Vol-26 The Gist February 2015

Contents
GIST OF THE HINDU ................................................................................................................ 3

DEVELOPMENT ASA PEOPLES MOVEMENT ...................................................................... 3
AN IMAGINATIVE DEAL ..................................................................................... 4
NO CLOSURE FOR BHOPAL ................................................................................... 5
AN ECONOMIC BLUEPRINT FOR MR. MODI ...................................................................... 6
INSECURE AND INSULAR IN URBAN INDIA ...................................................................... 8
RETHINK THE DEATH PENALTY ................................................................................ 9
A WELCOME U-TURN ....................................................................................... 10
SAARCS MAKE OR BREAK MOMENT ........................................................................... 11
UNDERSTANDING INFLATION TARGETING ...................................................................... 13
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ................................................................................. 15
NEW SATELLITE TAKES WING ............................................................................... 16
MOVING AHEAD ON RAILWAY STATIONS ....................................................................... 17
GOOD INTENT NOT ENOUGH FOR GOOD POLICY ................................................................. 18
MOVING FORWARD ON INSURANCE .......................................................................... 20
TESTING TIMES FOR INDIA-RUSSIA TIES ......................................................................... 21
FOR BETTER SIGNAGE ON THE CYBER HIGHWAY ................................................................. 22
A STEP TOWARD HUMANIZATION ............................................................................. 24
NEW WARS ON THE COLD WAR RELIC ........................................................................ 25
HOW TO TALK CLIMATE CHANGE IN PARIS ..................................................................... 27
THE COST OF CONVENIENCE ................................................................................ 29
A SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT .............................................................................. 30
RISE IN GLOBAL INEQUALITY ................................................................................. 31
CAUTIONARY SIGNALS .................................................................................... 32
THE ENTREPRENEURS OF VIOLENCE .......................................................................... 33
HONOURING COMPLEX LEGACIES ............................................................................ 35
JUSTICE IN SLOW MOTION ................................................................................. 36
MAKING MAKE IN INDIA HAPPEN ........................................................................... 36
FENCING THE FARMER OUT ................................................................................. 38
IMPROPRIETY OF ORDINANCE ............................................................................... 40
WHY DO INDIAN FIRMS GO ABROAD ? ......................................................................... 42
SIZE AND PATTERN OF INDIAS INVESTMENTS ABROAD ............................................................ 42
GIST OF THE YOJANA ........................................................................................................... 4 3

THE UNIQUE ATTRIBUTES OF INDIAN FIRMS THAT GO ABROAD ...................................................... 43
FDI IN INDIA : POLICY CHANGE AND STATE VARIATION ........................................................... 45
POLICY REGIME CHANGE OF FDI INFLOWS IN INDIA .............................................................. 45
DIFFERING LEVELS OF FDI INFLOWS TO STATES ................................................................. 46
INTEREST RATES, INFLATIONAND THE RBI : TIME FOR A CHANGE IN STRATEGY ? ........................................ 47
THE NATURE OF THE INFLATION ............................................................................. 48
CLEANING RIVERS : A PEOPLE CENTRIC APPROACH .............................................................. 49
FDI IN RETAIL : A THREAT OR A POTENT SOURCE OF GROWTH ...................................................... 50
THREAT TO THE KIRANAS-A FALSE FEAR ........................................................................ 51
A SOURCE OF EQUITY AND EFFICIENCY FOR THE FARMERS ......................................................... 51
GIST OF KURUKSHETRA .................................................................................................... 5 3

SWACHH BHARAT MISSION-AN OPPORTUNITY FOR MAKING INDIA OPEN DEFECATION FREE AND CLEAN? ..................... 53
WHAT IS SANITATION? ..................................................................................... 54
WHY SANITATION? ........................................................................................ 54
PERFORMANCE OF RURAL SANITATION PROGRAMMES IN INDIA? .................................................... 54
CAUSES OF FAILURE OF CRSP AND TSC ........................................................................ 55
STRATEGY TO ACHIEVE THE STATUS OF OPEN DEFECATION FREE AND CLEAN RURAL INDIA? ............................... 55
RURAL AND URBAN SANITATION IN INDIA ..................................................................... 57
RURAL SANITATION ....................................................................................... 57
URBAN SANITATION ....................................................................................... 58
POLICY PERSPECTIVES ..................................................................................... 58
IS CLEAN INDIA A FAR-FETCHED DREAM? ...................................................................... 59
CLEANING RIVER GANGA-A NEW APPROACH .................................................................... 61
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CLEAN GANGA FUND ................................................................... 61
GANGA ACTION PLAN (GAP) ................................................................................ 62
REASON BEHIND POLLUTION ................................................................................ 63
GIST OF THE PIB .................................................................................................................... 6 5

INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITIES IN NAXAL AFFECTED AREAS ........................................................ 65
SPORTS FACILITIES IN SCHOOLS/COLLEGES ..................................................................... 65
IMPLEMENTATION OF SCHEME FOR DEVELOPMENT OF SOLAR PARKS AND ULTRA MEGA SOLAR POWER PROJECTS .............. 66
INDIAS ROLE IN IMF AND WB ............................................................................... 67
NATIONAL AYUSH MISSION (NAM) ........................................................................... 67
COMPONENTS OF THE MISSION: ............................................................................. 69
SUGAMYA BHARAT CAMPAIGN ............................................................................... 69
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE FRAMEWORK TO CHECK ACID ATTACKS ................................................ 70
MISSION INDRADHANUSH ................................................................................... 71
PRE BUDGET CONSULTATION MEETING WITH FINANCE MINISTERS OF STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES ...................... 72
INSURANCE LAWS (AMENDMENT) ORDINANCE, 2014 ............................................................. 73
SMART POLICE STATIONS IN EACH STATE SHORTLY ............................................................... 74
THE DIRECT BENEFIT TRANSFER OF LPG (DBTL) SCHEME PAHAL ..................................................... 75
SALIENT FEATURES/TIMELINES OF THE MODIFIED DBTL SCHEME .................................................... 75
GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER ........................................................................................ 7 7

THE STORY OF CRYSTALS ................................................................................... 77
EARLY RESEARCH ........................................................................................ 77
DIFFRACTION - A KEY CONCEPT ............................................................................. 77
NOBEL PRIZES 2014 : PHYSICS LET THERE BE BLUE LIGHT .......................................................... 78
NOBEL PRIZES 2014 : CHEMISTRY BREAKING THE ABBS LIMIT ...................................................... 80
NOBEL PRIZES 2014 : PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE BRAINS OWN POSITIONING SYSTEM ................................... 81
PHYSICS NOBEL OF 1930: IT WAS RAMAN ALL THE WAY .......................................................... 83
COURTESY:
The Hindu
The Yojana
Kurukshetra
Press Information Bureau
Science Reporter
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GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
The Hindu
DEVELOPMENT AS
A PEOPLES MOVEMENT
Development was a key issue in the 2014

Lok Sabha election. In his very first speech
after taking over as Prime Minister, Narendra
Modi asserted that his government is
committed to carrying on development as a
peoples movement. This, he has asserted, will
draw upon Indias democratic, demographic
and demand dividends. But are we genuinely
moving towards organising development as a
peoples movement while building on these
strengths? To cater to Indias massive
population of consumers, people should have
adequate purchasing power, such as that
enjoyed by people employed in the industries
or ser vices sector. Unfortunately, as the
malnourishment statistics indicate, a vast
majority of Indians are poor, with barely 10
per cent employed in the organised sector. We
are being convinced that vigorous economic
growth is generating substantial employment.
But this is not so.
When our economy was growing at 3 per
cent per year, employment in the organised
sector was growing at 2 per cent per year. As
the economy began to grow at 7-8 per cent
per year, the rate of growth of employment in
the organised sector actually declined to 1 per
cent per year since most of the economic
growth was based on technological progress,
including automation. At the same time, the
increasing pressure of the organised sector on

land, water, forest and mineral resources has
adversely impacted employment in farming,
animal husbandry and fisheries sectors.
People who are being pushed out of these
occupations are now crowding in urban
centres. This is in turn leading to a decline in
the productivity of the organised industries
and services sector. Evidently, the ship of our
development is sadly adrift.
Undoubtedly, people aspire for
development. But what is development?
Joseph Stiglitz, a recipient of the Nobel Prize
in Economics and one-time chairman of Bill
Clintons Economic Advisory Council, offers
an insightful analysis, asserting that
development should result in an enhancement
of the totality of a nations four-fold capital
stocks: the capital of material goods, natural
capital such as soil, water, forests and fish,
human capital including health, education and
employment, and social capital comprising
mutual trust and social harmony. Our current
pattern of economic development is by no
means a balanced process resulting in the
overall enhancement of the totality of these
stocks.
Thus, for instance, mining in Goa has
severely damaged the States water resources
and caused high levels of air and water
pollution. The ever-increasing content of
metals in drinking water reser voirs has
adversely impacted health. When thousands
of trucks were plying ore on the roads of Goa,
the resulting chaos in traffic and accidents
seriously disrupted social harmony. Evidently,
the single-minded focus on industrial growth
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VOL26
is not leading to sustainable, harmonious

development, but merely nurturing a moneycentred violent economy.
In Chandrapur and Gadchiroli districts
of Maharashtra, both of which are Naxaltorn, there are hopeful examples emerging of
how development may be nurtured as a
peoples movement. A number of tribal and
other traditional forest-dwelling communities
of these districts now have management rights
over Community Forest Resources under the
Forest Rights Act. The state retains ownership
over such resources, and these cannot be
diverted to other purposes. But now these
resources are being managed holistically with
a fuller involvement of the people. The
citizens of Pachgaon, for instance, have,
through two full-day meetings of their entire
Gram Sabha, decided upon 40-odd
regulations. Tendu leaves are a major forest
produce, but their harvest entails extensive
lopping and setting of forest fires.
So, Pachgaon has decided to forego this
income and instead focus on marketing the
edible tendu fruit. By stopping the collection
of tendu leaves, the trees are healthier and
both fruit yield and income from its marketing
have gone up. Incomes from bamboo harvest
have also gone up manifold, and for the first
time the people are moving out of the earlier
precarious existence. Notably, they have on
their own initiated protecting part of these
forests as newly constituted sacred groves.
Such community management of forest
resources is the only sane way to combat
extremism, and I have every hope that the
GIST OF THE HINDU
new government, with its commitment to

making development a peoples movement,
will wholeheartedly support these initiatives.
Furthermore, Goa could revive its
currently stagnating mining business through
novel people-oriented initiatives such as the
proposal from the tribals in Caurem village in
Goas Quepem taluka. There, extensive
community lands that harbour a large sacred
grove lands that ought to have been
assigned as Community Forest Resources
have been encroached upon by palpable illegal
mining, which has damaged water resources,
affected farming, and created social
dissonance. The mines are currently closed
because of the illegalities, and the Gram Sabha
has unanimously resolved that if they are to
be restarted, this should be done through the
agency of their multi-purpose cooperative
society.
AN IMAGINATIVE DEAL
The 160-member World Trade

Organization (WTO) wrote history last week
when its General Council approved its first
major global trade deal since its inception
nearly two decades ago. The WTO got into a
logjam when New Delhi put its foot down, and
refused to sign the trade facilitation
agreement unless a solution was found to the
food stockpiling issue. The resultant impasse
had even put a question mark over the very
future of the WTO. Sensing the disastrous
consequences of a WTO failure, Washington
swiftly went into a bilateral huddle with India.
Once the two sides agreed on a solution to the
contentious issue, the decks were cleared for


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
the WTO to ink its maiden trade agreement.

Quarantining the public food stockpiling issue
has ensured that the members commitment
for a multilateral trading system remains
intact. India and others felt that the Bali
agreement put at risk their food security
policies.
The WTO General Council has now
agreed to keep the negotiations for a
permanent solution on public stockholding
for security consideration independent of the
outcomes on talks on other issues. It has also
decided to let the peace clause, agreed in Bali,
to remain in force until a permanent solution
is found. The agreement clearly addresses
Indias concerns. The WTO has set for itself an
accelerated time frame of December 2015 to
arrive at a lasting solution to the issue. A
stricter deadline ref lects a sense of
seriousness in not letting the issue linger
indefinitely. In a way, it also assures the
developed world that its concerns over the
trade-distorting food subsidies remain a
priority focus. With the General Council
adopting the Protocol of Amendment, the
process of implementation of the Trade
Facilitation Agreement has finally begun.
Essentially, it is aimed at modernising the
trade infrastructure and easing regulations to
smoothen global trade.
Since the Doha Round, the WTO has
been struggling to be relevant in the midst of
diverse interest blocs. It is hoping to shore up
its image with the less-ambitious but
procedurally significant trade facilitation
agreement. The public stockholding issue
almost spoiled the party for the WTO but now
there is no need to redo Bali. Significantly, the
WTO General Council has also given itself a

deadline of July 2015 to agree on a work
programme to implement the Bali Ministerial
Decisions. If it reveals a prudential
compromise, the historic deal also
underscores the acute anxiety among
members to work towards strengthening the
multilateral trading system. Surely, the deal
must spur member-nations to discover ways
and means to deliver fast on the Bali
decisions. The moot question, however, is:
will the deal embolden the WTO attempt
liberalising the more sensitive areas of trade
as was intended by the Doha Round?
NO CLOSURE FOR BHOPAL
For thousands of residents of Bhopal,

the disaster began the night they choked on
the air which smelt of burnt chillies, and it
hasnt ended yet. The survivors got a pittance
as compensation, thanks to an out-of-court
settlement by the Indian government, and the
late Warren Anderson, then chief executive
officer of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL),
was not extradited for trial in India. Justice
seemed remote then, and 30 years later even
more so. Bhopal will be remembered for the
horrors of industrial negligence and the havoc
caused by methyl isocyanate gas and other
chemicals, and equally so for its aftermath of
apathy and criminal callousness.
Recently, survivors appealed against a
court ruling to reverse the decision that a U.S.
firm could not be sued for ongoing
contamination from the chemical plant.
According to official estimates, 3,787 persons
died and over 550,000 were injured, while
unofficial estimates put the death toll much


6
VOL26
higher. The affected population continues to

suffer from severe long-term health impact.
The plant, which has tonnes of toxic waste, is
yet to be cleaned up, and various agencies are
still wrangling over whose responsibility it is
and who will pay. UCILs plant manufacturing
the pesticides Sevin and Temik was dumping
waste on 6.4 hectares on the premises. Tests
of the groundwater and waste dumps have
shown the presence of mercury and other
toxic substances, and chemical contamination
has made water in the tubewells around the
plant unfit for drinking.
According to the law of the land, UCIL
was fully responsible for the wastes and for
the clean-up. The question of criminal liability
was never really settled, though in the minds
of the people there was no doubt about it.
Andersen and the company were spared a
trial while thousands of survivors continue to
lead a life of pain and trauma. Some UCIL
employees and its former chairperson Keshub
Mahindra were convicted of causing death by
criminal negligence and sentenced to two
years in prison in 2010, but they were
released on bail. If anything, the disaster
should have taught some important lessons in
environmental protection and law,
compensation and criminal liability, but it
didnt.
Bhopal was not a tragedy, it was a
disaster waiting to happen. What is tragic is
the predictability of events even after the gas
leak: the lack of sensitivity and concern for the
survivors, not even bothering to clean up the
mounds of toxic waste, not attending
seriously to the health issues, and making
GIST OF THE HINDU
people run around for years for their rights. It

is farcical that the government should
enhance compensation for the survivors after
having shortchanged them in the first place.
Thirty years on, it is time for some serious
reflection on the sensitivity of the state to
such disasters.
AN ECONOMIC
BLUEPRINT FOR MR. MODI
Topping UPAs robust growth would

mean bettering the performance of the
preceding UPA government. It was by no
means insignificant. The UPA period saw the
highest GDP growth rates in Indias history.
The annual growth rates of close to 9 per cent
between 2005-06 and 2007-08 have been
exceeded only once in 1987-88, when
growth shot up because the previous year had
seen an unprecedented drought. During UPAs
decade in power, national income almost
doubled; income per head went up 69 per
cent. These figures are supported by the rise
in consumer durable ownership shown by
National Sample Survey. The boom witnessed
under the UPAs tenure has ended; growth in
the past two years has been under 5 per cent
a year. Industrial growth has collapsed. Even
to achieve respectable growth, the NDA
government will have to do something, which
politicians like to call reforms. But they will be
nothing like the reforms of 1991-93. The
economy was hobbled with such controls then
that all Narasimha Rao had to do was to
remove them. Nara-indra Modi has no such
easy option. He needs to think out of the box.
One idea he had was Make in India.
Make what? There is an excellent new website;


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
the government certainly knows how to make

them. It opens with a contrived lion made of
racks and pinions. It lists 25 sectors 14 in
industry, five in services, four in transport,
and two vague ones, namely space and
biotechnology which are little different
from what the old government would have
prioritised. It gives pride of place to the DelhiMumbai industrial corridor. For the rest, it
summarises industrial policy, which repeats
all the convolutions of the UPA era. It is
remarkable how little it has changed. There is
a longing for revolution, but there is no idea
of where to go next and how.
To begin with, is manufacturing worth
bothering about? Before the industrial
revolution, India was the worlds most
industrialised nation; after the revolution, it
fell far behind. That has left a longing for lost
glory. But the share of manufacturing in GDP
has been falling ever ywhere. The only
exception is China, which achieved
outstanding growth in the past quarter
centur y through industrialisation. The
Chinese story is complex, but some of its
components are well-known. Beginning in the
1970s, China set up an efficient steel industry,
which has kept its costs of engineering and
construction low. It built world-class railways,
highways and ports, which took its
manufactures cheaply across the country and
the world.
Indias Achilles heel is electricity: it is
expensive and uncertain. My solution for it is
twofold. First, the Centre owns a quarter of
power generation capacity, and supplies fuel
for over two-thirds of the power. It should
give power only to State electricity boards that

charge a single price for their power, which
must cover long-term costs of generation.
State governments must corporatise state
electricity boards; if they want to give any
consumer subsidies, they must finance them
from State budgets. The same principle of
long-term viability pricing must be applied to
the Centres coal, oil and power enterprises.
Second, the Centre must buy floating thermal
power plants like those in the West Indies,
anchor them in ports, and use them to supply
power to those States whose governments
corporatise their electricity boards. Finally,
the Centre must abolish all imposts on coal
and oil products and create a national energy
exchange where they are freely bought and
sold; that will minimise the costs of energy. If
it must impose taxes, they must be the same
per Btu for all forms of energy and only on
energy consumed by final users.
The financial industry is overregulated
and consequently underdeveloped. Financial
institutions are poorly designed. As a result,
there is too little capital for small producers
and traders, and too little risk capital in
general. SEBIs enormous rulebook and its
partiality towards the so-called qualified
institutional investors have turned the capital
market into an oligopoly; and restrictions on
entry into banking and competition have led
to collusion between banks and their larger
clients.
This is my initial list of reforms. An
economist can theorise and imagine endlessly.
But policy is not a product of dreams; it


8
VOL26
emerges from a bargaining process in which

an economist is only one participant. My list
would give an idea of how one starts with a
problem and applies economic principles to it
to draw policy conclusions. Policy is made by
policymakers, brought into the public sphere
by media, administered by civil servants,
enjoyed or suffered by common people and
reshaped by democratic processes. Those who
are elected may think they have arrived and
only have to wave a magic wand; those who
have elected them may soar with hope. But
good policy requires a robust process of which
elections are a small part. The new
government still has to design the process, let
alone implement it.
INSECURE AND
INSULAR IN URBAN INDIA
It is easy to see how in the past 20 years

the idea of private ownership has had a huge
debilitating impact on urban life. The city has
changed from being a congenial space of
shared amenities and relationships to a
fearful nightmare of private strongholds and
walled compounds insecure, insular and
isolated. As the boundaries of the city have
expanded to take in more people, the real
boundaries around residents have closed in.
In Gurgaon outside Delhi, Vastrapur in
Ahmedabad, or Whitefield in Bengaluru, the
gated community coaxes the home owner into
believing in the security of living among
people like each other. The house comes now
with greater realms of private facilities:
private parking, private entertainment,
private office, private pool, private barbecue
GIST OF THE HINDU
when the home acts as a virtual city, there

is no need to go out.
In the 1970s, with little use for a car, my
parents opted to share the expense of a car
and driver with four other homes in the
neighbourhood. Such efficient allocation
ensured that the shared car was fully
employed during the day within selected time
slots. Five houses came together to share one
car; today, each of those houses has four to
five cars, mostly clogging the driveway. At the
time, the local market had several lending
libraries with the latest books. The system of
short-term borrowing ensured that every
book was happily thumbed by many
interested readers, as were magazines and
later, videos.
The larger thrust of the shared life also
extended to living spaces within and outside
the home. The absence of multiple TVs and
fridges allowed the family to share time
together; as did the community park, where
people met in the evening. Throughout the
world, cities are attempting to create optimal
conditions for shared interactive lifestyles.
Suburbs in Washington and Boston encourage
carpooling by creating special fast lanes into
the city. In a new scheme in Orlando, tightknit town houses open out into a common
garden, allowing an easy mingling of all
residents. Offices in Bogot hire shared taxis
to ferry their staff into the city.
Other initiatives such as co-housing in
Denmark support communities planned and
managed by the residents who share
responsibilities of child care, recreation and
security along with social activities. Some new


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
Chinese cities discourage any form of private

ownership whether house or car so
people live close to places of work in rental
housing. Stockholms suburban ordinance
even allows private gardens to be used
publicly. Families without their own lawns are
encouraged to use someone elses as their
own. The worlds most liveable cities are
without doubt those that encourage such
shared patterns in civic regulations.
Governments abroad have also made
conscious and consistent efforts to eradicate
the visible hierarchy of their cities, ensuring
that everyone lives together, works and
shares a common pool of ser vices and
facilities. Senators in Washington live in
standard suburban homes and commute
every morning like ordinary citizens. In the
Netherlands, Queen Beatrix could be seen
choosing vegetables in the local market.
Warren Buffett, one of Americas richest men,
still maintains his old family home in Omaha,
and is often seen playing with his grandkids on
the sidewalk. Naturally, a government that
still follows antiquated regulations and bylaws is hardly capable of offering thoughtful
solutions in this direction. Equally, it is a
shameful sign of our times that builders
profiting from construction, continue to
lavish all their efforts where none is needed.
As money and good times roll in, developers
begin a steady and relentless marketing of
luxury villas and townships, privatising the
city further with high electrified boundaries
and yet more isolation.
Why is it then that these fortress walls in
suburban Delhi, Bengaluru and Pune foster
such seclusion and despair, but the narrow

lanes of Mehrauli and Dharavi despite the
stigma of slum living are welcoming and
unrestrained? In a society that has
traditionally lived on the ideal of dependence,
a return to a more egalitarian shared existence
is a certain possibility. Now, more than ever,
with the threat of smart cities looming large,
the creation of a civic model needs careful
stating, design and evaluation.
Beginning with the redesign of the
middle-class home, its relation to its
neighbours, the value of community over
privacy, shared transport over the private car,
the compaction of distance between home,
workplace and recreation, the abolishing of
gated complexes, the inclusion of common
greens, the reduction of private commerce,
the conversion of roads to parks and walking
tracks, can all be directed in the thrust for a
different type of city. If private builders wish
to apply any such ideas in their projects, the
government should allow them a slate clean of
all local restrictions to make it possible.
RETHINK THE DEATH PENALTY
As India continues to stand in favour of

the death penalty, it is increasingly finding
itself in the margins of world politics and
international standards on this issue. On a
UN General Assembly resolution to establish
a moratorium on death penalty, a vast
majority of the countries have voted in favour
of abolishing the penalty. Although the
resolution does not have binding value, it does
carry considerable moral and political weight.
Amnesty International reported that 114 of
the UNs 193 member-states voted in favour


10
VOL26
of the resolution and 36 voted against it, while

34 abstained. Around 140 countries
worldwide have abolished the death penalty in
law or practice, and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is
strongly against it. The International Criminal
Court envisages life imprisonment even for
crimes against humanity such as genocide.
Customar y international law does not
prohibit the death penalty currently, but
global opinion is rapidly moving towards an
abolition.
Given this global trend, India gave the
following reasons for its retentionist position:
(a) the sovereign right to determine its own
laws; (b) the death penalty is exercised in the
rarest of rare cases; and (c) India guarantees
rule of law and the necessary procedural
safeguards for a fair trial. But this justification
is grossly inadequate. Abolition is now firmly
entrenched in the human rights discourse and
no longer limited to national criminal justice
policy, making the sovereignty defence much
weaker. As far as the rarest of rare
jurisprudence is concerned, the Supreme
Court in Sangeeth (2013) agrees that this
principle laid down in Bachan Singh (1980)
has received erroneous and inconsistent
interpretations in most judgments since
Machhi Singh (1983).
The court concedes that the test has
become arbitrary and judge-centric rather
than principle-centric. In an interview to
Frontline, Justice A.P. Shah said: Clearly, the
two prisoners in R avjis case who were
wrongly sentenced to death were executed as
a result of these f lawed judgments,
GIST OF THE HINDU
constituting the gravest known miscarriages

of justice... As far as the due process of law
is concerned, the stealthy killings of Ajmal
Kasab and Afzal Guru, as well as the undue
delay in handling mercy petitions, deftly spelt
out in Shatrughan Chauhan (2014), reflect
flawed executive action that cannot always be
corrected by judicial intervention. Even if
public opinion in India currently favours the
death penalty, the move towards a more
enlightened approach can be initiated in
Parliament. As India endeavours to play a
stronger role in world politics, it is time to
rethink its stand on the death penalty with
more clarity.
A WELCOME U-TURN
In making it clear that his government

intends to move quickly on the 2011 Protocol
to the existing 1974 Land Boundar y
Agreement with Bangladesh, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has made an important and
necessary correction to the Bharatiya Janata
Partys neighbourhood vision. While in
opposition, the BJP had refused to lend
support to the constitutional amendment
required for implementing the Protocol as it
involved ceding territory to another nation.
Led by its Assam unit, the BJP was then of the
view that it would compromise the countrys
territorial integrity as India would cede more
land to Bangladesh than it would get. In
reality, the exchange involves enclaves that are
non-contiguous, and deep inside Indian or
Bangladesh territory. There are 111 Indian
enclaves totalling about 17,160 acres, or 70 sq
km, in Bangladesh; India has 51 Bangladeshi
enclaves, totalling 7,110.02 acres, or about 28

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GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
11
sq km. India does not govern the Indian

enclaves in Bangladesh, and vice versa. As a
result, these islands of alien populations
have had no access to the development, job
opportunities, laws or rights of either the
country to which they belong or the one that
surrounds them. Instead, they have become a
law and order and security challenge on either
side of the border. A second part of the
protocol envisages formalising control of
territory in adverse possession, that is,
Bangladesh land contiguous with the border,
inhabited by its citizens and de facto under its
control, but falling on the Indian side of the
border, and vice versa. Under this, India will
get formal control of about 2,777 acres, or 11
sq km, and Bangladesh 2,267 acres, or 9 sq
km.
With the BJP now ready for it, the
constitutional amendment can be passed
quickly. The Cabinet must then ratify the
Protocol before implementation can begin.
The Protocol is essential to completing an
unfinished task left over from history, that of
properly demarcating the border between
India and Bangladesh. Prime Minister Modi
sought to hard-sell the land swap to his party
as an instrument of internal security and a
means to prevent illegal migration, perceived
by the BJP as two sides of the same coin.
The most tangible outcome of the 18th

session of the South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit was
the agonising wait for the will they, wont
they last-minute ice-breaker at a Nepalese
resort between Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif,
leaders of the two nuclear-armed nations. It
resulted in a rather contrived handshake and
the exchange of bonhomie. Inevitably, this
raises some serious questions about the
future of the 30-year-old regional
cooperation organisation. Will it ever come of
age or, as it seems more likely, will it die
prematurely? Although the gesture sent a
huge sigh of relief across the subcontinent
living in the shadows of a looming, if not
inadequately perceived, nuclear Armageddon,
it has all but dashed the hopes of a quarter of
the worlds humanity to live in peace and
prosperity.
As important is the humanitarian aspect,

as the Protocol can bring a huge improvement
in the lives of thousands of people. When it is
implemented, the 14,000 or so residents of
the Bangladeshi enclaves in India will have the
option of becoming Indian citizens. In
addition, at least some of the 37,000 or so
While individual SAARC countries,

especially their affluent sections, may have
done well, the region as a whole continues to
be mired in poverty, disease, illiteracy,
ignorance and religious, ethnic and communal
hatred the deeply-imprinted signatures of
our colonial heritage that the newly elected
Indians in the enclaves in Bangladesh are

expected to cross over. Both New Delhi and
Dhaka must ensure that any population
transfers, and consequent changes to the
demography on either side, are handled in a
just, equitable, even-handed and nondiscriminatory manner.
SAARCS MAKE OR BREAK MOMENT


12
VOL26
national governments had promised to

remove at the time of Independence. Instead
of the eradication of most of these unwelcome
tendencies and characteristics, it is
disappointing to see their resurgence in most
countries of the region. If India is perceived
to behave like a hegemon and Pakistan as
obstructionist in Indias ambitions to play a
legitimate role in world affairs, SAARC may
atrophy into smaller sub-regional groupings
The intractable problem of Kashmir
which the British left as a parting gift to the
two estranged nations gave the ruling
elites of India and Pakistan the excuse to
engage in a hostile arms race and deflect their
attention from the most pressing problems
they needed to address after gaining freedom
from colonial rule. Of course, it may be a bit
unfair to blame the British for everything
even in Kashmir that went wrong after they
left.
However, the fact that militar y
command/control remained in the hands of
British generals in both countries for some
time, even after Independence, does create
suspicions in this regard. Undoubtedly, Indias
record in complicating, and its unwillingness
to amicably resolving, the issue in a spirit of
good neighbourliness is much murkier than
Pakistans, where the dominant role of its
military and intelligence agencies in strategic
decision-making has been the main cause of a
lack of trust between the two countries, often
leading to cross-border proxy wars and
violence.
In recent years, however, there has been
discernible progress in the civilian
GIST OF THE HINDU
governments attempt to reclaim lost space in

policy-making, especially in the fields of
security and foreign affairs. Pakistans
transition to democracy is still a work in
progress, rather than a mission
accomplished. A decrease in tensions with
India and some tangible progress on a
mutually acceptable solution to the Kashmir
problem could greatly ease Pakistans journey
towards a stable democratic polity. Such a
development could also allay Indian fears
about Pakistani irredentist misadventures and
terrorist attacks, such as were witnessed in
Mumbai six years ago and with its anniversary
coinciding with the inauguration of the SAARC
summit in Kathmandu, perhaps, accounting
for Mr. Modis sombre visage during the
inaugural session.
This point scoring by the two major
leaders of SAARC is likely to do immense
harm to the cause of the poverty-ridden South
Asian region, where serious efforts at regional
cooperation could play a key role in shaping its
future development. When SAARC was
established three decades ago in Dhaka,
Bangladesh, it was hoped that these problems
could be better addressed at a regional level,
helping countries to progress and protect
themselves from positive and negative
externalities and foster regional
interdependence. It is true that in the last 30
years, SAARC has hardly achieved the kind of
dynamism that similar organisations have
produced in Europe, Latin America, East and
Southeast Asia by creating well-integrated and
connected regions. But this has been mainly
because of the continuing spat between the


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
two largest countries in the region and their

reluctance to bury the hatchet and move on.
However, even the slow pace with which
SAARC has moved is preferable to there being
no regional framework to work under. In an
age when the destinations of global capital
and technology are determined by the degree
of integration of the region where they are
located, including the availability of
infrastructure and access to a pool of skilled
labour with low transfer costs and ancillary
industries, regional cooperation becomes a
positive sum, win-win game. Notwithstanding
its other failures, the 18th SAARC summit did
support a historic accord for electricity
sharing through a regional grid, which should
greatly relieve shortages in many a member
country.
Both India and Pakistan have displayed
increasing impatience with the imperfections
of the SAARC process, which is undisputedly
moving at a snails pace, largely because of
their arrogance and intransigence. If India is
perceived to behave like a hegemon and
Pakistan as obstructionist in Indias ambitions
to play a legitimate role in world affairs
commensurate with its achievements and
capabilities, SAARC may atrophy into smaller
sub-regional groupings, which would be much
less beneficial to the region as a whole. It
would be a pity if this happens and the baby is
thrown out with the bathwater. That would
mean that South Asia would never be able to
overcome its socio-economic dystopia and
become part of the Asian century spearheaded
by China and East Asia. Therefore, it is
13
imperative that the two countries get their

bilateral act together and let the underdogs in
the entire region reap the benefits of regional
cooperation.
In a way, India and Pakistan are facing a
moment of truth, akin to (or the reverse of)
the 1947 Independence moment in their
history. As many retrospective histories of
that moment have shown, those who had to
take the decision whether to divide or to keep
India united, seem to have done so in a rather
hasty manner, without fully weighing the pros
and cons of Partition. Similarly, any decision
to dismantle or dilute SAARC for the
expediency or convenience of the two
countries may prove costly and irreversible.
UNDERSTANDING INFLATION TARGETING
Inflation targeting is back in the news

and this is welcome. I have always held the
view that the dominant objective of monetary
policy is the maintenance of price stability.
Inflation targeting gives precision to the
concept of price stability. In any monetary
policy framework, a key ingredient is an
enunciation of its objectives. This aspect has
assumed increased significance in the context
of the stress being laid on the autonomy of
central banks. Autonomy goes with
accountability, and accountability in turn
requires a clear statement of goals. The case
of price stability as the major objective of
economic policy rests on the assumption that
volatility in prices creates uncertainties in
decision-making. Rising prices adversely
affect savings while making speculative
investments more attractive. These apart,


14
VOL26
there is a crucial social dimension, particularly

in developing countries. Inflation adversely
affects those who have no hedges against it,
and this includes all poorer sections of the
community. This is indeed a very strong
argument in favour of the maintenance of
price stability in emerging economies.
A crucial question that arises in this
context is whether the pursuit of the objective
of price stability by monetary authorities
undermines the ability of the economy to
attain other objectives such as growth. In
short, the question is whether there is a tradeoff between inflation and growth. There is a
general consensus that over the medium and
the long term, there is no such trade-off and
an environment of low inflation is most
conducive to faster economic growth.
However, there could be such a possibility in
the short term. By injecting greater demand
and thereby generating higher inflation,
higher growth may be achieved. However, to
sustain this growth, the authorities may have
to generate higher and higher inflation. This
will end up as a self-defeating exercise.
What then is the tolerable level of
inflation? At very low levels of inflation, there
may not be any adverse consequences on the
economy. However, in every economy, given
its structure, there is always a certain level of
inflation beyond which costs of inflation
begin to rise steeply. It is this inflation
threshold which can provide guidance to
policymakers. Interestingly, the Chakravarty
Committee, of which I was a member,
regarded the acceptable rise in prices as 4 per
cent. Several studies in the Indian context
GIST OF THE HINDU
have estimated that the threshold level of

inflation may be around 6 per cent.
Does the focus on inflation targeting by
monetary authorities mean a neglect of other
objectives such as growth and financial
stability? Hardly so. What inflation targeting
demands is that when inflation exceeds the
threshold level, the primar y focus of
monetary policy must be to bring it back to
the desired level. It is sometimes claimed that
the financial crisis of 2008 in the United
States and western Europe sounded the death
knell for inf lation targeting. There is
continuing debate on whether the crisis was
precipitated by monetary policy failure or
regulatory failure. Countries like Canada and
Australia, which were committed to inflation
targeting, were not caught in the crisis.
Can the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or
for that matter any central bank effectively
implement an inflation mandate? Do they
have enough instruments to achieve the goal?
The ability of the central banks to control
inflation when such inflation stems from
excess demand is normally conceded. It is
when inflation is triggered by supply shocks
that some doubts are raised. Such supply
shocks are most common in countries like
India where agricultural production is subject
to the vagaries of nature. Even when inflation
is triggered by food inflation, monetary policy
and fiscal policy have a role to play. If food
inflation lasts long, it gets generalised. Wages
rise leading to a general cost push inflation. If
head line inflation exceeds the acceptable
level, monetary policy must act at least to


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
ensure that the return on financial assets is

positive in real terms. In a situation of supply
shocks, it may take longer for monetary policy
to bring down inflation. The recent experience
with inf lation in our country is a good
example of this. That is why the inflation
mandate must provide for a range and a time
frame for adjustment which should not be too
short. Nevertheless, monetary policy must
act irrespective of what triggered inflation.
Obviously, supply side management is needed
in situations of supply stock and that should
be the responsibility of the government. The
second issue relates to an appropriate price
index which should be used to monitor
inflation. In India, we have monitored
inflation by mostly looking at the wholesale
price index. That was because of the easy
availability of this index. Until recently, we
have had no composite retail price index.
Since the objective of inflation targeting is to
minimise the impact of price rise on people,
the appropriate index will be retail inflation.
The third issue relates to institutional
arrangements within the monetary authority
to take policy decisions consistent with an
inflation mandate. In several countries, a
technical monetar y policy committee is
constituted with members drawn from the
central bank, from the government and from
outside experts. My preference would be to
constitute a committee of the board of the RBI
to do this. This is what was done when the
Board for Financial Supervision was set up.
While constituting the central board of the
RBI, this aspect of the work of the bank must
15
also be kept in view. Inflation targeting reemphasises the primacy of price stability as
the objective of monetary policy. Given the
rigidities in the economy and the lags in policy
impact, it must be operated with flexibility.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
The key takeaway from the meeting that

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with State
Chief Ministers to discuss the contours of the
new body that will replace the Planning
Commission was this: that power and planning
should be decentralised and States should be
empowered to plan, design and manage
schemes based on what fits them best. This is
a point on which consensus appeared to have
emerged even as the Chief Ministers diverged
along party lines over whether the existing
body should be revamped or be replaced with
a new one. The decision to offer a greater say
to States in planning and managing schemes
seems to have been born from Mr. Modis
own experience as Gujarat Chief Minister
when he made presentations to the Plan panel
and felt the need for a better platform to
articulate the views of his State. In line with
this consensus, Chief Ministers would be
included in the body on a rotational basis to
give it a federal character. Mr. Modis remark
on bottom to top planning is a comment on
how New Delhi cannot tailor the development
plans of States as each State has unique needs
and problems. A second point that appeared
to have gained recognition was that expertise
and knowledge resided as much outside the
government, if not more so, and that these
needed to be tapped by roping in the private
sector into the new body.


16
VOL26
There is, however, not much clarity on

the traditional role of the Planning
Commission, including its job of sitting in on
expenditure committee meetings. Will it mean
the end of the planning process itself? If not,
who will formulate and monitor the annual
and five year plans as the Commission was
doing? Sundays meeting also failed to tackle
the issue of who will allocate and transfer
funds from the Centre to the States for
Centrally-sponsored and Plan schemes, with
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stating that
further consultations would be held on this
issue. The Planning Commission has also been
a veritable think-tank producing studies and
policy reports that different Ministries relied
upon in their decision-making. The body was
staffed largely by academics and bureaucrats
at the top, and an attempt to enlist expertise
from the business sector did not go very far.
If the new body has to be a public-private
think-tank, as the Prime Minister seems to
want it to be, it should have the ability to
attract top-drawer talent and also network
with research bodies and universities in India
and abroad. Interestingly, unlike the existing
Planning Commission, the new body is likely
to have a statutory role, giving greater weight
to its functions and powers. At this stage,
many unanswered questions remain, and a
great deal more of conceptual thought needs
to go into the making of the new body that is
to come into being by the end of January.
NEW SATELLITE TAKES WING
India has a new bird in the sky the

communication satellite GSAT-16 that was
successfully launched aboard Europes Ariane
GIST OF THE HINDU
5 rocket in the early hours of Sunday. GSAT-16

has 48 transponders, the largest number thus
far on a communication satellite built by the
Indian Space Research Organisation. It will
join a constellation of 10 satellites that form
the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) system.
Its transponders, operating in various
frequency bands, will provide much-needed
augmentation of the existing 188
transponders on the INSAT system that
broadcast television programmes, provide
educational and tele-medicine services, carry
telephone conversations, and relay data.
In addition, close to 95 transponders
have been leased on foreign satellites,
principally to meet the needs of Direct-ToHome (DTH) television channels. Vikram
Sarabhai, who founded the countrys space
programme, had the farsightedness in the
1960s itself to recognise how important
communication satellites and the services they
provide would be to a developing nation. It
was a vision that his successors turned into
reality, with the first of the indigenously-built
INSAT satellites being launched in July 1992.
After the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV) became available in the mid-1990s, the
country has not had to look abroad to launch
its remote sensing satellites. That transition
has yet to happen with communication
satellites. The current Geosynchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) has hitherto
been trouble-prone, and the version equipped
with an indigenous cryogenic stage replacing
an imported Russian one made its first
successful flight only in January this year.
Even if the GSLV becomes a reliable launcher


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
like the PSLV, it can only carry communication

satellites weighing up to about 2.2 tonnes.
ISRO has already launched considerably
heavier communication satellites on the
Ariane 5, including the GSAT-16 that weighs
close to 3.2 tonnes. Launching these satellites
abroad is expensive. The price tag for the
GSAT-16 comes to about Rs.900 crore. Of
this, the foreign launch costs come to around
Rs.560 crore not including insurance. Had
the next-generation GSLV Mark III, which can
take four-tonne communication satellites,
been operational, that launch might have cost
only about half as much. But the cryogenic
engine for the upper stage of the Mark III is
still being developed. The rockets first
experimental launch, scheduled for later this
month, will therefore be a suborbital one to
test its flight characteristics through the
atmosphere. ISRO expects to have the Mark
IIIs cryogenic engine and stage ready in two
years time. The sooner that happens, the
better.
MOVING AHEAD ON RAILWAY STATIONS
In its first Railway budget, the BJP-led

NDA government had focussed on passenger
amenities and inviting private participation in
the modernisation of infrastructure. While
putting Meghalaya on the Railway map
recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spelt
out a scheme to privatise and modernise
railway stations. He said 10 to 12 stations will
be taken up under the programme to
significantly upgrade passenger amenities and
make them akin to airport terminal buildings.
The thought is not new, nor is the attempt to
17
upgrade major stations. Similarly, the plan to

leverage the extensive extent of railway land
available has been talked about for years,
without much progress being made.
Commercial utilisation of railway land could
be very profitable, but needs to be done with
caution to prevent exploitation or corruption.
Now that the government has decided to
allow 100 per cent FDI in Railway projects,
the Ministry, now under a new Minister, the
reform-minded Suresh Prabhu, should work
on the details to roll out the programme.
The first step will have to be the
identification of stations across the country,
deciding on what exactly the private sector or
partner can do, and the sensitive issue of
levying user charges. In any scheme of
privatising public space, the question of user
charges comes in, and it needs to be addressed
in conjunction with the extent of investment
and the kind of facilities provided in these
stations.
When Mr. Modi spoke of trains running
underground and commercial buildings
coming on top of that space, the reference
must be to the metro rail and stations in major
metropolitan centres. What is more pressing
is raising standards and facilities at existing
railway stations in key cities such as New
Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata,
Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram,
Ahmedabad, Allahabad and Patna, to name a
few centres. These are the stations that are
old and call for urgent modernisation. In a
limited way, the zonal railways have been
enhancing amenities such as display boards,
seating arrangements and catering facilities,


18
VOL26
providing in some stations even Wi-Fi. There

is so much scope for a significant leap forward
in the matter of amenities: these should
include retiring rooms, waiting rooms, toilets,
electric cars and wheel chairs for the aged and
physically challenged, and, above all,
maintaining cleanliness. Even where the
Indian Railways has tried to provide some of
these facilities, there is just no upkeep or
maintenance. The area of cleanliness and
maintenance is one to which the Railways
need to pay immediate attention. The earlier
the Railways start finalising this scheme and
implementing it, the better. It should not be
allowed to go the way of earlier plans.
GOOD INTENT NOT
ENOUGH FOR GOOD POLICY
The Indian Civil Liability for Nuclear

Damage Act (CLNDA) of 2010 is a good
example of how good intentions alone do not
lead to good policy. After obtaining a historic
waiver from the Nuclear Suppliers Group in
2008, which enabled India to engage in
international civil nuclear commerce and
acquire new technology for Gen 3 nuclear
power plants, India adopted the CLNDA
whose ambiguous provisions have adversely
impacted expansion of nuclear power
generation capacity. These provisions may be
well intentioned but the open-ended liability
law makes all vendors, domestic and
international, reluctant to engage with the
Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd.
(NPCIL). Since 2010, NPCIL has been unable
to launch any new nuclear power project
(Kudankulam 1&2 predate the CLNDA) and
faces difficulties even in sourcing spares
GIST OF THE HINDU
domestically for its indigenously designed

Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR).
This reluctance has negative
consequences because to sustain annual
growth rates of 9 per cent till 2035, Indias
power generation has to grow 6 to 7 times.
From 225 GW of installed capacity today,
covering thermal, hydel and renewables, it has
to reach 1,200 GW by 2035. Nuclear
generation accounting for 4.8 GW today could
rise to 80 GW, which is consistent with Indias
three-phase nuclear programme and the
quest for long-term energy security. To meet
this target, seven more indigenously designed
PHWRs are expected to come on stream by
2017 taking capacity to 9 GW.
In the second stage, with 10 Light Water
Reactors set up with international
collaborations (the United States, France and
Russia), another 10 PHWRs and the proven
prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, Indian
nuclear generation should reach 30 GW, ready
to transition to the third stage, based on the
thorium generated U-233 cycle. However, the
nuclear installed capacity remains static
though capacity utilisation has gone up,
thanks to imported uranium fuel.
A peculiarity about international nuclear
liability law is the concept of channelling. In
order to encourage its private sector to enter
the nuclear power sector, the U.S. introduced
economic channelling through the Price
Anderson Act (1957) under which victims can
initiate lawsuits against the power plant
operator and other parties (designer,
equipment vendors, etc.), consistent with tort


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
law. However, in order to make it easier for

victims to claim compensation in case of an
accident, the operator bears the entire
financial liability burden and is obliged to take
out omnibus insurance, to indemnify the
vendors. The operator nevertheless enjoys
right of recourse against designers, vendors,
constructors, etc. In 1979, following the Three
Mile Island accident, the victims sued the
operator, the designer and the constructor.
While settlement was done by the operator,
the operator had sued the designer and this
suit was settled out of court. Operators
accepted economic channelling but with a
financial ceiling and a limited time frame
within which liability claims would be
admissible. For the victim, the advantage was
strict liability (the victim does not need to
prove negligence), a single forum and a single
applicable law. The key point in legal
channelling is that victims can only sue the
operator and no civil suits can be initiated by
the victims or the operator against the
vendors, designers or contractors, and, the
law of torts is set aside. The rationale used in
the Harvard Report was that post-delivery,
vendors lose control over their products and
services and accidents could be caused on
account of poor management. Incidentally,
while the U.S. has been a strong promoter of
legal channelling abroad, domestically, it has
maintained economic channelling which
retains applicability of tort law albeit in a
modified manner.
There are two contentious provisions in
the CLNDA. Section 17 allows the operator
19
(NPCIL at present) to have right of recourse

for nuclear damage against a supplier on three
counts if it is provided in the contract, if it
is on account of equipment having latent or
patent defects or provision of substandard
services, or if there has been intent to cause
damage. The first and third counts are
consistent with international regimes; the
second provision raises questions. These
terms are neither defined nor is there
guidance as to what standards would apply in
an Indian court. Further, analysis of reactor
incidents has indicated that it is impossible to
identify a particular component or equipment
as the defective one which could lead to
unending litigation. However, in order to
safeguard the victims interests, the operators
right of recourse only kicks in after payments
for nuclear damage have been made. In other
words, the CLNDA retains the strict and
exclusive liability principles associated with
channelling. Section 46 provides that the
provisions of the CLNDA are in addition to,
and not in derogation of, any other law,
which has the effect of making the supplier
subject to Indian laws that apply to any
industrial accident including criminal liability,
tort law, etc, leaving potential liability openended and insurance difficult to manage.
Under the CLNDA, a set of Rules was
promulgated in 2011. Rule 24 was intended to
address these concerns but failed to do so and
generated further questions. It limits the
operators right of recourse vis--vis the
supplier, both monetarily and in terms of a
time frame. However, while it is clear that
Rule 24 applies to the first part of Section 17,

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20
VOL26
there are questions about its applicability to

the second part.
To resolve this, the Modi government
will need to follow certain guidelines. First,
the problem needs to be identified as first and
foremost, a domestic vendor problem and not
misconstrued as addressing foreign vendors
concerns. Second, it has to be addressed in an
open and transparent manner involving all
stakeholders including civil society and media,
and not by stealth or clever fixes which end up
in embarrassing dead-ends. The two
principles of safeguarding victims interests, in
terms of both strict and exclusive jurisdiction,
and prompt redress of damage claims, have
already been accepted and are not
undermined by any redistribution of rights
and obligations between the operator and the
suppliers. Given the slow pace of litigation in
India, channelling would be beneficial to
victims but cannot coexist with general
applicability of tort law. Therefore, just as
Rule 24 constrains parts of Section 17,
definitions of new terms and rules have to be
developed to ensure that supplier liability is
neither open-ended nor infinite. Second,
cascading insurance premiums should not
render nuclear power economically unviable.
Finally, we need to think in the long term.
Tomorrow, the nuclear power sector could be
opened up to private operators as is the case
with other power generation. As the
repository of power reactor technology,
NPCIL will then be the design provider and
would hardly like to be faced with the CLNDA
as it currently stands. Good intentions need a
vision to translate into good policy.
GIST OF THE HINDU
MOVING FORWARD ON INSURANCE
The Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill,

which aims to increase the flow of foreign
investment into the capital-starved insurance
industry, is now just a step away from getting
into the statute books. The Bill was first
introduced in Parliament way back in 2008 but
failed to receive support from parties across
the political spectrum, including from the
BJP, which now heads the government. The
Rajya Sabha select committee, which went
into the provisions in detail and whose report
was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, has
recommended a 49 per cent composite cap on
foreign investment while retaining the
condition that management and control of the
company has to remain in Indian hands. With
the Cabinet quickly adopting the amendments
suggested by the select committee, the stage
is now set for the Bill to be introduced in the
Rajya Sabha where despite the Congresss
support the Bill is not likely to have easy
passage.
Political games aside, the adoption of
the Bill is expected to open the tap for the
flow of foreign investments into the insurance
industry as foreign players have been waiting
for the increased limit. Backed by a higher
level of ownership, foreign companies would
also be willing to share technical expertise with
their Indian partners. The 49 per cent cap will
include both foreign direct investment (FDI)
and foreign portfolio investment. Though this
might disappoint those who would have liked
the entire limit to be appropriated for FDI,
the fact is that there are not too many
companies that are profitable and mature to


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
list on the stock markets. The scope for FII

investment is therefore limited. As the
committee has rightly observed, incremental
foreign investment should ideally be used to
increase the capital base rather than to buy
out local promoters who might want to
liquidate a part of their stake. Segments such
as health insurance require sharp focus, and
the market is also big given that the social
security system is weak in the country. The
committee has done well in not agreeing to
lower the limit of paid-up capital from Rs.100
crore for health insurance players; a lower
threshold would have made it easy for nonserious players to enter the sector. Expansion
of the insurance industry is also important
for the development of the infrastructure
sector as the industry is typically a provider of
funds for long-term investment. This augurs
well for the BJP governments focus on
developing infrastructure.
TESTING TIMES FOR INDIA-RUSSIA TIES
With 20 agreements worth billions of

dollars signed in one day, Russian President
Vladimir Putins visit to India was a productive
one. The deals touched most of the fields India
and Russia cooperate on, from oil, energy and
infrastructure to military training, even as the
two countries set a bilateral trade target of
$30 billion between them by the year 2025.
What is more, the opening of Indias roughdiamond procurement policy by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi will mean Mumbai
can dream of becoming a worldwide hub for
the industry. Finally, President Putins offer of
12 nuclear reactors is the clearest and most
21
welcome indicator yet that Russia does not

share the concerns of other suppliers about
Indias liability laws. However, there is no
denying that the old lustre of the India-Russia
friendship has dimmed somewhat, and many
of the affirmations in the Druzba-Dosti joint
statement of friendship they issued seem
problematic. The problems seem evident:
Russia has watched with displeasure as India
has diversified its military imports, especially
when it comes to helicopter and aircraft
purchases.
The slide is not recent, and last year a
senior Russian official had made the countrys
displeasure clear when he demanded India
treat Russia as an old partner, calling the
decision to buy fighter aircraft and missiles
from France, the U.S. and Israel illogical and
unfair. For its part, India was outraged by the
Russian decision to lift its embargo on
defence sales to Pakistan, and the first-ever
Russia-Pakistan framework agreement that
was finalised last month. Given that India still
maintains about 70 per cent of its defence
inventory from Russian hardware, and is one
of Russias biggest buyers, the unhappiness on
both sides may not change the equations of
dependence between them, but it must be
addressed. In this context, it is significant that
Mr. Modi said the relationship with Russia
would remain Indias closest relationship
and it would be the most important defence
partner. It is increasingly important for New
Delhi and Moscow to reassure each other in
spheres other than the commercial ones of
defence, energy and trade. Given Russias
growing isolation from the West, and Indias


22
VOL26
growing closeness to the U.S. President

Barack Obamas visit is coming up in January
2015 their relationship is bound to be
challenged in many ways.
FOR BETTER SIGNAGE ON
THE CYBER HIGHWAY
The IT Acts vagueness and

comprehensiveness are troubling at many
levels. Instances of Section 66As use have
been infrequent but arbitrar y. Several
prominent examples date from 2012, such as
a Jadavpur University professor arrested for
disseminating a cartoon of Ms. Mamata
Banerjee, a businessman in Puducherry
charged for a supposedly offensive tweet
against a politician, and the arrest of two
young women in Maharashtra over comments
related to Bal Thackerays funeral. Last year,
the IT Cell of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
compared the ostensibly draconian nature of
Section 66A to the Emergency, with several
leaders urging that it be amended or watered
down. Just last week, the Supreme Court
requested clarity on Section 66A from the
Centre, pointing to the inadequacy of the law
and the arbitrariness of its use. The
government, in its reply, defended the law:
even a single unlawful/illegal message or
image has a potential to tear the social fabric
and destroy peace and tranquility.
The inadequacies of Indias Internet
regime are not relegated to this one
particularly contentious piece of legislation. In
reality, the Indian state, Indian society, and
the Indian economy confront a series of
interrelated dilemmas pertaining to the future
GIST OF THE HINDU
of the Internet. The manner in which these

dilemmas are addressed will be crucial to
determining Indias future as an open society,
a secure state, and a competitive economy.
Internet-related policy has been difficult to
address because of a set of widespread
misconceptions and imprecise language. One
cardinal misconception is that the Internet is
a thing unto itself, to be discussed, debated,
and governed in a vacuum. The term cyber
whether used on its own or as a prefix
simultaneously insulates these matters from
other aspects of public policy while
encompassing a startlingly wide variety of
issues related to personal and national
security, economic development, and global
governance. As an increasingly integral part of
our day-to-day lives, the Internet is an
extension of the offline world, with all its
faults and features. And the faults lie not in
the cloud, but in ourselves.
The Internet is also here to stay. Mobile
technologies have already proliferated widely
across the countr y, a revolution whose
implications have yet to be fully internalised.
And despite constraints on mobile and
broadband infrastructure, Internet use in
India continues to expand. The digital
revolution is now an integral part of every
Indians existence even the poorest of the
poor. At the bottom of the pyramid, digital
technologies are enabling financial inclusion,
improving basic education, and effecting
revolutionary changes in the distribution of
welfare and social services. At the top, such
technologies are advancing commerce, travel,
market access, and research and development


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
in unprecedented ways. A stable and open

Internet will be inextricably linked to the
Indian economys ability to grow, innovate,
and compete in a global environment. A
further misconception one that is
surprisingly widespread in the corridors of
power is that the Internet remains an
inherently public space. Yet, as more and more
personal information is saved and
communicated online, the Internet can no
longer be treated in that manner. Users
increasingly
have
their
private
correspondence, their finances, their personal
histories, and their photographs on servers,
not on their person. As such, users expect
even if they are not necessarily entitled to
a level of privacy that governments and
businesses do not always grant them. Personal
violations by other users incidents of
hacking are treated with opprobrium and
are subject to legal action. But there remains
a disconnect between Internet users
perceptions of their own privacy and the
ability, authority, and willingness of
governments and online businesses to
encroach upon it.
Finally, some still believe that the
Internet can be or should be a
completely open and anarchic space. The
harsh reality is that, much like the offline
world, the Internet is potentially dangerous.
For all their unquestionable benefits, digital
information and communication technologies
can facilitate exploitation, criminality, hate
speech, and threats to national security just
as other modes of communication do so in the
offline world. The revelation just days ago
23
that Mehdi Masroor Biswas, a Bengalurubased engineer, was behind the pro-Islamic
State Twitter handle @shamiwitness only
further reinforces the notion that the Internet
cannot remain completely anarchic and
ungoverned untouched by the hand of the
state. India is at present poorly equipped to
deal with some of the dilemmas thrown up by
these realities. Inadequate laws are but one
part of the picture. The IT Act was amended in
the wake of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, and
it was pushed forward with minimal debate
and in a climate of insecurity. The end result
is so poor as to be simultaneously
meaningless and omnipotent, and thus erodes
the credibility of our laws and our democracy.
The Indian state is also expanding its
capability to monitor communications online
steps that are necessary in the light of the
very real threats to civil and national security
in India but with little public discussion as
to its implications, and even less thought
being given to appropriate oversight. The
Centralised Monitoring System (CMS) is one
such entity, but in fact several different
agencies and ministries have the authority to
monitor communications online.
Fortunately, there are possible solutions
at hand to address these challenges. Indias
laws on freedom of expression online
specifically Section 66A need to be brought
in line with the reasonable restrictions on
free speech contained in our own
Constitution. Simultaneously, efforts must be
made to bridge the gap between public
perceptions of Internet use and existing laws.
This requires a better understanding by


24
VOL26
legislators, jurists, and members of the media

of the inadequacies of existing legal
frameworks. Second, the notion that there is
a trade-off between security and freedom
must be put to rest. Given the potential for
virulent hate speech and digital
communications that compromise national
security, there will be a continuing need for
Indian security, intelligence, and police forces
to monitor online communications and take
action when necessar y in the form of
removing content and prosecuting serious
violators. Finally, Indias economy
dependent as it is on ser vices and
entrepreneurship will need all the help it
can get from the development of a vibrant
online marketplace. And yet, for an economy
with inherent strengths in services, English
language education, and technical skills, India
has been remarkably weak in terms of digital
innovation. Indias most successful online
companies Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, Rediff
are essentially variants of other online
services that have been geared toward the
Indian market, while other innovations have
essentially involved lowering costs. If India is
to compete globally, and if it is to generate
tens of thousands of small businesses to
ensure employment and growth, incentives
and an infrastructure for radical innovation
are necessary. The momentum is there in the
form of the governments Digital India
campaign, but a closer marriage with Make in
India one that results in a meaningful
innovation policy will undoubtedly be
required.
GIST OF THE HINDU
A STEP TOWARD HUMANIZATION
Finally, a ritualistic burial is to be given

to Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860,
the living-dead law that has haunted Indias
criminal justice system for decades. Taking a
step towards a more humane law, the Union
government has decided to repeal Section 309
with overwhelming favour from a majority of
the States. Under Section 309, an attempt to
commit suicide is punishable with simple
imprisonment up to one year and/or a fine.
Anachronistic in its approach, this law dealt
with those in agony by holding up medical help
through procedural delays and then
penalising them rather than rehabilitating
them through counselling and care. Over the
years, this law has seen a tumultuous journey
of contestations, to and fro, between retention
and suspension. In an early attempt to repeal
it, the Rajya Sabha had passed the IPC
(Amendment) Bill, 1978, but the Bill lapsed as
the Lok Sabha was dissolved in 1979. Later,
the Supreme Court, in P. Rathinam (1994),
stated that the right to life under Article 21 of
the Constitution included the right not to
live a forced life, thus holding the provision
unconstitutional. But subsequently, in Gian
Kaur (1996), a five-judge bench overruled P.
Rathinam, upholding the validity of Section
309. Gian Kaur stated that sanctity of life was
a significant aspect of Article 21, and by no
stretch of imagination can extinction of life be
read to be included in protection of life.
Similarly, the Law Commission of India in its
42nd Report (1971) recommended the repeal
of Section 309, while in the 156th Report
(1997) recommended retention, based on


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
Gian Kaur.
The Commissions 210th Report (2008)
again recommended a repeal of the law, which
was favourably reiterated in Parliament and
decided upon recently. Globally, a significant
historical factor aiding the penal law against
suicide was perhaps the condemnation of
suicide by institutional Christianity. St.
Augustine called suicide an unrepentable
sin, while for St. Aquinas, suicide was
unnatural. This ethic found its way into
English common law in the mid-13th century,
and suicide remained an offence in England
until 1961. No wonder that the 42nd Report
of the Law Commission relied, inter alia, on
Manusmriti,
that
holds
suicide
circumstantially permissible, to recommend
the repeal. In resisting the repeal, Bihar urged
caution, saying suicide-bombers would no
longer be covered and deterred by law. This is
however a minor concern because there are
several anti-terror laws to deal with such
situations. Madhya Pradesh believed that the
repeal would dilute Section 306 dealing with
abetment to suicide. But this claim overlooks
the Gian Kaur decision that stated that
Section 306 enacted a distinct offence which
is capable of existence independent of Section
309.
NEW WARS ON THE COLD WAR RELIC
While the Indian Ocean Zone of Peace

(IOZOP), in its original form, appears relevant
in the present context, the innumerable
problems India has faced on account of the
resolution and the U.N. Adhoc Committee on
the Indian Ocean must be recalled before we
25
take any formal initiative in this regard. Sri

Lanka, our comrade in arms in the IOZOP
initiative, has played games with us even in
the happier days of India-Sri Lanka relations
and when China was not in the picture. The
new narrative in the Indo-Pacific may not be
congenial to depending on Sri Lanka or any
other neighbour to deliver on the IOZOP in
accordance with our interests. The idea of
IOZOP goes back to the days of the 1964 Cairo
Conference of the Non-Aligned Movement,
which had expressed concern over the efforts
of the imperialists to establish bases in the
Indian Ocean and declared that the Indian
Ocean should not be a battleground for the
big powers. The Lusaka Declaration (1970)
refined the idea further and it led to the
UNGA resolution, which proposed the IOZOP
strictly in the context of the raging Cold War
at that time.
The UNGA resolution said: the Indian
Ocean, within limits to be determined,
together with the air space above and the
ocean floor adjacent thereto, is hereby
designated for all times as a zone of peace. It
went on to define the zone of peace not as one
where there was an absence of war or of a
state of peace and tranquillity, but specifically
about the great powers halting and
eliminating all bases, military installations
and logistical facilities, and the disposition of
nuclear weapons and weapons of mass
destruction. It also envisaged universal
collective security in the region without
military alliances. Ships would have the right
to unimpeded use of the zone, except
warships posing a threat to the littoral and
hinterland states of the region.


26
VOL26
Till the end of the Cold War, India stuck

to the purist interpretation of the zone as an
area free of foreign military presence,
particularly bases and other facilities,
conceived in the context of great power
rivalry. Implicitly, India did not object to the
movement of warships, as long as they did not
threaten the regional states. Indira Gandhi
reiterated this position at a press conference
in Moscow, making the Soviet presence
legitimate, even though there were reports
that the Soviet Union was seeking to establish
bases in Somalia and elsewhere. After a
meeting of the littoral and hinterland states in
1979, India became acutely aware of a hidden
agenda on the part of Sri Lanka and others to
draw attention to the increasing strength of
India, posing a threat to the smaller states in
the region. Sri Lanka was not loath to have an
American presence in the Indian Ocean as a
stabilising factor.
A fallout of the debate in the Indian
Ocean Committee was that India and Australia
had become antagonistic to each other.
Australia began complaining about the growth
of the Indian Navy and also countered India at
disarmament forums, particularly at the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT)
negotiations. At one point, K. Subrahmanyam
maintained that the confrontation in the
Indian Ocean should be treated as being
triangular rather than bipolar as he felt that
the military presence of the super powers was
directed against the autonomy of the NonAligned countries. China had taken a position
of tactical support to the zone, as its presence
in the Indian Ocean was not in focus. As a
GIST OF THE HINDU
proclaimed supporter of the developing

countries, China expressed solidarity for the
littoral and hinterland states in seeking to
eliminate foreign military presence. The focus
on the Indian capabilities, which emerged in
this context, was also a welcome development
for China. It claimed legitimacy for itself as a
permanent member of the Security Council
and as an Asian power.
After the end of the Cold War, the
dynamics in the Committee underwent a sea
change, with India itself shifting the focus of
the zone of peace from the elimination of
foreign military presence to one of
cooperation between the major powers and
the littoral and hinterland states. The debate
became increasingly an embarrassed
ritualisation of the demilitarisation effort.
Indias joint exercises in the Ocean with
multiple partners legitimised the presence of
various navies including that of the U.S. The
Adhoc Committee soldiered on without a
particular focus, merely recalling the old
resolution and emphasising the need for the
permanent members and major maritime
users to join in an effort to bring about a
balance in the Indian Ocean. From an arena of
the Cold War, the Committee became
ritualistic without a clear focus or agenda.
Naturally, new threats, such as piracy,
terrorism, drug trafficking, etc were brought
in, making it a forum to combat non-state
actors rather than the great powers.
Revisiting the zone of peace concept,
which has led to the long debates since 1971
may prove hazardous in the present context,
because the rivalry that is taking shape in the


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
region is between the U.S. and its allies, and

China. With the kind of support China
demonstrated in Kathmandu among the South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) countries, it is possible that the zone
of peace idea will turn into a move to counter
the U.S. as a foreign presence and to seek
some balance between India and China in the
Indian Ocean. China might well gain a status
similar to India and strengthen its capabilities
there. International focus on Indias naval
acquisitions, present and future, may well
become counterproductive. According to
Admiral Arun Prakash, there are not many
navies, worldwide, which have seen, in recent
years, or are likely to see such significant
accretions to their order-of-battle.
A strategy of enhancing cooperation
between the littoral and hinterland states and
external powers without the reference to the
IOZOP may have a greater chance of success.
India has special strengths in combating
piracy, alleviating natural disasters and
trafficking. The involvement of the U.S. in
fighting terrorism may be of an advantage.
China has already taken note of Indias
inclinations in the Asia-Pacific and offered
cooperation to avoid the Asia Pivot and to
adopt an alternative Chinese vision. An
opportunity exists for us to develop a third
plan of engagement between the regional
countries and external forces for fruitful
cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
HOW TO TALK
CLIMATE CHANGE IN PARIS
The United States and China, the two

biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, have
27
recently agreed on a timetable to limit their

emissions. Under the agreement, the U.S. has
agreed to emit 26-28 per cent less carbon in
2025 than it did in 2005 while China will peak
its emissions by 2030 and increase the share
of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy mix
to 20 per cent by 2030. The U.S.-China
agreement came soon after a proposal by the
European Union (EU) the third largest
emitter to reduce its emissions to 40 per
cent below 1990 levels by 2030, conditional
on whether other countries would make
similar commitments at the Paris summit in
December 2015. The EU also proposes to
raise its share of renewable sources to 27 per
cent in total energy consumption by 2030.
Announcing a $3-billion contribution to the
U.N.-backed climate change mitigation fund,
the U.S. President, Barack Obama said that the
U.S.-China agreement showed the way
forward.
A closer look at what the agreement
really means shows that, first, it does not lay
out a road map for meeting the targets.
Second, it is bilateral and voluntary. Thus,
there are no penalties if either the U.S. or
China misses the targets. The fact that Japan,
Australia, Canada and Russia are doing less
than what they had promised to do under the
Kyoto Protocol is a case in point. The 26-28
per cent reduction, now agreed upon, from
2005 levels is less than the 30 per cent
reduction from the 2005 levels the U.S. had
promised earlier in compliance with the
Copenhagen Accord. Third, it allows China
unlimited emission expansion until 2030.
China had already set itself a goal of raising


28
VOL26
the share of renewables in its energy use to 15

per cent by 2020. Raising it by an additional 5
per cent in the next 10 years is more or less a
continuation of an existing policy. The U.N.s
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) says a 2C pathway seen by most
scientists as necessary in preventing
catastrophic climate effects requires
annual greenhouse gas cuts of 40-70 per cent
by 2050, compared to levels in 2010 and to
zero or below by 2100. Thus the pledges by
the three biggest emitters for 2025 and 2030
are not sufficient for limiting climate change
to 2C above the preindustrial average
temperature and much less than what they can
or should do.
India has already committed itself to a
20-25 per cent reduction in intensity of
carbon emissions (tonnes of carbon dioxide
divided by GDP) below 2005 levels by 2020.
But the U.S.-China agreement may put
renewed pressure on India to do more. Does
India really need to do more? And what can it
do to deflect the focus away from it and back
to the three largest emitters who indeed need
to do more if climate change is to be limited to
less than 2C? Country-wise estimates for
annual emissions of the largest six emitters
vary depending on the source and the year.
But in 2012, they were estimated to be
roughly 8,500 million metric tons (MMT) for
China, 5,400 MMT for the U.S., 3,800 MMT
for the EU, 1,900 MMT for India, 1,800 MMT
for Russia, and 1,300 MMT for Japan. These
figures reveal two striking facts. First, India
may be the fourth largest emitter, but its
emissions are less than a fourth of China,
GIST OF THE HINDU
about a third of the U.S., and about half of the

EU. Second, they are roughly equal to those of
Russia and not a lot higher than those of
Japan. Russia and Japan are also among the
industrialised countries which went back on
the commitments they made under the Kyoto
Protocol. Yet, the U.S.-China agreement is
expected to shift the focus to India and not to
Russia and Japan. Nothing can be more
wrong. Indias emissions, even if it grows
robustly, are expected to be about 4,0005,000 MMT by 2030 still well below the
emissions pledged either by the U.S. or China
under the agreement. In fact, they will
continue to be so for a long time to come and
perhaps forever as Chinas greenhouse gas
emissions have been estimated by the
International Energy Agency to further rise by
20 per cent by 2030 from 2012 levels.
India may be the fourth largest emitter,
but it is a relatively small emitter despite
having a large population. Its cumulative
emissions have been low: less than a third of
China and a tenth of the U.S. Its per capita
emissions are roughly a tenth of the U.S., less
than a sixth of the EU, less than a fourth of
China, and about a seventh of Russia. Thus,
there is absolutely no case for India to agree
to cut its emissions at the 2015 summit in
Paris. On the contrary, there is a strong case
for it to press the three biggest emitters to do
more as there is still a huge gap between what
the three top emitters have pledged and what
is required by science and their historical
responsibilities (the cumulative emissions).
Though there is absolutely no case for India to
curb its emissions, it is in its self-interest to

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GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
increase the share of renewables in its

primary energy mix which can also be
justified as its contribution towards
controlling climate change and provide it
greater energy security. Given our low percapita energy consumption, we do need to go
out of our way to shore up energy efficiency
across the board and also purposefully boost
green energy. What should Indias strategy be
then as it approaches the 2015 summit at
which a global climate treaty is expected to be
concluded?
First, India should insist that there
should be no reference to its annual
emissions reduction till it achieves
stabilisation as developed countries did and
China proposes to do. Unlike China, India has
a young population and it can grow till after
2050 when its urban transition and
industrialisation will be almost complete and
its annual emissions will stabilise. Thus, India
may propose to peak its emissions in 2050.
Second, India may commit itself to a 25-30 per
cent reduction in intensity of carbon emissions
below 2005 levels by 2025, higher than the
already promised 20-25 per cent reduction in
intensity below 2005 levels by 2020. Third,
India may propose to raise its share of
renewable sources to 20 per cent the same
as China in its total energy consumption by
2030. This seems achievable as India will have
access to the same technologies as China. The
newly reconstituted National Council on
Climate Change chaired by the Prime Minister
can accept this target and announce it as
Indias objective both domestically and
29
internationally. He may also announce Indias

plans to ramp up solar power capacity fivefold
to 1,00,000 MW by 2030. Third, India should
take the lead in securing timelines and
commitments on finance and technology,
both crucial to addressing climate change.
This would help keep intact its support among
vulnerable developing countries and the small
island states, which have been demanding that
more concrete action be taken rather than
efforts to just reduce emissions. Finally, India
must put renewed pressure on the three
biggest emitters to cut their annual
greenhouse gas emissions by 40-70 per cent by
2050, compared to levels in 2010.
THE COST OF CONVENIENCE
Despite several committees constituted

by the Union government highlighting the
many problems posed by thin, nonbiodegradable, single-use plastic bags, and a
body of evidence also indicating their illeffects, the government emphatically stated
recently that there would be no ban on
manufacture and use of plastic bags in the
country. But such a ban is already in place in
a few States. Unfortunately, the other viable
alternative of levying charges or raising taxes
to curb its use was overlooked. The stand
taken by the government is in stark contrast
to the European Unions decision. In a
commendable move, EU member-states
decided last month to cut the number of
lightweight plastic bags consumed per person
in a year. The member-countries would either
limit the number of bags used to 90 per
person a year by 2019 and 40 bags by 2025,


30
VOL26
or charge for all bags by 2018. Even in a

countr y where plastic manufacturers
constitute a powerful lot, in September this
year California decided to ban single-use
plastic bags from July 2015; though many
cities have a similar ban, California is the first
State in the U.S. to do so. Several countries
that have either banned it or made it
chargeable have seen a precipitous drop
within a short time in the number of thin bags
used. For instance, in 2002, Ireland witnessed
a 95 per cent reduction in plastic bag litter
once tax on such material was levied.
For a few minutes of convenience,
people mindlessly turn to single-use plastic
bags, apparently oblivious to its persistence
in the environment, both on land and in the
oceans, for hundreds of years. Besides ending
up in landfills or as litter in all possible places,
they very often clog drainage systems and
even prevent the recharge of groundwater
aquifers. The bigger ramification is the death
of cattle and a huge number of marine animals
every year due to plastic bag ingestion. The
production process is energy-intensive. It is
for these reasons that in 2012 the Supreme
Court observed that in the absence of tough
measures, the next generation will be
threatened with something more serious than
the atom bomb. It is strange and surprising
that in a country where reuse and recycling
are part of the ethos, the rampant use of
disposable plastic bags has become second
nature. At a time when solid waste
management even for biodegradable waste is
non-existent, it is naive to think of ever
managing single-use bag waste.
GIST OF THE HINDU
A SIGNIFICANT ACHIEVEMENT
It has been a glorious year for the Indian

Space Research Organisation. The successful
launch of Mangalyaan into Mars orbit on
September 24 on its maiden attempt was the
crowning glory. On December 18, the space
organisation followed it up with another
stupendous success with the first
experimental launch of a GSLV Mark III
vehicle and the safe splashdown of an
unmanned crew module in the Bay of Bengal
off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands after reentr y into the atmosphere. These two
achievements best exemplify the maturing of
the Indian space programme and its capability
to take the countrys space missions to greater
heights. The experimental f light of
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle
Mark III carrying a Crew module Atmospheric
Reentry Experiment (CARE) as its payload is
remarkable for a few reasons. Unlike Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launches,
GSLV launch history has been trouble-prone.
Making it all the more challenging is the fact
that the GSLV Mark III vehicle is heavier, taller
and more advanced than others. The rocket
has the capability to put into orbit
communication satellites that are as heavy as
4 tonnes twice as heavy as the ones that are
currently carried by GSLV rockets. Once the
new vehicle becomes fully operational, India
may well stop relying on other countries to
launch satellites weighing up to 4 tonnes. The
space organisation is confident of launching in
two years a developmental flight of this
vehicle with a fully operational cryogenic
engine. Thirty long years after Rakesh Sharma


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
became the first Indian to travel into space

aboard a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft, India has
now come a step closer to realising its longheld dream of sending humans into space,
with the successful test flight of GSLV Mark III
and the safe splashdown of the unmanned
crew module. The capsule performed as
expected after re-entry into the atmosphere
and, remarkably, decelerated to 7 metres a
second before splashing into the Bay of
Bengal. This is the first time India had ever
tested the deployment of parachutes for
deceleration. But more than understanding
the re-entry characteristics of the crew
module, the primary objective of the current
mission was to test the new design of the
rocket, particularly at the time of lift-off and
passage through the atmosphere. The fact
that there was little deviation from the flight
path during its entire course till it reached an
altitude of 126 km, was proof that the two
large solid boosters fired simultaneously at
take-off. Also, the vehicle withstood the
atmospheric loading as it travelled through
the atmosphere. Tall and heavy rockets
encounter greater atmospheric loading than
smaller vehicles.
RISE IN GLOBAL INEQUALITY
The findings from the latest

International Labour Organisation report on
real wages point to a mix of proactive
initiatives and policy paralysis in different
contexts. The study notes that continuing
deceleration in the growth of global real
wages and discriminatory pay gaps based on
gender and nationality could sharpen
31
household income inequalities. A most

striking finding is that labour productivity
growth outstripped increases in real wage
between 1999 and 2013 in the advanced
economies. The consequent flattening of wage
rises in these countries in the last two years is
therefore no surprise. Globally in 2013,
wages adjusted for inflation grew on average
0.2 per cent less a month than in the year
before, to 2 per cent. Dashing hopes of a
return to the pre-crisis rates of 3 per cent in
2007 are significant regional variations in
wage increases. The world average for the
preceding two years drops by nearly a half if
the progress achieved by China is discounted.
The nearly 6 per cent growth in real wages for
Asia and Eastern Europe, vis--vis the less
than 1 per cent increase in Latin America and
the Caribbean, point to sharp regional
variations.
The distribution of wages also
significantly influences differing levels of
inequality. Wage gaps and job losses
accounted for a 90 and 140 per cent increase
in inequality in Spain and the United States
respectively. These are countries among
advanced economies with the maximum
increase in inequality between the top and
bottom 10 per cent of the population.
Conversely, more equitable paid employment
accounted for 87 and 72 per cent reduction in
inequality between the high-end and low-end
segments in Argentina and Brazil respectively.
Admittedly, an increase in wages would
impact on the cost of production, profitability
and competitiveness of firms. But at the
macro-level, wage stagnation also feeds into a


32
VOL26
decrease in domestic consumption,

investment and exports. Clearly, the current
cut off your nose to spite your face approach
to policy-making has to give way to more
constructive means of mitigating inequalities
to sustain economic growth. Based on its
effectiveness in the developing and advanced
countries, the ILO recommends that a
minimum wage f loor should be set in a
manner that balances the needs of workers
and their families with broader economic
factors. Collective bargaining is the other key
institution that has a proven record of
narrowing wage inequalities, subject of
course to the extent to which employees are
covered under such bodies. Moreover, the
cumulative cost of inequality to growth is by
no means insignificant. This has been borne
out by studies of educational attainments
among the economically disadvantaged
sections.
CAUTIONARY SIGNALS
The Mid-Year Economic Review for

2014-15 is realistic in its projection of 5.5 per
cent growth during this fiscal. Economic data
released last week on industrial output, trade
deficit and inflation clearly show that the
growth impulse is still weak and that the
economy is yet to attain a steady state. The 4.2
per cent fall in industrial output recorded in
October has raised doubts over the strength
of the ongoing economic recovery. October,
being a festival-season month, ought to have
seen a rise in manufacturing to meet demand
for goods, but output, especially of consumer
goods, dipped. However, trade data for
November showed a rebound in non-oil, non-
GIST OF THE HINDU
gold imports machinery imports were up

by 20.32 per cent indicating that the dip in
industrial output in October may be an
aberration and that November could throw up
better numbers. Corroborating this
assessment is the fact that the auto industry
had a good month in November with car sales
rising by 9.52 per cent. But in the same
month, the trade deficit widened to an 18month high due to a surge in gold imports
driven by lower duties, a fall in international
prices and festival season demand. Notably,
the deficit widened despite a contraction in
the crude oil import bill by $1.26 billion, or
9.73 per cent.
Though export growth recovered to 7.27
per cent in November after a fall during
October, from hereon the going is likely to be
tough for exporters given the uncertain global
environment caused by falling oil prices.
Petroleum products exports, which account
for a fifth of Indias total exports, dipped by
14.15 per cent in November, reflecting the
difficult market conditions abroad. Though it
is not time to worry yet, the government and
the Reserve Bank of India need to monitor the
trade data closely and prepare to take
corrective action on gold. What should worry
policymakers is the fact that fresh investment,
which is critical to the revival of growth, is just
not happening. The Review notes that there is
likely to be a revenue shortfall of Rs.1.05 lakh
crore during this fiscal due to overestimation
in the Budget and slow revival. Indeed,
meeting the fiscal deficit target of 4.1 per cent
is going to be rather tricky in this backdrop. In
the short term, therefore, it is difficult to see


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
public investment as a saviour. It may at best

be an option to consider in the medium term,
and that is assuming there are no setbacks in
the next year or two. The only way forward
now is to encourage and support private
investment for which the government and
the RBI need to work together.
THE ENTREPRENEURS OF VIOLENCE
On December 16, 2014, 145 people,

including 132 children, were executed by the
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in a terrorist
attack on an Army Public School in Peshawar.
Operation Zarb-e-Azb is a massive
counterinsurgency operation that was
launched by the Pakistani Army in June 2014
to wipe out the Taliban from North
Waziristan a week after the TTPs attack on
Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, which
killed over 36 people including the attackers.
It involves 30,000 men, armoured battalions,
air support and drones. The operation came
in the wake of repeated failure of talks
between the Taliban and the Pakistan
government. With the Pakistan government
feeling as if the Taliban was dodging the talks
by sending TTP sympathisers and not actual
TTP ranks, the airport attack was the last
straw. Between June and December,
approximately 1,200 reported insurgents
have been killed in the region and
approximately a million civilians have been
displaced.
To understand the TTP attack in
Peshawar, we need to first understand the
structure of the TTP. It is an umbrella
organisation of at least 13 groups started in
2007 by Baitullah Mehsud. Last year, the
33
leadership of the TTP came to Maulana

Fazlullah, also called the FM [radio] Mullah,
a man who has violently opposed education
for children, most clearly evinced in his
instructions for the shooting of Malala
Yousafzai. When Fazlullah assumed the TTPs
leadership, four splinter groups emerged
(alongside the pre-existing TTP Punjab) the
Ahrar-ul-Hind (February 2014), the TTP
South Waziristan (May 2014), the TTP
Jamaat-ul Ahrar (August 2014), and the TTP
Sajna (May 2014). The groups emerged
because of sharp differences on insurgent
strategy between Fazlullah and other
competing insurgent chiefs within the TTP,
including the remaining members of the
Mehsud clan.
First, as I have already described,
competition between insurgent groups for
dominance in one piece of territory, leads to
higher levels of violence. Memorable (not in a
good way) violence of the type undertaken by
the TTP serves the purpose of helping the
group develop a brand identity, i.e., it is easily
distinguishable from other similar looking
groups. Having an easily distinguishable
identity from a pool of similar groups allows
the TTP to have an upper hand while
amassing recruits. So, insurgent strategy and
ideology helps in branding and banding for
an insurgent group.
Second, we cannot look at the TTPs
actions in isolation. Counterinsurgency, by
definition, is based on force as a default
strategy. However, when deals with
insurgents fail, the states tendency to use
force becomes more pronounced and in some


34
VOL26
ways, is seen as more legitimate by state

actors. However, counterinsurgency also
dislocates entire populations, who, if not
adequately resettled and policed, serve as new
recruiting grounds for insurgent groups. The
counterinsurgency operations in North
Waziristan have been swift, sustained and
brutal. With ranks of the TTP wiped out and
the outfit splintering, the Peshawar attacks
need to be seen as the TTPs way of reasserting
military dominance and territorial control;
only, they shifted the target. Instead of a hard
military target, a soft target was picked.
Third, what is telling is that, overall, the
counterinsurgency operations have been
effective in terms of putting the TTP out of
commission to the extent that they currently
find it difficult to attack a hard military target.
Fourth,
typically
when
counterinsurgency operations are on the
verge of destroying an insurgent group and
are heavily coercive, the insurgent group asks
for talks or a ceasefire. A cessation of
hostilities allows for both sides to regroup,
rearm, recruit, and move men, money and
materials around. This is more important for
insurgent groups than the state because the
state does not immediately need the breathing
room as much as the insurgent groups do.
When a group becomes intricately bound
to its own ideology there is very little wiggle
room left for that group strategically. This is
because for an insurgent group to have any
local credibility, the groups strategy needs to
be commensurate with its ideology. The TTPs
ideology binds it to a regressive ideal, for sure,
GIST OF THE HINDU
but it also does not lend itself well to

negotiation and pacting as a strategy. To
negotiate is to lose face. With previous TTP
leaders some talks were possible.
His strategy has been simple. Whatever
policy the Pakistan government attempts,
decry it, stop it, attack it. So, he has, for
instance, opposed ever ything from
womens education to polio vaccines by
calling these western implants that do not
belong in Pakistani society, which must be
governed by full sharia. In many ways, if
Fazlullah is the one who picked the Army
Public School in Peshawar as the target, it falls
in line with his thinking. In both India and
Pakistan, the Army is one of the few modern
institutions where military ranks matter more
than entrenched feudal hierarchies. The Army
also hangs on to colonial traditions because
many regiments were set up during the British
Raj. These colonial traditions have in cases
become regimental traditions. Finally, the
Army runs schools to facilitate personnel
transfers without cost to the family. Many
civilian schools refuse to take admissions in
mid-session. For a serving soldier who is
transferred in mid-session, the easiest
solution is to shift his child from one Army
school to another.
The only outcome that can be
guaranteed at this point is that
counterinsurgency operations will not cease
against the TTP, neither will the focus be
deflected to other matters. This has been
made clear by the Pakistani Army chief,
General Raheel Sharif, and by most of the


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
political establishment. If the Pakistan

government were to think carefully about this
process, alongside coercive counterinsurgency
they would also open dialogues with the more
approachable and perhaps moderate Taliban
splinter groups those that do not accept
Fazlullah as their amir or chief and have
deviated sufficiently from conventional
Taliban ideology to not be constrained if it
comes to meaningful dialogue.
HONOURING COMPLEX LEGACIES
By conferring the highest civilian

honour, the Bharat Ratna, on former Prime
Minister A.B. Vajpayee and Pandit Madan
Mohan Malaviya, who was president of the
Indian National Congress more than once
before Independence but was better known as
the founder of the Banaras Hindu University,
the country has recognised the contributions
made by these leaders to public life and Indias
political evolution. The decision of the
Bharatiya Janata Party government is also
indicative of a certain resoluteness to
emphasise its own political tradition Mr.
Vajpayee was the first BJP Prime Minister of
India, for 13 days in 1996, and again, from
1998 to 2004; Malaviya was among the
founding leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha in
the early 20th century. Mr. Vajpayee, now
ailing, still retains appeal that cuts across
political divisions because he was particularly
mindful of seeking a larger consensus on
national issues. As Prime Minister his tenure
was eventful, marked by a war with Pakistan,
a series of terror attacks including the
hijacking of IC-814 and the Parliament attack,
and Indias decision to go publicly nuclear.
35
Through all this, Mr. Vajpayees statesmanship

and his ability to demonstrate strength and
large-heartedness simultaneously, only got
better. Freedom-fighter, journalist,
educationist and social activist, Malaviya
belonged to the Hindu nationalist stream
within the Indian National Congress. He was
fiercely opposed to Congress participation in
the Khilafat movement and disfavoured
separate electorates for different
communities proposed by the British
government. An important figure in the NonCooperation Movement, he was a delegate in
the First Round Table Conference in 1930.
But Malaviyas living legacy is the BHU that he
founded in 1916 in the city of Varanasi with
the help and support of Annie Besant.
Previous Bharat Ratna awards have had
their share of controversies, and accusations
that many dispensations have used it to
further their own political interests and negate
those of opponents are not unfounded. The
fact that Dr. B.R. Ambedkar was conferred the
Bharat Ratna only in 1990 when a government
in which his followers had influence was in
power is a telling example. Historical figures
often leave mixed and complex legacies, and
Mr. Vajpayee and Malaviya are no exceptions.
Honouring a personality is not necessarily an
endorsement of all of his politics, or being
blind to his failures and shortcomings. It is
also not about jettisoning disagreements in
our public space. It would be unfortunate if
the highest civilian award of the country
becomes a matter of political disagreement
rather than of collective celebration and
endorsement of those who have contributed


36
VOL26
in significant measure to the making of India

as a diverse and multifaceted nation.
JUSTICE IN SLOW MOTION
Even for a country known for its tardy

judicial processes, the fact that the L.N.
Mishra assassination case remained in the
trial stage for nearly 40 years after the Union
Railway Minister was killed in January 1975 is
an unconscionable blot on the criminal justice
system. It is somewhat typical of the
administration of justice in the country, but
longer than normal, as even long and
protracted proceedings move on from trial to
appellate stage within a decade and a half.
Undue delay, it is often noted, amounts to
denial of justice. The accused have to bear the
burden of a pending criminal case for years,
often from their youth to a ripe old age. The
victims and their families are left with a sense
of dejection. Delay may also lead to unjust
acquittals as many key witnesses are unlikely
to be available or have a sufficiently good
memory to testify with confidence after the
passage of many years. In the Mishra case,
four men have been sentenced to life
imprisonment, but they are already too old
and infirm to suffer rigorous imprisonment.
There really cannot be any acceptable
justification for the 35-year delay since the
trial was transferred from Bihar to Delhi in
1979.
The Law Commission, which has gone
into the issue more than once, has pointed out
that the judiciary alone is not to blame for
processual delays, as the fault equally lies with
tardy investigators and prosecutors. There
are other factors like lack of manpower and
GIST OF THE HINDU
insufficient use of technology. The panel has

suggested remedial measures, both
administrative and legislative. One should not
forget that some trials, invariably those
involving public functionaries, have been
expedited at the intervention of the higher
judiciary. A perception had gained ground
that the languid criminal justice system helped
the political class delay and undermine
prosecution for corruption. It was to remedy
this that the Supreme Court fixed a time limit
of one year after framing of charges for the
completion of trials related to legislators. The
time has now come for the judiciary to extend
the principle to all criminal cases. A
reasonable time limit, one that would not
compromise on due process, may have to be
fixed. Even now, Section 309 of the Criminal
Procedure Code says once examination of
witnesses begins, the court shall proceed on a
day-to-day basis until all witnesses are
examined. This provision has to be enforced.
As suggested by a Law Commission report to
the Supreme Court in 2012, the law relating to
superintendence of the lower judiciary by the
High Courts may be amended to provide
recourse for those affected by judicial delays
to approach the High Court for expediting
trials.
MAKING MAKE IN INDIA HAPPEN
The theory behind Make in India is as

simple as it is compelling. India must become
a manufacturing powerhouse in order to
gainfully employ its demographic dividend;
there is no choice here. Fortunately, we have
many natural advantages including a big
labour pool and a large domestic market. In


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
addition, with Chinas competitive advantage

in manufacturing eroding, India has the
opportunity to take some share of global
manufacturing away from China. All we have
to do to improve the ease of doing business in
India are these stop tax terrorism, improve
infrastructure, reform labour laws, invest in
skills development, make it easier to acquire
land, implement Goods and Services Tax
(GST) and fast track approvals. Voila, we will
take our rightful place as the worlds factory
alongside China. To become a manufacturing
powerhouse, India needs a manufacturing
strategy, otherwise known as industrial policy.
The idea of an industrial policy is out of vogue
these days. It is seen as ineffective at best and
even retrograde, running contrary to the idea
of free trade. This is patent nonsense. Japan,
Korea, China, Germany have all prospered by
having a clear industrial policy and vigorously
implementing it. The U.S., the United
Kingdom, France and Italy have seen
themselves deindustrialise by not having a
clear industrial policy and are trying hard to
course-correct this mistake. There is a
successful precedent even in India; our success
in IT services was not an accident. It was the
result of clear-eyed policies driven by the
Department of Electronics, which included
reducing import tariffs on hardware and
software to zero, setting up software
technology parks with tax incentives, and
improving connectivity. Policy has always
mattered and when it comes to manufacturing
competitiveness, India must have a clear
industrial policy that spells out priority
sectors and how we will build competitive
37
advantage in a way that is consistent with our

obligations to the World Trade Organization
(WTO).
Indias industrial policy must recognise
where we have important competitive
advantages. India is quite uncompetitive at
low skill manufacturing. On the other hand, it
is good at making complex things which
require skilled labour and frugal engineering.
Despite all its shortcomings, India remains a
very competitive manufacturing location for
sophisticated things such as construction
machinery, cars and automotive components
and diesel engines. We must focus on building
competitive advantage and global scale in
sectors where we have a large domestic
market and certain inherent capabilities.
Strategy is all about making choices. Here,
five priority industries come to mind.
Defence, because we are the worlds leading
arms importer. Localising what we buy as a
condition for all defence deals along with a
willingness to allow majority foreign
ownership can turbocharge our local defence
industr y. The second critical industry is
electronics hardware. India imports $45
billion of mobile phones, computers and
communications hardware; by 2020, this is
projected to grow to $300 billion and exceed
our oil import bill. This is unsustainable. We
have to create policy incentives to create a
local electronic hardware manufacturing
ecosystem. Since most component suppliers,
Original Equipment Manufacturers and
Original Design Manufacturers are Chinese,
this will necessarily imply incentivising


38
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Chinese companies to establish factories in

India. The size of our domestic market should
make this possible. Concerns about security
are misplaced; all our personal computers,
cellphones and a lot of switches and routers
are already made in China, so we are
conceding nothing. The third industry is
construction. India will invest a trillion dollars
over the coming years in improving
infrastructure. We need to create incentives
that not only spur investment in
manufacturing materials such as cement and
steel but also construction equipment,
locomotives, power generation equipment
and so on. Everything we install should be
made in India. The fourth is health care.
Indias generic pharmaceutical industry is
world class. We must not concede on
intellectual property rights that neutralise our
advantage. India is also exceedingly good at
frugal innovation in medical devices such as
low cost X-ray and ECG machines. We have a
real shot at being a world leader in innovation
and manufacturing in this space.
To become a manufacturing nation,
India has to quickly move beyond rhetoric to
create a clear strategy and favourable policy
environment for manufacturing to take off.
The government has chosen to quietly
dismantle the sclerotic National
Manufacturing Competitiveness Council
(NMCC) but it needs to foster a more vibrant
think tank in its place. A close dialogue and
partnership between government and the
private sector, both domestic and foreign, is
critical. Indian companies along with Chinese,
Japanese, German, American and Swedish
GIST OF THE HINDU
companies are all vital partners and we must

create an environment that is open and
welcoming. For this, the right leadership of
this vital mission is critical. There is a clear and
short-lived window of opportunity to become
a manufacturing nation. We must not
squander it.
FENCING THE FARMER OUT
On Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party

government cleared the proposed ordinance
to amend the Right to Fair Compensation and
Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013.
This amendment, insofar as has been made
known to the public, creates a separate
category of projects which shall be fast
tracked. The items covered under this
category include industrial corridors, defence
and defence production, rural infrastructure
including electrification, housing for the poor
including affordable housing, and
infrastructure projects including projects
taken up under Public-Private Partnership
(PPP) mode. The immediate and likely impact
of this amendment is that land can now be
acquired for these projects without having to
exhaust the pre-acquisition processes that had
been put in place, namely the Social Impact
Assessment (SIA) and the determination of
prior informed consent from affected
families. A cursory analysis of this
amendment shows why the same is not just
problematic but is also a serious step
backward.
First, there is a reason why the consent
and SIA process had been hardcoded into the


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
DNA of the law. Acquisition had become a tool

for the use of brutal force by the state.
Acquisition was almost always forceful,
leading invariably to riots and protests (often
violent in nature). By requiring the state to
seek the consent of 70 to 80 per cent of the
affected families, the law empowered those
who were to be directly impacted against the
arbitrar y exercise of the power by the
state.Second, the unamended law was enacted
after unprecedented nationwide consultations
which took place over two years. Two allparty meetings were convened. The Bill was
subject to 12 hour debates in both Houses in
which over 60 members took part. Third,
under the unamended Act, the only
exemptions to the consent and the SIA clause
were the 13 laws given in the Fourth Schedule
to the Act itself. Mindful of the fact that some
projects were of greater national importance
than others, the framers had already created
this separate class of projects which included
acquisition for the purposes of railways,
national highways, atomic energy, electricity,
etc. Acquisition for defence and national
security had also been protected under the
urgency clause. And even these 13 laws had to
be amended within one year, i.e. by December
31, 2014 to ensure that compensation,
rehabilitation and resettlement clauses were
brought on a par with the new law (vide
section 105 of the unamended law). With
regard to this particular amendment, the
government is attempting to make a virtue out
of a necessity prescribed by their
predecessors. Fourth, crafting a set of
categories which includes vague items such as
39
infrastructure projects (including PPP

projects) solely for the purpose of exempting
them from consent requires enormous
application of mind. The exemptions given in
the unamended law were the result of
sustained public consultation. In the case of
the ordinance, exemptions have been created
without any explanation as to why these
activities or sectors are being placed in a class
of their own. Such lawmaking practices veer
dangerously close to arbitrariness in
administrative decision-making.
Supporters of the amendment will
undoubtedly argue that the law does not dilute
the provisions of compensation,
rehabilitation and resettlement but instead
only makes the process for acquiring the land
easier. What they fail to realise is the gap
between the bargaining power of the state and
the lowest common denominator is a very
wide chasm. The SIA process gave these
people (often farmers) the right to negotiate
fairer rates of compensation while
determining if the project was truly in the
public interest. It had also removed the scope
for the subjective use of discretion by the
Collector and other representatives of the
government. Now, with the SIA process being
waived, the Collector can once again
determine what constitutes a public purpose
and how soon can land be acquired. It was this
unchecked authority that was at the heart of
the multiple abuses of the law chronicled over
the last 70 years. Discretion had been
replaced by verifiable systems and processes
to check capricious decision-making. Now,
this safeguard stands eroded.


40
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Also, the new law didnt introduce the

concepts of rehabilitation and resettlement. It
merely put in place a process that ensured
compliance and enforcement. The Supreme
Court of India had already mandated
rehabilitation and resettlement even before
the new law was enacted. Another fear is that
this new ordinance will effectively undo the
implicit limits that had been placed on the
acquisition of agricultural or multi-crop land
by the unamended Act (done to ensure
continued food security for our citizens).
However, the amendments seem to allow such
acquisitions without restrictions. This gives
rise to worrying questions as to who is the
natural constituency of the party in power.
The government should have instead
used this opportunity to strengthen the legal
regime governing land titles in States where it
is now in power (since land is primarily a state
subject). Knowledge asymmetry and an active
land mafia lead to the purchase of land being
a risky proposition (and hence making
acquisition more attractive). In the name of
economic reforms and development, the
government has taken a significant step
backward in Indias march to land justice. An
ordinance pushed through in this manner
violates all democratic norms and is the shape
of things to come in the Modi sarkar. Given
this cloak-and-dagger approach becoming the
norm for lawmaking in our country, we can
only hope that in this era of acronymanchored governance, Modi does not come
to stand for Murder of Democratic India.
IMPROPRIETY OF ORDINANCE
By promulgating ordinances within days
GIST OF THE HINDU
of the winter session of Parliament coming to

a close, the Narendra Modi government has
shown that it is not averse to repeating what
his party would have considered a
constitutional impropriety, had it been done
by a Congress government. The power to
issue ordinances is normally to be exercised to
bring in urgent legislative measures when
Parliament is in recess. It is not one to be
resorted to merely because the government of
the day lacks a majority in the Upper House or
is unable to break a deadlock in Parliament.
However, it is seen that inefficient floor
management, fear of facing a House in which
the incumbent party does not have a majority,
and a reluctance to make pragmatic
concessions across the floor in the interest of
sticking to its legislative agenda are the main
reasons for prolonged deadlocks. It is a
situation rich in irony as the BJP had often
questioned the United Progressive Alliance
governments promulgation of ordinances in
close proximity to a parliamentary session. As
in the case of the impasse in the Rajya Sabha
that occasioned the ordinances recently issued
to make legislative changes in the coal and
insurance sectors, logjams are often the result
of the governments aversion to resolving
issues raised by the Opposition. The
Bharatiya Janata Partys justification for
exercising the Presidents legislative power is
that it had to avoid any further delay in the eauction of coal blocks; and that raising the cap
on foreign direct investment in insurance from
26 per cent to 49 brooked no further delay.
And it has now approved yet another
ordinance to amend the land acquisition law


GIST OF THE HINDU
VOL26
when there appears to be no urgent need to do

so.
ISBN: 9789382732617
Book Code: B06, ` 1275
On the flip side, it is a fact that the

combined opposition, which outnumbers the
ruling party and its allies in the Rajya Sabha,
was determined to stall the proceedings until
the demand that the Prime Minister himself
make a statement on the ongoing
reconversion drive organised by affiliates of
the Sangh Parivar was met. Mr. Modi could
have intervened at least once to clear the air
on allegations that his government was
conniving at the controversial ghar vapsi
programmes across the countr y. For a
41
government committed to undoing the policy

paralysis of the previous regime and
revitalising economic reforms and good
governance, his regime has shown notable
reluctance to rein in fringe Hindutva elements
that do not seem to care for the governments
growth and development objectives. Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley s claim that the
promulgation of the ordinances signify the
governments commitment to reform is
questionable. An easier way to demonstrate
its commitment to reform would have been to
create conditions conducive to getting the Bills
passed in the House.
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42
Gist of
VOL26
The Yojana
WHY DO INDIAN FIRMS GO ABROAD ?
In recent years, India and China have

not only liberalised their FDI regimes, but
also emerged as investors abroad. Although,
the volume of Indias investments is much
lower than that of China, the composition of
Indias FDI, centered on manufactures and
services, its heavy presence in the developed
countries, its method of entry into foreign
markets based on acquisitions principally the
UK and the US, sets it apart from the other
emerging economy investors.
SIZE AND PATTERN OF
INDIAS INVESTMENTS ABROAD
The total stock of Indias FDI increased

from a meagre $124 million in the year 1990
to $ 111,257 million in 2011 with a share of 3
per cent in the total Overseas Direct
Investment (ODI) stock of the developing
countries. Indias ODI is significantly different
from that of China in its composition-whereas
a large proportion of Chinas investments is in
oil and raw materials, Indias investments are
in manufacturing and services.
Third, more than 50 per cent of Indias
ODI is in the developed economies while
more than 75 per cent of Chinas ODI is in the
developing economies.
GIST OF THE YOJANA
By the end of the year 2008, India was

the second largest investor in the UK, next
only to the US.
Fourthly, the growth of Indias ODI is
mostly through acquisitions. In the year
ending in August 2010, India was second in
the list of the ten most acquisitive nations,
with a share of 24 per cent of cross-border
M&A transactions originating from emerging
economies.
The latest tests of the OLI theory relate
to ODI from India and China (Pradhan 2011,
Buckley et.al, 2007; Kumar, 2007 &
Nunnenkamp et.al, 2010). The pioneering
studies relating to India are those by
Jayaprakash Pradhan who has (2008,2011,
2004). painstakingly put together a set of data
from a number of sources including the media
and unpublished data from government
sources.
Pradhans analysis suggests that high
labour productivity, R and D expenditures,
managerial skills as defined above, exports
and the post 1991 liberalisation measures are
all factors in the decision of Indian
manufacturing firms to go abroad. It is
arguable whether or not these results endorse
the proposition that Indian firms venturing
abroad possess ownership advantages of the
sort that the OLI theory emphasizes. High
labour productivity of the Indian
manufacturing firms flows from the relatively
high capital intensity of their production
process and their heavy presence in industries
that are typically capital intensive.
On top of the list of variables included in
Pradhans analysis of ODI by Indian firms is


GIST OF THE YOJANA
VOL26
managerial skills. Indeed, managerial

expertise of Indian firms is an ownership
advantage that influences firms to go abroad.
But managerial abilities that consist of a
variety of attributes are not easily
quantifiable. Pradhan quantifies it by
regressing profits per unit of assets of firms on
age, size, R and D, royalties paid for imported
know, how, sales expenditures and a set of
dummy variables for type and ownership of
industries and sector.
The statistical results referred to earlier
suggest that firms with large profits tend to go
abroad. But not all firms with large profits
may be able to do so. Indeed, it is likely that
many of the firms that have invested abroad
may have raised funds for investment in
international capital markets. Those Indian
firms that have ventured abroad enjoy a
unique ownership advantage that can be
termed entrepreneurship that includes
managerial efficiency, risk taking, forecasting
and identification of new markets to name
only a few of the attributes of
entrepreneurship. Indian firms may be unique
amongst the firms of the emerging economies
in this respect. How and where do these
unique attributes of Indian managers come
from?
THE UNIQUE ATTRIBUTES
OF INDIAN FIRMS THAT GO ABROAD
It is impossible to generalise on the

factors that influence firms to go abroad. The
one reason most firms from emerging
markets invest abroad is to acquire
technological capabilities inherent in existing
43
firms- this is the so called asset seeking motive

for ODI. The acquisition of existing firms
requires managerial efficiency, but it is not the
kind that is referred to in the statistical
studies. They are of a different order and
include identification of the nature and
productivity of the assets that the targeted
firms possess, their market potential, risks
involved in operating abroad and above, all
the ability to manage operations in a foreign
locale.
Additionally, the acquired firms may
have to be revived, they may possess
production oriented advantages but may be
ailing because of their inability to explore and
develop markets. Indian managers investing
abroad seem to possess these sorts of skills, or
to use an expression coined by Keynes animal
spirits of entrepreneurs. It is such
entrepreneurial talent that seems to have led
several Indian firms, to raise the capital
required for their investments abroad in
international capital markets.
The entrepreneurial instincts and
expertise of Indian firms is to be traced to
several unique features of the Indian
economy. Foremost of these is the inheritance
from history. India has had a long history of
business entrepreneurship marked by its caste
and community orientation. Foremost
amongst these groups are the Banias and the
Marwaris, primarily merchants and money
lenders with a prominent role in financing
Indias foreign trade during the British
colonial era. The Parsis who had no religious
affiliation with either the Hindus or the


44
VOL26
Muslims were in a class of their own. They

provided a link between the British and the
Indian business houses.
The second factor that has contributed
to the development of entrepreneurial talent
amongst Indian firms is the existence of
business groups, mostly of the family
orientation. Three quarters of the number of
foreign acquisitions estimated at 1347 during
the period 2000-2008 are reported to be
undertaken by group affiliated firms as
opposed to stand alone firms. This reflects
the superior advantage enjoyed by business
groups over stand alone firms that enable
them to efficiently internalize market
externalities.
A third factor that has contributed to the
entrepreneurial skills of Indian business is the
system of education, unique to India, from
historic times to the present day. As
Tirthankar Roy (2011) notes, the education
system in India during the colonial days was
caste based and dominated by those who
wished to enter the professions. It was thus
that the elite caste groups advanced from
primary to higher education and the system
catered to their needs and primary education
for the population in general was ignored. It
is the caste based education, primarily
oriented towards the civil service and the
professions, which laid the base for the
growth of the services economy and software
in the services group, which is one of Indias
major investors abroad.
A fourth factor that has contributed to
the growth of managerial expertise of the
Indian business houses is the presence of
GIST OF THE YOJANA
Indias diaspora in the UK and the US.

Available data for the later part of the last
decade shows that there were 1.6 million
Indians in the UK accounting for 1.8 per cent
of total population of the country and in the
US, there were 2.8 million Indians accounting
for 0.9 per cent of US population.There may
be two other explanations for this spectacular
growth of Indian investments abroad. First, it
may be easier to operate in the business
environment abroad than that at home.
Second, the attraction of foreign markets
in the presence of a fairly lucrative domestic
market in India has echoes of Britains
experience during the second half of the 19th
century. During the period 1870-1914, Britain
exported substantial volumes of portfolio
capital mostly to the colonies, the total stock
of British capital abroad in the year 1914 is
estimated at $20 billion.
In sum, the sort of skills Indian
entrepreneurs possess that serves them well
in their quest for investment locales abroad
are an inheritance from the countrys history
entrepreneurial and business skills from the
colonial days and the engineering and human
skills form the more recent past the postindependence years. These skills were locked
up during the days of the license Raj that
lasted for more than three decades until the
year 1991. The economic liberalisation
measures let the genie out of the bottle. They
liberated the entrepreneurs from the sort of
dull and dreary chores of coping with rules
and regulations and provided an environment
for risk taking and facing the challenges posed
by competitive markets in a globalised world.


GIST OF THE YOJANA
VOL26
45
FDI IN INDIA : POLICY

CHANGE AND STATE VARIATION
POLICY REGIME
CHANGE OF FDI INFLOWS IN INDIA
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is

defined as cross-border investment by a
resident entity in one economy with the
objective of obtaining a lasting interest in an
enterprise resident in another economy. In
other words, FDI to India is investment by
non-resident entity/person resident outside
India in the capital of an Indian company.
Not only achieving ownership of the assets,
foreign investors can also influence decisionmaking in the management of the enterprise
in the host country. With regard to these two
conditions, namely, long-term investment and
management participation, FDI is considered
as helpful international capital to the host
country compared to portfolio investment
that has short-term characteristics.
In the case of India, economic

institutions favouring FDI inflows have
incrementally changed as the market has been
integrated into the global market since the
mid-1970s. The policy regime of FDI inflows
has developed through three differing stages:
(1) anti-FDI (1969-75), (2) selective FDI
(1975-91), and (3) pro-FDI (1991 onwards).
In the anti-FDI period, the then government
embarked on the nationalization of domestic.
banks in 1969 as a means of securing political
support from the poor. In addition to this,
Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) was
introduced to regulate foreign currency. The
key point of this Act was that the central
government had a monopolistic role in
dealing with foreign currency. In the selective
FDI period, however, Indias economy
underwent a transformation toward easing
regulations. The then government
encouraged foreign capital to participate in
Indian industry.
For the past two decades, there has been a

constant increase of FDI in flows in many
emerging market economies such as India and
China. China is currently the top prospect as a
host economy and India is the third most
common destination for transnational
corporations. The important reasons behind
this pattern stem from the benign
character istics of FDI inflows: creating
employment, offering capital goods and
facilities, transferring technologies to promote
production, improving the transparency of
companies through investors participation in
management, and stimulating domestic
investment in the host country, as some Asian
developmental state models, i.e., South Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, have
shown how they could make beneficial use of
FDI inflows for their economic growth.
Such change became clearer when Rajiv

Gandhis government supported FDI inflows.
Under the financial crisis originated from oil
price rise and the world recession in the early
1980s, Rajiv Gandhi realized the potential
benefits of foreign investments compared to
external borrowing.
Finally, the financial difficulties in the
early 1990s brought new economic policies in
the area of FDI inflows. One of the most
significant policy changes in the area of FDI
inf lows in the pro-FDI period was the


46
VOL26
enactment of the Foreign Exchange

Management Act (FEMA) in 1999. Compared
to the FERA, which was introduced in 1973,
the FEMA acknowledged some of the state
agencies such as the Securities and Exchange
Board of India (SEBI) as participants in dealing
with foreign currency in addition to RBI. SEBI
and RBI are mainly concerned with Foreign
Institutional Investment (FII) and FDI inflows
that are reviewed under an automatic route
and do not need approval permission. Under
the automatic route, foreign investors in
various industrial sectors are allowed to
embark on their business more easily than
those in the other route. Otherwise, the
Secretariat for Industrial Assistance (SIA)
under the Ministr y of Commerce and
Industry and the Foreign Investment
Promotion Board (FIPB) under the Ministry
of Finance examine proposals that are
excluded from the automatic route described
above. Thus, the role of FIPB has become
more significant in the approval and
disapproval of proposals since the initiation of
FEMA. The current Prime Minister of India,
emphasized effective governance and easy
governance for the slogan of Come, make in
India aiming at India as the global hub for
foreign investors-He used the term of FDI as
First Develop India by emphasizing three
pillars of good governance-improving the ease
of doing business by de-licensing and
deregulation, enabling infrastructure such as
industrial corridors and opening up FDI in
sectors such as defense, construction and
railways.
GIST OF THE YOJANA
DIFFERING LEVELS
OF FDI INFLOWS TO STATES
In fact, the total FDI net inflows in 2011

were around US$32 billion that accounted for
about 3per cent of GDP. Despite strong
support from the central government, there
has been substantial diversity in attracting FDI
inf lows at the state level. For example,
Maharashtra andDelhi have attracted For
inflows substantially, by accounting for the
half of total inflows to India. Several states like
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Gujarat, and Andhra
Pradesh have constituted the middle range
group, while many other states like West
Bengal and Odisha have taken a low level of
FDI inflows.
Interestingly, several states like Odisha,
showing poor performance, have frequently
witnessed strong opposition from society
against FDI inflows. For example, Pohang
Steel Company (POSCO), South Korean
enterprise, has had a difficult time to secure
lands against societal opposition in
Jagatsingpur in Odisha. According to an
executive committee that conducted an
inquiry into the status of the Foreign Rights
Act (FRA) for the POSCO project at the
request of the Ministry of Environment and
Forests (MOEF), the Government of Odisha
disregarded a step to achieve consensus from
local villagers before the land acquisition.
Similarly, Tata struggled against societal
opposition in acquiring lands for Nano
factory in Singur in West Bengal. Even though
Tata is an Indian domestic investor, its
struggle for securing lands in West Bengal
presented the weak capacity of state


GIST OF THE YOJANA
VOL26
government in handling rehabilitation issues

and fixing the land value in the process of land
acquisition. In other words, the substantial
gap between states in attracting FDI shows
the differing levels of state capacity in dealing
with administrative hassles and societal
opposition in the process of FDI inflows, even
though many state leaders in India have
competed for attracting more FDI to their
states.
INTEREST RATES, INFLATIONAND THE
RBI : TIME FOR A CHANGE IN STRATEGY ?
Another RBI season has come and gone

and the Governor has once again committed
himself to controlling inflation. The signal ?
Do not expect any RBI commitment to
lowering of the administered interest rates.
The question is how effective can this policy
be in India? More important, is it possible that
an RBI overactive in traditional inflation
control measures may have made matters
worse?
In general, the RBI can use general or
selective measures to control inflation. The
general measures are demand control
measures which limit the money supply
directly through Open Market Operations
(reducing the bank deposits which is the base
for liquidity and lending capacity of banks) or
raising the cost to banks of lending money (by
raising the bank rate at which commercial
banks borrow from the RBI). The selective
credit controls generally operate on the rate
commercial banks can charge for priority
lending.
Does this matter? There is also a free
market for credit so how does the RBI
47
determine bank rate matter? It does, for two

reasons. One, the bank rate determines the
cost to banks of running out of liquidity ( the
so called repo rate) so that a high rate implies
lower liquidity with banks and hence higher
interest rates on loans. Second, a high bank
rate also implies the reverse repo rate is
higher so that the banks would rather lend to
the RBI (through government bonds,
Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) etc) and hence
the reverse repo rate effectively constitutes a
lower bound on the interest rates charged to
private borrowers.
We also know now that from 2008 till
about 2013, the world was hit by a general
recession. This affected developing countries
like India somewhat less but there was still the
impact operating through reduction of
demand for exports in the rest of the world.
What is more important is that we now also
know that in this kind of Keynesian
recession, measures to affect demand through
changes in the interest rate are useless. As is
known from elementary macroeconomics, in
such a recession, measures to reduce demand
via increase in the interest rate are useless:
monetary policy is ineffective compared to
fiscal policy. The rest of the world apparently
knew this as interest rates in most developed
countries were close to zero in this period
while demand increasing measures ( what
Keynes called pump priming) took the form
of increased government spending. The RBI,
on the other hand, had an opposite view.
Thus, between October, 2005 and January
2014, the RBI changed the bank rate 37 times
reducing it from about 9 per cent in 2005 to


48
VOL26
4.75 per cent in April 2009 and subsequently

raising it continuously to about 8 per cent in
January this year. The reason? Control of
inflation.
THE NATURE OF THE INFLATION
Public memory is short and tends to

respond to spurts in the prices of fruits and
vegetables which the media laps up. Yet, the
dramatic drop in prices in the next period are
normally not reported. Political pressure on
the RBI then builds up to solve this
inflation. problem and it responds with the
only visible option it has: raising ( or not
lowering) the bank rate. However, this
extreme variability of prices of fruits and
vegetables is largely a supply issue. These
crops are grown by small farmers who have
no minimum price guarantees (as in rice and
wheat) or stocking facilities. The Agricultural
Produce Marketing Committes (APMCs) then
ensure that farmers must sell only in
designated areas. As individual farmers
respond to price spikes, there is a sudden
surge in supply and prices drop dramatically.
So, to control inflation as we know it
today, the only solution in the long run is
creation of warehousing facilities for fruits
and vegetables, modifying the APMCs and
some kind of price support program in the
states. The RB I intervention has had
unfortunate side effects. One, while interest
rates in the rest of world were close to zero in
the period 2008-2012, the continuous rise in
the rate in India created a golden opportunity
to FIIs for interest arbitrage.
There is plenty of anecdotal evidence
that banks in developed countries were
GIST OF THE YOJANA
encouraging NRIs in particular to borrow at

zero rates to remit to India. At the same time,
domestic investors (backed by sovereign
Indian guarantees) were encouraged to
borrow in world markets. As world interest
rates stabilize, a reverse flow of FII funds can
be expected unless Indian growth rate picks
up dramatically.
As any student of open economy
macroeconomics knows, a strategy which uses
interest rate(r) to stabilize the external
balance is bound to fail. The optimal
assignment is exchange rate(e) to external
balance and interest rate to balance domestic
demand. The RBI strategy neatly reversed this
optimal assignment. It is now stuck with the
typical dilemma: if r is reduced and funds
flow out the external balance would teeter as
FII funds move out as quickly as they moved
in. On the other hand, if e is allowed to
appreciate to reduce excess domestic
absorption, increasing external liabilities (in
foreign currency) would ruin domestic
manufacturers, hit critical imports and put an
end to the export efforts. As the phrase goes,
the RBI is really stuck up the creek without a
paddle.
The side effect of the rather disastrous
RBI strategy is more worrying. High interest
rates have made the manufacturing sector in
India completely uncompetitive with the
trading activity preferred to actual
production. It may be argued that interest
rates mainly affect production which is down
because of the recession effect and not due to
high interest rates. Yet, this is based on the


GIST OF THE YOJANA
VOL26
assumption that consumption is not affected

by the interest rates. However, the
developments in consumer credit in the last
three decades need some change in thinking.
As bank consumer credit expands,
particularly for big ticket items like housing
and durable goods purchases, purchases by
consumers are increasingly linked to the
interest rate.
There seems to be a general agreement
that jobs in the manufacturing sector must
revive if the demographic dividend is to be
harnessed. Can the RBI play an constructive
role in this? So far it has not. But the process
will be painful and a start can be made by
having a external fund inflow structure built
up on inflows of Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI) rather than FU funds. Excessive reliance
on FII funds to shore up foreign exchange
reserves is faulty and has only led to drying
up of loanable funds for domestic
manufacturing.
CLEANING RIVERS :
A PEOPLE CENTRIC APPROACH
Missions like Swachh Bharat and

Cleaning Ganga are capturing global
attention. These efforts are laudable and
ambitious. They might often require small
steps to convert these into mass movements.
Cleaning a river is an exercise fraught with
several lacunae. Measurement of the work
done and silt removed is difficult, postcompletion assessment is near impossible,
given the fact that one rain spoils any chance
of getting it done. The 81.8 km long river
required cleaning and desilting and the project
49
cost was Rs. 328 lakh.

The perception were such that no
outsider dared to enter the area and bid
against the tender (a global tender) floated, In
all probability, the contract had to be
awarded to a local man. The officials of the
implementing agency were too scared to
enter the villages, a very sensitive area and
check the Measurement Book. On top of all
this, political upheavals were a fact of life. And
inquiries by succeeding governments were a
reality. The Project Team was in a dilemma.
They wanted a good enough solution that
could get the job done. They studied the
procedures and held deliberations with
subject matter experts. It struck them that in
general, the silt is fertile in nature and farmers
would love to have the desilted material into
their fields. But this aspect was, so far,
unnoticed, inconsequential and unimportant.
The team drew the local farmers attention to
this alluvial soil, real gold, and made them
natural partners in the desilting process by
announcing that the silt removed from the
river bed would be distributed to the farmers
(according to a formula arrived at after wider
consultations). This simple announcement
made them stakeholders in the process. With
a view to raise awareness, the team held
formal and informal discussions with various
interest groups - beneficiaries, implementing
agency, NGOs, village leaders, peoples
representatives and other identified groups.
Each farmer became aware of the advantage
and wanted to have the maximum possible silt
for himself. The villagers became an
interested group, having local influence and
hence able to influence and persuade the


50
VOL26
contractor (another local man) to do his job

well, removing all the desired silt from the
bed.
This is one example of process
innovation. Several other initiatives must have
been taken up by many others across the
country. There is a need to document these
simple, yet creative ways of solving complex
problems in a resource efficient manner and
finding opportunities in an adverse
environment.
FDI IN RETAIL : A THREAT
OR A POTENT SOURCE OF GROWTH
Retail Sector in India accounts for 14-15

per cent of GDP and is an attractive
investment outlet for both foreign owned and
Indian firms. In 20 12, India relaxed its
regulations on FDI in retailing and allowed
100 per cent ownership for foreign, firms in
the sector. Foreign firms though were allowed
to sell only single brands of products and
were required to source 30 per cent of the
products and materials from within the
country. Later in the year 2012, foreign firms
were allowed to sell multi-brand products but
with the requirement that they own only 51
per cent of the equity. Further, the
regulations required that foreign firms should
invest a minimum of $100 million with 50 per
cent of this amount specifically in
infrastructure such as warehouses and cold
storage facilities. In 2014, the newly elected
government that endorses a liberal economic
policy framework and increased inflows of
FDI into the economy has prohibited foreign
direct investment in multi-brand retail This is
a reaction to the fears of indigenous small
GIST OF THE YOJANA
retailers known as the Kirana stores that

FDI may out compete them in the retail
sector.
Indias retail sector consists of an
organized and an unorganized sector. The
unorganized sector includes traditionally
family run, low cost retailers known as kirana
shops, comer shops or convenience stores,
the organized sector with a modem format
includes supermarkets, hypermarkets,
departmental stores and specialty chains.
Organized retail accounts for 8 per cent of
the total retail market and is expected to
grow to 20 per cent by 2020. Food retail trade
in India accounts for 63 per cent of total retail
sales, contributes 14 per cent to the GDP and
7 per cent to total employment. Indian
households spend 48 per cent of their income
on food and beverages, which is the highest
proportion of total expenditures in the world
and most of their purchases are confined to
small shops.
The Agricultural Produce Market
Committee (APMC) Act which came into
existence in 1991 makes it compulsory for
fanners to sell their produce to licensed
merchants or middlemen at mandis set by
state agriculture marketing boards instead of
selling directly to retailers or consumers.
These middlemen are virtually a cartel and
the prices they charge the retailers reflect
their monopoly of the retail market for food
and food products. In addition, government
taxes, interstate transport charges and agents
commission all add up to the high prices the
middlemen charge the retailers. Government


GIST OF THE YOJANA
VOL26
of India requested all the states to delist fruit

and vegetables from the APMC act, but this
measure alone is not enough to keep prices in
check. Shops set up by independent players
like foreign firms in the country could shorten
the supply chain, rid farmers of middlemen
and provide them with a large share of the
final selling price.
The retail sector in a growing economy
with a substantial middle class is attractive to
large super stores including foreign owned
multi-brand firms. The growth of the sector,
however, is unlikely to outcompete the kirana
stores mostly because of the low levels of
income of a majority of the population who
lack both transport facilities to reach
supermarkets in the cities and refrigerators to
store their purchases for long time periods.
THREAT TO THE KIRANAS-A FALSE FEAR
Role of FDI in promoting economic

growth has been undertaken by several
researchers. However there are also studies
identifying the conditions necessary to
promote economic development through
FDI. But for a developing countries like India,
it is important to ensure that the FDI
contributes to poverty alleviation along with
economic growth.
There is a vast literature, with mixed
responses, on the impact of super markets on
small grocery stores. The study by Sobel and
Dean (2008) denies any long run impact of
Wal Marts entry on small retailers in US apart
from the reallocation of small businesses
resulting in expansion or contraction,
whereas report a decline in the number of
51
small retailers. The study by Igami (2008)

suggests that large supermarkets displace big
and medium sized incumbents but improves
the survival rate of small stores who are
insulated by product differentiation due to
store size and hence softens price
competition.
Sprawling super markets are generally
located in outskirts or suburbs of big cities to
cope with the rising retail rentals and scarcity
of prime locations. Retail rentals in prime
locations have gone up by 50 per cent in the
last three years and are 300-400 basis points
higher than international rentals, accounting
for approx. 40 per cent of total cost of retail
sales. It is observable that lower income
group would not spend on commuting to
super market for their daily needs or top-up
shopping; rather a kirana shop or a vegetable
vendor would be a convenient choice
Consumers have also the liberty to shop
around and purchase fresh fruits, vegetables,
milk from kirana shops or the nearly
vegetable market. As suggested by Kohli and
Bhagwati (2011), this is all a part of the
rhythm of life in India and might not change in
the near future. The joint family continues to
exist in India, where the elders of the family,
mostly retired from work, generally engage in
daily shopping from the nearby comer shops
where they meet other people of their age,
chat with them and derive pleasure out of
such outings.
A SOURCE OF EQUITY
AND EFFICIENCY FOR THE FARMERS
Much of the debate on FDI in retailing in

India is concerned with its impact on the


52
VOL26
Kirana stores. For the reasons cited earlier,

this is a non-issue. The relevant issue is the
contribution of the foreign firms to the
welfare of the small farmers who are at the
present, exploited rather than helped by the
state appointed Mundis and middlemen in the
retail sector.
There is though more than mere markets
that foreign firms can gain by their association
with the low income consumers who are also
producers. They are producers with low levels
GIST OF THE YOJANA
of technology, problems of access to inputs

and also markets for their products. It is by
providing the farmers with appropriate
technology, seeds and fertilizers that the
foreign firms can enhance their profits and
promote the welfare of poor farmers. In the
age of information technology, foreign firms
can reach the farmers through the internet
and demonstrate the efficacy of new varieties
of seeds and fertilizers to the farmers through
slide shows and documentaries.

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Gist of
GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
VOL26
Kurukshetra
SWACHH BHARAT MISSION-AN

OPPORTUNITY FOR MAKING INDIA
OPEN DEFECATION FREE AND CLEAN?
sanitation has become a hot topic in the

country these days and a matter of serious
discussion at ever y level. The talk of
Sauchalaya before Devalaya is getting louder
and louder and further dimension of
achieving the open defecation free status and
management of solid and liquid waste has
been added to it. In his Independence Day (15
August, 2014) speech, the Prime Minister
outlined his Governments priorities,
sanitation being one of them and later on
unfolded his agenda to achieve status of
Swachh Bharat by 02nd October, 2019 during
five years from 02 nd October, 2014. He
explained his Governments sanitation agenda
in his speech at the UN General Assembly on
27th September, 2014 and in his address to the
Indian Americans at the Madison Square
Garden, New York on 28th September, 2014.
Finally the Swachh Bharat Mission
(SBM) (Rural and Urban) has been launched
from 02nd October, 2014 with great media
hype. For the first time in the history of
Independent India important organizations
like Indian Armed Forces, University Grant
Commission, Industries Associations and
53
State Governments have expressed their

solidarity with the PM and taken pledge to be
part of the SBM in achieving full sanitation.
The electronic and print media for the first
time gave full coverage to the event. While
appreciating the efforts of previous
governments in achieving the present status
of sanitation, the Prime Minister has very
clearly stated that this is not to draw a political
mileage but he actually means it. Suggestions
have been invited from the public for drawing
a strategy to achieve the goal of sustainable
full sanitation.
sanitation has become a hot topic in the
country these days and a matter of serious
discussion at ever y level. The talk of
Sauchalaya before Devalaya is getting louder
and louder and further dimension of
achieving the open defecation free status and
management of solid and liquid waste has
been added to it. In his Independence Day (15
August, 2014) speech, the Prime Minister
outlined his Governments priorities,
sanitation being one of them and later on
unfolded his agenda to achieve status of
Swachh Bharat by 02nd October, 2019 during
five years from 02 nd October, 2014. He
explained his Governments sanitation agenda
in his speech at the UN General Assembly on
27th September, 2014 and in his address to the
Indian Americans at the Madison Square
Garden, New York on 28th September, 2014.
Finally the Swachh Bharat Mission
(SBM) (Rural and Urban) has been launched
from 02nd October, 2014 with great media
hype. For the first time in the history of
Independent India important organizations


54
VOL26
like Indian Armed Forces, University Grant

Commission, Industries Associations and
State Governments have expressed their
solidarity with the PM and taken pledge to be
part of the SBM in achieving full sanitation.
The electronic and print media for the first
time gave full coverage to the event. While
appreciating the efforts of previous
governments in achieving the present status
of sanitation, the Prime Minister has very
clearly stated that this is not to draw a political
mileage but he actually means it. Suggestions
have been invited from the public for drawing
a strategy to achieve the goal of sustainable
full sanitation.
An oath has been administered to all
concerned on 02 nd October, 2014 to all
Indians for making India clean. Can India
achieve the goal of Swachh Bharat? Or this
Mission -will also remain like the earlier
Central Rural Sanitation Programme(1986),
Total Sanitation Campaign (1999) re-named
as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (2012), no doubt
the number of rural households having access
to sanitation facilities has increased from 1%
in 1981 (9.1 % in 1991, 21.9% in 2001) to
32.7% (Census-2011) by spending Rs. 600 cr
under CRSP and Rs.10051 cr under TSC. It can
happen, if we look into the support received to
SBM from every Indian on 02nd October and
especially the Armed Forces, the UGC, the
Industries Associations and State
Governments? And why not, when poor
sanitation is the cause of poverty?
WHAT IS SANITATION?
Sanitation is not the disposal of human

excreta only as is being understood, it is a
GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
comprehensive concept which includes seven

components like i) safe disposal of human
excreta, ii) usage and maintenance of safe
drinking water, iii) personal hygiene, iv) food
and home hygiene, v) safe disposal of solid
waste, vi) safe disposal of liquid waste, and vii)
community/ environment cleanliness. So
sanitation is not just creating toilets, it is much
larger an issue.
WHY SANITATION?
There is empirical evidence to prove that

poor sanitation plays havoc with the lives of
the people especially children below the age of
5 years. According to an estimate about 88%
of the diseases are caused due to poor
sanitation which include diseases like
Diarrhea, Dysenter y, Cholera, Malaria,
Hepatitis, Jaundice, Guinea worms, Hook
worms, Round worms, Typhoid, Trachoma,
Schistosomiasis and Intestinal helminth,
causing huge economic loss to the economy in
terms loss of health, work days, stunt physical
and mental growth, tourism, school days and
drop out from schools etc. It has been
estimated that India losses 6.4% of its GDP
annually for lack of basic sanitation and
sanitation facilities (WSP-2006), which comes
to about Rs. 2.5 lakh crores. About 25% of
total 16 lakh deaths world caused over due to
water borne diseases, 4.5 lakh happen in India
and of these 90% are children below 5 years.
PERFORMANCE OF RURAL
SANITATION PROGRAMMES IN INDIA?
Management Information System of the

Union Ministr y of Drinking Water and
Sanitation shows that during the last one and


GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
VOL26
half decades under Total Sanitation

Campaign/Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan shows that
97329728 (52413989 for BPL) individual
households latrines, 1344607 School
toilets,472662 anganwadi toilets and 27894
Community Sanitary Complexes have been
built between 1999 to 2014 by spending Rs.
15187, however, the Censuus-2011 report
has exposed these claims. During this period
28002 Gram Panchayats out of 2.50 lakh, 181
Block Panchayats, and 13 district Panchayats
have been declared ODF and have achieved
the status of Nirmal Grams, whch is about
10% of the total GPs in India.
According to Cenuss-2011 report, 11.62
cr are without toilets and resort to open
defecation. It means 11.62 cr toilets have to
be built over the next five year in rural areas
.The situation of schools sanitation has also
not been very encouraging. If the toilets are
built then these are not kept clean and
dysfunctional.
CAUSES OF FAILURE OF CRSP AND TSC
Though there are pocket of success, the

main reasons for the failure of rural sanitation
like Total Sanitation Campaign have been as
under:
(i) Lack of strong political will at all levels
i.e., Central, State and local as has been
shown presently though there has been
lot of rhetoric.
(ii) The bureaucratic and non professional
approach, which remained confined to
adding figures without actual work in the
field.
(iii) Lack of dynamic leadership at various
55
levels and lack of guidance to the field

functionaries who are the pillars of the
programme. Those who tried to
implement
the
programme
professionally were also driven by other
consideration like self aggrandizement.
(vi) The attitude of general masses has also
not been less responsible in poor success
of the programme. People just like to
defecate in the open at free will and
everyone needs one sweeper to lift the
waste thrown by them.
(v) Lack of proper approach for demand
generation of sanitation facilities.
STRATEGY TO ACHIEVE THE STATUS OF
OPEN DEFECATION FREE AND CLEAN
RURAL INDIA?
If India has to progress both socially and

economically and fast to realize the dream of
becoming the world power, it will have to
devise a strategy to achieve total sanitation by
taking into consideration all the components
of sanitation and hygiene mentioned in
section-II in an integrated manner. Therefore,
a multi-pronged strategy-a mix of financial
incentives to massive awareness campaign to
achieve the goal of 100% ODF and cleanliness
including good hygienic practices is
recommended for consideration of the
Government as under:
(i) Behaviour change strategy: To change
the casual attitude of sab chalta hai,
defecating and throwing waste at free
will, an intensive behaviour change
campaign is the immediate need of the
hour.


56
VOL26
GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
Intensive
inter-personal a lion can definitely win the battle.
communication (IPC) should
Besides, introducing the concept of
supported by media (electronic,
responsibility and accountability,
print and social) campaign to change
building of conducive environment
traditioal rigid mind set/behaviour
at the field level is very important.
of the community and breaking of
There is need for establishing

mental barriers for achieving open
objective monitoring mechanism for
defecation free status and solid and
tracking the actual progress.
liquid waste management.
When there are Angwanwadi workers

An army of trained foot soldiers
for ICDS, ASHA and ANM for health,
having strong will power and capacity
Rozgar Sahayaks and mates for
to work amidst the rural
implementation of MGNREGS and
communities in the hostile
teachers for every fix number of
environment is required to be
students for teaching, there is
deployed in the villages.
serious need to think about placing
The National/ State level electronic
trained and paid Sanitation Sainiks
and print should support the IPC
at every 1000 population to carry the
and social media should be used to
sanitation agenda.
promote good sanitary and hygiene
practices.
(iv) Strategy for solid
and liquid
(ii) Capacity building Strategy
waste management
Massive capacity building campaign for
First of all the State Governments
training of elected representatives of should be convinced to enforce a strict ban on
Panchayati R aj, functionaries and the production and use of polythene and as
communities should be organised. It requires far as possible on non bio-degradable
Training of Trainers on massive packaging, the biggest nuisance and major
scale.
cause of unhygienic and unsanitar y
Cadre of dedicated and motivated conditions.
National level/State level, district
(v) Role of Corporate sector
and Panchayat level trainers for
Besides, supporting maintenance of
training of PRls, communities,
functionaries and scale in a shortest school toilets the Corporate Sector should be
involved in awareness creation, training of
time period.
The senior level officers should be stakeholders, school sanitation and
sensitized about the spirit behind the maintaining community sanitation like solid
mission and their role.
and liquid waste management. The salary
(iii) Strategy
for
Programme expenses of foot soldiers should funded by
Management
the Corporate.
There is a saying that an army of lions (vi) Special Focus
commanded by a donkey cannot win a battle,
While not ignoring the states, which
whereas, an army of donkeys commanded by have already done better on this front, the


GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
VOL26
focus should be on 13 states as mentioned

above and special focus on 6 states, which
have sanitation coverage below 25%.
If this countr y has to come out of
poverty trap and develop fast, sanitation will
have to be accorded top priority at all levels
and above all the programmes along with the
programmes on missiles, satellites and
mobiles for Total Sanitation to Total
Development. We will have to stop the
rhetoric and have to come on the ground to
achieve the goal of Swachh Bharat by 2019
and save million of GDP losses suffered due
to inadequate sanitation. Having said the
above, everyone of us in the governance
including private sector and communities
should realize the importance of sanitation in
prevention of common fatal diseases and
creating disease free, healthy and prosperous
India with smiling faces to realise the
Mahatma Gandhis favourite statement
Sanitation is more important than
Independence. India will really be
independent, when we free ourselves from the
shackles of poor sanitation.
RURAL AND
URBAN SANITATION IN INDIA
India has progressed on many fronts

over the decades since independence in 1947.
Our per capita income has been rising and the
average longevity has increased from about
less than 40 years at the time of independence
to 66 years now. According to 2011 Census
overall literacy rate has also increased to 74
per cent compared to less than 20 per cent in
1951. However, on the other hand, India has
the largest numbers of malnourished people
57
in the world. Studies show that

malnourishment is not only the product of
access to food but also access to safe drinking
water and sanitation. Many water borne
diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid
are related to huge morbidity burden and loss
of working days.
It is important to mention that Indias
1.21 billion people live in large number of
rural and urban habitations. There were 7935
cities and towns and 6.4 lakh villages
according to 2011 Census. About one-third
population (31 per cent) lived in urban areas
and three-fourth lived in rural areas. Rural
and urban sanitation should be seen
differently due to diverse conditions
prevailing in the rural and urban areas.
RURAL SANITATION
Sanitation is not only an absence of

garbage and waste materials strewn around
but also access to toilet facility, safe drinking
water and connectivity to a drainage system.
In rural India, this is a huge problem. Census
of India collected data on access to water and
sanitation shows that only 31 per cent rural
households were having any toilet facility in
their households. The increase in toilet facility
during last ten years from 2001 to 2011 was
at the rate of just one per cent every year. At
this rate India could achieve universal
sanitation only by 2081. Thus, progress in the
provision of toilet facility in rural areas is very
slow and open defecation is a serious problem.
Similarly the proportion of households with
tap water and drainage facilities also remains
at the one-third level. It is worthwhile to
mention that due to lack of drainage facility


58
VOL26
the low lying areas of many villages and towns

often get flooded during monsoon season.
The Ministry of Rural Development
launched the TSC in 1999 as a demand driven
community-led programme. In order to boost
sanitation programme the Government has
introduced the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (NGP)
in 2005 for those Gram Panchayats, blocks
and districts that have attained 100 per cent
sanitation coverage. The major problem with
TSC was that it provided only a limited range
of technology options whereas geographic,
hydrologic and socio-economic conditions
differ widely in the country. The TSC was
changed into a new strategy known as Nirmal
Bharat Abhiyan (NBA) in 2012 to facilitate
convergence between drinking water and
sanitation projects.
URBAN SANITATION
The situation in urban areas is better

than rural areas, but still one-third of the
urban households have no access to piped
drinking water in 2011 and the progress
during 2001-2011 was just 2 percentage
points. Similarly one-fifth of urban
households were not connected to any
drainage facilities and similar proportions
have no access to toilet facilities in urban
areas. Also, in urban areas, there is no
difference between the proportions of
households with television/ mobile/telephone
facilities on the one hand and toilet facilities on
the other as observed in rural areas. State
level variations in access to water and
sanitations remain same as seen in rural
areas. Slums add an acute dimension to the
GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
sanitation and unhygienic conditions in urban

areas as one-fifth urbanites live in slums
according to 2011 Census. It is not possible to
have toilet facility in every slum household
due to space crunch, therefore public toilets
were provided in some of big cities like
Mumbai. Access to water is a serious problem
in maintaining these toilets and more efforts
are needed by the communities, NGOs and
urban local bodies to provide toilet and sewer
facilities in slums along with water supply.
Outside households, sanitation at
schools, public places and railway stations is
quite appalling. Most of our railway stations
are stinking places as human waste is released
on the tracks.
Therefore, water supply is critical for
providing sanitation. The toilets cannot be
functional without water supply. On the other
hand, more use of water generates higher
volumes of wastewater which requires good
drainage system for its out flow. In many
parts of urban areas even if the drainage
system exists, it gets choked as people throw
garbage in the open drainage. This leads to
accumulation of wastewater leading to water
logging in many cities and towns. Sewage
treatment and recycling of waste water should
also be tried as a part of sanitation strategy.
POLICY PERSPECTIVES
As per the Millennium Development

Goals, India is bound to provide improved
sanitation to at least half of its urban
population by 2015 and 100 per cent access by
2025. Keeping in view this, Ministry of Urban
Development formulated National Sanitation


GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
VOL26
Policy in 2008. The National Urban Sanitation

Policy advised state governments to prepare
detailed state level urban sanitation strategies
and City Sanitation Plan. Environmental
considerations, public health implications and
reaching the unserved and urban poor are
main features of the policy. Funds could be
mobilized either through direct central and
state government supports or through publicprivate partnership. At the central
government level, urban sanitation is funded
under Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal
Mission (JNNURM-II).
Lack of toilet facility affects children,
elderly and women more. It is torturous for
women who cannot use open spaces as freely
as men in the day time and have to wait until
the sunset. This incurs health risk to women
in want of latrine facilities in both rural and
urban areas. Also it is evident from census
data that most of the households belonging to
SC and ST categories are deprived of water
and sanitation facilities. Rural areas are more
deprived of water supply and sanitation
compared to urban areas and in urban areas
small and medium towns are more deprived
than the big cities.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan initiated by the
government on the birthday of Mahatma
Gandhi is a noble initiative. However,
cleaning streets and government offices will
not suffice because it is also a matter of
entitlements and rights for a large number of
rural and urban people who are deprived of
the basic necessities of life like access to safe
water, toilet and drainage facilities. The
preparation of citizens charters and the
59
enforcement of service guarantee of basic

services are necessary and should be made an
integral part of the good governance. Also,
there is a need to have a plan to reuse the
garbage and waste materials. It will help in
generating large number of jobs and also
making our cities and towns sustainable.
It needs to be recognized that sanitation
is a local issue and any top down approach will
not suffice. The local governments for both
rural and urban areas need to be made
accountable with adequate empowerment,
resources and a sanitation strategy. The
sanitation strategy should be just, inclusive
and suitable. The areas of settlements
belonging to marginal and minority
communities like scheduled castes and
scheduled tribes and Muslim habitations
should not be excluded directly or indirectly.
Due to prejudices, tensions and occasional
occurrence of riots in some cities, the areas of
minority habitations may suffer an act of
negligence and a situation of discrimination in
sanitation services. However, it is essential to
emphasize that the health risks arising due to
lack of sanitation facilities is not confined to
the areas affected per se, but also goes
beyond the locality. We live in interconnected
and interdependent spaces, and the
government, civil society and community
should work together to achieve the goal of
Swachh Bharat.
IS CLEAN INDIA A FAR-FETCHED DREAM?
It is well known that Narendra Modi is

committed to Swachh Bharat that is making
the country free of open defecation by the


60
VOL26
year 2019, which incidentally happens to be

the 150 th birth anniversary of Mahatma
Gandhi. The scheme is no doubt ambitious
and imperative at this juncture but extremely
difficult to achieve, keeping in view the
traditional mindsets of the people as also the
financial constraints being faced by the
government.
India leads the world in open defecation
with around 550 million defecating in the
open every day. This also means that around
270 to 300 million women and girls sit out in
the open in all types of weather and are in
constant threat of being watched. The overall
sanitation coverage - both rural and urban though estimated by the government to be
around 50 per cent is actually much less. This
means that 123 million of the countrys 246
million households do not have access to
sanitation. The coverage is worse among
marginalized sections and the tribals of whom
only around 20 per cent have access to
sanitation.
Coming to the question of schools, it was
found from a DSE report (2013-14) that 1.9
lakh schools did not have girls toilets or their
toilets are non-functional. Then there are 1.7
lakh schools that have no boys toilets or
toilets are unusable. The biggest reason why
toilets fail in rural areas is due to lack of tap
water and cleaning facilities. Social analysts
pointed out that girls are pulled out from
school because there are no separate toilets
for the opposite sex. That separate functional
toilets for them in schools would encourage
their education and reduce in dropout rate
would be obvious. Moreover, doctors have
GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
unanimously opined that adequate sanitation

facilities in educational institutions would
bring down the disease rate in rural areas
among children.
Meanwhile the government had initiated
steps (since mid August) by writing to the
state governments to ensure construction of
individual and community latrines for BPL
families and facilitating micro-finance or
priority sector loans to households for setting
up latrines.
Study titled The Economic Impacts of
Inadequate Sanitation in India undertaken by
the water and sanitation programme of the
World Bank revealed some startling figures,
estimating that the economic impact of
inadequate sanitation in the country amounts
to an astronomical figure of Rs 2.44 trillion
($53.8 billion) - around 6.4 per cent of the
GDP. The per person annual impact comes to
around Rs 2180. In fact, the economic impact
of inadequate sanitation was as high as the
state incomes of Andhra Pradesh or Tamil
Nadu and was more than Gujarats state
income in 2006-07.
After health, access time - production
time lost to access sanitation facilities (shared
or even public toilet) or sites for defecation
and drinking water related impacts are the
other two main losses at Rs 487 billion and Rs
191 billion respectively. The World Bank
study further pointed out that 79 per cent of
premature mortality-related economic losses
under health impact was due to deaths and
diseases in children below 5 years. Diarrhea in
children below 5 years accounted for more


GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
VOL26
61
than 47 per cent of the health-related

economic impact. Delhi.
CLEANING RIVER
GANGA-A NEW APPROACH
The poorest 20 per cent households

living in urban areas bear the highest per
capita impact of inadequate sanitation of Rs
1699, which is 75 per cent more than the
national average per capita losses of Rs 961
and 60 per cent more than the urban average
(Rs 1037). Rural households in the poorest
category bear per capita losses of Rs 1000,
which are around 8 per cent more than the
average loss for households on rural areas (Rs
970).
Proper sanitation along with clean water
is among the most powerful medicines for
reducing child mortality. They are to diarrhea
what immunization is to measles or polio. In
addition to saving lives, upstream investments
in sanitation and water make economic value
because they would reduce the downstream
costs faced by health systems. Although
Modis target may be extremely difficult to
accomplish but if sincere efforts are made, one
can expect that a lot could be accomplished in
the coming years.
Thus, it is imperative at this juncture
that there has to be coordinated action
between the government and the NGOs and
CBOs to sanitize all the districts-of the
country, including the backward ones. The
government should rely on the grass root
organizations, specially led by girls, as they
are capable of carrying the work faster and
with efficiency. This would help generate
awareness and motivation about the need for
not just setting up but also using sanitary
latrines.
A number of initiatives have been

under-taken to clean the river but failed to
deliver desired results. After getting elected,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared to
work for cleaning the river and controlling
pollution. Subsequently, Integrated Ganga
Conservation Mission called Namami Gange
was announced by the Finance Minister and
an amount of Rs. 2037 crores was set-aside
for this purpose. The PMs commitment to
clean the holy river is reflected by renaming
of the Ministry of Water Resources as the
Ministry of Water Resources, River
Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. But
his mission is not going to be easy.
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
CLEAN GANGA FUND
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime

Minister, en 24th September, 2014 gave
approval for establishment of the Clean
Ganga Fund (CGF). The Clean Ganga Fund
(CGF), will be set up with voluntar y
contributions from residents of the country
and Non-Resident Indian (NRls) / Person of
Indian Origin (PIO) and others to harness
their enthusiasm to contribute towards the
conservation of the river Ganga. The Fund
would be managed by a Trust to be headed by
Finance Minister. The secretariat of the Trust
will be set up in Ministry of Water Resources,
River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation
under the Mission Director, Clean Ganga. The
proposal to set up CGF is to attract private
contributions globally for increasing peoples
participation in this massive task.


62
VOL26
The main features of CGF are:

CGF will have the objective of
contributing to the national effort of
improving the cleanliness of the
river Ganga with the contributions
received from the residents of the
country, NRls/ PIO and others.
CGF will be operated through a bank
account by a Trust.
Domestic donors to the fund shall be
eligible for tax benefits as in the case
of Swachh Bharat Kosh. Foreign
donors could get suitable tax
exemptions in domestic law,
wherever permissible.
Broad activities proposed to be
financed from CGF include, inter
alia, Activities outlined under the
Namami Gange programme for
cleaning of river Ganga; control of
non-point
pollution
from
agricultural runoff, human
defecation, cattle wallowing etc.;
setting up of waste treatment and
disposal plants along the river
around the cities; conservation of the
biotic diversity of the river;
community based activities to
reduce polluting human interface
with the river.
CGF will be subject to such audit as
require by law as well as audit by any
agency determined by Government.
CGF would be administered by a
Trust to be chaired by Finance
Minister and upto 8 members from
different fields including NRls,
nominated by the Government.
Ganga, the longest river in India has a
unique position in the Indian psyche. Apart
from geographical scale and spread, she has
GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
played a vital role in the social, cultural,

economic and political life of the country. The
socio-economic changes in the post
industrialization era have adversely affected
the flow and quality of the river water leading
to pollution of the river. In order to reduce
the pollution of this river the Government of
India (Gol) has been implementing a pollution
abatement program for the last 25 years.
India is endowed with rich water resources.
Rapidly increasing population, rising
standards of living and exponential growth of
industrialization and urbanisation have
exposed the water resources, in general and
rivers in particular, to various forms of
degradation. Many Indian rivers, including the
Ganga in several stretches, particularly during
lean f lows, have become unfit even for
bathing. Comprehending that the rivers of the
country were in a serious state of degradation,
a beginning towards their restoration was
made with the launching of the Ganga Action
Plan (GAP) in 1985.
GANGA ACTION PLAN (GAP)
The Ganga Action Plan or GAP was a

program launched by Rajiv Gandhi in April
1986 in order to reduce the pollution load on
the river. Under GAP-I, pollution abatement
schemes were taken up in 25 Class-I towns in
three States of U.P, Bihar and West Bengal.
The programme included 261 schemes. The
main focus of the Plan was on Interception &
Diversion and treatment of sewage generated
from these identified towns. GAP-I was
completed in March 2000 at a cost of Rs. 452
crores. As GAP-I addressed only a part of the


GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
VOL26
pollution load of Ganga, GAP-II was launched

in stages between 1993 and 1996, 59 towns
along the main stream of river Ganga in five
States of Uttarakhand, U.P, Jharkhand, Bihar
and West Bengal are covered under the Plan
and included the following tributaries of the
Ganges, Yamuna, Gomti, Damodar and
Mahananda. GAP-II was expanded in 1996
into the National River Conservation Plan
(NRCP), which presently covers polluted
stretches of 36 rivers in 20 States in the
country. In August, 2009 GAP was re-launched
with a reconstituted National Ganga River
Basin Authority (NGBRA).
Ganga Action Plan was a static plan
which did not consider population increase or
phenomenal growth in Indian economic
activities. In addition, the co-ordination of
activities between the Central and state
organizations were very poor. The designs of
sewage treatment plants were done without
considering the State level requirements.
Many urban centers did not even have
adequate sewage network for carr ying
wastewaters to the treatment plants. Hence
most of the sewage generated has to be
discharged untreated into the river. The
design capacities of the plants were often
lower than the incoming loads. Furthermore,
even the plants that were built became
increasingly less efficient or nonfunctional
with time.
Ganga was made a National River in
2008. World Bank has sanctioned a loan of 1
billion USD over the period of 2001-2019,
under the National Ganga River Basin project
that would assist in capacity building and
63
provide technical assistance to local and

central organizations. The main items include
municipal wastewater management,
industrial pollution control, solid wastes
management and river front beautification.
Unfortunately, after three years of running
the program, the World Bank, concluded in
February 2014 that overall progress and
implementation is unsatisfactory.
REASON BEHIND POLLUTION
Thirty-Six settlements, classified as

Class-I cities, contribute 96 per cent of
wastewater draining into the river. According
to CPCBs report, 2723 million litres per day
(mid) of domestic sewage is discharged by
cities located along the river. But even this
may be a gross underestimate as the
calculation is based on the water that is
supplied in the cities.
Even if the treatment capacity is added,
more sewage gets added because of
population growth. The situation worsens if
the actual measured discharge from drains is
taken to estimate the pollution load. Then the
gap between what is installed and what is
generated goes up to 80 per cent. Over and
above this, 764 industrial units along the main
stretch of the river and its tributaries Kali and
Ramganga discharge 500 mid of mostly toxic
waste.
The terror does not end here. These
cities have grown without planning and
investment, so most do not have underground
drainage networks. In Allahabad and Varanasi
80 per cent of the areas are without sewers.
Waste is generated but not communicated to
treatment plants. There is no power to run


64
VOL26
treatment plants; bankrupt municipalities and

water utilities have no money to pay for
operations. CPCB checked 51 out of 64 sewage
treatment plants (STPs) along the Ganga in
2013. It found only 60 per cent of installed
capacity of the plants was being used; 30 per
cent of the STPs were not even operational. So
actual treatment is even less, and untreated
waste discharged into the river even more.
Uttar Pradesh has 687 grossly polluting
industries, finds CPCB. These largely small
scale, often illegal units-tanneries, sugar, pulp
and paper and chemical-contribute 270 mid
GIST OF KURUKSHETRA
of wastewater. But what really matters is the

location of the plants. While over 400
tanneries contribute only 8 per cent of the
industrial discharge, they emit highly toxic
effluent into the river and are located as a
cluster near Kanpur. So the concentration of
pollution is high. It is alarming that not much
is happening to control pollution. The law is
feeble. In 2013, an inspection of 404
industrial units by CPCB showed that all but
23 did not comply with the law. Directions
have been issued and closure notices served.
But nothing has been implemented.

General Studies Manual For Civil Services Pre Examination

(Paper -1) - 2015
BOOK DETAILS
Medium: English
Price: Rs. 1350
Pages: 1700
ISBN: 9789351720355
TOPICS OF THE BOOK
Indian History
Indian Polity
Indian Economy
Geography
Part I (Indian Geography)

Part II (World Geography)
General Science
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Environment
General Knowledge

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CSAT Comprehensive Manual For Civil Services Pre Examination

(Paper -2) - 2015
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Medium: English
Price: Rs. 850
Pages: 1000
ISBN: 9789351720362
TOPICS OF THE BOOK
SOLVED PAPER - 2014

SOLVED PAPER - 2013
SOLVED PAPER - 2012
1. Comprehension & English Language Comprehension
PART - I: Comprehension
PART - II: English Language Comprehension
2. Interpersonal & Communication Skills & Decision Making & Problem Solving
PART - I: Interpersonal & Communication Skills

PART - II: Decision Making & Problem Solving
3. General Mental Ability, Logical Reasoning & Analytical Ability
PART - I: General Mental Ability

PART - II: Logical Reasoning & Analytical Ability
4. Basic Numeracy
5. Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency

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Gist of
GIST OF THE PIB
VOL26
The PIB
INFRASTRUCTURE
FACILITIES IN NAXAL AFFECTED AREAS
The Central Government has adopted an

integrated approach to deal with the menace
of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the areas of
security, development, enforcing rights and
entitlements of local communities, ensuring
good governance and public perception
management. The State Governments
specifically deal with various issues related to
LWE activities in the States. The Central
Government closely monitors the situation
and supplements the efforts of the State
Governments over a wide range of schemes
on both the security and development fronts.
On the development front, in addition to
various development programmes/ flagship
schemes being implemented throughout the
countr y, the Planning Commission is
implementing a scheme titled Additional
Central Assistance (ACA) for LWE affected
districts for development of affected areas.
The ACA, which focuses on the projects of
public infrastructure and the services, covers
88 districts of the 10 LWE affected States of
Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal. Similarly, the scheme titled Road
65
Requirement Plan (RRP-I), being

implemented and monitored by Ministry of
Road Transport & Highways envisages
development of 5477 km of road length at an
estimated cost of Rs. 7300 crore in 34 LWE
affected districts of the 8 States of Telangana,
Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya
Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and Uttar
Pradesh.
As a part of its security related
inter vention, the Central Government
provides Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF)
Battalions to assist the State Police Forces in
anti-LWE operations. At present, 101
Battalions of CAPFs have been deployed in the
LWE affected States to assist the State Police
Forces.
SPORTS FACILITIES IN SCHOOLS/
COLLEGES
UGC has provided grant to the tune of

Rs.312.20 crores to colleges for the
development of new or existing outdoor/
indoor infrastructure for ensuring greater
participation of students in sports activities
under the Scheme Development of Sports
Infrastructure and Equipment in Universities
and Colleges during the XII Plan.
In addition, UGC has been sending, from
time to time, directions to universities to fill
up the vacancies of teachers including sports
teachers. The Government is also making
efforts to encourage sports in schools and
colleges as per the following details:
(i) In compliance of the provisions of the
RTE Act, 2009, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
(SSA) norms have been revised which


66
VOL26
provide for Physical Training Instructor

(part time) at upper primary level.
(ii) Under Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha
Abhiyan (RMSA), financial assistance has
been given to states for purchase of sports
in secondary schools.
(iii) In order to promote sports in higher
educational institutions, UGC has
implemented a number of schemes
during XII Plan i.e. (1) Free Education for
Sports Medal Winner/Participants of
National/ International Events; (2)
Development of Sports Infrastructure
and Equipment in Universities and
Colleges; and (3) Establishment of Centre
of Excellence for Development of Sports
in Universities.
IMPLEMENTATION OF SCHEME FOR
DEVELOPMENT OF SOLAR PARKS AND
ULTRA MEGA SOLAR POWER PROJECTS
The Union Cabinet, chaired by the

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi,
approved the scheme for setting up 25 solar
parks each with a capacity of 500 MW and
above and Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects in
various parts of the country where large
chunks of land can be spared for this purpose.
These parks will be able to accommodate over
20,000 MW of solar power projects. The Solar
Parks/ Ultra Mega Solar Power Projects will be
set up during five years that is from 2014-15
to 2018-19 and will require Central
Government financial support of Rs.4050
crore. Smaller parks in Himalayan and other
hilly States where contiguous land may be
difficult to acquire in view of the difficult
terrain, will also be considered.
GIST OF THE PIB
The solar parks will be developed in

collaboration with State Governments and
their agencies. The choice of implementing
agency for developing and maintaining the
park is left to the State Government. The
States, applying under the scheme, will have
to designate an agency for the development of
the solar park. The State Government will
first nominate the implementing agency for
the solar park and also identify the land for
the proposed solar park. It will then send a
proposal to the Ministr y of New and
Renewable Energy (MNRE) for approval
along with (or later) the name of the
implementing agency. The implementing
agency may be sanctioned a grant of upto
Rs.25 Lakh for preparing a Detailed Project
Report (DPR) of the Solar Park, conducting
surveys, etc. The DPR must be prepared in 60
days.
Thereafter, application may be made by
the implementing agency to SECI for the
grant of up to Rs. 20 lakhs/MW or 30 percent
of the project cost including Grid-connectivity
cost, whichever is lower. The approved grant
will be released by Solar Energy Corporation
of India (SECI) as per milestones prescribed in
the scheme. All the States and Union
Territories are eligible for benefitting under
the scheme. Solar parks will enable
development of solar power in remote areas
where land is inexpensive. As the transmission
system will be developed for the entire park,
developers will not have to set up their own
transmission lines. This will not only save
money but will also avoid damaging the
landscape of the area as only limited
transmission lines would be laid. Developers


GIST OF THE PIB
VOL26
would be able to set up projects very fast as

they will not have to get statutory and other
clearances. India will emerge as a major solar
power producing country as nowhere in the
world are solar parks being developed on such
a large scale.
Background:
The Finance Minister, while presenting

Budget for the year 2014-15, had amongst
other things announced that the new and
renewable energy deserves a ver y high
priority and proposed to take up Ultra Mega
Solar Power Projects in Rajasthan, Gujarat,
Tamil Nadu, and Laddakh in Jammu &
Kashmir for which he had set aside a sum of
Rs. 500 crore in the Budget. The scheme for
development of Solar parks and Ultra Mega
Soiar Power Projects has been conceived on
the lines of the Charanka Solar Park in
Gujarat which is a first-of-its-kind large scale
Solar Park in India with contiguous developed
land and transmission connectivity.
INDIAS
ROLE IN IMF AND WB
India has sought a greater role in

International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the
World Bank (WB). The voice and quota
reforms in IMF WB are an ongoing process.
Indias quota share in IMF increased from
1.91 percent to 2.44 percent in 2011. The
2010 IMF Quota and Governance Reforms
(also referred to as the 14th General Review of
Quotas) will increase Indias quota share from
the current 2.44 percent to 2.75 percent,
making India the eighth largest quota holding
country at the IMF from the current position
of being eleventh largest. Government of India
67
has conveyed its consent to the reforms and

proposed quota increase. For the reforms to
enter into force:
(i) Member countries having no less than 70
percent of the total of quotas have to
consent in writing to the increase in
quotas; and
(ii) Reform of the Executive Board has to be
accepted by three-fifth of the Funds 188
members (or 113 members) having 85
percent of the Funds total voting power.
159 members, representing 78.88
percent of the IMF Quotas have consented to
the proposed Quota increases and 145
members representing 76.97 percent of quota
have accepted the proposed amendment to
the reform of the Executive Board of the IMF.
Since the Monterrey consensus in 2002,
voice reforms of the World Bank (in IBRD, i.e.
International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development) have taken place in two phases,
the first phase in 2008 and the second phase
in 2010. With the complete implementation of
reforms, India will become the seventh largest
shareholder in IBRD with voting power of 2.91
percent from 2.77 percent.
NATIONAL AYUSH MISSION (NAM)
1. The Government has launched the

National AYUSH Mission with the
objectives of providing cost effective
AYUSH Services, with a universal access
through upgrading AYUSH Hospitals and
Dispensaries, co-location of AYUSH
facilities at Primary Health Centres
(PHCs), Community Health Centres
(CHCs) and District Hospitals (DHs),


68
VOL26
strengthening institutional capacity at

the state level through upgrading AYUSH
educational institutions, State Govt.
ASU&H Pharmacies, Drug Testing
Laboratories and ASU & H enforcement
mechanism, supporting cultivation of
medicinal plants by adopting Good
Agricultural Practices (GAPs) so as to
provide sustained supply of quality rawmaterials and support certification
mechanism for quality standards, Good
A gr i cult ur a l/ C ollect i on / S t o r a ge
Practices and supporting setting up of
clusters through convergence of
cultivation, warehousing, value addition
and marketing and development of
infrastructure for entrepreneurs.
2. The National AYUSH Mission
encompasses core /essential activities on
AYUSH Hospitals and Dispensaries
services, development of AYUSH
Educational Institutions covering under
Graduate and Post Graduate educational
institutes, ASU&H drugs quality control
covering State Government ASU & H
Pharmacies, State Drugs Testing
Laboratories, drugs control framework
and promotion of Medicinal Plants. The
mission also has provision for 20% of
financial resources for f lexible
components to be proposed by the State/
UT Governments.
3. The resource allocation to the States/UTs
is proposed on the basis of population,
backwardness and performance of the
State/UT. This will ensure a predictable
GIST OF THE PIB
and balanced allocation to the States

taking into account equity, performance
and backwardness.
4. At the Centre, Department of AYUSH
would be responsible as the nodal
Department for implementing National
AYUSH Mission. The Mission will be
steered by a National AYUSH Mission
(NAM) Directorate, Chaired by
Secretary, Department of AYUSH.
5. An Appraisal Committee Chaired by
Joint Secretary in-charge of NAM will
scrutinize the State Annual Action Plan
(SAAP) before placing it before the
National Mission for approval. Appraisal
Committee shall consist of technical
experts from various disciplines,
concerned Director/ Deputy Secretary of
NAM as well as in-charges of various
components of the Mission.
Vision:
a. To provide cost effective and equitable

AYUSH health care throughout the
country by improving access to the
services.
b. To revitalize and strengthen the AYUSH
systems making them as prominent
medical streams in addressing the health
care of the society.
c. To improve educational institutions
capable of imparting quality AYUSH
education.
d. To promote the adoption of Quality
standards of AYUSH drugs and making
available the sustained supply of AYUSH
raw-materials.


GIST OF THE PIB
VOL26
Objectives:
a. To provide cost effective AYUSH Services,

with a universal access through
upgrading AYUSH Hospitals and
Dispensaries, co-location of AYUSH
facilities at Primary Health Centres
(PHCs), Community Health Centres
(CHCs) and District Hospitals (DHs).
b. To strengthen institutional capacity at
the state level through upgrading AYUSH
educational institutions, State Govt.
ASU&H Pharmacies, Drug Testing
Laboratories and ASU & H enforcement
mechanism.
c. Support cultivation of medicinal plants
by adopting Good Agricultural Practices
(GAPs) so as to provide sustained supply
of quality raw-materials and support
certification mechanism for quality
standards, Good Agricultural/Collection/
Storage Practices.
d. Support setting up of clusters through
convergence of cultivation, warehousing,
value addition and marketing and
development of infrastructure for
entrepreneurs.
COMPONENTS OF THE MISSION:
Mandatory Components
a.
b.
c.
d.
AYUSH Services
AYUSH Educational Institutions
Quality Control of ASU &H Drugs
Medicinal Plants
Flexible Components:-
Out of the total State envelop available,

20% funds will be earmarked for flexible
funds which can be spent on any of the items
69
given below with the stipulation that not more

than 5% of the envelop is spent on any of the
components:
a. AYUSH Wellness Centres including Yoga
& Naturopathy
b. Tele-medicine
c. Sports Medicine through AYUSH
d. Innovations in AYUSH including Public
Private Partnership
e. Crop Insurance for Medicinal Plants etc.
The financial assistance from
Government of India shall be supplementary
in the form of contractual engagements,
infrastructure development, Capacity
Building and supply of medicines to be
provided from Department of AYUSH. This
will ensure better implementation of the
programme through effective coordination
and monitoring. States shall ensure to make
available all the regular manpower posts filled
in the existing facilities. The procurement of
medicines will be made by the States/UTs as
per the existing guidelines of the scheme.
SUGAMYA BHARAT CAMPAIGN
Accessible India Campaign (Sugamya

Bharat Abhiyan) is the nationwide campaign
for achieving universal accessibility for all
citizens including Persons with Disabilities, to
be able to gain access and live independently.
The Accessible India Campaign comprises of
the following key components:(i) Create Mass Awareness
(ii) Capacity Building
(iii) Interventions (Technology solutions,
Legal framework, Resource generation)


70
VOL26
(iv) Leverage corporate sector efforts

including CSR resources.
(v) Leadership endorsements
Section 44, 45 and 46 of Persons with
Disabilities (PwD) Act, 1995 deals with nondiscrimination in transport, nondiscrimination on the road and nondiscrimination in the built environment,
respectively. All the Establishments,
appropriate Governments and the local
authorities are mandated by these provisions
of the PwD Act to take, within the limits of
their economic capacity, measures for
providing easy accessibility for persons with
disabilities in a non-discriminatory manner.
The Ministr y as well as the Chief
Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities
(CCPD) from time to time request the State
Govts./UT Administrations for providing
barrier free access to public places by
constructing ramps, lifts and railings. CCPD
also takes up with the concerned State Govts./
authorities as and when non-availability of
facilities for access to public places for persons
with disabilities comes to their notice. The
Commissioners for Persons with Disabilities
of the concerned States are also requested to
follow up with their respective State Govts./
UT Administrations.
Moreover, under the Scheme for
Implementation of Persons with Disabilities
Act, 1995 (SIPDA), Ministry provides Grantsin-aids to all States/UTs to provide barrier
free environment in important Government
buildings (State Secretariat, other important
State level offices, Collectorates, State
University Buildings/ Campuses, Medical
GIST OF THE PIB
Colleges and Main Hospitals at Divisional

Headquarters, other important Government
buildings), for Persons with Disabilities as per
Section 46 of the Persons with Disabilities
(Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights
and Full Participation of Rights) Act, 1995
(PwD Act). This includes provision for ramps,
rails, lifts, adaptation of toilets for wheelchair
users, brail signage and auditory signals,
tactile flooring, etc.
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE
FRAMEWORK TO CHECK ACID ATTACKS
The Government has taken a number of

steps in the past to regulate sale of acid,
increase punishment for perpetrators of acid
attack, compensation for the victims etc.
However, more needs to be done as victims of
acid attack suffer a lot. The Government has
been receiving suggestions from various
corners to not only contain the menace of acid
attack but also create a mechanism for quick
relief and rehabilitation of the acid attack
victims.
Showing utmost concern to the victims
of acid attacks, the Union Home Minister, Shri
Rajnath Singh has approved the following
measures to strengthen legal and
administrative framework to check acid
attacks:
In order to regulate the sale of acid, a web
application having functionalities like
registration of stockists and retailers,
issue of licenses by the District
administration, targeting sale of acid to
individuals only after recording personal
details like proof of identity and proof of


GIST OF THE PIB
VOL26
address of the purchaser will be

developed. This measure will
considerably reduce unauthorized sale of
acid in the country.
The victims of acid attack need to be
treated by the hospitals in a hassle free
manner. The Ministry of Home Affairs
will develop a new mechanism in
consultation with the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare, Ministry of Finance
and Insurance companies so that the
victims of acid attacks are treated on
cashless basis and the treatment amount
is paid from the Central Victim
Compensation Fund which is proposed
to be set up by MHA.
All such cases where maximum
punishment of life imprisonment or
death sentence is possible will be
categorized as Heinous Crimes. As per
Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2013,
trial of offences under Section 376A-D
of IPC, are to be completed within 60
days. Extending this provision further,
suitable amendments in CrPC will be
made for time bound investigation and
trial of all cases related to heinous crimes.
Government also proposes to bring
suitable amendments in law to fix time
frame for disposal of appeals by courts
especially in cases of heinous crimes
including acid attack to ensure speedy
justice.
Steps will be taken to include acid attack
victims in the category of Physically
Challenged Persons/persons with
disability so that they are able to access
71
the benefits of reservation, training, selfemployment loan etc. as admissible to the
physically challenged persons. This will
help in rehabilitation of acid attack
victims.
MISSION INDRADHANUSH
The Mission Indradhanush, depicting

seven colours of the rainbow, aims to cover all
those children by 2020 who are either
unvaccinated, or are partially vaccinated
against seven vaccine preventable diseases
which include diphtheria, whooping cough,
tetanus, polio, tuberculosis, measles and
hepatitis B. The Minister launched the
Mission on Good Governance Day to mark the
birth anniversary of Bharat Ratna Shri Madan
Mohan Malaviya and birthday of Bharat Ratna
Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
Enumerating on the Mission, the Health
Minister said, We have identified 201 high
focus districts in the country in the first phase
which have nearly 50% of all unvaccinated or
partially vaccinated children. These districts
will be targeted by intensive efforts to
improve the routine immunization coverage.
The Minister stated that of the 201 districts,
82 districts are in just four states of UP, Bihar,
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan and nearly
25% of the unvaccinated or partially
vaccinated children of India are in these 82
districts of 4 states.
The Minister said that the focused and
systematic immunization drive will be
through a catch-up campaign mode where
the aim is to cover all the children who have
been left out or missed out for immunization.


72
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Under Mission Indradhanush, four special

vaccination campaigns will be conducted
between Januar y and June 2015 with
intensive planning and monitoring of these
campaigns. The learnings from the successful
implementation of the polio programme will
be applied in planning and implementation of
the mission, he noted. While 201 districts will
be covered in the first phase, 297 will be
targeted for the second phase in the year
2015.
The Ministr y will be technically
supported by WHO, UNICEF, Rotar y
International and other donor partners. Mass
media, interpersonal communication, and
sturdy mechanisms of monitoring and
evaluating the scheme are crucial components
of Mission Indradhanush, said the Minister.
PRE BUDGET CONSULTATION
MEETING WITH FINANCE MINISTERS
OF STATES AND UNION TERRITORIES
The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun

Jaitley said that immediate challenges before
the Government is to increase the growth rate
as it will boost both the economic activities
and the revenue collections. The Finance
Minister said that as per different estimates,
the growth rate is expected to be in the range
of 6 to 6.5% during 2015-16 even though
Indian economy has a potential to grow at
much higher rate. The Finance Minister Shri
Jaitley was making the Opening Remarks
during his Pre-Budget Meeting with the
Finance Ministers of all the States and Union
Territories here today. The Finance Minister
Shri Jaitley said the growth in service sector is
quite good while growth in agriculture is
GIST OF THE PIB
reasonable. He referred to the patchy growth

in the manufacturing sector and stated that
this was one of the biggest challenge for the
Centre. He urged the States to work with
Centre for putting India back on the path of
higher growth rate.
The Finance Minister referred to the
Prime Ministers formulation that in the
federal structure, Centre and State together
constitute Team India. The Finance Minister
Shri Jaitley stated that the India grows when
the States grow. He told the forum that active
reform steps have been taken and some more
steps would be taken in the coming
months.The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley
informed the State CMs/FMs that the
Fourteenth Finance Commission (FFC) has
submitted its report which is under the
consideration of the Central Government.
State Governments made suggestions
related to Goods and Services Tax (GST),
streamlining and decentralisation of Centrally
Sponsored Schemes(CSS), fiscal transfers to
States, State specific economic issues,
infrastructure related issues, inter linking of
rivers and financial inclusion etc. Other
suggestions include more allocations of funds
directly to the States. Some states asked for
tax holiday in order to increase investment in
their States. Mining States called for removal
of export duty on iron ore among others.
Some States asked for increasing the limits of
borrowing keeping in view FRBM
requirements and the decrease in rate of
market borrowing etc. Some states called for
more funds under JNNURM for urban
renewal mission and encouragement to the


GIST OF THE PIB
VOL26
SME sector. Some asked for declaration of

water as a national asset, restructuring of
MGNAREGA and provision of remunerative
price mechanism for agriculture produce in
lieu of Minimum Support Price (MSP) among
others.
While maintaing the imperative of
growth fiscal discipline can not be
compromised, the Finance Minister indicated
that cooperative federalism has been the
underlying theme of the financial
management by this Government. The
Finance Minister Shri Jaitley reiterated that
economic spin-off of implementation of GST
will be hugely beneficial to both Centre and
the States. Shri Jaitley said that we have to
jointly ensure its implementation. Most of the
States supported and welcomed the initiative
of the Central Government regarding the
implementation of GST and provision of Rs.
11,000 crore in the current fiscal for CST
compensation to the States and assurance of
the Central Government that any State
suffering any loss due to GST implementation
would be fully compensation among others.
INSURANCE LAWS
(AMENDMENT) ORDINANCE, 2014
1. The Union Cabinet had approved the

promulgation of the Insurance Laws
(Amendment) Ordinance 2014 to amend
the Insurance Act, 1938, the General
Insurance Business (Nationalisation)
Act, 1972 and the Insurance Regulatory
and Development Authority Act, 1999,
in accordance with the Insurance Laws
(Amendment) Bill 2008
73
2. The proposed step is also for furtherance

of the broad objective of deepening the
reform process in the economy in general
and the Insurance sector in particular.
This is of paramount importance to create
an investor friendly environment in the
country to achieve the various goals
related to enhanced investment,
economic growth and job creation in the
economy.
3. The promulgation of the Ordinance
would achieve the above critical
objectives through specific provisions
proposed to be introduced in the
Insurance Laws through it. Some of these
key aspects incorporated in the proposed
Ordinance are as follows:
(a) The Ordinance is aimed at amending
the Insurance Act, 1938, the General
Insurance
Business
(Nationalization) Act, 1972 and the
Insurance
Regulator y
and
Development Authority Act, 1999 to
remove archaic and redundant
provisions in the Insurance Laws,
empower IRDA to enable more
effective regulation and enhance the
foreign equity investment cap in an
Indian Insurance Company from 26
to 49% with the safeguard of Indian
ownership and control.
(b) Insurance penetration in India is
very low compared to the global
average. The sector is in need of
capital to expand and ensure better
access to insurance ser vices,
especially in rural areas and for
economically weaker sections.
Enhancement of the foreign equity
cap from 26% to 49% with the


74
VOL26
safeguard of Indian Ownership and
Control is a critical aspect of the
Ordinance, which will potentially
enhance capital availability.
(c) Towards these ends, the content of
the Ordinance is aimed also at
allowing insurance companies to
raise capital through new and
innovative instruments, which
would help capital intensive
insurance industry to garner
resources for business growth;
(d) The Ordinance will also enable
empowering IRDA to regulate key
aspects of Insurance Company
operations in areas like solvency,
investments, expenses and
commissions, which is in keeping
with global best practices of
regulation. The absence of such
empowerment for IRDA potentially
undermines faith in our regulatory
framework and discourages
investment in the sector.
(e) The Ordinance will also
substantially enhance penalty
provisions to ensure compliance
with Insurance Laws by companies,
which is essential to uphold the
consumer interest.
SMART POLICE
STATIONS IN EACH STATE SHORTLY
The Prime Minister of India had

introduced the concept of SMART Police (SSensitive and Strict; MModern with mobility;
A- Alert and Accountable; R- Reliable and
Responsive; T- Trained and Technosavvy)
during the 49th Directors General/ Inspectors
General Annual Conference at Guwahati on
Nov. 30, 2014.
GIST OF THE PIB
Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh

as a first step towards SMART policing, has
decided to establish one model SMART Police
Station in each State and has asked the State
Governments to submit their proposals with
specific location and components by January
31, 2015. MHA has decided to allocate
specific funds for setting up of SMART Police
Stations in each state shortly. MHA will work
with State Governments for setting up more
SMART Police Stations during the next
financial year. Efforts will also be made to
involve the private sector and their Corporate
Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes to
expand the roll out of SMART Police Stations.
The SMART Police Station would become the
foundation towards SMART policing. A
SMART Police Station should be citizen
friendly and clean. It should also meet the
operational and welfare needs of the police
personnel posted there. Some suggested
features of a SMART Police Station are:
Basic amenities for visitors, waiting area,
toilets, drinking water, Receptionist
whom the visitors can meet.
Rest room for constables, including
separate room for women constables.
Natural lighting and ventilation, solar
lighting, energy saving features.
CCTV, Safe & secure Armoury, Record
Room, Communication Room for
wireless, computers etc.
Automated kiosks for filing of complaints
by public (with a back-end system for
tracking follow up action).
The Police Station is the key functional
unit from where the police discharges its tasks


GIST OF THE PIB
VOL26
of maintenance of law & order and

investigation of cases etc. The Police Station is
also the primary point of interaction between
the citizens and the police.
THE DIRECT BENEFIT
TRANSFER OF LPG (DBTL) SCHEME PAHAL
The Direct Benefit transfer of LPG

(DBTL) scheme PAHAL (Pratyaksh
Hanstantrit Labh) has been re-launched in 54
districts on 15.11.2014 in the 1st Phase and
will be launched in the rest of the 622 districts
of the country on 1.1.2015. Consumers who
wish to join the scheme will have to either link
their Aadhaar number into their bank account
and their LPG consumer or if they do not
possess Aadhaar number, they will have to
link their bank account directly with their 17
digit LPG Id. Once a Consumer joins the
scheme, he will get the cylinders at market
price and will receive LPG subsidy directly in
his bank account. A sum of Rs.568 will be paid
in advance to the consumer, in the bank
account, who now joins the scheme, as soon as
he makes the first booking for a cylinder after
joining the scheme to ensure that he has extra
money required to pay for the first LPG
cylinder at market price. This is in addition to
subsidy that is paid on each cylinder. Camps
are being set up at various banks, and LPG
distributor s premises to enable LPG
consumers to open bank account and enroll
for Aadhaar if they need to do so to join the
scheme.
To keep consumers informed about their
status in the scheme, consumers will receive
SMS at every stage in the scheme. To avail of
this feature all LPG consumers are requested
75
to register their mobile number with their

distributor if they have not done so. They are
also advised to receive cylinders only with
cash memos to be assured of their subsidy
transfer. The scheme will cover over 15.3
crore consumers across 676 districts of the
country. Currently over 6.5 crore consumers
i.e. 43% have already joined the scheme and
will receive subsidy in their bank account.
DBTL is designed to ensure that the benefit
meant for the genuine domestic customer
reaches them directly and is not diverted. By
this process public money will be saved. All
LPG customers are requested to immediately
join the scheme as above. LPG consumers who
do not wish to avail the LPG subsidy for LPG
cylinders can simply choose to opt out of
subsidy. Over 12000 citizens have already
voluntarily given up subsidy freeing up crores
of subsidy amount for their less privileged
brethren.
SALIENT FEATURES/TIMELINES
OF THE MODIFIED DBTL SCHEME
LPG consumers who had joined the

scheme earlier by linking his Aadhaar number
in LPG and Bank database will get the cylinder
at Market price w.e.f 1.1.15 and the subsidy
will be transferred into their bank account.
They do not have to do anything further. They
can check CTC (cash transfer compliance)
status on www.mylpg.in. For joining the
scheme, the consumers have to fill up a form
available with distributors and also on
www.mylpg.in. The options are as under:
1. LPG consumers can join the scheme by
providing their Aadhaar number to LPG
distributor and to Bank.


76
VOL26
2. LPG consumers who do not have Aadhaar

number can
a. Give Bank details to LPG distributor
OR
b. Give 17 digit LPG ID to the Bank
(select banks only).
Once the scheme is launched on 1.1.15,
LPG consumers who join the scheme will get a
one time permanent advance of Rs.568/- as
soon as they book a cylinder after joining the
scheme. All consumers who have joined the
scheme will get LPG cylinders at market price
and subsidy amount in their bank account
after launch of the scheme in their district/
state. Between 1st January 2015 and 31st
March 2015 (three months), any LPG
consumer who does not join the scheme will
get the cylinder at subsidized price as they are
GIST OF THE PIB
getting it today. Between 1st April 2015 and

30th June 2015 (three months), those LPG
consumers who still do not join the scheme
will start getting the cylinder at market price
and subsidy will be parked with the OMCs. As
soon as they join the scheme within this 3
month period, the parked subsidy would be
sent to their bank account, else it will lapse.
From 1st July 2015, consumers who have still
not joined the scheme will get the cylinder at
market price, but subsidy will not be
admissible. Subsidy will be transferred only to
the bank account of those consumers who
have joined the scheme prior to 30th June
2015. Any consumer joining the scheme after
30th June 2015 will get permanent advance
and subsidy with prospective effect.

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Gist of
GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER
VOL26
Science
Reporter
THE STORY OF CRYSTALS
77
surroundings exactly identical to the

surrounding of any other point in that array is
called a lattice. In such a lattice if we attach an
atom or a group of atoms, called the basis,
then a crystal is formed. The smallest building
block of a cr ystal so formed is then
understood as the unit cell of that crystal. Just
as a wall is built by systematic repetition of
bricks, a crystal can be looked upon as a
systematic repetition of unit cells in three
dimensions.
Crystals are pleasing to the eye. Their

beautiful shapes and symmetries have always
evoked a sense of amazement and wonder
since antiquity. Crystalline materials are all
around us and find applications in almost all
walks of life. More than 90% of the naturally
occurring solids are crystalline. Minerals,
rocks, sand, snowflakes, ice, clay, gems,
jewels, metals, carbon, and salts all have
crystalline structures. This is because regular
arrangements of atoms results in lowest
energy and hence greatest stabilization.
In 1845, Auguste Bravais, a French

physicist, showed that there can be only 14
such unique lattices, which are named after
him as Bravais lattices, i.e., any crystal in
nature can be understood in terms of only
these 14 lattices. All crystalline materials
recognized until now (excluding quasicrystals)
fit in one of these arrangements. Bravais
published a memoire about Crystallography
in 1847.
EARLY RESEARCH
DIFFRACTION - A KEY CONCEPT
The word crystal is believed to have

originated two thousand years ago when the
Greeks described the quartz crystals by the
word krystallos, meaning ice due to their
resemblance to frozen water. However, for
scientists the aesthetics of the crystalline
world has been more of a motivation for
understanding the crystal structure and its
various manifestations. However, the first
scientific investigation into the regularity and
symmetry of crystals began only in the 17th
century. We can consider atoms as points and
imagine points arranged in space in an orderly
manner. Such an array in which each point has
In the nineteenth centur y, optical

microscopes were discovered and there were
many attempts to understand the cause of
symmetry in crystals using them. Metals were
etched and examined under microscopes to
reveal their microstructural features.
However, all these investigations could not
reveal anything smaller than the wavelength
of light (4000-7000 A). The reason behind this
was understood on the basis of the
phenomenon of diffraction.
Light is found to be diffracted by
obstacles like thin slits and sharp edges. When
a light wave encounters such an obstacle, the


78
VOL26
secondary waves interfere to produce regions

of maximum and minimum intensity, called
the diffraction pattern. Coloured rings around
a street light in frosty weather and the pattern
seen when a distant source of light is seen
through a crack between two fingers are
examples of diffraction pattern.
An interesting development took place
on 8th November 1895, when W.C. Rontgen,
the German physics professor, discovered
accidently a new type of radiation which he
named X-rays, due to its unknown nature and
conspicuous properties. He found that X-rays
travel in straight lines like visible light but do
not show other properties of light such as
reflection, refraction, diffraction or
polarization.
Rontgen was awarded the first Nobel
Prize in Physics for this work in 1901. He was
also appointed to the chair of experimental
physics at Munich University in 1900. The
theoretical physics group at this University
was headed by A. Sommerfeld. Diffraction
patterns produced by various obstacles were
found to contain the knowledge of both the
diffracting obstacle and the diffracted wave.
Thus diffraction emerged as a key concept
that promised to bring to fore connections
between two lengths in nature: the length of
the probing wave and the length (size) of the
probed obstacle. We see next how this concept
united X-rays with crystals.
NOBEL PRIZES 2014 : PHYSICS
LET THERE BE BLUE LIGHT
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014 was

jointly awarded to Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi
Amano and Shuji Nakamura for the invention

of efficient blue light emitting diodes (LEDs).
By using blue LEDs along with the already
existing red and green LEDs, energy-efficient
white light can be produced. With the advent
of LED lamp we now have long lasting and
energy-saving alternative to its nearest rival the compact f luorescent lamp (CFL).
Moreover, unlike fluorescent lamps, they do
not contain any poisonous substances like
mercury.
LEDs have been with us for more than
half a century. They produced radiation by a
process known as electrolurninescence, in the
visible and in the invisible spectrum of
electromagnetic waves, except in the blue
end. (The invisible LED radiating in the
infrared is more ubiquitous and it silently
helped us to change the channels of our TV,
while relaxing in our bed!) Only the triad of
red, green and blue light can combine to
produce the white light that lights up our
world. Despite great efforts by the research
community, the discovery of blue light
emitting diodes was made just twenty years
ago, after many fruitless attempts.
Basically all LEDs are made up of several
layers of n-type and p-type semiconducting
materials. An n-type material contains excess
number of electrons that are not bound to any
particular atom. This is achieved by adding
certain impurities to the semiconducting
material. A p-type material contains excess
number of holes that are bound to a
particular atom. Holes do not have a physical
existence. They are just absence of valence


VOL26
79
electrons that are normally bound to a parent

atom. Even though holes are attached to a
parent atom, a valence electron in the
neighboring atom migrates to a hole in the
vicinity, thereby creating a hole in its original
location. This gives an impression of holes
being mobile, simply because they are absence
of valence electrons.
heat and light. For every watt of power that is

spent, LED lamps produce more lumens of
light. The recent record for LED is 300 lumens
per watt (it is increasing even more as
research in this area is getting hotter)
compared to the 16 lumens per watt for
incandescent light and 70 lumens per watt for
the fluorescent lamp.
But strangely, according to quantum

mechanics, the holes do behave as though they
are true positive charges, migrating in the
presence of an electric field. A phenomenon
called Hall-effect can be understood only by
considering holes as being effectively made up
of migrating positive charges and not as
absence of valence electrons. In an LED,
between two semiconducting p and n layers,
many active layers exist (we will see the reason
later). When a forward bias is applied, holes
from p-type layer and electrons from an ntype layer meet in the active layers. They
annihilate each other by recombination, and
produce photons of light in the process.
Practically no heat is generated in this process
of recombination of electrons and holes. The
wavelength of the resulting photon depends
entirely on the nature of the semiconducting
material.
Since about 25% of the worlds electrical

consumption is used for lighting purpose,
lighting up the world with LED amounts to
substantial reduction in power being used.
Every unit of energy saved i equivalent to an
unit that is generated, contributing to the
saving of Earths resources. The reason for the
existence of the active layers is to increase the
efficiency of recombination of electrons and
holes. Classical mechanics requires that
momentum be conserved in an encounter
between these particles to produce a photon.
This requirement is very stingent, and the
probability of recombination by such a direct
encounter is very small. by introducing traps
or recombination centers between the layers,
a third body is created which helps to satisfy
the momentum conservation criteria.
Televisions that are sold in the market as
LED TVs are not the LED TVs. They are
actually LCD TVs that are illuminated by an
array of LED devices at the back. The LCDs are
absolutely passive devices requiring a
background lighting. In the older version of
pure LCD displays, this background lighting
was provided by cold cathode fluorescent
lamps. Currently LEDs are not small eough to
be used for individual pixels in domestic
television, and so the use of true LED is
The blue light emitting diode consists of

several layers of Gallium Nitride (this had a
high band-gap energy). By mixing Indium and
Aluminium, the Laureates succeeded in
increasing the lamps efficiency. In
incandescent lamp, a filament is heated,
producing heat and light. Even in fluorescent
lamps, a gas discharge is produced creating


80
VOL26
restricted to much larger screens found in

places such as cricket stadia.
NOBEL PRIZES 2014 : CHEMISTRY
BREAKING THE ABBS LIMIT
Microscope is indispensable in all

biology laboratories. An elementary biology
practical session begins with the onion peel to
understand the structure of a cell, but in
reality you cannot see nothing but a cell wall
and a few stained regions that cannot be
identified properly. Where are the cellular
organelles mentioned in the textbooks?
Well, the common compound
microscopes we have in our schools and
colleges dont have the necessary resolving
power to differentiate the various organelles.
Over the years, refinements in optics have
resulted in considerable advancement in the
optical microscopes that could make out
organelles like chloroplast or mitochondria,
but still it cannot resolve a protein or DNA.
This is due to the physical phenomenon
known as Abbes limit.
Researchers have tried other
approaches to observe finer details. For
instance, electron microscopes that were
originally developed during the 1930s, and
offer incredible resolution of ver y small
things - well over one million times
magnification, as compared to about 2,000
times for typical light-based microscope.
The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was
awarded to Dr. Eric Betzig at Janelia Farm
Research Campus, Howard Hughes Medical
Institute, Ashburn, U.S.A.; Professor Stefan
Hell at Max Planck Institute for Biophysical
Chemistr y, Gottingen, and the German
Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg,

Germany; and Professor William Moerner at
Stanford University, Stanford, U.S.A., for the
development of super-resolved fluorescence
microscopy.
Two separate principles have been
rewarded by this years Nobel Prize. First is
the technique known as stimulated emission
depletion (STED) microscopy, developed by
Stefan Hell in 2000. Born in Romania, Dr. Hell
did his undergraduate and postgraduate
studies in Heidelberg, where he received his
doctorate in 1990. It was during his
postgraduate project with Siegfried
Hunklinger that he became interested in ways
to improve the resolution of confocal and
fluorescence microscopy, and this became the
focus of his research activity in the following
years.
Hell started his work by using standard
f luorescent microscopy, where a large
population of molecules is stimulated to glow
by a laser light. Imaging the resulting glow,
however, ran into the diffraction limit,
meaning that small objects could not be
resolved. Rather than tr y to resolve the
population of molecules better, Hell decided
to limit the number of molecules that are
glowing at any given instant. To do so, he took
advantage of the detailed behavior of
fluorescent molecules.
These have to absorb a photon to reach
an excited state, after which they emit another
to return to the ground state-this second
photon is what we see as f luorescence.
possible to hit the fluorescent molecule with
a second photon of the right wavelength and


VOL26
get it to emit immediately, effectively draining

the molecule back to its ground state. This is
the stimulated emission of STED. Now, its
not possible to create a laser beam that only
excites a tiny population of molecules-the
diffraction limit bites you here too. But it is
possible to shape a laser beam with a small,
empty hole in the middle.
Hell realized that, if you use this beam to
drain the fluorescent molecules to their
ground state, then the only things glowing will
be in the empty hole in the middle. The
second principle is a technique called singlemolecule
microscopy
developed
independently by William Moerner and Eric
Betzig. The method relies upon the possibility
to turn the f luorescence of individual
molecules on and off. Scientists image the
same area multiple times, letting just a few
interspersed molecules glow each time.
Superimposing these images yields a dense
super-image resolved at the nanolevel.
Betzig is trained as an experimental
physicist, and he made waves by helping to
develop a technique known as near-field
microscopy at Bell Laboratories in New Jersey
during the 1990s. This technique can look at
items smaller than the diffraction limit, but
one of its drawbacks is that it cant easily
image below the cells surface.
The size of a typical protein is about one
or two nanometers, some 200 times smaller
than what can be seen with an ordinary light
microscope. Near-field microscopes, on the
other hand, can discriminate structures as
small as 30 nanometers. Thats much larger
81
than a protein, but according to Betzig,

theres still a lot you can learn. He was
frustrated when he realized the limitations
inherent in the overall approach meant it
would probably never be useful for imaging
living cells.
Currently, the two types of techniques
developed by the new Nobel winners are 5-10
times better than optical microscopes,
reaching as fine as 20 nanometers in
resolution. Modern nanoscale microscopes
can follow protein interactions involved in
diseases like Alzheimers, Parkinsons and
cancer, or watch the transcription and
translation of DNA to make proteins, or track
the development of fertilized eggs as they
divide and become embryos. It would help
scientists to study drug interactions in vivo
and in the development of new drugs for
diseases like cancer.
This years award marks the fifth time
that the Nobel Prize has been awarded for an
advance in microscopy. The work of the
laureates shows the significance of
interdisciplinary approach and collaborative
research in science. By combining principles
of physics, chemistry, molecular biology and
engineering, the three Nobel Prize winners
found ways to overcome the Abbes limit
thereby generating a new world of cutting
edge Nanoscopes.
NOBEL PRIZES 2014 :
PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE
BRAINS OWN POSITIONING SYSTEM
It was long suspected that the brain has

the ability to store spatial information to help


82
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us navigate in an environment. Observing how

rats negotiate through labyrinths, Edward
Tolman, the American psychologist had
proposed in the 1940s that brain generates a
cognitive map of the environment, which
allowed the rat to find its way. This cognitive
map is based on two fundamental aspects of
the brain the sense of place and the ability to
navigate.
But how and where in the brain the sense
of place and the ability to navigate are stored
and how they are recalled remained
unknown. Three neuroscientists- Dr. John 0'
Keefe, Dr. May-Britt Moser and Dr. Edvard I.
Moser- whose investigations over the past
four decades have provided the answers to
these intriguing questions have been awarded
the 2014 Nobel Prize for Physiology or
Medicine.
In the 1960s, John O Keefe at the
University College in London was studying
how brain cells control behaviour in animals.
For this he adopted the then evolving
technique of recording electrical signals from
individual neurons by implanting micro wires
to specific areas of rats brain, freely moving in
an environment.
The arrangement consisted of a small
stereotactic manipulator fixed by screws to
the skull of the anesthetized rats. Eight
microelectrodes of very low impedance were
passed through the ports in the manipulator
and driven to the hippocampus, an area of the
brain known to be the home for memory, to
record the electrical signals from individual
neurons. The other ends of the electrodes
were connected to a recording system. The

manipulator was less than 1.5 cm in diameter
and did not impede the rats movement when
it came out of anaesthesia.
Dr. Keefe discovered that certain nerve
cells in the hippocampus fired when the rat
reached a specific place in the room. The same
cells fired when the rat arrived at the same
place every time. He called them place cells.
By systematically manipulating the
environment in which the rat moves, he
showed that place cell firing did not merely
reflect the activity of the sensory neurons, but
also represented a complex combination of
the cues in the environment.
Different place cells could be activated
when the rat was in different places, helping it
to develop a spatial memory capacity by
building an inner map of the environment.
Thus, the hippocampus may contain multiple
maps represented by a combination of
activities in different place cells that were
active at different times in different
environments.
Since the initial description of the place
cells and grid cells in rats, a number of other
neuroscientists have discovered them in the
brains of other mammals. Humans have a
much bigger hyppocarnpal-entorhinal
complex, which has been implicated in special
learning and episodic memory. In the last
decade, by directly recording signals from
brain cells through embedded electrodes in
epileptic patients undergoing pre-surgical
investigations, and with the aid of functional
magnetic resonance imaging studies,


VOL26
researchers have confirmed the existence of

place cells and grid cells in humans also,
providing evidence for a similar
comprehensive positioning system in human
brains too.
PHYSICS NOBEL OF 1930:
IT WAS RAMAN ALL THE WAY
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman won

the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 and in the
process became the first Nobel laureate in
science not only from India but from the
continent of Asia. It was the discovery of the
Raman Effect that brought him the Physics
Nobel. We all know this. But do you know how
the Nobel winners are chosen?
The process is an elaborate one and the
minute details are kept confidential. Now let
us consider the physics Nobel Prizes only.
The official website for Nobel Prizes tells us
that the persons who can send nominations
for the prize are the Swedish and foreign
members of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences, Members of the Nobel Committee
for Physics, and former Nobel Laureates of
physics.
The nominators can also be permanent
and assistant professors in the sciences of
physics at the universities and institutes of
technology of Sweden, Denmark, Finland,
Iceland and Norway, and Karolinska Institute,
Stockholm, holders of corresponding chairs in
at least six universities or university colleges
selected by the Academy of Sciences with a
view to ensuring appropriate distribution.
The Swedish Academy may also invite any
scientist.
83
Not all former Nobel Laureates have

exercised their right to nominate as a look at
the nominations of 1930 will reveal. There
were only 12 Nobel Laureates who sent
nominations though at that time the number
of living Nobel Laureates was no less than 60.
After winning the Prize in 1930 Raman
himself exercised this right very rarely. One
should not forget, when it all started the world
was not a global village and the scope of
discussion among the nominators was limited
and that possibly ensured better
confidentiality.
After the Second World War,
particularly from the 1950s when the Cold
War was on in full swing and the world got
broadly divided into two camps, it was
observed that the nominators were not always
maintaining strict confidentiality. Some
expressed resentment in close circles that
their nominations were ignored while some
congratulated the actual winner mentioning
that the award had gone to them because of
them.
And there was no way to check what
happened in reality. But it was felt that
nominators were possibly showing bias
towards colleagues from same universities,
may be the same country and occasionally
scientists from friendly nations. And this may
sound a bit frustrating but the truth is that the
highest level of scientific community was
really not free from this bias.
The Nobel Committee began to feel the
heat as different scientific bodies or various
groups of scientists began to demand that the


84
VOL26
process of nominations should be made public

after the award had been declared. This would
enable the scientific community to know who
nominated whom and who missed out the
prize and who in spite of being a great
contender for the prize had not been included
as the third winner while two of their coworkers had made the cut.
Finally, the Nobel Committee decided to
make public all the nomination related papers
if they were fifty years old. The argument was
simple. They felt fifty years after the
announcement of a prize the nominators and
the nominees would mostly leave this world
and there would not be much of
embarrassment or bitterness among the
crucial players. Or for that matter some of
the well nurtured anecdotes surrounding the
prize could be debunked without hurting the
people who occupied the centre stage at the
time of the prize
Since c.v. Raman won the physics Nobel
in 1930 his nomination related papers for the
year 1930 came into light immediately in
1987. Large number of surprises and
interesting aspects also came to light but we
shall first take a look at Ramans nomination.
The following table shows the names of the
nominees and the nominators and their
nationalities. A few remarks about the
nominators also have been included for sake
of further discussion.
In 1930, Raman not only got the highest
number of nominations but he received
nominations from some of the stalwarts of
physics at that time. They were highly
appreciative of Ramans discovery. In fact, out

of those ten nominations six came from
persons who had already won the Noble Prize
by then. Felix Bloch later won the Noble Prize
in 1952.
This list included physicists like Lord
Rutherford, Louis de Broglie, J. Perrin, Neils
Bohr, Johannes Stark and CTR Wilson who
had by then won the Nobel Prize. Incidentally
Johannes Stark, CTR Wilson, Louis de Broglie
all Nobel Laureates at that time sent only one
nomination for that year and each of them did
so only in favour of Raman.
Ramans paper reporting the discovery
of a new effect was published in Nature on
March 31, 1928. Ramans student and coworker K.S. Krishnan was the co-author of this
paper. Since the Effect came to be known by
the name of Raman for his role in the work
and not as Raman-Krishnan Effect, there was
not a single nomination in favour of K.S.
Krishnan in 1930 for the discovery of this
effect. So Krishnan could not be considered
for the sharing of the award.
Some of the physics Nobel Laureates
actually won the prize very young and went on
to live long. After fifty years of winning the
prize a small section of the laureates could
know officially what sort of nominations they
actually received and who else were in
contention. Louis de Broglie actually
celebrated the golden jubilee of his Prize in
1979 and passed away in March 1987 at 95.
Yet he could not see the documents pertaining
to his selection as the first lot in a way came
late in later part of 1987.

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Contents

GIST OF THE HINDU ................................................................................................................ 3

GIST OF THE YOJANA ........................................................................................................... 4 3

GIST OF KURUKSHETRA .................................................................................................... 5 3

GIST OF THE PIB .................................................................................................................... 6 5

GIST OF SCIENCE REPORTER ........................................................................................ 7 7

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