THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 29 APRIL
SC offers to set the stage for peace talks in Kashmir
Centre puts its foot down, says it won’t talk to separatists or withdraw forces
•Even as the Supreme Court offered to set the stage for peace talks between influential voices in Kashmir and the Centre to facilitate the return of normality to the Valley, the government put its foot down, saying it will not break bread with secessionist forces and cannot brook the risk of withdrawing security forces from the sensitive border State.
•Appearing before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar on Friday, Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi said the government cannot negotiate with separatists. The Centre said it would “absolutely” not entertain any talks of azadi with these leaders. “If you suggest secession, chances for talks are finished. Nothing will happen. But if your suggestions are something within the framework of the Constitution, then we can help,” Chief Justice Khehar addressed petitioners, including the Jammu and Kashmir High Court Bar Association.
•Mr. Rohatgi read portions of submissions filed in court by petitioners, suggesting the route to peace in Kashmir would be for talks between India and Pakistan. He pointed to how the petitioners felt that even the accession of Jammu and Kashmir was “controversial.”
•“Our heart beats for the people of Kashmir. We strongly object to their argument that the entire State is subjected to state terrorism. Can they say that the election held recently was rigged?” Mr. Rohatgi asked. He said the Kashmiri leaders were free to engage in talks with the CM and the PM. “Anyway, dialogues must be initiated through political leaders and not in this court,” Mr. Rohatgi submitted. The Bench said that for peace to return to Kashmir, students should first stop throwing stones and return to colleges and schools. Education is empowerment and only education will deliver them from the widespread unemployment and anger spilling out on the streets, Justice Kaul observed orally.
•The court asked the stakeholders in Kashmir to “take two steps back” as a resolution can be initiated only if there are no stones and pellets fired on the streets of Kashmir.
Cyprus calls for action against backers of ‘violence factories’
Signs four pacts with India, including on air services and merchant shipping
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades on Friday strongly pitched for decisive action against states supporting, sheltering and sustaining “violence factories” in their regions.
•The two leaders held detailed discussions on bilateral as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern.
•These included ways to boost trade ties and U.N. Security Council reforms.
•Both sides also signed four pacts, including one for air services and another on cooperation in merchant shipping.
•At a joint media event with the Cypriot leader, Mr. Modi said India has always stood with Cyprus on crucial issues and firmly supports its sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity.
•Mr. Anastasiades said he is sincerely appreciative of his “dearest friend” Modi and the Indian government for India’s unequivocal support on the Cyprus issue.
Terrorism threat
•Mr. Modi said that while India has been battling cross-border terrorism for decades, Cyprus, due to its geographical location, understood the threat posed by terrorism.
•“We agreed that there is an urgent need for all countries to decisively act against those states which generate, support, shelter and sustain these factories of violence in our regions,” the prime minister said in a veiled reference to Pakistan.
•Emphasising the need for creating a comprehensive legal framework to fight terror, Mr. Modi advocated early conclusion of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, proposed by India at the UN.
•The two sides also agreed on the need for early reforms in the UNSC as Mr. Modi expressed India’s appreciation for Cyprus’ support to India’s bid for inclusion in the world body as a permanent member.
•The Cypriot leader said his country wanted India to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group.
‘Great friend’
•Describing the Cypriot President as “great friend and strong supporter of India”, Mr. Modi said he also discussed with him ways to strengthen the partnership in other “inter- governmental organisations and regimes.”
•Issues like growing economic relations between India and Cyprus figured during the talks.
•The Mediterranean country is the eighth largest investor in India.
NITI Aayog chief hits back at industry
•Industry should take responsibility for the failure to create adequate jobs in India in recent years, NITI Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya said on Friday in a brusque response to a query about the Centre’s strategy for job creation. “Why does China export $175 billion of apparel and we export only $17 billion? I think there is some responsibility on the part of the industry,” Mr. Panagariya said at the CII’s annual session.
•When a senior industry representative termed the lack of jobs ‘the biggest failure’ of the present government, Mr. Panagariya said: “I am sorry you are asking the wrong question. What is industry doing on this? Government makes policies. Why is it that no industrialist thinks of the 500 million workers in our abundant workforce at a relatively low wage level. Why is it I don’t see a single industrialist thinking of starting a factory of 2,50,000 workers doing apparel?”
•“I understand you will naturally go for profits. But if jobs is a big issue, why doesn’t the industry act?” he said.
‘U.K. should alter immigration rhetoric’
NGO says the debate should be more positive and go beyond the economic argument
•The forthcoming general election offers British politicians and the media an opportunity to change the rhetoric around immigration and migrants, said the head of an NGO working on migrants.
•While official figures have shown a rise in hate crime in the immediate aftermath of last year’s Brexit vote, anecdotal evidence suggests this has continued, triggering wider concerns and fears within Black and minority ethnic communities, even those who have lived in Britain for generations.
•“When people are verbally abused, the abuser isn’t concerned about their immigration status — they may just see someone with a different accent, or someone who looks different,” says Fizza Qureshi, director of the Migrants’ Right Network, which has also been tracking incidents of racism and xenophobic street harassment via a volunteer-created initiative iStreetWatch.
•The initiative has monitored incidents up and down the country — from northern Scotland to Cornwall in the south — — and hundreds of incidents in London and the surrounding areas. “The idea is to get a visual map of what is happening, and to look at what the political and media narrative is and see if there is a correlation.”
•“We know there is significant underreporting of events. And even if there is fear in the community that is not necessarily translated into the reporting of incidents.”
Fuelling concerns
•There are concerns that the language deployed by the media and politicians are adding to the frenzied atmosphere around the issue of immigration. “We are monitoring the language used by politicians — it’s unlikely to be very different to what has been previously expressed, especially by those parties and candidates who want to close the doors or want much reduced immigration,” says Ms. Qureshi.
•She added that existing policies were fuelling concerns and were proving difficult for communities to handle. “There is an issue of the hostile environment. The Prime Minister [Theresa May] when she was Home Secretary was pushing a crackdown on undocumented migrants but this also impacts on communities themselves who are asked to do the policing and check their right to be in the country — whether it’s employers or NHS staff — this is creating divisions,” she said, adding that mapping by the network of businesses that being subject to immigration raids had found a significant number of Indian and Pakistani restaurants had been among them.
•“There is an approach where certain communities are being focused on, and this adds to the tensions.” We think there should be a more rights-based approach to immigration, making it a more fair and transparent process rather than what seems to be one that is subjective and based on ad hoc policies that are constantly changing.”
Positive debate
•She added a more positive conversation was needed on immigration — that went beyond the economic contribution of migrants. “We will be looking to encourage the media and candidates to consider how they talk about migrants and refugees, to ensure that it’s non-divisive and fairer.”
•There have been a number of public initiatives in response to some of the media coverage of the issue of immigration and race, including one called Stop Funding Hate that is focusing on encouraging advertisers to avoid publications such as the Sun , The Daily Mail and The Daily Express . “I think it’s a sign that the current processes for dealing with such issues are not working and people are having to use other means to try and influence the media.”
How Bidar beat back the drought
As Karnataka reels from drought, an academic is helping restore indigenous systems that were Bidar’s water lifeline 600 years ago. Lalitha Sridhar reports
•The vast flatlands outlying Bidar face the brunt of the sun as it bears down on a thinly populated terrain marked by few trees and sparse foliage. But then a salubrious drop in temperature accompanies the rough descent down the six-metre-wide mouth of a medieval aqueduct to the north-west of the city. Here, about 25 feet below ground, is cool and softly flowing water, clear as crystal till bare feet touch the floor of the trough and raise a dense cloud of red sediment.
•Medicinal ‘chamkora’ fern cluster around the white kaolin (calcium) deposits where the waterline meets the unleavened laterite. The play of water and light streaks the rock face in subtly rich mineral colours: black basalt, pinkish bauxite, umber iron, ochre clay. Harmless water bugs ( Aquarius remigis ) that help keep the water potable flutter in disarray. Fifteen metres into the tunnel, a 63-feet-high shaft opens to the sky and lets a swathe of light cast vague shadows on the inky darkness further ahead, where the water is deep enough to drown a man.
Harnessing old wisdom
•Apertures in the towering walls indicate crevices from which, nearly 600 years ago, wicker lamps may have offered light to labouring workers. Five years ago, when V. Govindankutty, assistant professor of geography at Palakkad’s little-known Government College of Chittur, first saw a trickle of water here, he did not realise that he had stumbled on an ancient engineering marvel — a series of an estimated 57 linearly placed vents connecting a cavernous and often winding 2.58-km-long subterranean tunnel, hewed to transport water from a perennial mother well at the start of a fault line (a linear geological fissure).
•The water that now flows in the Naubad karez (aqueduct) is the result of months of challenging research and meticulous restoration, not only of the aqueduct and its vents but also of bawdis and kalyanis (open wells and tanks that dot the landscape here), a part of Bidar’s highly evolved and networked indigenous water systems.
•Recently, the Karnataka government sought to declare drought in 26 of its 30 districts, 16 of which are to the north of the State and have received deficit rainfall, including Bidar, the northernmost. As a Cabinet sub-committee on drought assesses the situation, the restorers in the city of Bidar, also the district headquarters, expect water will last in the karez for another two-three months at current levels of usage, and it is early days yet for a project with life-saving implications. About 117 acres of farmland are irrigated by it and nearby neighbourhoods now turn to the karez for their water supply. The Naubad karezis the first of the very few known karez systems in India to be documented scientifically and restored.
Now running on plenty
•Semi-arid Bidar receives 60-100 cm of rainfall annually. Its terrain is uniquely composed of ‘duricrust’ honeycomb-structured laterite (hard but porous and capable of absorbing rain water when forested with the right vegetation), below which lies the impermeable basalt of the Deccan trap that does not allow what is collected to percolate away.
•Since that first excursion, Govindankutty has marked 814 bawdis and kalyanisalong the three karez systems he has mapped around Bidar — the most accessible Naubad karez ; the six-km-long Shukla Tirth, which begins at the old Gornalli kere (a lake-like waterbody) to provide water by terracotta pipes for the Agrahara village; and the poorly understood 1.33-km-long Jamna Mori, likely a water distribution system from the Bidar fort’s Fateh Darwaza to the moat of the royal enclosure, now buried under rampant urbanisation.
•Following restoration efforts, after a brief spurt of heavy rains in September 2015, the Naubad karez was operational again for the first time in centuries — a monitoring team recorded water pouring out of its mouth at 120 litres per minute. Though it was dry again by the end of February 2016, the now-inspired restorers used the months that followed to continue with de-silting.
•Nature handed them an unexpected turning point. Following the overall deficit rainfall since 2012, in the summer of 2016, for the first time in living memory, most of Bidar’s bawdis and kalyanis ran dry. “When this happened, people took the karez and bawdis seriously and it was easier to generate awareness about them. In a way, the crisis became an opportunity,” says Vinay Malge, 35, a civil contractor who co-founded Bidar YUVAA (Youth United for Vigilance, Awareness and Action) with friends in 2011.
•Bidar YUVAA activists like Malge, Sabish Dande, Dileep Kumar and others carried forward Govindankutty’s work on the ground, egging on local authorities to undertake the de-silting and cleaning of wells as part of MGNREGA projects; litigating against the encroachment of watershed land; protesting the proliferation of indiscriminately deeper tube wells that have caused the water table to drop drastically, adversely impacting the karez ’s mathematical reliance on gradients; planting over one lakh indigenous trees so that rainwater wouldn’t run off before it could be absorbed; and creating awareness to prevent the dumping of garbage, and open defecation, along thekarez .
•Then, in September 2016, it rained copiously, and the Naubad karez , several irrigation reservoirs and many restored kalyanis have not run dry since.
A man and his mission
•To date, Govindankutty has mapped 28 vents of the Naubad karez , which also serve as wells that harvest rainwater, although the numbers remain changeable as work on the karez ’s restoration continues. In the beginning, he had little to go by besides the presence of fig and jamun trees and certain shrubs as indicators of water nearby. Often alone, the 43-year-old academic has climbed down four-storey-deep vents tied to a rope, taken several bruising falls down bramble and boulders, and had close encounters with a variety of fauna. Cobras, vipers, dragonflies, baya weavers, babblers, langurs and fruit-eating bats are a part of the biodiversity the karez supports, he says. He was, on one occasion, chased by a pack of dogs, and keeps his torch and camouflage cap handy at all times by way of defence.
•As he made fortnightly trips from Palakkad to Bidar, taking off on weekends and holidays with modest personal funds, Govindankutty worked with Google Earth images, handheld GPS and GPS-aided mobile apps, survey devices like the dumpy level and prismatic compass, to record coordinates and create the Karez Geographic Information System, which he intends to make public once his research is completed. “The passion with which he has thrown himself into the painstaking and risky survey of the entire terrain is exemplary,” says K.K. Muhammed, retired regional director of the Archaeological Survey of India and now project director with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) in Hyderabad.
•The Naubad karez or surang bhawi (‘tunnel wells’) is a complex system, Govindankutty discovered, which works inversely underground to leverage gravity — that is, the plateau’s natural gradient ascends from the mouth to the mother well but the tunnel underneath has been cut to descend from the mother well to the mouth. “Initially, even I was surprised,” Govindankutty says. “How did they do it?”
•The professor, who will soon submit his PhD thesis on ‘Historic landscape conservation’ to the Kerala University, recalls inching forward on his stomach over some sections of the tunnel, relying only on his understanding of Bidar’s geology. “I knew the roof wouldn’t collapse, only the walls might slide,” he laughs, his energy for tromping terrain he now understands encyclopaedically quite boundless.
•Today, as they continue to work their way underground from the mouth to the mother well, his efforts and that of local volunteers, now assisted by government funds, have rendered 16 vents accessible (vent 14 is additionally a junction with a branch ‘gallery’ that originates from the Naubad tank near here).
The Bahmani bequest
•A marvel of engineering, the qanat (Arabic for ‘conduit’) or karez (Persian for ‘smaller channels’) system of collecting, transporting, storing and distributing water in arid areas, with very little lost to evaporation, originated in ancient Iran. The first karezs in India were built in Bidar, likely with help of Persian engineers — the Bahmani Sultanate was the first medieval Muslim kingdom to have links with Persia.
•Bidar was discovered because of water. Ahmad Shah Bahmani ‘Wali’ was on his way from Berar to Gulbarga when he chanced upon a bamboo grove (bamboo isbidru in Kannada; the art of Bidri metal work that originated here is also said to give the region its name). His platoon of parched soldiers asked a shepherd named Bomkandeshwar where they could find water. The lad pointed to a spring. Soldiers removed stones to discover what later became the mouth of the Shukla Tirth karez . The shepherd had the village and lake that’s still here named after him in perpetuity.
•The Naubad karez is likely to have been constructed after his reign was fully established in AD 1427. It was meant to serve a naubad (for new abaadi or population), a settlement that was never completed, leaving the abandonedkarez to fill with debris.
•Apart from Naubad, there is also a 14-km karez (the longest in India) in Aurangabad that still serves parts of its municipal water network despite neglect. Huge pipelines bring water into the bafflingly cross-connected 12.5-km-long multi-level karez in Bijapur, which may defeat restorers if they ever get there. Reference to a karez system is found in hydrological studies by the Geological Survey of India in Hukkeri near Belagavi. There also exists a six-km-long karez , locally called the kundi bhandara (open well reservoir) in Madhya Pradesh’s Burhanpur, also dysfunctional, but the town once preferred to convey water down this aqueduct’s origin in an alluvial fan (a cone-shaped deposit of sediments) in the Satpura ranges than rely on the Tapti river by which it stands.
Support and challenges
•Meanwhile, Govindankutty persuaded C. Kunjambu attan , a highly regarded 76-year-old water diviner from Kerala, to travel by flight for the first time in his life and share his native wisdom at a March 2015 seminar on ‘The Glory That Was Bidar’, inaugurated by the late A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who took a personal interest in the subject and conversed privately with restorers for half an hour. “There is water here,” the old man from Kasaragod said simply, after reading the landscape and its botany, and placing his hands on the earth.
•The academic has found supporters in Bidar’s dynamic district collectors: Dr. P.C. Jaffer, Anurag Tewari, and Harsh Gupta, who first tasked him with looking for what they thought were escape tunnels, and from Dr. H.R. Mahadev, who took charge recently. He could also rely upon AKTC’s Muhammed.
•An example of the challenges they face may be seen in the 1.5-km-long Kamthana embankment to the south-west of the city — a perfect oval in Google Maps — which falls on the old route between Bidar and Gulbarga. The breached embankment is seen with its moat in ruins, the adjoining forested areas barren, and the tank to which its water channels lead in shambles.
•Other problems persist. A ring road proposed by the Bidar Urban Development Authority’s Master Plan, which connects to the SH15 Naubad-Hyderabad highway and bypasses Bidar town, bifurcates the second of two agricultural zones that used to be fed by the karez , endangering the system. Similarly, new roads connecting the ring road via the Siddheswar and Papanash temples to Bidar town pass through the surrounding grasslands, already under threat with the loss of indigenous tree species like neem, tamarind and jujube. Gliricidia, a water-consumptive ornamental species planted along the edges of the plateau for social forestry, also needs to be replaced with them.
•Rapid urban development is causing the unique laterite plateau to erode. The area around the Nanak Jira, sacred to Sikhs, is heavily concretised, with the well here now cemented on all sides and the course of small springs leading to it altered beyond recognition. A railway line cuts through the catchment area of the Naubad embankment, which lies directly above geologic fractures or water movement channels called lineaments.
Well done, more to do
•The water warriors continue undeterred. Malge says, “People’s behaviour is the most difficult challenge. We clean and de-silt, water returns and everyone benefits. But the minute we go forward, garbage is dumped again. All we can hope is that the sanctity of these waterbodies will be respected.”
•They have plenty more to do. Last year, there wasn’t a drop of water in the 117-acre Vilaspur tank to the north-west of Bidar. De-silted completely, it is now a beautiful expanse of water welcoming migratory birds. The Jahaz ki Bawdi, a 114-feet-deep well in the old city that had 86 feet of silt in it, is also full of water after massive cleaning.
•Official help is also at hand. The Department of Tourism is funding some of their restoration work, with an initial outlay of Rs. 3 crore, followed by an additional Rs. 5 crore. The Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation has identified the conservation of the Naubad karezsystem as one of 17 projects shortlisted for a pilot study. The Karnataka government’s Kere Sanjeevini (‘life-giving lakes’) scheme and Koti Vriksha Andolana (‘campaign for one crore trees’) are inspired by Bidar.
•The antique land waits patiently. Cart tracks have left furrows on the plateau all the way to Bhalki, 24 km away, separated by disused step wells every kilometre or so, where parched wayfarers and draught animals must have quenched their thirst centuries ago. At an ancient and largely roofless farmhouse in the Naubad embankment, the walls are blocks of laterite so thick that the small homestead appears fortified. A family still lives in here, by a disused brick kiln and cowshed. They share their freshly plucked pulpy berushi mangoes with warm hospitality. The Naubad karez flowing beneath their land is a blessing — four vents lie within their property and they are happy to allow restorers access to them.
•High above, the celebrated Surya Kiran Aerobatic Team, which takes off early every morning from the Bidar Air Force Station, flies daring practice sorties in the cloudless sky. Over 600 families of defence personnel rely on water pumped from one of Bidar’s many nameless bawdis near the old temple at Papanash. Somewhere between these aerial and subterranean realities is a third that is both fragile and threatened: though Karnataka is declaring drought, for now, Bidar and its surrounds have water.
India’s choices as America ‘asks’
The government will have to take a call, and quick, on how to engage with the U.S. on Afghanistan
•During his inaugural address in January 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy famously asked his fellow Americans: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” In 2017, it is a question that U.S. President Donald Trump is posing to the world, as he begins to set his imprint on American foreign policy.
•In the past few weeks, the one campaign promise Mr. Trump’s actions have held fast to is “America First” and to make every other country “pay its dues”. As a result, he has backed away from his earlier tough position on declaring China a “currency manipulator” after his meeting with President Xi Jinping, but the quid pro quo is clear: China must rein in North Korea, particularly its plans for a nuclear test.
Asked to pay up
•Mr. Trump’s decision to dispatch Vice President Mike Pence, Defence Secretary James Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to meet allies in Europe and Asia was received with a sense of relief after worries that he would retrench America’s presence globally. But the message of reassurance came with a rider, as Mr. Trump met NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg this month and then with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, and stressed the need for NATO allies to “pay what they owe”, 2% of their GDP, for security. Similar messages were pressed home to Japan, South Korea and Australia.
•Despite bombing a Syrian airbase, as reprisal for what it said was a chemical attack by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, America’s engagement in the region hasn’t increased either. Mr. Trump’s meetings with Egyptian, Jordanian and Turkish leaders all contained a common demand: that each of their countries step up its fight to counter the Islamic State (IS) in the region. Security Council representatives visiting the White House this week were reminded that the U.S. pays for 22% of the UN’s budget and almost 30% for UN peacekeeping. Mr. Trump termed this “unfair”.
•It is in this context that last week’s visit to the region by U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster must be studied.
•To begin with, the timing of the visit seemed linked to the bombing of what the U.S. Army claimed were hideouts of IS-Khorasan (IS-K) terrorists in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province, using what they crudely referred to as the “mother of all bombs” (MOAB), the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb.
•Those hoping the bombing meant the U.S. was now showing an interest in its commitment to security in Afghanistan hoped too early, as the bombing has not been followed by any clarification of U.S. strategy. Instead, once the dust settles in Nangarhar, and the U.S. reverts control of the areas pounded by the largest non-nuclear weapon in the American arsenal, a closer analysis of what was achieved will be necessary. If anything, bombing IS-K targets at that time took the focus away from the Taliban, which then carried out their single most deadly attack on the Afghan Army in the past decade and a half at the Mazar-e-Sharif military base.
Cost-benefit analyses
•Setting aside the MOAB debate, however, Gen. McMaster’s visit to Kabul, Islamabad and New Delhi fits into the pattern of the Trump administration’s foreign policy mantra: Ask not what the U.S. can do for Afghanistan, he is understood to have told his interlocutors, ask what you can do for the U.S. in Afghanistan.
•Even in his apparently rough dealings with the Pakistani generals, Gen. McMaster pushed for action against groups operating in Afghanistan, avoiding the language of the Obama administration, that included the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammad in their public comments on Pakistan. It would be safe to assume that given the pattern of the past few weeks, the question “ask not…” will also be put in far clearer terms by Mr. Trump to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he visits the White House, as he is expected to later this summer.
•For India, then, the challenge is twofold: to decide not just what, if anything, it is prepared to do to help the U.S. in security and peacekeeping efforts in Afghanistan, but also what it would like to see in clear terms in return. The former has been debated in hushed tones since September 2015, when Mr. Obama is understood to have asked India for a commitment on defence participation in Afghanistan.
•While “boots on the ground” leads to instant recoil in India, and even the Afghan government has repeatedly said it does not require any more foreign presence, there are other ways India is going to be asked to contribute: from providing defence equipment, to training soldiers in Afghanistan (as opposed to in India, where at present capacity, only about 300 Afghan soldiers are being trained), as well as technical teams on the ground to repair and maintain military hardware.
•From the American perspective, given the growing attrition of Afghan Army forces and uptick in violence in 2016, the need for more assistance from India is clear. As a western diplomat said recently, “Mr. Modi must know that his meeting with Mr. Trump is a ‘Yes or No’ moment. If it is Yes, he will have to deliver quickly. If it is No, that too will have deep consequences.” Hedging in the manner Delhi was earlier able to do over joint patrols in the Indo-Pacific may no longer be an option.
Fast-forward on pacts
•Apart from Afghanistan, it is also clear that defence ties will drive the India-U.S. relationship for the foreseeable future. The U.S. wants India to move quickly on the other ‘foundational agreements’, the Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement and Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geo-spatial Cooperation as India completes formalities for the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement this week.
•On hardware too, there will be the “ask”, as the U.S. looks for Indian defence purchases, and “America First” clashes with “Make in India” about where that hardware will be built. India’s concerns on tightening H-1B visas will be met with the American demand that Indian multinational corporations and tech companies operating in the U.S. hire more Americans and give more concessions on trade and intellectual property rights. It is unclear whether India’s demands for American heavy-lifting on the Nuclear Suppliers Group membership issue this June or on climate change financing will be taken very seriously given Mr. Trump’s other preoccupations.
•In the face of this altered pattern of engagement that India must navigate with the new America, then, Mr. Modi has limited options ahead of his meeting with Mr. Trump: to coast along and ride out the impending storm of demands, or to reject the transactionalism inherent in these “asks from America” and steer his own course. In Afghanistan in particular, India must bolster its bilateral delivery on defence assistance, rather than be co-opted in the U.S.’s plans which frequently change according to its own cost-benefit analysis. In so doing, India may also recover some of the equilibrium in its ties with other world powers that have seemed more distant in recent years.
Generic medicines in a digital age
We need a legal mechanism to ensure that all generics are of the same standard as the innovator product
•The Prime Minister’s recent announcement on making it mandatory for doctors to prescribe only the generic name, and not brand name of a drug, has led to a flutter. If enacted, the move will make it illegal for Indian doctors to write out a prescription for the trademark of the drug, forcing them to mention the chemical name instead. If implemented properly, the hope is that pharmacists will fill the prescription with the cheapest generic drug in the market rather than being forced to dispense a more expensive brand as prescribed. Whether pharmacists will play by the book is anybody’s guess.
Are all generic drugs equal?
•A more pressing question at this stage is whether all generic medicines in India are of equal quality. The U.S. and the European Union have ensured that generic drugs are therapeutically equal to the innovator drug by making bioequivalence (BE) testing compulsory. This means that generic formulations are tested on healthy volunteers to ensure that they have the same physiological characteristics as their innovator counterparts. These BE studies are much cheaper and carry little risk when compared to clinical trials conducted by the company that gets approval for the innovator product. Once bioequivalence is established, a generic drug is legally certified to be of the same quality to replace the innovator product and can therefore be interchanged for the innovator product. Even the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) purchase only bioequivalent drugs for their programmes. Until earlier this month, India mandated BE studies for only those formulations seeking approval within four years of the innovator product getting approval. As a result, most generic drug manufacturers sought marketing approval from the fifth year onwards, effectively evading the requirement of conducting BE studies. On April 3, the Ministry of Health finally amended the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules to make BE testing of all highly soluble drugs compulsory. It is a much welcome move.
•What of the quality of generics approved prior to April 3? Did the manufacturers of these generic drugs voluntarily conduct BE studies? We do not know. If there is no proof of bioequivalence, should doctors be forced to make this choice? The ethical answer is a simple no. If the government wants to make the prescription of generics compulsory, it needs to put in place a legal mechanism to guarantee that all generics, especially those introduced prior to April 3, are bioequivalent to the innovator product. It would be unconscionable to restrict doctors to prescribe drugs which they know do not work as promised.
•At the very least, the government should require companies to self-certify their drugs to indicate whether they are in fact bioequivalent. A simple logo on the drug’s packaging to indicate whether a drug has been tested for proof of bioequivalence, along with the trial ID number listed on the Clinical Trials Registry India, should be made mandatory.
•Even presuming successful BE studies, a drug can fail for a variety of reasons. It may lack stability and break down due to heat or humidity. These substandard drugs are a dangerous problem, especially in government-run hospitals.
Drug quality in India
•According to the government’s most recent survey of the quality of drugs in India, 10% of all drugs from ‘government sources’ tested NSQ, or not of standard quality. A NSQ drug will compromise patient health. These numbers are shocking. An earlier report of the Comptroller and Auditor General had revealed that the Armed Forces Medical Stores Depot, which serves armed forces personnel, had reported the percentage of locally procured drugs that were substandard at as high as 32% in one year!
•The challenge for the government is to balance its policy objectives of taking the power of the doctor away to prescribe brand name drugs with the reality that generic drugs in India are of questionable quality. The solution does not lie in more laws, but in providing more information to the consumer. Drug regulators in India have a vast trove of information on substandard drugs which they need to release into a searchable database. This is easier said than done because India has 36 drug regulators — one for each State/Union Territory and the Central regulator. Each of them conducts periodic testing of samples drawn from pharmacies. This testing generates three data sets which need to be publicly available. The first is the laboratory test report, the second is the investigation report by drug inspectors of drugs which have failed testing, and the third is the criminal complaint filed in court against the manufacturer along with the final judgment of the court. If this information is made available over the Internet, the government will truly empower hospital procurement officers, pharmacists and patients with information required to avoid products of manufacturers with a poor quality record.
For an IT bridge
•The government must seriously consider using IT tools to network all 36 drug regulators into one integrated national database. This can then be accessed by every citizen over a smartphone. The essence of the ‘Digital India’ initiative is to empower the citizen. What better way to do this than to provide them with information that will protect them from substandard drugs?
No full stops
Bhutan’s exit from the ‘BBIN’ agreement should not hold up the road-sharing pact
•Bhutan’s announcement that it is unable to proceed with the Motor Vehicles Agreement with Bangladesh, India and Nepal is a road block, and not a dead end, for the regional sub-grouping India had planned for ease of access among the four countries. The sub-grouping, BBIN as it is referred to, was an alternative mooted by the government after Pakistan rejected the MVA at the SAARC summit in Kathmandu in 2014. It seeks to allow trucks and other commercial vehicles to ply on one another’s highways to facilitate trade. Of the other SAARC members, Sri Lanka and the Maldives are not connected by land, and Afghanistan could only be connected if Pakistan was on board. Down to just three countries now after Thimphu’s decision, India, Nepal and Bangladesh will have to decide whether to wait for Bhutan to reconsider or to press ahead with a truncated ‘BIN’ arrangement. The first option will not be easy. The main concern expressed by Bhutanese citizen groups and politicians is over increased vehicular and air pollution in a country that prides itself on ecological consciousness. The upper house of parliament has refused to ratify the MVA that was originally signed by all four BBIN countries in 2015, and the official announcement indicates that Thimphu will not push the agreement ahead of elections in 2018.
•Despite the setback, New Delhi must persevere with its efforts. To begin with, Bhutan’s objections are environmental, not political, and its government may well change its mind as time goes by. Dry runs have been conducted along the routes, and officials estimate the road links could end up circumventing circuitous shipping routes by up to 1,000 km. Second, Bhutan’s concerns may be assuaged if India considers the inclusion of waterways and riverine channels as a less environmentally damaging substitute. Perhaps, Bhutan’s objections may even spur an overhaul of emission standards for trucks currently plying in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Above all, the BBIN pact denotes a “can-do” attitude on India’s part, as it shows a willingness to broaden its connectivity canvas with all countries willing to go ahead at present, leaving the door open for those that may opt to join in the future. A similar initiative for the Asian Highway project under the BCIM (Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar) corridor got a boost this week as the countries moved to upgrade the dialogue to the governmental level. Although India has refused to attend China’s Belt and Road summit on May 14-15, objecting to projects in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the BCIM will remain a way of joining the network when India’s concerns are met. Connectivity is the new global currency for growth and prosperity as it secures both trade and energy lines for countries en route, and India must make the most of its geographic advantages.
Facing up to IT
Stringent visa rules around the world posethe stiffest challenge for Indian IT companies
•A globalising world enabled the spectacular rise of India’s information technology industry over the last couple of decades. The IT sector not only pulled up the GDP but also came to symbolise young India’s aspirations. With the world now bending towards protectionism, it faces a challenge to its talent-centric, software export model. In recent weeks, a slew of countries, which are estimated to account for three-fourths of the industry’s revenues, have placed stricter rules on their companies getting talent from overseas. Whether the challenge of protectionism fades out or deepens over a longer time horizon will depend on the global economic outlook. The visa rule changes for Indian tech personnel weren’t wholly unexpected, especially after Brexit and Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. on the back of, among other things, promises to put the brakes on outsourcing. Only, now governments are acting upon such rhetoric in some countries, including the U.S., the U.K., Singapore and Australia. President Trump signed the ‘Buy American, Hire American’ executive order last week, seeking to raise the bar for the award of H-1B visas, an important route for Indian companies, so that they are given to the “most-skilled or highest-paid” beneficiaries. Earlier this month, the U.K. scrapped a category of short-term visas that have been used extensively by Indian companies to get their IT professionals on-site. The Australian equivalent of this is the recent junking of what are called the ‘457 visa’ rules. Singapore has reportedly kept approvals for work permits on hold for a while now.
•It is still too early to gauge the exact impact on IT companies, in part because much depends on their ability to rework their operational models to do less on-site. As it is, it is a challenging time for the industry – with slowing business growth, a strengthening rupee, not to speak of the difficult transition from a traditional model that was based on making money by building custom solutions and undertaking maintenance to one that is cloud-based. Industry lobby Nasscom, which in February quite unprecedentedly put off its annual revenue forecast by a quarter amid uncertainties on the policy front in the U.S., has in recent days sought to counter the impression that it is Indian IT companies that are getting the lion’s share of H-1B visas for Indian nationals. Those who believe the challenge will blow over take heart from the fact that there is no legislation hurting outsourcing on the immediate horizon and the belief that the developed world cannot really do without India’s IT skills. The government, which has reportedly sought a World Trade Organisation-backed framework to facilitate trade in services in the light of rule-tightening by the developed countries, is naturally concerned. The industry, which employs over 3.5 million people and earns over $100 billion in export revenues, is now navigating a world with walls.
India to seal pact with Russia-led grouping
Free trade agreement to open up market with potential of up to $62 billion
•India is set to formalise a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union, clearing the decks for negotiations on deepening trade relations with the five former Soviet republics.
•The joint statement on the FTA is likely to be issued during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at St. Petersburg on June 1, Sunil Kumar, joint secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said here on Friday. Addressing a stakeholder consultation, he said the report of the Joint Feasibility Study Group had been accepted by both sides and the formal negotiations would begin by July.
•The Eurasian Economic Union comprises Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The FTA is expected to open up a huge market with a trade potential of $37 to 62 billion.
•Trade between India and the five Eurasian countries stands at about $11 billion. “The FTA with the Eurasian countries was dictated by India’s need to diversify into new markets. We have a targeted trade of $30 billion with the five countries by 2025 and $15 billion annual investment,” Mr. Kumar said.
•At the meeting, experts highlighted the need for better understanding of the challenges in the new market like non-tariff barriers and quality standards before the negotiations take place.
•Mr. Kumar said the Eurasian market could open up new export opportunities for Kerala in medical tourism, IT and IT-enabled services, besides traditional sectors like spices, marine products, coir and rubber. He stressed the need for safeguards in the pact to protect the state’s interests. Exporters and representatives of trade organisations called for steps to prevent dumping of goods and misuse of the rules of origin. They also highlighted the need for clarity on sanitary and phytosanitary measures, import licensing, quantitative restrictions and trade remedies.
