearly signals that they ignored the boycott. While Maoists’ attempt to keep the people off the election booths comes on their apparent disbelief in democracy, the public in India thinks otherwise. While no democracy or political system is perfect, it is, at the same time, the best possible option to solve the social and economic issues and improve the life quality. Elections are crucial to the democracy since it gives people a chance to elect their representative and participate in the nation-building process. 

While the poorest of the poorest in India knows the importance of the right to vote, Maoists themselves need to think the reason why people have ignored their repeated attempts to boycott the elections. At the same time security forces should also make sure that the elections go undisrupted.

22nd April

Help The Civilians

The article expresses concern for the civilians trapped in the battle between SriLankan Army and LTTE in what is called the final battle of the ethnic war that has lasted for more then a quarter century. 

With around 40k people moved to the NFZ (No Firing Zone) in Wanni region, under the Sri Lankan Army control, this is a welcome development considering the allegations that LTTE as been using these people as a human shields and not allowing them to move to refugee camps. However, Colombo must extend the ceasefire as demanded by UN since two days aren’t enough to move over a lakh Tamilians trapped in the war zone. Both, Sri Lankan Army and LTTE, have been alleging each other for the civilian casualties and that the other side is using civilians as human shields. Without independent sources it is difficult to confirm the truth. It is high time that international community should step in and make the warring sides put a pause to these casualties. LTTE has urged International Committee of the Red Cross for medical supplies and help the evacuation of injured people. Colombo should also facilitate entry of Red Cross and other international aid agencies considering that fact that it is seen as hostile to Tamilians in the region. It would also help Colombo counter the LTTE argument that refugees refuse to enter the camps for the sake of their safety. As world expects Colombo to adhere to human rights, the history says otherwise. Both LTTE and Colombo is accused of using war tactics that has led to huge amount of casualties and can be considered war crimes by UN Commissioners. 

It is important for Colombo to keep the track of its international commitments while fighting for what is considered the last battle of ethnic war of over 25 years. 

Misplaced Morality

The article criticizes the opposition by some of politicians to implement sex education into the schools as it is ‘morally incorrect’ and against the Indian culture. 

Sometime back, a bunch of state governments opposed the inclusion of sex education into the school curricula. Now a parliamentary committee on petitions – led by BJP’s Venkaiah Naidu – has opposed sex education in schools by saying that it ‘promotes promiscuity’. Its weird in which world these politicians live in as 14 to 18 is not considered by them as an age to know about sexuality. All the more at 18 you have the right to vote but not the right to get credible information about the reproductive health through your school. As the politicians call it as against ‘Indian Culture’ it is to be reminded that getting children married off had a social sanction not very long ago. It has to be accepted that sex is a reality in today’s society and there shouldn’t be any taboo in talking about it. In this internet age where any information is just a click away, it is just not safe to believe that our youth live in an asexual world. More important is to educate them through right channels with right information. Schools, along with parents, play a vital role in this. Unfortunately, our society indulges into morality games instead of growing up. Youth, today, is more sexually active then it was before.

Thus, it is in their interest and health, physical and emotional, that we need to talk to them sensibly about sex.

21st April

Watch the Watchmen

The article urges the Indian corporate structure to seize the opportunity, opening up after Satyam saga, to clean itself up and increase the transparency and accuracy of corporate governance in the private sector which is often depicted as a model for public sector as well.

While PW is under intense pressure after the CBI charge sheets against the auditor on the grounds of negligence in the auditing, its defense is getting weaker and weaker. However, the episode provides us the opportunity to inspect system’s shortcomings and correct them as soon as possible. While the current corporate governance structure in the private sector is held as an example to the public sector, rightly said by Narayana Murthy, the current corporate management paradigm is a form of feudalism with a kind of opacity and the centralized authority creates an environment where financial objectives take priority over best practices. In this scenario, it is important for the auditing firms to become the integral part of the system. Also the system should make sure that perpetrators of any financial crime get punished without fail to restore the credibility. Even the audit firms should be kept under the scanner. ICAI made a wise move by making all companies audited only by peer review certified firms and also restricting the period of time, an auditor can be associated with a company. 

PW needs to be asked why they ignored the recommendations regarding Satyam made by other PW teams. Current situation should be taken up as an opportunity to clean up the Indian corporate structure. 

Let there be light

The article talks about the initiative California based power company has taken to source the electricity from space based solar energy. Although expensive, it is a step forward to move towards green energy sources. India should also follow the lead.

The solar panels in the satellite would beam the solar power through radiofrequency transmissions to the antennae in California which would be converted to electricity and fed to the regular power grid. Although a highly expensive exercise, the present climate change and decreasing solar energy costs indicate a paradigm shift in our energy sourcing alternatives very soon. Such innovations are necessary to decrease our dependency on fossil fuels. While Britain takes initiative to become a leader in electric car manufacturing with incentives up to £5000 for people who want to buy electric cars in order to slash down the carbon emissions by 26% by 2020, it is also investing money to provide proper infrastructure to charge these cars along with £10 million for research to the companies. 

India should also follow the lead by providing incentives to green technology car manufacturers and provide adequate infrastructure for research. It should also provide impetus to exploit its geography and commission research to produce solar power on commercial scale.