A law, this time for Antarctica
Bracing for more activity, India is working on a special policy and legislation
•Preparing for a populous future in which Antarctica — the world’s only continent without countries and citizens—may see more tourists, over-exploited fisheries, disputes and crime, India is drafting a dedicated Antarctica policy and a law that will likely be tabled in the winter session of Parliament.
•Ministry of Earth Sciences officials tasked with drafting the law said India, being among the countries that have acceded to the Antarctica Treaty, is expected to have a clear policy on the consequences of its activities in the region.
•The treaty is framed to ensure ‘in the interests of all mankind that Antarctica shall continue forever to be used exclusively for peaceful purposes and shall not become the scene or object of international discord.’
•To this end it prohibits military activity, except in support of science; prohibits nuclear explosions and the disposal of nuclear waste; promotes scientific research and the exchange of data; and holds all territorial claims in abeyance. The pact applies to the area south of 60° south latitude, including all ice shelves and islands.
Many pacts for region
•Several related conventions such as the Conservation of Antarctic Seals (1972), and Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (1980) are appended to this treaty for protection. However these laws also mean that conventional concepts such as territories and jurisdictions do not hold good here. India is expanding its infrastructure development in Antarctica. The government is rebuilding its station, Maitri, to make it bigger and last for at least 30 years. Dakshin Gangotri, the first Indian base established in 1984, has weakened and become just a supply base. A committee that includes Biman Patel, Vice-Chancellor, Gujarat National Law University, has been asked to draft the new ‘Antarctica law.’
•M. Ravichandran, Director, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, said clear laws are necessary on a wide range of matters, including “domestic disputes between residents.” Countries such as South Africa and Australia had specific laws.
ISRO plans complex manoeuvres
Engines in the fourth stage will be reignited three times
•As the countdown for the PSLV-C38 mission began on Thursday morning, engineers at ISRO were preparing to execute a series of complex manoeuvres for the shutdown and reignition of the rocket engines in space.
•The engines in the fourth stage will be reignited three times, in a bid to master the technique that will enable ISRO to inject satellites into different orbits in a single launch. “It will be a validation of the technique that was tested in the PSLV-C34 mission and deployed in the subsequent C35 mission”, says B. Jayakumar, PSLV project director. The exercise will be conducted after all 31 satellites on PSLV-C38 have been injected into orbit. “Once the last satellite has been separated from the rocket at a height of 520 km, the fourth stage of the rocket (PS4) comprising two liquid propellant engines will be shut down and reignited three times,” Mr. Jayakumar told The Hindu . While the first two firings are expected to last about six seconds each, the third restart is likely to fire up to 40 seconds.
•The multiple reignition of the on board engines will validate the technique and provide ISRO with the mission flexibility to inject satellites into three different orbits in a single flight to reduce the launch cost and save time.
•PSLV is capable of launching satellites into different types of orbits like Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO), Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), as per the customer requirements. Even though ISRO has enough experience in long duration satellite missions employing multiple restart of the spacecraft’s Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) engine, it was during the PSLV-C34 mission that it first attempted a reignition of the rocket engine. Subsequently, the PSLV- C35 mission placed eight satellites into two different orbits.
NATGRID can soon access PAN, I-T records
•The Centre has empowered the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID), the integrated mechanism to keep track of security-related data, to access the Income Tax department’s records on individual taxpayers as well as PAN card holders. NATGRID and the I-T department could sign a pact soon to operationalise the data sharing arrangement.
India flags U.S. military aid to Pakistan
Agenda set for Prime Minister Modi’s first meeting with President Donald Trump later this week
•Setting the agenda of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump later this week, India pointed at Pakistan and sought an end to terrorism affecting the region. Speaking at the U.N., India’s Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin set the stage urging the international community to deal with the “adversary” that provides “safe haven” to terrorists who target Afghanistan, even as the Ministry of External Affairs indicated that bilateral commercial issues would be boosted by the visit.
Safe havens
•“Clearly, the international community is dealing in Afghanistan with an adversary who is not averse to flagrantly violating international humanitarian and human rights law … where are these anti-government elements getting their weapons, explosives, training and funding from? Where do they find safe havens and sanctuaries? How is it that these elements have stood up against one of the biggest collective military efforts in the world,” said Mr. Akbaruddin, in a statement to the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, indicating the role of Pakistan-based elements in Afghanistan’s recent violent incidents. India’s concerns were echoed subsequently by Afghan officials who blamed Pakistan for an “undeclared war” against Afghanistan.
•The Ministry of External Affairs also expressed concern about continued flow of U.S. military aid into Pakistan. “U.S. officials are aware of our view which essentially is that the military aid [to Pakistan] is diverted for use against us. Relationship between Pakistan and the U.S. is a relationship between two sovereign countries but we have conveyed our concerns regarding military assistance to Pakistan,” said MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay, who also explained that problems with Pakistan remain a bilateral issue without the possibility of a third-party intervention.
Mutual understanding
•Apart from the terror context, officials said that the upcoming visit will help both sides understand each other better.
•“We all know they have come into office recently. Therefore, there are certain areas where we need to understand each other better,” said the spokesperson who announced that the meeting between PM Modi and President Trump will take place on June 26 in Washington DC.
Is prohibition the answer?
Whether or not people can drink is a debate fuelled by upper-caste hypocrisy, a mix of religious guilt and bigotry
•My late father, Peter, would have spat derision on this debate. When Prime Minister Morarji Desai visited Goa to trumpet the virtues of prohibition, Peter wanted to welcome him at the airport, greeting him with a garland of chamber pots. He was pipped by organisations loyal to coconut and cashew feni lining the road carrying those same artefacts.
The Morarji era
•Peter’s ire surfaced earlier. In 1968 he discovered you couldn’t walk into a Mumbai store and walk out with a bottle. Stubborn, unwilling to visit a fabled Goan ‘auntie’ in Bandra, he went the ‘official’ route for a ‘permit’ to bonded supply. But he also needed a medical certificate admitting he was a confirmed drunkard. Peter never forgave the prohibitionists.
•With Morarji at the helm of crusades between 1949 and 1962, prohibition ruled. A paltry amount of ‘foreign liquor’ was officially allowed; the economics of liquor sidelined. Peter’s ‘drunkenness’ was saved by a law in 1963 allowing permits for over-40s, doctors endorsing their ‘need’. In 1968, those over 21 could drink beer and toddy with less than 5% alcohol without a permit while the minimum age lowered to over-30s for those needing stronger potions.
•Maharashtra was forced to change in 1972 after more than 100 people died consuming rotgut. While it became progressively easier to buy liquor, few Mumbai-ites know that, medical drunkenness apart, they still need a ‘permit’ offering proof they drink in spite of the Bombay Prohibition Act of 1949. Legally, a restaurant must have a segregated area — a ‘permit room’ — where licensed drunkards can be served. In 2012, let us not forget, Mumbai’s ACP Vasant Dhoble, holier than even the Pope, tried to implement the letter of the law before he was put to pasture.
•As has happened and continues to happen, if the state wants to get you, the state will. Moreover, where is the evidence that imposing prohibition helped?
Driving it underground
•Mizoram junked prohibition after 18 years. Haryana imposed it, lifting it like Andhra Pradesh. In Tamil Nadu since the 1940s, it comes awake during elections and is then quickly forgotten.
•In Gujarat, dry since 1960, you just need an app for home delivery. Nagaland, dry since 1989, depends on neighbouring Assam for its flow of liquor. In Bihar, the saviours are Nepal, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.
•An editorial in this paper (April 20, 2016) hit the nail on the head: “Banning the sale and consumption of alcohol,” wrote The Hindu , “has in this country’s experience, not been an effective check against its use. It has only criminalised the activity, with disastrous consequences for individual health, the economy and administration — these include bootlegging, liquor mafias, spurious liquor, and a complicit police.”
•When Peter passed away, we found in his wardrobe, behind his suits, a treasure trove of rare whiskeys given as presents by his many admirers. At his wake — part of the Goan Catholic way of life — we opened every single bottle and saw them to the end.
Threat remains
•And yet, a real threat remains. Whether one quaffs a good single malt first savoured in 1876, or some excellent Mahua wine around possibly a few centuries before that — leaving the safe English-speaking world we inhabit — the discussion whether people ought to drink or not is fuelled by upper-caste hypocrisy, a complex mix of religious guilt and bigotry.
•It’s not that different from whether one can legally eat beef or not.
Debunking myths about the cattle rules
The new rules governing cattle markets only attempt to prevent cruelty
•The cow and all the hoopla around it — political and otherwise — provide periodic bouts of consternation to the nation. This time, the provocation are the provisions of The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Regulation of Livestock Market) Rules, 2017. These rules are sought to be lampooned on two main grounds. First, that they are the product of a government with a divisive agenda that is trying to push the creed and beliefs of the majority down the throats of certain communities and classes.
•Second, that the provisions of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 (PCA) have been used as a convenient peg to hang this devious attempt on. Since not only the devil but also clarity lies in details, let us examine these charges objectively.
•As for the first allegation of communal bias, it may be worthwhile to note some salient aspects. These rules have been enacted under the power to make rules under the PCA; second, they do not ban slaughter of cows or cattle; and these rules do not prevent anyone from eating beef. So what exactly do the rules do? They seek, inter alia, to regulate the sale and slaughter of cattle and certain other animals. But what has that got to do with the PCA? Therein lies a tale.
How the rules came about
•In a case before the Supreme Court of India, i.e. W.P. (Civil) No.881 of 2014 filed by one Gauri Maulekhi vs. Union of India and others , the apex court passed an order dated July 12, 2015 to frame guidelines to prevent animals from being smuggled out of India to places like Nepal where large-scale animal sacrifices take place during the Gadhimai Festival. The allegation was that buffaloes (buffaloes mind you, not cows) were purchased in markets kept there in unhygienic conditions and were transported in appallingly abominable conditions to Nepal where they were slaughtered in large numbers.
•The Supreme Court granted a stay of such transportation to Nepal. It also constituted a committee to suggest solutions to stop these cruelties from being perpetrated on animals. The court then directed the suggestions of the committee to be taken into account and that rules with regard to livestock markets and connected issues be also notified. On July 12, 2016, the Supreme Court by the way of a final order directed the Union government to frame rules under Section 38 of the PCA.
•The Animal Welfare Board of India prepared the draft rules incorporating all the suggestions made by the Supreme Court in the above-mentioned case. Thereafter, the draft of the presently impugned rules was notified on January 16, 2017 inviting objections and suggestions within 30 days. Thirteen representations were received regarding the rules, duly examined and incorporated wherever found suitable. The rules were finally notified on May 23, 2017.
•Therefore the purpose of these rules was not some sinister plot to push through a communal agenda but merely to comply with directions of the Supreme Court in letter and spirit.
•Further, as a matter of fact it was found that it is in the market that cruel practices like hot branding, cold branding, shearing, bishoping of horses, ear cutting in buffaloes, sealing teats of udder with adhesives, etc. actually happen.
•It is plain that the attempt was only to prevent these atrocities. In fact, without going into all the above lengthy explanations, just a perusal of Rule 14(h) is enough to debunk the myth of a communal bias in the rules. This rule prohibits “putting ornaments or decorative materials on animals”. One wonders whether rules allegedly framed with a communal bias will bung a spanner in the works of several Hindu festivals. One cannot even imagine a Thrissur Pooram festival without the brightly ornamented and caparisoned elephants. So, in the light of all this, what great communal bias is discernible in these rules? And how valid is the charge that the PCA has been used as a convenient instrument to further this sinister plot? This is not to say that the rules are perfect. They may be otherwise deficient but that really is for courts to decide.
•We must remember that the harmony of our polity is a very fragile one. Never in the history of the human race have people with such mind-boggling diversity of caste, creed, language, customs and culture agreed to come together as a nation and agreed to be bound by the promises offered by a secular and egalitarian Constitution. If there be attempts to disturb this harmony, stern retaliation is in order. However, in burdening every official act with the murk of communal bias, the alarmists will only be reducing themselves to the status of the boy who cried wolf. When the wolf does arrive (one hopes it never does), we may have lost our collective capacity to react.
Inclusion in the Backward Classes list
The select committee’s report on the 123rd Amendment is expected in the monsoon session
•A widely welcomed move to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) has also brought with it a whiff of controversy over whether it amounts to encroaching on the domain of the States. The Lok Sabha passed the Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017, in April. In the Rajya Sabha, the Bill was referred to a select committee, whose report is expected in the monsoon session. The Supreme Court, in its final verdict in the Indira Sawhney (Mandal Commission) case, had directed the establishment of the NCBC as a statutory body. Based on this, a law was passed in 1993 to set up the commission. The NCBC has been examining cases for inclusion in the BC lists for the Central government since then.
•The idea behind the proposed amendment is to elevate the status of the panel from that of a statutory body to a constitutional one, on a par with the National Commissions for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
•A clause in the 123rd Amendment says the President may by public notification specify the socially and educationally backward classes in relation to a State or a Union Territory. In respect of States, it will be done after consultation with the Governor. This clause has given rise to fears that the Centre is taking over the function of inclusion and exclusion of communities from the ‘Backward Classes’ list.
The Bill’s language
•One reason for the apprehension is that the language of the newly introduced sections, pertaining to specifying Backward Classes, is exactly the same as that used in Articles 341 and 342 in respect of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. A Constitution Bench judgment, in E.V. Chinnaiah vs. Andhra Pradesh,ruled in 2004 that the President alone has the power to notify Scheduled Castes/Tribes, and when it comes to varying the lists, the State legislatures do not have legislative competence. Applying the same yardstick to Backward Classes may mean that the President alone may notify the list of BCs for every State, and that it cannot be varied except by a law enacted by Parliament.
•Several Opposition parties, which in general welcome the grant of constitutional status to the BC Commission, have said the Bill, if enacted, would undermine federalism, as it amounts to usurping the power of State governments to prepare their own BC lists. The Centre has sought to allay these fears, saying the powers of the States would remain unaffected. In any case, the list for every State will be prepared only in consultation with the State government.
The clean-up begins
But will the RBI’s move for insolvency proceedings against borrowers succeed?
•Armed with the powers, a little over a month ago, to get lenders and defaulting borrowers to sit down and address the messy task of cleaning up toxic bad debts, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to crack the whip. The central bank’s decision to act on the advice of its Internal Advisory Committee and direct lenders to initiate insolvency proceedings against 12 corporate borrowers — each owing in excess of Rs. 5,000 crore — has come not a day too soon. With gross non-performing assets (NPAs) at about Rs. 7 lakh crore, a regulatory intervention was imperative not only to safeguard the health of the banking system but also to ward off any wider impact on the economy. RBI Governor Urjit Patel underscored the importance of tackling the bad loans problem as recently as during the June 6-7 meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee when he said: “The quiescent investment cycle remains a key macroeconomic concern. It is, therefore, imperative to ensure resolution of stressed assets of banks and timely recapitalisation [of public sector lenders].” While the RBI has not divulged the names of the defaulting dozen, reports suggest they are largely made up of steelmakers and infrastructure companies. That steel companies were among the worst-hit in the wake of the global downturn in commodity prices and depressed demand in recent years is widely known; to that extent the sector’s presence in the list comes as no surprise.
•The onus now shifts to the lender consortiums to expedite the insolvency process under the new Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The enabling architecture is now in place to speedily bring a defaulting borrower’s operations under the purview of an insolvency professional, once the National Company Law Tribunal has accepted the creditors’ application for initiating insolvency proceedings against the debtor. But the actual timeframe in which the resolution is going to occur remains to be seen, given that the IBC is still in its infancy. While the code has been drafted to bring under its ambit existing laws related to insolvency and bankruptcy, thereby curtailing the options available to a borrower who wishes to mount a legal challenge, the proof of the pudding as always will be in the eating. The fate of this long-overdue attempt at resolving the banking sector’s NPA crisis will ultimately be determined by how quickly the lender consortia are able to initiate the implementation of a resolution plan that retains the defaulting company as a going concern — there are, after all, thousands of direct and indirect jobs at stake here. Or, in the absence of approval for such a plan, start taking steps to liquidate assets.
