Lacklustre end to National Women’s Parliament
•The three-day National Women’s Parliament (NWP) ended here on a lacklustre note, with the meet postponing the adoption of the much-hyped Amaravati Declaration. The NWP did not present the widely publicised International Woman Icon and 12 best ‘young achievers’ awards either. Worse, thousands of girl students who participated in the three-day event were not given even the Certificate of Participation. This left them utterly disappointed on the concluding day of the conclave on Sunday.
•Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, referring to the Amaravati Delcaration, said: “The State government entered into an MoU with U.N. Women. They will compile and process the proceedings and discussions. They will submit a report in three months.”
•At the valedictory, an official read out a cursory list of the issues that had come up for discussion. They included age of marriage for women, nutrition and malnutrition-related problems, poor sanitation in schools, social development, equal access to resources and digital literacy.
•There was a not word from the organisers on the ‘young achievers’ awards and the International Woman Icon. Neither the Chief Minister nor Speaker Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, who is Chairman of the conclave, touched the topic.
•Chaotic scenes were witnessed outside the main venue at the Pavitra Sangamam where the event was organised, as participants jostled with one another to get their certificates of participation. Though the organisers started issuing the certificates, a near-stampede like situation ensued at the registration counters forcing the officials to abandon the plan.
•Vijayawada Police Commissioner Gautam Sawang tried to pacify the irate students. He even offered them his mobile phone number to contact in case they did not receive the certificates within a week.
Married woman can also ask tenant to vacate: SC
•A tenant cannot refuse to vacate a house saying his landlady is married and has her husband’s home to live in, the Supreme Court has held.
•Marriage will not extinguish the landlady’s bona fide need to re-take possession of rented premises, a Bench of Justices Dipak Misra and R. Banumathi held in a 12-page judgment recently.
•The case concerns eviction suit proceedings filed by Nidhi against her tenant who runs a hotel on rented premises at Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh.
•Nidhi wanted re-possession of the rented portion of her house so that she could accommodate her ailing grandparents from the village. She said she and her sisters wanted a separate room to study undisturbed.
Krishna water: Bajaj panel to hold meeting from today
•The Bajaj Committee, set up by the Union Water Resources Ministry to help the Krishna River Management Board (KRMB) in preparing a working manual along with an operational protocol for sharing Krishna river water between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, will hold a series of meetings with officials of the two States from February 13 to 15.
Presentation
•Headed by former chairman of the Central Water Commission (CWC) A.K. Bajaj, the committee would hold a meeting with Irrigation Department officials of Telangana here on Monday. Officials have already been tasked with preparing a presentation to be made before the committee. Sources stated that the strategy, including the presentation for the meeting, would be first cleared by Irrigation Minister T. Harish Rao before taking Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s clearance. The State government was expected to argue for installation of telemetry equipment at all points from where A.P. was drawing (tapping) water from the river and also at Pattiseema and Polaram project sites from where the Godavari water was being diverted to the Krishna basin.
•The committee would leave for Vijayawada on Monday evening and hold a meeting with A.P. Irrigation officials there on Tuesday. The panel would hold a joint meeting with officials of the two States here on Feb. 15.
Commitee members
•Besides Mr. Bajaj, the committee comprises Gopala Krishnan, R.P. Pandey, Pradeep Kumar Shukla, and N.N. Rai.
U.S. denies visa to Pakistan Senate’s deputy chairman
•Pakistan’s Senate deputy-chairman and leader of one of the largest Islamic parties in the country was denied a U.S. visa, leading to the cancellation of a two-member delegation’s planned visit to New York to attend a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union at the U.N. headquarters.
•Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, the deputy-chairman and the secretary-general of Jamiat Ulema Islam, was scheduled to lead a two-member Senate delegation at IPU meeting being held on February 13 and 14 at the U.N..
•“The visa of Haideri was put on hold in what can be termed a technical refusal,” The Express Tribune reported, quoting its sources.
•Senator Lt. Gen. (retd.) Salahuddin Tirmizi — who was to accompany Mr. Haideri — was granted a visa just two days earlier.
•The visit of the two Senators has now been cancelled on the direction of Pakistan’s Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani who had taken notice of the issue.
•Citing official sources, the paper said the Senate Secretariat had applied for official visas for them two weeks ago. “They said when the Senate Secretariat checked with the U.S. Embassy about the status of Haideri’s passport through official channels, it was told that the U.S. authorities would get back to it by Tuesday, clearly meaning that Haideri could not travel to the U.S. to attend the IPU conference,” it said.
•“It is a technical refusal,” a top Senate official said.
•Earlier, the Senate Secretariat said that there was a delay in issuance of visa to the deputy-chairman and the Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani had taken notice of the issue.
•Mr. Rabbani issued directives to his secretariat not to entertain any U.S. delegation or diplomat till the issue was resolved. “No delegation, member of Congress or diplomat of the U.S. will be welcomed by the Senate of Pakistan, Senate Standing Committees and the Senators in their official capacity till this issue is resolved,” Mr. Rabbani said.
Solar power breaks a price barrier
•In another barrier-breaking development, the auctioned price of solar photovoltaic (SPV) power per kilowatt hour has dropped below ₹3 to ₹2.97 in Madhya Pradesh, providing a clear pointer to the future course of renewable energy. The levellised tariff — factoring in a small annual increase for a given period of time — for the 750 MW Rewa project over a 25-year period is ₹3.29, which is less than half the rate at which some State governments signed contracts in recent years. The progress of this clean source of energy must be deepened with policy incentives, for several reasons. Arguably, the most important is the need to connect millions of people without access to electricity. A rapid scaling-up of solar capacity is vital also to meet the national goal of installing 100 gigawatts by 2022, a target that is being internationally monitored as part of the country’s pledges under the Paris Agreement on climate change. It will also be transformational for the environment, since pollution from large new coal-based power plants can be avoided. There is everything to gain by accelerating the pace of growth that essentially began in 2010, with the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission. Yet, performance has not matched intent and the target of installing 12 GW solar capacity in 2016-17 is far from attainable, since it fell short by almost 10 GW as of December.
•A glaring lacuna in the national policy on renewables is the failure to tap the investment potential of the middle class. While grid-connected large-scale installations have received maximum attention, there is slow progress on rooftop solar. Clearly, adding capacity of the order of more than 10 GW annually over the next six years towards the 100 GW target will require active participation and investment by the buildings sector, both residential and commercial. This process can be kick-started using mass participation by citizens, with State electricity utilities being given mandatory time frames to introduce net-metering systems with a feed-in tariff that is designed to encourage the average consumer to invest in PV modules, taking grid electricity prices into account. The experience of Germany, where robust solar expansion has been taking place over the years, illustrates the benefits of policy guarantees for rooftop installations and feed-in tariffs lasting 20 years. SPV costs are expected to continue to fall, and tariffs paid both for large plants and smaller installations require periodic review. At some point, significant subsidies may no longer be necessary. That scenario, however, is for the future. Currently, India needs a lot more good quality power, which renewables provide. Solar power is an emissions-free driver of the economy, generating growth in both direct and indirect employment. A lot of sunlight remains to be tapped.
One China check for Donald Trump
•President Donald Trump’s stated commitment to honour the One China policy signals a softening of his administration’s approach towards Beijing. Earlier, Mr. Trump had given enough indications that he would pursue a radically different policy towards Beijing by reviewing the One China policy, a cornerstone of Sino-U.S. relations. First, he accepted a congratulatory call from the Taiwanese President, breaking 37 years of American practice and thereby infuriating Beijing. Later, in an interview, he declined to endorse the One China policy unless he saw progress from Beijing in its trade and currency policies, triggering speculation that he would improve ties with Taiwan and use the policy as a bargaining chip. Such speculation was effectively killed last week when Mr. Trump took a 180-degree turn on China in his first telephone conversation with Chinese President Xi Jinping. It is not clear what made Mr. Trump change his mind. Some reports suggest that ever since he accepted the call from the Taiwanese leader, Beijing drew a One China red line for further cooperation on key issues between the two countries. It took three weeks for the Trump-Xi conversation to take place after the former took office, a relatively long time given the importance of bilateral ties between the world’s largest economies. Mr. Trump had talked to at least 30 world leaders before he got Mr. Xi on the line. The administration had taken clear measures to ease tensions with Beijing, largely caused by Mr. Trump’s remarks. The White House first sent belated Chinese new year greetings to Mr. Xi and released the letter to the public. Only then did both leaders speak.
•This could well be a reality check for Mr. Trump in his future engagement with China. For Beijing, the One China policy is the bedrock of its engagement with the world. Picking a fight with China over an issue it deems most sensitive in its security parlance in the initial days of his presidency shows bad diplomatic judgment on the part of Mr. Trump. It would unnecessarily escalate tensions between the two countries. This doesn’t mean the U.S. should accept Chinese terms on all global issues. There are areas where both can cooperate, such as in dealing with global conflicts; areas where they compete, such as in trade and investment; and areas where they disagree, such as the South China Sea dispute. The challenge before Mr. Trump is to address these issues with Beijing without disrupting the existing equilibrium in Sino-U.S. ties.
Consistency, clarity and flair
•Next week, this column will migrate from the Perspective page to the Editorial page and the Editor is expected to announce some exciting new changes. In the entirety of its journey of 139 years, this newspaper has remained contemporary yet classic by effecting periodic design changes and taking a lead to embrace new technology without compromising its core values that are intrinsically wedded to the cardinal principles of journalism. While I wait for the Editor to unveil the new plans, I would like to share a sliver of information that would please readers like Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao from Vijayawada, who asked us to explain the rationale behind the differing usage of quotation marks in different pages of this newspaper.
•Mr. Srinivasa Rao looked at the Vijayawada edition of The Hindu (January 24, 2017) to point out inconsistencies in the usage of punctuation marks. The front page headline was: CBI ordered to probe ‘abuse of office’ by its former chief. But when the continuation of the same news appeared on page 10, the entire headline was within inverted commas.
Using quotation marks
•He then went on to point out headlines that had only a defining word or words within inverted commas and an equal number of headlines that were statements of political leaders and were entirely within quotation marks.
•“My understanding is, a quote is used when a statement comes from an individual and inverted commas are used when the words used are different from the language in which the entire story is running,” he wrote. He wanted a clarification about the usage in different ways of quotation marks and inverted commas. Mr. Srinivasa Rao was correct about inconsistencies, though each usage read individually is both grammatically and contextually correct. I would like to assure him that such inadvertent stylistic variations will come to an end soon because the newspaper has just adopted a new, extensive style sheet that addresses some of these issues.
•Like most major newspapers, The Hindu too is guided by a style sheet. Unlike the design change which takes place every decade, the style sheet revision cycle is long. The last style book of The Hindu was produced in 1990, a year before the Indian economy was liberalised and the Soviet Union dissolved. It was aimed at ensuring consistency of usage — of spellings, capitalisation, punctuations and abbreviations. The foreword of the 1990 edition read: “The book is not necessarily to settle disputes of an academic character… ‘Style’, as it is used here, does not refer to literary style.”
Our new style sheet
•The style sheet that is now being adopted by The Hindu is different from other style sheets adopted by Indian newspapers which draw almost wholly from the ones developed by Western newspapers or agencies. The Editor explained how this new style guide was created organically — out of debates, discussions, and doubts that have surfaced in the newsroom. According to him, the credit for putting this together should go entirely to P. Jacob, Senior Managing Editor, even if the latter prefers to see this as “the outcome of an institutional effort that has involved editors and journalists”. Though this edition of the style sheet is much more exhaustive, the editorial team considers this a work in progress given the fact that the way we use language is dynamic in nature.
•Coming back to Mr. Srinivasa Rao’s query, the style sheet has detailed entries for both the use of quotations and quotation marks. It spells out the in-house ground rules in an unambiguous manner. There is a cautionary note that says: “The word ‘quote’ is a verb, and its use as a noun is colloquial. Use ‘quotation’ as the noun.” In this column on quotation marks, I have tried to follow the rules set out in the new style sheet.
•The entry first sets the basic premise for the use of quotation: “No change is to be made in a quotation even to bring it in line with house style, in other words, it is against ‘cleaning up’ quotations. A direct quotation eliminates the need to be concerned with issues of editorial style. Readers may have a right to assume that every word between quotation marks is what a speaker or a writer said. ‘Approximate’ quotations can undermine readers’ trust, since they may turn up worded differently elsewhere. Above all, it should be ensured that the intent of the speaker has been preserved.”
•The style sheet asks the writers and subeditors to stick to single quotation marks in headlines and second decks but double in captions, and to use single quotation marks when it is a quotation within a quotation. In the last paragraph, ‘cleaning up’ and ‘approximate’ were within double quotation marks, but I have changed it to single quotation marks because they are quotations within a quotation.
•The style sheet also functions as an explainer of the trajectory of typography from the early metal typefaces to the present virtual keyboards. For instance, it makes a distinction between “straight quotes” and “curly quotes”. It attributes straight quotes to the typewriter era, which was constrained by physical space and mechanical limitations. It bats for “curly quotes” as they are legible and sharp.
•I think the defining aspect of this style sheet is that while it helps to bring about a sense of consistency, it has no rules that hamper experimentation or deny space for creativity.
Commerce Dept. special arm may drive foreign trade policy
Trade strategy is now being piloted by the PMO & the External Affairs Ministry
•India’s future trade (policy) model should have the Commerce Department at the helm, supported by ministries including External Affairs and Finance, while a ‘transformed’ Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) should be the apex body for all trade promotion activities for the country, according to a government-commissioned report.
•India’s foreign trade strategy and policy is currently being piloted predominantly by the Prime Minister’s Office and External Affairs Ministry.
Frost & Sullivan report
•The report — prepared by the global consultancy firm Frost & Sullivan and submitted on December 23, 2016, to the commerce & industry ministry — also makes a strong case for a higher profile for the Indian Trade Service (ITS) in matters of trade policies & systems.
•At present, the officials belonging to the Indian Administrative Service, Foreign Service and Revenue Service evidently have a relatively superior role over ITS cadre regarding decisions on crucial trade policy matters.
•The report proposed that “… a dedicated ministerial arm under Department of Commerce will deal exclusively with trade-related policy inputs, their formulation and their rollout with the bulk of implementation work handled by a digital platform.”
•The Frost & Sullivan report advocated that “the operational implementation of the Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) should reside with the department of commerce providing the trade community one single entity to deal with.”
•The FTP should be considered a “dynamic document,” according to the report. It added that any change necessitated with respect to the ongoing requirements must be approved by the (commerce) departmental arm responsible for policymaking.
•“Once approved by all ministerial stakeholders including the Department of Commerce, Department of Revenue and Ministry of External Affairs, a single communication should be issued by the departmental arm dedicated to FTP,” it stated.
Small, yet efficient
•It observed: “The Prime Minister’s preferred model of a small and yet efficient government acting as a facilitator for businesses is most relevant and applicable to the DGFT. Furthermore, there is a critical need to transform the current DGFT by taking a holistic view of the existent trade environment in the country.”
•The report mooted that a transformed DGFT should be made accountable for all trade promotion activities for India — providing services such as trade representation in foreign countries, research & development, market intelligence, business matchmaking services as well as public relations, advertising and marketing services.
•The ‘DGFT 3.0’ — with DGFT pre- and post-liberalisation being the earlier two versions — should also provide (foreign trade) monitoring and training services, hold export promotion campaigns, industrial trade fairs and ensure greater focus on small and medium firms, the report suggested.
•“The ITS is the only dedicated cadre within the Ministry of Commerce that has professionals with deep knowledge of trade policies and systems. Given their extensive involvement with DGFT and institutional memory, DGFT is best placed to continue with its role in providing policy inputs and aiding the policy formulation process,” the report recommended.
‘Recruit professionals’
•Noting that the DGFT needs to re-skill its resources to be successful, the report said: “Future recruitment should focus on professionals with experience and qualifications in trade and commerce from reputed institutions.”
•The report comes at a time when India’s goods exports have not yet recovered fully from the impact of a prolonged contraction from December 2014 to May 2016, as well as the government’s demonetisation exercise early November.
•“For an improvement in India’s performance on the ease of doing business – currently ranked 130 out of 190 countries and particularly on the parameter of ‘trading across borders’ (where India is) currently ranked at a dismal 143 – it is imperative to deploy digital technology to transform the experience of doing trade in the country,” according to the report.
•It also comes in the backdrop of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) stating in December 2016 that “… the number of new trade-restrictive measures being introduced (by WTO Member countries) remains worryingly high given continuing global economic uncertainty and the WTO's downward revision of its trade forecasts.”
China is way ahead of India in terms of railway investment
•India is way behind China on investment in railway, including border infrastructure, says Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, even as he defends the government’s delivery record in MoUs with other countries such as Japan, China and Korea
•In terms of India’s ambitions abroad, where does the Indian Railways hope to grow?
•We already have connectivity with Bangladesh and we would like to improve on that with more lines. Also with Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. The budget allocation for the North-East has increased dramatically just to take this in. Connecting to our neighbours is definitely a priority.
•How much is competition with China an issue for you?
•China has invested every year what we plan to invest in five years. Till 2014, when we came to power, they would invest in 6 months what we did in 5 years. We will now increase our investment to $142 billion over the next five years, and we are on track to do that, but that will still be nothing compared to China’s investment. China is way ahead of us in terms of railways investment. In any case, if India wants to have overall infrastructure of a good quality, we must step up railway infrastructure.
•We are always constrained by the fact that the Finance Ministry will have limited resources, and won’t be able to give us more investment. So, for the first time we have looked at extra-budget resources. In the Finance Minister’s budget speech, he said they would allocate ₹1,31,000 crore for railways, of which the gross budgetary support is ₹55,000 crore. So the balance will come from extra-budget resources which is part of the Consolidated Fund of India. Finance ministry has told us to raise the funds ourselves, which we can do at a cheaper rate. The question you are asking is very valid, which is about China’s deep infrastructure spending which is much greater than ours.
•Particularly when it comes to border infrastructure, given how Chinese railway comes right up to its frontiers with India in Tibet, along Arunachal Pradesh etc, how will the railways compete?
•We are working closely with the Ministry of Defence on this and the MoD will take calls on what lines are important for them, and we will support them fully on all these strategic issues.
•Do you think India would also consider linking up with the Chinese lines that are being laid for the OBOR (One Belt One Road) project for neighbourhood connectivity?
•Again, physical connectivity can always be discussed by the Railways, but strategic issues go beyond that. So there has to be the larger perspective and the MEA and MoD will decide on these things. We, as the Ministry of Railways, would be able to implement their decisions. There is a plan to connect Asia on one side and Eurasia on the other…that is already a plan. But it’s not going to happen in a hurry since the investment required will be huge. But certain ideas are there: for example the plan to link to Myanmar by railway will take us to South-East Asia as well. Eventually though, our domestic agenda..., the huge backlog of investments in India itself will come first and will take years to cover. Whatever you see today in terms of problems in the Railways is a result of a lack of investment in the Railways for decades. It is inconceivable that we can solve the problem of decades in a few years.
•You are the first Rail Minister of India to not present a Rail Budget. Do you feel bad about it?
•If you look at my first two Budgets, this is a continuation of the same thing. It doesn’t matter as long as the Railways benefit.
•What about the other end of the spectrum? The MoU for Ahmedabad-Mumbai rail has been signed at ₹97,000 crore, but it begs the question, couldn’t the money be spent on other areas where the Railways needs to spend?
•Is that money available for other public service obligations, then? Will Japan give us this money for other projects?
•Is it viable at all? The fact is that for such a short route you may need to charge over ₹3,000 per ticket which is more than the airfare at present…
•This is what the feasibility study by NITI Aayog says, you should ask them. JICA (Japanese International Cooperation Agency) has also accepted the study.
•Another issue for these international agencies is delivery, particularly on land acquisition delays. On this project, Maharashtra refused to give land identified for the train terminals, for example. How do you plan to work around this?
•That was not a problem from the Railways side. We have reached out to them and now Maharashtra and Gujarat governments are discussing this issue and they are on board to find land. There are issues but we are able to solve them.
THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 13 February
