NEWS ALERT APRIL 15-22 2018 - LIBRARY INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
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NEWS ALERT
APRIL 15-22
2018
LIBRARY
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
NEW DELHI
For Limited Circulation New Alert is a weekly news bulletin service offered by the Library, Indian Institute of Public Administration. It contains a collection of news clippings downloaded from the web, pertaining to Institute’s relevant subject areas of interest. The service is meant for the IIPA faculty and members only. Indian Institute of Public Administration only IP Estate, Ring Road, New Delhi 110002.
LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED BUSINESS LINE DECCAN HERALD ECONOMIC TIMES HINDU HINDUSTAN TIMES INDIAN EXPRESS PIONEER STATESMAN TELEGRAPH TIMES OF INDIA TRIBUNE
CONTENTS AADHAR 5-9 BOOK REVIEWS 10-24 BREXIT 25 BUREAUCRACY 26-27 CIVIL SERVICE 28 CORRUPTION 29 DEFENCE, NATIONAL 30-33 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 34-36 EDUCATION 37 ENVIRONMENT 38-39 INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 40-47 INTERNET 48-50 JUDICIARY 51-56 LIBRARIES 57-59 OMBUDSMAN 60-61 PUBLIC FINANCE 62-63 PUBLISHING 64 RADIO BRAODCASTING 65-66 RELIGION 67 RIGHT TO INFORMATION 68-69 SCAMS 70-71 SEX CRIMES 72-74 UNITED NATIONS 75-77 WASTE MANAGEMENT 78-79
AADHAR
TIMES OF INDIA, APR 18, 2018
Google, card lobby want Aadhaar to fail: UIDAI to Supreme Court
Dhananjay Mahapatra
HIGHLIGHTS
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi told a CJI-headed Constitution bench that a campaign
had been unleashed that Aadhaar should’ve been like smart cards, a Europe-based
commercial venture
“If Aadhaar succeeds, smart cards will be out of business. Google does not want it. Smart
card lobby does not want Aadhaar to succeed," Dwivedi said
The UIDAI on Tuesday made a startling charge before the Supreme Court that Google and
the smart card lobby did not want Aadhaar to succeed because if UID emerges as a foolproof
way to authenticate identity, they will be out of business.
SC red flags threat of Aadhaar data misuse, asks searching questions Appearing for the Unique Identity Authority of India, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi told a CJI-headed Constitution bench that a campaign had been unleashed that Aadhaar should’ve been like smart cards, a Europe-based commercial venture. “If Aadhaar succeeds, smart cards will be out of business. Google does not want it. Smart card lobby does not want Aadhaar to succeed. That’s why these allegations are being made,” he said. ‘Aadhaar data not on internet, can’t be stolen’ Some of the petitioners, who have challenged the validity of Aadhaar Act, had also mentioned that instead of Aadhaar authentication sourced from UIDAI, which stored huge meta data about citizens’ biometric and demographic details, it would be better to put whatever data was needed for authentication purpose in a smart card, like credit or debit cards, for authentication by swiping. The bench asked Dwivedi whether Aadhaar could function a corresponding robust data protection regime. “The real apprehension is the use of social network site data to affect elections in democracies. The problem is symptomatic and we do not live in isolation. We cannot have a blinkered approach as when we write the judgment on this, it could govern citizens for generations,” it said.
Dwivedi responded, “Please don’t bring in Cambridge Analytica into Aadhaar. Unlike Cambridge Analytica, Aadhaar has not use artificial intelligence. Aadhaar only has a matching algorithm to establish ‘I am me’. A phobia is being created that Aadhaar meta data is a like an atom bomb which can go off any time. But the truth is it is secured in the best possible way. It is not connected to the internet to allow online stealing of data. The data cannot be analysed by anyone.” BUSINESS STANDARD, APR 22, 2018 Aadhaar, PAN cards mandatory for opening bank accounts, says RBI Anup Roy The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has made Aadhaar and PAN cards mandatory for opening bank accounts. The RBI said the updated know-your-customer (KYC) requirement was subject to the Supreme Court’s final judgment on Aadhaar, for which the hearing is under way. The central bank updated its master circular on KYC norms where it omitted various documents that could be used for due-diligence purposes. The updated circular said Aadhaar and PAN numbers must be quoted for new bank accounts. If these details are not available, the customers would have to provide proof that they have applied for these identification documents within the past six months. According to the circular, without Aadhaar and PAN numbers, account holders would be assigned ‘small accounts’, which have severe restrictions on transactions and are closely monitored to ensure no foreign transactions take place. “In case an individual customer who does not have Aadhaar/enrolment number and PAN and desires to open a bank account, banks shall open a ‘small account’,” the circular said.
Such accounts are opened only at core banking solution-linked branches or in a branch where it is possible to manually monitor and ensure that foreign remittances are not credited to the account. The amended KYC master document was uploaded on the RBI website late Friday night, where the central bank said it was acting “in accordance with the changes carried out in the PML (Prevention of Money Laundering) Rules vide Gazette Notification GSR 538 (E) dated June 1, 2017, and thereafter and is subject to the final judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court”. Recently, the Supreme Court had asked for a ‘less invasive’ identification document than Aadhaar but the government told the court that the Aadhaar Act could not be made simpler. The amendment of the RBI’s master circular came as a surprise since the amendment should occur after a clear judgment is passed on the issue. Though the RBI said the updated KYC requirement was subject to the Supreme Court’s final judgment, banks might refuse to accept any other document. Banks often refuse to acknowledge any other document in lieu of Aadhaar, and the same is the case with other service providers such as telecom, which inconveniences many. The mandatory Aadhaar rules, however, will not be applicable in Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Meghalaya. Senior bankers said they were still trying to assess the changes and that there were some gaps in the interpretation and implementation of the revised rules. The Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) is likely to convene a meeting to finalise issues that would be taken up with the RBI. According to the circular, if Aadhaar details are not updated, banks can ask for other officially valid documents (OVDs) such as utility bills, property tax receipts, etc. However, “the customer shall submit Aadhaar or OVD updated with current address within a period of three months of submitting the above documents,” the RBI said. The RBI, however, warned banks that the “information collected from customers for the purpose of opening of account shall be treated as confidential and details thereof shall not be divulged for the purpose of cross-selling, or for any other purpose without the express permission of the customer”. The RBI, in its circular, said if an account was opened over OTP, therefore, without physical biometric authentication, the maximum outstanding deposit allowed would be Rs 100,000 and the aggregate of the credits in those accounts in a financial year would not be more than Rs 200,000. The account will be closed if no biometric authentication is done within a year. “The account shall remain operational initially for a period of twelve months, which can be extended for a further period of twelve months, provided the account holder applies and
furnishes evidence of having applied for any of the OVDs during the first twelve months of the opening of the said account,” the RBI said.
BOOK REVIEWS HINDU APRIL22, 2018 The reshaping of human history Tony Joseph Daivd Reich. Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past, Pantheon, 2018, 368p. The geneticist driving the ancient DNA revolution tells us about mass migrations to Europe and Asia, and the collision that formed India History is no longer what it used to be. Thanks to ancient DNA. Large stretches of our understanding of our own past have been rewritten in the last five years, based on the analysis of DNA extracted from individuals who lived thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of years ago. Many “facts” we took for granted have been proven to be false, and many questions left dangling in the air as historians, archaeologists and anthropologists fought it out among themselves have been given convincing new answers. So if you haven’t been paying attention to what has been happening to our history in the last half-decade, this is a good time to catch up, and Who We Are and How We Got Here is an
excellent place to start. The author of the book, Professor David Reich of Harvard Medical School, is not a disinterested observer of a fast-developing field; he is a participant and, in fact, a driver, of the ancient DNA revolution and it is his and his team’s research that has accomplished much of the reshaping of human history. So this book has the feel of a first-hand account from the trenches that also carries with it a high- level perspective of what is going on where and why. Here’s a short list of things that have changed about our past in recent years because of ancient DNA. We now know that in both Europe and South Asia, “a mass migration of farmers from the Near East after nine thousand years ago mixed with previously established hunter-gatherers, and then a second mass migration from the Eurasian Steppe after five thousand years ago brought a different kind of ancestry and probably Indo-European languages as well.” We also know that native American populations, before the arrival of Europeans in America, derive ancestry from not one, but four migrations from Asia. We know that much of East Asian ancestry derives from major expansions of populations from Chinese agricultural heartland. In 2010, we learned that modern humans had interbred with Neanderthals and in 2014, we learned that our ancestors had interbred with Denisovans as well. Each of these discoveries was made possible by the co- analysis of ancient DNA with the DNA of present-day individuals. The book devotes an entire chapter to ‘The Collision that formed India’. The “collision” it refers to is what happened between 4000 and 2000 years ago, when the Indus Valley Civilisation collapsed and a new influx of migrants from south-eastern Steppes, where Kazakhstan today is, brought Indo-European languages and the accompanying culture. The India connection What followed the collapse and the new influx was a millennium or two of mixing that formed the Indian population of today — a mixture of at least three ancestral groups: descendants of the original Out of Africa migrants, Iranian agriculturists who spread to South Asia sometime after 7000 BCE, and pastoralists from the south-eastern Steppes who arrived after 2000 BCE. There are other ancestral groups that contributed to our ancestry too — the Austro-Asiatic speakers and Sino-Tibetan speakers, for example — but almost every group in India today has ancestry from the first three ancestral groups mentioned. As the book was written before a new paper authored by 92 scientists and co-directed by Reich was released in early April this year, titled ‘The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia,’ some of the finer details in that paper are missing in the book. But it more than makes up for it through sharp insights drawn from the data, as well as the inside stories on how some of the terms that are now in common use such as “Ancestral North Indian (ANI)” and “Ancestral South Indian (ASI)” came to be formed, in 2008, as the scientists involved in the study “groped toward a formulation that would be scientifically accurate as well as sensitive to” political considerations.
The 2008 study had found that West Eurasian (West Asian, Central Asian and European)-related mixture in India ranges from as low as 20% to as high as 80% in different Indian population groups. These proportions provide clues about past events, says the book, such as language spread, social stratification under the caste system, and unequal social power between men and women. Today, ANI ancestry in India derives much more from males than females and this pattern, says the book, “is exactly what one would expect from an Indo-European speaking people taking the reins of political and social power after four thousand years ago and mixing with local peoples in a stratified society, with males from groups in power having more success in finding mates than those from the disenfranchised groups.” Genetic differences One of the striking finds is that the degree of genetic differences between groups in India today is at least three times greater than that among European groups. This is mostly because of the practice of endogamy — or rules prohibiting marriage outside a well-defined community — which increases the genetic differences between groups over time. “People tend to think of India, with its 1.3 billion people, as having a tremendously large population… But the truth is that India is composed of a large number of small populations.” Reich also shows how the argument that caste is largely a recent innovation of the British doesn’t hold up to genetic scrutiny. But this book ought to be read not mainly for its Indian chapter, but for the new light it throws on prehistory and the way it explains the reasoning behind the new findings and the science of population genetics itself. Professor Reich catches a field of knowledge in that rare moment when there is an explosion in its explanatory power, in its reach and in its impact. Not to be missed. HINDU APRIL22, 2018 Peter Ronald DeSouza. In the Hall of Mirrors: Reflections on Indian Democracy, Orient BlackSwan 2018. 416p.Rs. 850.00
A political scientist places India at the centre of a hall of mirrors, revealing the layered nature of Indian democracy. He documents our democracy’s achievements and failures, aspirations and anxieties of the people, through the fall and rise of competing ideologies. He highlights the ambivalences and uncertainties that remain as a result of the grand experiment of democracy.
HINDU APR 22, 2018 Confronting a myth Kallol Bhattacherjee Ashis Ray Laid to Rest: The Controversy over Subhas Chandra Bose’s Death, Roli Books A historian ends speculation about Netaji’s disappearance The air crash of Taihoku on August 18, 1945, is the Rashomon moment of Asian and Indian political history. What exactly happened when the aircraft carrying Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the tragic hero of India’s freedom struggle, was never really conclusively understood as everyone who survived that incident and the official power centres of the world had a different opinion about it. Ashis Ray has put an end to speculation around the air crash. The air crash took place at a time when aircraft were not the most reliable form of transport. During World War II dozens of crashes took place. What, however, was special about the air crash in Taihoku was that it coincided with the defeat of Japan in war. The outcome of the crash was that Netaji who had suffered a lot of uncertainties during the last few months of the war disappeared in a fog of mystery and speculation. However, a great death has to be seen to be believed — Netaji’s demise or disappearance remained incomplete as it was not announced by a suitable person close to him. A major reason that prevented a credible discussion on the death of Netaji was the breakdown of the internal mechanism of the Congress party. Jawaharlal Nehru who
took over as the prime minister of India remained on difficult terms with the Boses
who maintained a power centre in the Congress party. The cold war between Sarat
Bose and Nehru cast a shadow on their relationship. Neither Nehru nor Sardar Patel
shared British and Japanese reports on Netaji’s demise with his brother.
There was only one way of confirming the demise of Netaji and that was to let Sarat
Bose break it to the people of India with full support and sympathy of the new
government of India. However, that became impossible with the demise of Sarat
Bose in 1950. Apart from the meticulous historical and archival research, Ray’s
submission is backed by the daughter of Netaji, Anita. In a stunning declaration that
should finally lay Netaji to rest, she discloses a personal moment of truth. In a
headline-worthy statement, the daughter writes in the foreword that she had been
aware of Netaji’s demise in the air crash, after she witnessed an interview of one of
the survivors in 1979. In a certain tragic way, Netaji died in the way that he lived —
dramatically. Netaji’s death in the Taihoku crash spared him all the harassment that
awaited him in the hands of the Anglo-American victors. But it cannot be a cause for
satisfaction as for more than seven decades India failed to confront the truth.
FINANCIAL EXPRESS APR 22, 2018
Information overload
The sheer amount of data today is changing decision-making, thus changing the rules of
capitalism
Madan Sabnavis
Reinventing Capitalismin the age of Big Data. Viktor Mayer-Schonberger and Thomas
Ramge. Hachette 273 p Rs 599.00
The greater use of technology, where the use of artificial intelligence will be the next step can be
scary when it comes to jobs.
Capitalism has always been known for being driven by market mechanism. Conventional
wisdom argues that markets are considered to be efficient and the interaction of all players gets
reflected in the concept of price. This becomes the leading indicator that drives transactions and
makes capitalism an efficient economic system. But this is passé and the rules of the game are
being rewritten, where the concept of price being the driver no longer holds. More importantly,
the day is not far when it will not matter. This is the crux of Viktor Mayer-Schönberger &
Thomas Ramge’s new book, Reinventing Capitalism in the Age of Big Data. The structures are
more complex today, with customers being more discerning; and the invisible hand can’t capture
all the aspirations adequately.Big data is in, and all companies rely heavily on such information to draw up their strategies. A simple retail shop that tracks what you do in terms of looking at products and choosing those that you buy sends out signals to the outlet and, hence, also the producer as to what your likes and dislikes are. Companies producing consumer products can analyse the purchases taking place in different locations and draw up plans on new products. Also, such data helps managements to decide which areas require a marketing push for future sales. In fact, there was a time when price became the clinching factor. But in this age of e-commerce, there are other factors that go into a purchase, like colour, size and texture, which make it easier for a customer to choose with a good deal of accuracy. This is also time-saving, as an online portal covers all brands and options. The authors, thus, argue that in a data-rich market, it is no longer possible to condense a multitude of preferences into a single price. In fact, price becomes an oversimplification when it comes to representing any market. The authors feel that markets will be driven by the pooling of such data. The decisions made on what to produce and the mechanism to deliver it has undergone significant changes with the help of big data, as it gets used along the value chain. Even at the P2P level, conventional relations may break down, as options unfold and all players are able to interact with a wider section of customers or sellers. This is a paradigm shift that has already started. Mayer-Schönberger and Ramge also spend a few pages on the peer-to-peer lending concept that had caught on, especially at the smaller level of loans, where people lend and borrow based on information available on the counter-parties. We can actually think of this mode of borrowing, based on big-data analytics, gradually getting into the traditional banking space, where both sides are better off. Big data would give potential lenders all the information of the past behaviour of a potential borrower and this would enable the lender to decide whether or not to lend. This is an important message for regulators across countries who have to build systems to ensure order in the market. This will be a new world for them, especially when regulation is strong when it comes to depositing money; it is a different ballgame when people choose to lend to others on their own volition. Several companies are also fully into using big data to formulate future strategies. They have started reshaping markets, from energy to transportation and logistics, and could go even into labour and healthcare. Efficient operations of truckers in the US with the use of data is one example. Similarly, we have seen how taxi services like Uber and Ola are more efficient with the use of data, ensuring maximum use of the vehicle and minimum waiting time for customers. Even in education, big data is being used progressively in the West to map teachers and schools with students. The idea is to go beyond ‘good enough’. The greater use of technology, where the use of artificial intelligence will be the next step can be scary when it comes to jobs. Here, the authors still seem positive and do not see it as a limiting factor, but look at it more from the point of view of enhancing efficiency.
Another issue that is pertinent is the availability of data to everyone. In a traditional market mechanism, it is assumed that all people have access to the same information, which is not true, as there is information asymmetry in all markets that enables sellers to reap higher profits. But in a data-rich economy, the same might happen where some companies or players have access to more data than others. This is a concern and the final answer will only be known with time. But the authors are convinced that this is the way forward, which will be closer to optimal than the existing market system. Data-rich markets will help people make better decisions and enhance the overall volume of transactions, leading to higher growth. Those who are not used to technology, or the classic Luddites, will have to change, or face being sidelined from the system. For companies, there will progressively be a choice to automate decision-making, which sounds odd today, but is being pursued by some firms. This is where AI is coming into play, and there could be a future where companies do business with algorithms in place. Such tools are available for trading on stock markets or commodity exchanges where there is no manual intervention. This might sound scary for those whose jobs are at stake, but can’t be ruled out. Also, the absence of human intervention can make the systems too rigid when run on algorithms. A balance surely would be the way out. FINANCIAL EXPRESS APR 22, 2018 Paromita Shastri Taslima Nasrin Split: a life, Penguing Random House, 496p. Rs 599.00 Taslima Nasrin argues how one can’t be a feminist and religious at the same time, as religious texts & their expositions don’t see women equal to men Reading Split, one is awed at the mistreatment Nasrin faced from almost all the men who were important in her life, beginning with her father. Translated from the original Bengali Dwikhandito (Split in Two), Split: A Life by Taslima Nasrin was banned by the Leftist government in West Bengal in 2003 on the ground of hurting the sentiments of the Muslim community. The ruling was overturned in 2005 by the High Court,
but by then, Nasrin had been pressured to leave Kolkata, a city she considered her second home after Dhaka, which she had left in 1994. She can return to neither city. Kolkata was not the first time she faced defamation, humiliation and ban—even physical harassment—because of her writings. After Salman Rushdie, Nasrin made Bangladesh join the list of countries in the subcontinent that bowed down to religious fundamentalists at the cost of their artists. She has been in self-exile from her country since she was 32 years old due to a death threat (fatwa) allegedly prompted by her life, feminist writings in newspapers, stand on sexual freedom for women, the novel Lajja (Shame), and events in Bangladesh following the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. Since then, Nasrin has lived sporadically in India and Europe for 24 years, and has a home in Delhi under a renewable temporary residence permit. Parts of Split were expunged and invited expensive lawsuits, still unsettled. Even this translation has dropped some sensitive portions and names. The 500-page volume is only the second of the seven memoirs of this author, who started her life as a doctor, a feminist and poet, and covers two decades. As per Nasrin, one cannot be a feminist and religious at the same time, especially among Muslims, because religious texts, in particular their exposition by religious leaders, do not accord women equal respect. In fact, I would extend this to all religious texts in general. Reading Split, one is awed at the mistreatment Nasrin faced from almost all the men who were important in her life, beginning with her father. This happened to her although she was well-read, a practising physician, and a poet, acclaimed for her brave, fresh voice, secular values, and championing of the poor and minorities. Through her years of growing up in Mymensingh, work and personal life in Dhaka, and the trials and tribulations that followed, she depicts how she tried to live a honest and true life, not as a woman but as a human, advocating for women and not against anyone, which still meant going against religion and society. But the confusion, hurt and anger that she felt, especially the ostracisation and torture by her own family, also led her to often make errors of judgment and choose the wrong men to support and seek protection from. Despite a phenomenal knowledge of history and society, Nasrin often sounds surprised and bitter by the turn of events, when she should have been aware, cautious, careful and wise. Yet, the anger, mostly at religious old men and how they were perpetuating the dark ages for Bangladeshi women, is also raw and honest, and exposes her extreme vulnerability alongside the power of her convictions. This is the reason it moves the reader even 15 years later (disclosure: I read it in Bengali long ago). Split impresses not just because of the turn of events that she records so faithfully and perhaps too meticulously, but more because her voice and reality are still relevant. Translated adequately by Maharghya Chakraborty, the book is painstaking to plough through— with Nasrin, it is never how she says it, but what; she never dresses up what she says. But it remains an important record of the fate of those who dare to walk the road of truth, the rebels and the revolutionaries who try to change society and right historical wrongs! Through her writing,
Nasrin says, “I tried to reaffirm that a woman’s body and her heart were her own and not someone else’s property to treat as they pleased.” Most religious texts do not give women the right to their bodies; as a reproduction medium to perpetuate the family, the womb is sacred, and, therefore, sexual liberation is taboo. This is precisely why Nasrin hasn’t had an unalloyed claim to fame and is not revered among many women, while she universally should be. Her bluntness and sexual liberation have earned her enemies in the feminist, as well as Leftist camps. She has also been labelled as an attention- seeker, and her propensity to victimise herself has even lost her a few friends. Yet, these qualities would have sat comfortably on a male writer in a similar situation—Rushdie’s life stories are more celebrity news than salacious gossip and sniggering. “It is time women write their own stories. It is not for men to write about women’s pleasure and pain,” she said once, and rightly so. Simone de Beauvoir said patriarchy or gender ideologies dictate that to discriminate, it is important to “otherise” women. This, like race or caste, forms the core of conflicts between cultures, and is key to developing a national identity. Gayatri Chakravarti Spivak questioned how the subaltern had been silenced and how gender was one of the subalterns. Nasrin, despite being from the elite, educated class, became one of the subalterns by questioning the way women had been taught to think about themselves, their body and mind, and their role in family and society. Even though we don’t acknowledge it, subalternisation happens everyday to each of us, even the women who try to become CEOs and fail. Nasrin can never return to Bangladesh where Islamisation is increasing, and bloggers are being killed. Even the current Muslim-friendly government in Bengal must abide by its political friends and constituencies. The fatwa did help the fundamentalists; in 24 years, we haven’t heard of another Bangladeshi female voice like Nasrin’s. Nor, for that matter, in India. It is, therefore, essential that this voice is not tamed. Author is is a freelance writer STATESMAN APR 22, 2018 More about the Nanavati case Somdatta Mandal Abhijit Dutta, On the Margins of Love- The Nanavati Syndrome-1959-1964, Kolkata: Readers Service, 2017. The author has sourced most of the information from newspaper archives and Internet sites and has painstakingly strung them together to give the readers as much authentic information about the case as
possible. However, a little bit of professional editing could have increased the readability of the book … A review However sensational it might be, public memory is essentially very short. So remembering a particular murder case and its ramifications in court that took place several decades ago is well- nigh impossible. The author of this book has done a lot of research and brought out the details of the sensational Ahuja murder case of 1959 that shook the conscience of the nation. The case has all the ramifications of a perfect Bollywood masala film. Commander Kawas Manekshaw Nanavati who served in the Indian Navy became aware of the illicit love affair that his wife Sylvia was having with one Prem Bhagandas Ahuja, a notorious playboy-cum-businessman of Bombay of the 1950s. It is said that this gentleman would target as his victims the lonesome wives of military or naval personnel on long duties away from home, or other high society women long estranged from their husbands. When Sylvia herself confessed to her husband about the affair, the commander went and borrowed a fully loaded revolver from his ship on flimsy grounds, and headed straightway to Ahuja’s flat. After shooting Ahuja down he subsequently went and surrendered to the police. Till now it seemed as a clear case of revenge by the forsaken husband but the interesting ramifications to the case began when Nanavai’s trial began at the Bombay Sessions Court. The moot point discussed was whether it was a premeditated murder or a case of accidental firing during a skirmish with the victim.
The chief public prosecutor stated that he would appeal to the jury to frame Nanavati under the lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. When the nine-member jury gave a verdict of “Not Guilty” to Nanavati by a majority of eight to one, there was an uncanny feeling among many that the Jury had been unduly manipulated or influenced. As a consequence, trial by jury was stopped in India after this case. In spite of public sloganeering for the release of the commander, the case moved to the Bombay High Court. After a lot of further proceedings when Nanavati was almost convicted for murder, an interesting turn in the case took place. Sri Prakasa, the then Governor of Bombay, under the suggestion of the Nehru government suspended the sentence of the Bombay High Court for life imprisonment till the matter came up for hearing at the Supreme Court. The full bench of the High Court of Bombay therefore failed to terminate the Governor’s order issued under Article 161 of the Constitution. This gave Nanavati adequate respite and he was lodged not in an ordinary jail but kept in Naval custody. The Supreme Court judgment showed all the straits of rationality that marks an impartial hearing of facts. Later even though the Supreme Court upheld the sentence of the High Court jailing Nanavati for life, a state pardon issued after three years by the then Governor of Maharashtra and Jawaharlal Nehru’s sister, Vijaylakshmi Pandit, who was Sri Prakasa’s successor, worked wonders to bring out the criminal from jail, culminating in his eventful emigration to Canada in 1964 with his family and thereby to final freedom. The author has sourced most of the information from newspaper archives and Internet sites and has painstakingly strung them together to give the readers as much of authentic information about the case as possible. He has also sourced information from a novel entitled The Death of Mr Love (2002) written by an Indian English novelist called Indra Sinha. After reading the book one gets a clear picture of how powers that be or sheer good fortune or the ramifications and nitty-gritties of our legal system sometimes help an accused person on trial win undue favour and freedom from punishment. However, according to this reviewer, a little bit of professional editing could have increased the readability of the book which at certain sections tends to get mired in repetitions. Also the random use of italicisation should have been avoided. On the whole it remains a laudable effort. The reviewer is professor of English, Visva-Bharati University HINDU, APR 17, 2018
Madiha Afzal, Pakistan Under Siege: Extremism, Society and the State. Penguin Random House India, Rs. 599.00 On why Pakistan and its people tolerate extremism The central paradox today for those who study Pakistan is the obvious one: the persistence of state and societal toleration for and support of terrorism and extremism. What compounds this problem is the damage that terrorists have inflicted on Pakistan leaving its economy in tatters and its polity distorted. Even more devastating has been the impact on public morale and self-esteem and on Pakistan’s international image. Whatever may have been the takeaways of such a policy in the 1990s — strategic depth in Afghanistan and an extent of pressure on India — it has been self-evidently counterproductive in this century. Yet it is largely persisted with and hence the paradox. Those interested in these themes would be well rewarded by reading this slim volume. The author, Madiha Afzal, a U.S.-based scholar, focuses on Law, Education and Islamists in the context of Pakistan’s strategic and foreign policy aims in order to explain the structural roots of extremism in Pakistan. The methodology chosen is in part to use the results of a series of public opinion surveys carried out in Pakistan over the past decade and a half. This data is combined with historical analysis and the author’s own research. The merit of the book is that it quickly relates largely abstract themes to concrete issues concerning the Afghan Taliban, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, the Lashkar-e-Taiba/ Jamaat-ud- Dawa, attitudes to India and the Kashmir issue, Afghanistan, the U.S., etc. The central question is of course ‘Are ordinary Pakistanis extremists?’ Her finding, to summarise somewhat drastically, is that while an overwhelming number of Pakistanis are opposed to terrorism yet ‘their narratives on extremism are muddied’ by anti-Indianism, anti-Americanism, Islam vs the West and, possibly most of all, by a sense of ‘national victimhood’. These conclusions lead the analysis to the deeper roots of extremism in Pakistan. The first stop here is naturally the Pakistani state itself and its ‘reliance on Islam to define Pakistan’s identity’ and its ‘paranoia vis- a-vis India’. Both provide a supportive environment for extremist groups. Then a mindset of denial — that terrorist attacks in Pakistan are the result of external conspiracy — prevents rational analysis. Much of this ground has of course been traversed before although the use of the opinion surveys gives the analysis a firmer empirical foundation and provides an overview that is convincing and consistent. The author in addition identifies the central issue clearly: what makes the Pakistan case of widespread extremism cum hyper nationalism different from others in South Asia, Europe and elsewhere is in the role of the state and its institutions ‘which validate not only paranoia and hatred but also violence in the name of religion.’
BREXIT HINDU APR 17, 2018
In the Lords’ hands: On U.K.’s Brexit week
The U.K. government faces a tough Brexit week with a crucial vote in Parliament.
Theresa May’s government faces another bracing week in its Brexit calendar. With the
House of Lords expected to vote in favour of continuing in the common customs union, this
may set the tone for Parliament’s final vote later this year on Britain’s withdrawal from the
European Union. This week’s vote on an amendment to the exit bill is likely to be a replay of
the scenario that played out in the House of Lords last year, when peers across party lines
handed a bruising defeat to Prime Minister May on the rights of millions of EU citizens in
post-Brexit Britain. The controversy over the future status of London in Europe’s customs
union has taken centrestage in recent months, deepening divisions among the ruling
Conservatives over a hard or soft exit. Fuelling the rift was a leaked Whitehall secret analysis
in January of the economic fallout of leaving the EU. It forecast a meagre 0.2-0.4% rise in
GDP from a U.K. trade deal with countries outside the bloc, including the U.S. and China.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn, the opposition Labour leader, has signalled a shift in his party’s
stance and called for remaining in the customs union as the only realistic guarantee of duty-
free access to the EU after Brexit. The veteran eurosceptic’s current disposition to forge
strong links with the single market is significant. Staying in a customs union will limit the
loss of trade with EU. It would also reduce the risk of a hard border between Britain and the
Republic of Ireland, a prospect that Dublin sees as a potential danger to the integrity of the
1998 Good Friday Accord with Northern Ireland.
However, sharing the same tariff rates within the EU would severely limit Britain’s room for
manoeuvre in negotiating trade agreements with non-EU nations. Whereas a customs deal is
necessarily restricted to commerce in goods, bilateral trade pacts typically include several
menu items besides goods, such as services and investment. The U.K.’s retention of the EU
customs union would therefore subject London’s trade deals with third countries to the tariff
terms they may have already settled with the EU. Such an eventuality would expose the
bluster behind the Brexiteers’ rhetoric of ‘taking back control’ of the country’s economic and
political sovereignty. In the event of a defeat in the House of Lords, Ms. May would have the
option of going to the Commons, where she has a slender majority. But there is no denying
the fluid state of the negotiations over Britain’s withdrawal, or Brussels’ increasingly strong
position when it comes to dictating the terms of the departure. The hope must be that all the
parties concerned will make the best of a rather bad situation.
BUREAUCRACY
TRIBUNE 22 APR, 2018And tales of vanished reptiles continue Maninder Singh The more one writes for The Tribune, the more one is made to realize how widespread and persistent its readership happens to be. In the unlikeliest of places, such as in the middle of the Sukhna Lake, a casual acquaintance rowing by tells you that he read a certain article of yours and was not entirely displeased by it. When the unvarnished tale of a vanished venomous reptile was published, it resulted in the narration of several similar stories by avid readers. A long-working Commissioner, in one of the picturesque Divisons, told me that a cobra had once effected an entry through a window in his office. Disappearing quickly thereafter, in a warren of files, the snake charmer who was summoned managed to unravel not one but four deadly snakes from the infested room. Justice Ranjan Gogoi, now in the Supreme Court, shifted his residence as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in Chandigarh due to a pestilential influx of snakes in his official bungalow. Every blessed day, a snake charmer would be called, who would recover an irascible reptile and, perhaps, embed another in the substantial lawns, to be recovered a day later. All for an inconsequential fee for an hour’s work. This repetitive sequence of the capture of dangerous snakes having gone on for far too long, the Chief Justice made the prudent and judicious decision of relocating his residence altogether. Fearsome cobra In Karimganj district in the tumble-down Barak valley of the North-east, the Deputy Commissioner’s house is located on a knoll. In that house, and, indeed, even in the bedroom, the appearance of snakes was a diurnal phenomenon, akin to the rise and set of stars. One of the brave occupants of that house got so used to these fleeting manifestations that he would simply squash with his boots, whatever snake happened to be passing by in the immediate vicinity and let the others endure, multiply and prosper. One memorable day, as a wireless operator came up the steps to the bungalow, with an urgent situation report, he was taken aback by a stately cobra, all poised and perched to strike, just below the steps of the main door. Managing to see the fearsome cobra only at the last moment, with only a few feet separating him from the coiled body and raised hood, the helpless messenger lost his balance and rolled all the way down the knoll, with no life left to ascend again. A few snakes having been seen in the Circuit House one weekend, casually sunning themselves, the snake charmers were summoned. Flinging grains of rice, they strolled around the densest thickets of shrubbery, and we saw a sight that we have never seen before or since. A dozen snakes emerged out of the grasses and water channels, writhing and convulsing with unseemly haste, desperately endeavoring to escape, while the snake catchers ran after them,
pulling them by their tails into capacious tea-sacks, in which the golden brew had once been
transported to markets.
With the reptiles flailing and squirming to get away, we stood transfixed on the safe vantage
viewpoint of the first storey of the building. It seemed to us, in our fear and trepidation, that the
snakes would fly onto our first floor safe haven any minute.
Glowing testimonials
The great snake hunt being over, the catchers and charmers came in for congratulations. After all
the snakes had been secreted in sacks and boxes, the leader of the group came forward and
sought a testimonial attesting to their magical skills.
I asked him if any other officer had ever supplied such a document. Out of a cloth shoulder bag
tumbled out scores of glowing testimonials. Placed in chronological sequence, they were an
unending record of DCs, SPs, IGPs and Commissioners, who had spent a life time in these
enchanted valleys and hills.
There were some photographs as well. One of the most arresting was that of KPS Gill as a
middle-aged officer, more corpulent than one had even seen him to be, with his pair of
moustaches as ablaze as ever, standing on a sunny spring day with the same snake-charmers,
perhaps two decades ago.
In the poem entitled The Snake, DH Lawrence wrote about a snake that came to a water-trough
on a hot day in July, to drink there, with the smoke of Mt Etna curling into the blue Sicilian sky.
After much thought, a log was thrown at the snake, which made it vanish into the bowels of the
earth.
‘And immediately, I regretted it. I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act!
I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human education…
And so I missed my chance with one of the lords of life
And I’ve something to expiate: a pettiness’
CIVIL SERVICEPIONEER APR 22, 2018
Make best of tech in rolling out schemes: PM to Babus
Maintaining that participatory democracy is a must for the development of the nation, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked civil servants to make the best of innovation and
technology in implementing Government policies.
Addressing bureaucrats at the conclusion of the two-day Civil Services Day function, the Prime
Minister said the administration’s aim in the pre-Independence era was to keep the Englishman
safe, but today it has to ensure that a common man is provided relief.
He stressed the need for strategic thinking in implementing Government policies, and also asked
bureaucrats to put to use innovation and technology which can become additional strength.
He said “Janbhagidari” (people’s participation) is a cornerstone of the success of a country such
as India.
The Prime Minister said priority should be given to people’s interests during formulation of
policies or new laws.
Earlier, he released two books — “New Pathways”, a compilation of success stories on
implementation of identified Priority Programmes and Innovations and “Aspirational Districts:
Unlocking Potentials” — an account of strategies for transforming aspirational districts.
He also conferred “Awards for Excellence in Public Administration” for effective
implementation of identified Priority Programs and Innovation to districts and implementing
units, and other central and state organisations at the function. The awards have been instituted to
acknowledge, recognise and reward the exemplary work for people’s welfare by districts and
organisations of the central and State Governments.
“Motivation is always essential for better performance,” the Prime Minister said after giving
away the awards to civil servants.
CORRUPTIONTIMES OF INDIA, APR 17, 2018
India's CBI probing Surya Pharmaceuticals in $95 mln bank fraud case
Indian police have launched an investigation into a Delhi-based pharmaceutical company for
allegedly defrauding state-run Punjab & Sind Bank and four other banks of 6.21 billion
rupees ($94.57 million), police said.
"Investigation is continuing," Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the federal police, said
in a statement on Tuesday. The CBI said the searches were conducted at seven locations and
recovered some documents.
The police acted following a complaint from the Punjab & Sind Bank against Surya
Pharmaceuticals, its two promoters and a Dubai-based company, alleging they had defrauded
the banks and siphoned off funds through group companies, a police report reviewed by
Reuters showed.
Reuters' attempts to contact officials of Surya Pharmaceuticals and Punjab & Sind Bank
officials through phone and email outside office hours remained unanswered.
The finance ministry had earlier asked all banks to step up vigilance following a $2 billion
fraud in February at India's second-biggest state-run lender Punjab National Bank. ($1 =
65.6650 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Nigam Prusty, Writing by Manoj Kumar, Editing by
William Maclean)
DEFENCE, NATIONALHINDUSTAN TIMES APR 19, 2017 India to create super-committee for defence planning The DPC will be a permanent body chaired by the National Security Advisor and comprise the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, three service chiefs, the defence, expenditure and foreign secretaries. Arjun Mark II tanks drive through sand during a display at the DefExpo 2018 on the outskirts of Chennai on April 11, 2018.(AFP Photo) The Narendra Modi government has decided to create an overarching Defence Planning Committee (DPC) under National Security Advisor Ajit Doval that will drive the country’s military and security strategy, draft capability development plans and guide (and accelerate) defence equipment acquisitions, according to a defence ministry notification seen by Hindustan Times. The move, which is a significant change in India’s defence strategy architecture, comes as the country faces several potential threats in a highly militarised neighbourhood; is trying to balance budgetary constraints with its need for arms; and is working on increasing its own expertise in manufacturing and exporting defence equipment. Until now, defence planning has been synonymous with hardware acquisition. The DPC will be a permanent body chaired by the National Security Advisor and comprise the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, three service chiefs, the defence, expenditure and foreign secretaries, and prepare draft reports on “national security strategy, international defence engagement strategy, roadmap to build (a) defence manufacturing ecosystem, strategy to boost defence exports, and priority capability development plans”, according to the notification. It will submit its reports to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The DPC is expected to meet soon after Doval returns from Germany on April 21. Analysts point out that because the Prime Minister’s Office, the defence ministry, the finance ministry and the three services are part of the same committee, decisions on military purchases could now happen much faster.
The Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman of the Chief of the Staff Committee (CISC) will be the member secretary of the committee, according to the notification, and the HQ of the Integrated Defence Staff will be the secretariat of the DPC. The notification lists four sub-committees that could be created under the DPC across four broad areas: policy and strategy; plans and capability development; defence diplomacy; and defence manufacturing eco-system. While India does have a defence planning architecture in place, this is the first time it is creating a body that will factor in everything from foreign policy imperatives to operational directives and long-term defence equipment acquisition and infrastructure development plans to technological developments in other parts of the world while coming up with a plan. The DPC will prepare military doctrines and, in turn, define Indian military objectives for the future. The doctrines will reflect India’s no-first-use nuclear policy as well as take into account the possibility of a two-front war (on the country’s western and northern fronts). They will justify the Indian Navy’s demand of two aircraft carriers and the role of Indian Air Force in the era of long range stand-off weapons and missile theatre defence. Senior defence ministry officials said that defence minister’s operational directives will flow out of new military doctrines to ensure that India’s strategic interests are not threatened by any of its neighbours, or a proxy. The operational directives are classified instructions issued to any military arm to protect national interest. DEFENCE PLANNING COMMITTEE: THE CONTOURS Mandate for sub-committees 1 Policy and Strategy a. Assess external security risks, define defence and security priorities b. Formulate and review military and national security strategy 2 Planning & capability development a. Identify how different ministries can come together for national security issues b. Create a capability development plan (CDP) and monitor its timely implementation c. Obtain Cabinet approval and help secure budgetary support 3 Defence diplomacy a. Evaluate foreign policy needs and create a defence engagement strategy b. Identify foreign acquisitions and sales to achieve strategic leverage
4 Defence manufacturing a. Draft comprehensive policy for research and development b.Draw out road map for indigenisation c.Formulate policy, institute structural framework to boost defence exports HINDU APR 20, 2018 NSA to head new Defence panel The committee will draft reports on national security strategy, says notification. In an effort to improve higher defence management, the government on Wednesday constituted a new committee headed by the National Security Adviser. A notification issued by the Defence Ministry said the Defence Planning Committee (DPC) will draft reports on national security strategy, international defence engagement strategy, road map to build a defence manufacturing ecosystem, strategy to boost defence exports, and priority capability development plans. The DPC will submit these to the Defence Minister. Mixed reactions Several military sources and observers pointed out that the committee could help improve India’s defence planning in the long term, but may end up having no noticeable impact if the present government did not return to power in 2019. “If the next government is a different one, they will dump this committee,” said a serving senior military officer. While some of them hailed the move to place the committee under NSA Ajit Doval, others said it gives Mr. Doval an unprecedented role in the process of planning India’s security strategy. Vice-Admiral (Retd) S.C.S Bangara, who has had a ring side view of the only effort to bring military integration after the Kargil conflict, said there were many good aspects to the present move. “Long ago, we used to have a defence planning committee under the Raksha Mantri but it had no clear mandate. We have had the National Security Advisory Board making reports. But none of it has worked. We do not still have a laid-down national security strategy that is handed down by the government, and our acquisitions are not informed by such a laid-out strategy,” he said. Protocol matters
He said the positives of the present decision is that the NSA, of a Minister of State rank, caused no protocol issues in chairing a meeting of the chiefs and secretaries. On the negative side, he said: “In four years, this government couldn’t catch [take] the bull by the horn, integrate the forces and plan long term. But there isn’t enough time for the committee to make any impact during this government’s tenure.” Panel composition The committee will have the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, three service chiefs, secretaries of the Ministries of Defence, Expenditure and Foreign Affairs as its members. The Chief of Integrated Staff in the Defence Ministry will be the member secretary of the DPC, and his headquarters will be the secretariat. The order has also listed four sub-committees. One to look at policy and strategy; the second one will work on plans and capability development; third one on defence diplomacy and the fourth one on defence manufacturing ecosystem. Members will be decided by the DPC, which is expected to hold its first meeting soon after Mr. Doval returns from Germany on April 21, officials said.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT HINDU, APR 19, 2018 Is the Indian economy really that strong? Ramana Ramaswamy The improving fundamentals owe more to favourable external circumstances than to domestic policy choices. The Indian economy is currently growing at about 7%, after dipping below 6% following demonetisation. It is projected to grow over 7% this year. That is faster than China’s growth rate and makes India effectively the fastest-growing economy in the world. The Indian economy’s foundations have also been strengthened in the last few years. Inflation has come down to the 4-5% range. Trade balances with the rest of the world have improved, and the current account deficit has come down to about 1.5% of GDP. India has also systematically built up its foreign exchange reserves — now a comfortable $420 billion. These figures appear to tell the story of a dynamic economy. But is it truly that rosy a picture? Deeper analysis indicates that growth may be overstated and the economy prone to significant vulnerabilities. Kinks to iron out In order for growth to be both high and sustainable, investment has to be strong. Investment is the act of adding to our productive capacity — building infrastructure, factories, and enhancing the skill of the workforce. However, the striking fact about India is the weakness in investment, reflected in the sharp decline in the rate of investment in recent years. The rate of investment has come down from 34% of GDP in 2014 to about 30% currently. Compared to earlier years, the decline is even more precipitous: the investment rate is now at the lowest level in about 15 years. A decline in investment of this magnitude is difficult to reconcile with a 7% growth rate. Should investment continue to decline in the future, it would be incompatible with high growth. The other kink to the strong growth story is the weakness in industrial production. It was growing at around 6% in 2016, but plummeted to 2% by mid-2017 following demonetisation. While there has been a pick-up in industrial production in the fourth quarter of 2017, that is exaggerated in comparison to the last quarter of 2016 when activity literally froze up. That is, it is again difficult to reconcile strong overall growth of the economy with weak industrial performance. Bank financing is important for growth in India. This is particularly true of small and medium- sized enterprises and parts of the agricultural sector where the bulk of the labour force is employed. When there are stresses in the banking system, growth invariably suffers.
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