📰 Towards an endgame?
Turkey makes a decisive move against Kurdish fighters on the border with Syria
•On January 20, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that Turkish forces alongside the Free Syrian Armyhad begun armed operations in the Syrian town of Afrin, to be followed by a push in Manbij. Turkish aircraft are bombing the city as Turkish and allied forces have moved across the border.
•Turkey has long threatened to enter Syria and clear out the forces of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The SDF was created in 2015 by the various Syrian Kurdish political forces and their military wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), and the Women’s Protection Units (YPJ). The Syrian Kurds made a political decision that they would not have the ability to properly confront the Islamic State (IS) in northern Syria without an alliance with other minority groups (Assyrians, for instance) — and with the major Sunni tribes in the region (the Shammars, for instance). The SDF was created as a platform for the Syrian Kurds to join with these other groups into an anti-IS military alliance. But, to the Turks, it has always been clear that the SDF is dominated by Syrian Kurds, and is therefore essentially a Kurdish project.
Heart of the conflict
•The war to defeat the IS at Raqqa, the major city in northern Syria, could not have been conducted by the U.S. and Russia and their various allies entirely from the air. It required a partner on the ground. The Turkish army was not willing to enter Syria to battle the IS. The Syrian Arab Army was then engaged in operations towards the west and the south of the country. It did not have troops to move towards Raqqa. For that reason, the U.S. government made an arrangement with the SDF to provide it close air support as SDF forces moved across the Syria-Turkish border. The SDF, with air support from the U.S., routed the IS from Raqqa in mid-October 2017. The Syrian- Kurdish leadership suggested that Raqqa’s people could join the Kurdish-run Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, commonly known as Rojava.
•The term “Rojava” reveals what is at the heart of the conflict. It means “Western Kurdistan” and asserts the ambitions of the Kurdish population towards the region as well as for a future independent Kurdish state that would encompass land in Iraq (Eastern Kurdistan) and Turkey (Northern Kurdistan). The attempt by Iraqi Kurds in 2017 to declare independence was curtailed for now by the armed intervention of the Iraqi army into the Kurdish autonomous region. The attempt by Syrian Kurds to produce a similar autonomous region on the Syria-Turkish border raised hackles in Ankara.
•Turkey sees all Kurdish ambitions for self-determination as an abomination. It has declared the instrument for these ambitions within Turkey, the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), as a terrorist organisation. The war against Turkish Kurds continues in south-eastern Turkey, with curfews in Kurdish towns and with Kurdish political parties effectively banned. The war against the PKK has spilled over into Iraq and Syria, where the Turkish air force has routinely bombed PKK- and PKK-affiliated camps.
•To confuse matters, it was the PKK that helped Syrian Kurds develop the YPG, which was the basis for the SDF. The U.S., following its NATO partner Turkey, had declared the PKK as a terrorist organisation. But, confounded by a lack of a ground army in Syria, the U.S. allied with the SDF in the war against the IS. Turkey, at that time, grumbled but did not act to stop the alliance. The U.S. had few choices. But now, with the IS largely defeated and with the U.S. a fickle ally to Syrian Kurds, the Turkish armed forces have made their move.
Abandonment
•Turkey has not acted alone as Mr. Erdoğan sought assurances from all the major players in northern Syria before he sent in his troops. The U.S. betrayed its Syrian Kurdish allies when U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the U.S. does not propose to form a permanent border force in the north manned by the SDF. The Russians withdrew their forces from the region as the Syrian Arab Army, dependent on the Russians, gave assurances that it would not contest the Turkish invasion. There is no one to stop the Turkish entry into Syria and no one to provide Syrian Kurds with assistance. The Turkish air force continues to bomb SDF positions without challenge. The Syrian Kurds do not have a chance.
•Turkish tanks have moved swiftly through Afrin’s Shera and Sherawa districts, with YPG and YPJ fighters trying their best to hold off the ground assault. Turkey’s total domination of the air over these border towns will give its ground troops a decisive advantage against Syrian Kurds. Protests inside Turkey against this intervention will have little impact. Nor will there be anyone willing to go to the United Nations to ask Turkey to call off its war.
📰 Less nationalism, more connectivity: ASEAN leader
Thailand’s Ambassador Chutintorn Sam Gongsakdi calls for a solution to India’s concerns on the China factor in trade
•Connectivity projects can grow in the region only if there is a “political atmosphere” and “nationalist rhetoric” is reduced, says Thailand’s Ambassador to India and a key official convening the ASEAN-India summit this week here, referring to the challenges of free trade negotiations, border trade logistics and the infrastructure in India’s northeastern States.
•“Connectivity is important, but we are also at a point across the region when nationalism and populism are on the rise. To have connectivity work to its full potential it is necessary to dial down the nationalistic rhetoric,” Ambassador Chutintorn Sam Gongsakdi told The Hindu in an interview ahead of the summit, which will see all the 10 leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, assemble in Delhi for the 25-year commemorative summit on January 25 and as chief guests of the Republic Day parade.
•On Monday, an ASEAN-India Business and Investment Meet and Expo brought Trade and Economy Ministers along with business delegations from ASEAN including Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines. Several officials will also travel to Assam and other northeastern States to inspect the possibilities for industry and trade, which would connect to South East Asia through projects in the pipeline like the India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway and the Kaladan multi-modal transport corridor expected to be completed in the next few years. However, Mr. Gongsakdi warned that unless India and ASEAN work out their reservations on free trade, including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement, they wont benefit from the infrastructure.
•“Building of roads, that just needs engineering and money. But the other part, convincing all the parties that there will be more costs is the difficult one. In the end, regional integration and liberalisation can be good for your country, and make the leadership more popular, but people need to have patience to see the long-term benefits,” he said.
•Over the past few years, the RCEP negotiations have floundered largely over Indian concerns on unfettered Chinese entry into Indian markets through free trade with the ASEAN countries. Countries in the negotiations, which also include Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan and South Korea, besides ASEAN and India are now calling for a hard deadline to end talks by the end of 2018. The failure to forge an agreement could also cost bilateral trade between ASEAN and India, which is at present $76 billion, well short of a projected $200 billion, and is likely to be a major issue for discussion during the Summit on Thursday.
•“We have to find a solution to India’s concerns about [the RCEP opening the door for] China trade as well…. we have to stop the lip service to ASEAN India ties and actually negotiate this through,” Ambassador Gongsakdi added.
•Maritime security, terrorism and cyber-security will be highlighted in the joint statement, along with the “3 C’s” of Commerce, Connectivity and Culture, officials said.
📰 Exiled Maldives leader accuses China of ‘land grab’
‘Chinese interests are building ports and other infrastructure in 16 leased islets’
•Exiled Maldives Opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed on Monday accused China of seizing land in the politically-troubled Indian Ocean archipelago and undermining its sovereignty.
•Mr. Nasheed said Chinese interests had leased at least 16 islets among the 1,192 scattered coral islands and were building ports and other infrastructure there.
•The 50-year-old former President said the increased Chinese presence could threaten the Muslim-majority nation of 3,40,000 and the wider Indian Ocean region.
•During a visit to Colombo, where his Maldivian Democratic Party activists are based, Mr. Nasheed called the Chinese action a “land grab”.
•“This is colonialism and we must not allow it. We want other countries [in the region] to join us and speak the same language [against Chinese expansion]. We are not against any country, not against direct foreign investment, but we are against relinquishing our sovereignty.”
Repaying debts
•Mr. Nasheed said 80% of the Maldives’ foreign debt was owed to China and the nation could end up handing over more land and infrastructure as it may not be able to repay the loans.
•He was referring to Sri Lanka’s experience under former President Mahinda Rajapakse who borrowed heavily from China. The new government had to sell projects to repay debts.
•Mr. Nasheed, who wants to contest this year’s Presidential election, said he would renegotiate contracts with China if successful. He said the current administration had entered agreements with China without making them public.
•He was Maldives’ first democratically elected President in 2008, but was narrowly defeated in 2013 by President Abdullah Yameen.
Hopeful of returning
•Mr. Nasheed was later jailed on terrorism charges he says were politically motivated. He has lived in exile for two years after Maldives authorities let him travel to London for medical treatment.
•The Maldives Constitution bars Mr. Nasheed from being a candidate because of a 2015 criminal conviction. But he hopes the restriction will be lifted in response to international pressure.
•A UN panel has ruled that Mr. Nasheed’s imprisonment was illegal and ordered authorities to pay compensation, which the government has refused to do.
📰 Take interim steps for tribunal postings: SC
Court asks AG, amicus todiscuss issue
•The Supreme Court on Monday directed Attorney General K.K. Venugopal and amicus curiae Arvind Datar to discuss an interim arrangement for the committee appointing judicial members to key tribunals.
•The apex court is considering the question whether the Central Tribunal, Appellate and other Authorities (Qualifications, Experience and other conditions of Service of Members) Rules of 2017 is a blow to the independence of the tribunals.
•The development came on several petitions, primarily one by Congress MP Jairam Ramesh, challenging the provisions of the 2017 Rules and the Finance Act, 2017, introducing the modifications in key tribunal appointments.
•“The petitions are pending here. But tribunals have to be manned. We have to find an interim solution,” Chief Justice Dipak Misra, heading a three-judge Bench, observed.
•Mr. Datar said the tenure of the chairperson of the tribunals should be extended to five years instead of the present three.
•He said the committee appointing the judicial members to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and other tribunals should comprise only two members from the Centre instead of the present three, and two with judicial background.
•He said the Finance Act strikes at the root of the independence of quasi-judicial bodies, such as the NGT. Mr. Venugopal said the government is agreeable to extension of the tenure of the Chairperson.
•The next hearing will be on February 2 when the government may argue on the independence of quasi-judicial bodies.
📰 EC pulled up for backing simultaneous polls
It does not have the mandate to decide the issue, say members of parliamentary panel
•At a meeting of a parliamentary committee on Monday, lawmakers questioned the Election Commission about its recent statements endorsing simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, saying it does not have the mandate to decide the issue.
•The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice discussed electoral reforms.
•Law Secretary Suresh Chandra and a team of Election Commission officials were present.
•“Our parliamentary system of governance does not permit simultaneous elections. What is the guarantee that all the State governments and the Union government elected on the same day will survive for the next five years,” asked one of the members who attended the meeting.
•Sources said many members questioned the recent statement by Central Election Commissioner-designate O.P. Rawat in favour of simultaneous elections. He had said the Election Commission was ready to hold simultaneous elections post September 2018.
•“How can they seek simultaneous elections? It is not for them to decide; the call has to be taken by Parliament and the Assemblies,” the member said.
•There had been simultaneous elections until 1967, but the pattern changed after the dissolution of some Assemblies through the imposition of President’s rule under Article 356. Since then, there have been instances of two general elections within a year. The next Lok Sabha election is scheduled for 2019. In 2018, 13 States will go to the polls, nine in 2019 and one in 2020.
•The Law Secretary explained the steps needed to amend the Constitution to facilitate simultaneous elections. A constitutional amendment would have to be cleared by both Houses of Parliament. It would have to be ratified by the Assemblies of half of the States. The other way was for all Assemblies and the Union government to agree to the plan voluntarily.
•“Barring the ruling BJP, everyone is against simultaneous elections. There is no national consensus, so where is the question of voluntarily adopting it,” another MP said.
📰 Chelameswar calls for free judiciary
•Justice J. Chelameswar, who had led three other senior judges against the Chief Justice of India on the issue of allotment of sensitive cases, on Monday called for an independent judiciary, saying it was necessary for a liberal democracy.
•“For the survival of a liberal democracy, an impartial and independent judiciary is essential,” he said, at the release of a book Supreme Court of India: The Beginnings , authored by late Prof. George H. Gadbois, Jr.
•Justice Chelameswar said that for the welfare of the country, a constant examination was required on how exactly the judiciary was functioning, “what are its achievements, or how to improve the institution.”
•He said only 10 crore people were in direct contact with the judiciary, of the 1.3 billion population. But the decisions made by the Supreme Court, “some way or the other, touch the lives of the population of this country.”
•Justice Chelameswar said that though the backlog of cases in various courts appeared “almost impossible to clear, a solution must be found.” “A solution must be found if the institution is to remain relevant,” he said.
📰 The perilous march of Hindistan
The project to replace English with Hindi and other Indian languages is reaching an inflection point
•Congress leader Shashi Tharoor recently questioned in Lok Sabha the purpose of making Hindi an official language at the United Nations. He said: “I understand the Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister can speak in Hindi, but what if a future External Affairs Minister comes from Tamil Nadu or West Bengal, who couldn’t speak in the language?”
•Last year, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah termed the three-language policy as “not reasonable.” He was pleading with the Centre to remove Hindi signage in Bengaluru’s Namma Metro in response to popular sentiment against Hindi in his State. In effect, he sought exemption for Karnataka from the three-language policy (like Tamil Nadu) but stopped short of demanding a policy change.
•Both leaders raised relevant questions on our language policy, but they should have asked their own party, the Congress, how it created a situation where Hindi is feared to be subsuming many subnational identities in the country.
The three-language policy
•In the sixties, when the language policy ran into rough weather, the three-language formula was conceptualised as a modus vivendi (an acceptable solution). Parliament passed the Official Language Resolution in 1968, stipulating that a “modern Indian language, preferably one of the southern languages”, be studied in Hindi-speaking areas (along with Hindi and English) and that Hindi be studied in areas where it is not spoken (along with the regional languages and English).
•The three-language policy was meant for the entire country. However, the policy took a whole different shape as if it was a prescription for non-Hindi-speaking States alone. While non-Hindi-speaking States (except Tamil Nadu) adhered to the three-language policy, Hindi-speaking States took a U-turn: they not only gave up on teaching a non-Hindi language in their schools but effectively delegitimised English.
•The mischief of using the three-language policy to spread only Hindi took place when Congress enjoyed power at the Centre and in most States. Even the move to make Hindi an official language at the UN was a recommendation that the Committee of Parliament on Official Language (CPOL) made in 2011. So, the issues that Mr. Tharoor and Mr. Siddaramaiah have raised are the handiwork of their own party.
Recommendations
•Though the CPOL was created in 1976 “to review the progress made in the use of Hindi for the official purposes... of the Union” and make recommendations on the same, its current mandate is much more. In fact, the Committee operates not only to promote Hindi everywhere but also banish English from the land. It appears to believe that Hindi cannot thrive as long as English survives.
•In 2011, in its ninth report, the panel made 117 recommendations and the President approved more than 95% of them. Of the handful of recommendations that the President did not accept, two merit attention to understand the wrong direction that the panel is showing to the nation. The first recommendation pertains to adding a column on Hindi fluency in the annual confidential report of all employees/officers. This obviously targets Central government employees in non-Hindi States. The second is to have only Hindi or one’s mother tongue as the language to be used in Parliament. In fact, the panel is more magnanimous than Article 120(2) of the Constitution. While the Article (in abeyance since 1965) seeks to make Hindi the sole language in Parliament, allowing any other language as an exception when a member cannot speak in Hindi, the panel recommendation gives equal space to Hindi and other Indian languages. It is not clear what the Committee meant by mother tongue. Even if it meant languages in the Eighth Schedule (22 and counting), and if this recommendation is accepted in future, Parliament would become an assembly of tongues.
What of those recommendations has the Centre accepted?
•The Committee’s fervour is palpable in every recommendation, throwing rationality, pragmatism and national interest under the truck. It says that students in colleges and universities in non-Hindi-speaking States will henceforth have the option of taking exams and interviews in Hindi. It asks that government advertisements in Hindi newspapers be of “bigger size” and “at starting pages”, while those in English newspapers be of “relatively smaller size” and “in middle or ending pages”. It mandates the purchase of more Hindi newspapers and magazines in all Central government offices, public sector undertakings, institutions funded by the government, and private companies engaged in public service. Recommendation No. 107 reads: “In order to end the dominance of English (not its use), such schools should not be given recognition by the government which do not impart education in Hindi or mother tongue.” So on and so forth.
Caught in between
•Broadly, two factors are relevant to our language policy. One, English has become a global language and a certain fluency in it is taken as a given for mobility as well as for access to global knowledge. Hindi possesses no such advantages. Two, many non-Hindi Indian languages are older than Hindi and their speakers are justly proud of their rich cultural and literary heritage. They strive to make their respective languages prominent in governance and education, while keeping English for what it is. These States lack both the desire and the need to learn Hindi.
•In any case, it is not apparent how not knowing Hindi renders one less of an Indian, or even less of a Hindu. As the president of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, Raj Thackeray, said in an interview to The Hindu last year: “There could be Marathi Hindu or Tamil Hindu and so on, but one cannot make blanket imposition of Hindi on the entire country. All Hindus cannot be Hindi.” He likened India to Europe — a mosaic of cultures, languages and traditions. His stance seems to have found resonance even in a faraway State like Assam.
•Non-Hindi States are unlikely to accept the ‘imposition’ of Hindi, even if it comes in a friendly garb and with a smile. Only time will tell if they make a common cause on the issue.
•India finds itself sandwiched between a relentlessness that assumes semi-religious overtones to banish English and a vehemence with latent subnationalism to reject Hindi. Ironically, any impassioned deliberation on India’s language policy highlights the centrality of English not only as a link-language but as a glue that binds India together.
📰 Getting back on the democratic path
India gave itself a great system but now does not seem to know how to keep it up to standard
•Howsoever anniversary stock-takings assess pluses and minuses, one conclusion is surely inescapable: India remains woefully short of its potential. Whatever our excuses, one cause is equally fundamental: the decisions shaping our destiny are themselves shaped by considerations increasingly unworthy of a serious nation. Yes, we are a difficult country to govern, none ever coped with so many competing diversities, rights and claims, in such huge proportions — and through democracy. This makes it all the more necessary to employ common sense, vision and judgment, balance and largeness, and above all reason. The less these matter to us, the farther back must we fall.
Mutual conflict
•“The whole essence of… Parliamentary Government lies in the intention to make the thing work… [its] strength… is exactly measured by the unity of political parties upon its fundamental objects.” Lord Balfour’s perception pinpoints why we have mangled our system out of recognition: far from seeking congruence of fundamental objectives, leave alone unity, our parties compete to prevent things working. Our needs, long incompatible with the forces working amongst us, have moved into mutual conflict.
•Our social tensions need sensitive healing, but suffer ever harsher divisiveness; our political institutions and processes need to address rising challenges but sink ever deeper in backwardness; our administrative machinery desperately needs efficiency but corrodes into dysfunctionality; we live in a turbulent, dangerous world but have neither time nor expertise to attend to it. Our security challenges become more complex while both our conceptual and procedural drawbacks retard our response-capabilities.
•India is not alone in such difficulties. Countries worldwide find existing governmental systems unable to cope with contemporary challenges or people’s expectations, some even with basic needs. Particularly alarming is the condition in democracies, where the ideals and concepts, the very essence of their being, are threatened. Widely idolised till now, with even those trampling it claiming to uphold it, democracy has never had many practitioners. A few North Atlantic states apart, most even in Europe, claiming to be exemplars, actually became democracies after India. Almost all colonised states started as democracies, almost all turned rapidly into autocracies. We Indians could long claim shining exception, but the ease with which the Emergency could be imposed is warning enough how fragile our version is.
Time for concern
•Democracy depends on the Enlightenment’s ideals — the ceaseless expansion of liberty and equality, the impartial functioning of impersonal law and institutions, the reconciliation of society’s differences by accommodative compromise, above all the primacy of reason. India’s democracy, howsoever imperfect, worked awhile because those who led us into Independence had imbibed these ideas. Always hugely disproportionate to their tiny size, their influence is finished; Enlightenment teachings no longer resonate with electorates in which group obsessions stultify basic national interest. Most stunningly is this manifest today in the U.S.; ugly forces prevail there periodically, somehow the humanist Enlightenment principles come back. The world needs that to happen there again, but our active concern must be at home.
•That our democracy is seriously ailing is so obvious, one wonders why our political parties are so oblivious. The party claiming, not unjustifiably, to have led us to freedom seems devoid of ideas — offering no vision, no version of our future, which could possibly inspire anybody. And others are worse. The greatest success story of our times, the astonishing speed and extent of China’s rise, surely shows that the decisive cause is that a directing mind chose specific objectives and worked for them with determination. Authoritarianism doubtless made possible advances open societies cannot match, but dictatorships abound which keep their countries backward, whereas there are serious democracies seriously striving for betterment. Originally denoting differences in economic levels and ideologies, ‘Third World’ also represents backward, if not chaotic, ways of governance — selfish, often barbaric despotisms ruling by whim over peoples depressed and oppressed. The key difference that separates properly run states lies in seriousness of decent purpose. We Indians lose our way in tangents: Third World conditions beckon.
•China’s record over the last century is hardly edifying — revolutions, civil war, famines, war-lords, etc. Corruption is rampant, sloth and incompetence hardly unknown, but things get done because there is a directing force which devises and executes forward-looking plans for national greatness. How many shaping our destinies have any real sense of national, as distinct from personal or sectional, purpose, leave alone greatness? China is both a yardstick and a warning: fall behind and we fall under. We have no option but to make our system functional and to the right purposes. We gave ourselves a great system but have not known how to keep it up to standard. Currently resurrected, Alexander Hamilton is appropriate: “A government must be fitted to a nation as much as a coat to the Individual… what may be good at Philadelphia may be bad at Paris and ridiculous at Petersburg.” People end up with governments functioning like themselves, and we have transmogrified our original system through our own weaknesses.
Regain the checks
•The dispersion of power between executive, legislature and judiciary is undermined by both our traditional acceptance of personal rule and the appalling incompetence of each branch. Our political executives are self-seeking while the permanent branches are dysfunctional; our legislatures hardly meet and when they do there is bedlam; our judiciary, the last remaining estate to retain some public respect, has discarded it along with the decorum of self-respect; and the Fourth Estate, so essential a safeguard, competes in descent. That we blithely carry on as though it will all come out in the wash is as incredible as it is fatal. We must realise what we have done to our system and repair it urgently.
•Diagnoses upon diagnoses, what is the cure? It is hard not to conclude there is none: some problems have no solutions, one can only manage things as best one can. In 150 years of modernising influences we never grew out of our old ways. Enormous reforms we need we reject: how can any society advance when saddling itself with khap panchayats, disgraceful dowry systems, blatant practice of untouchability, acceptance of castration and other primitivisms? Ways of thinking and behaving are universally intractable. Claiming Europeanism, and with generations of modernising after Kemal Ataturk, Turkey clings to old tendencies. For all its astonishing progress, China practises female infanticide. One Western humanist state after another is rocked by tribalism. But civilisation evolves through efforts to change, even if change itself keeps resisting, but the effort must be forward-looking, not regressive.
The road map ahead
•We need a planned, determined push to make our system work and modernise. Only an organised body with such a purpose can do anything. Despite the obstructionism we have made our norm, this government is positioned to get things done — if it only will; no other force seems at all likely. This Prime Minister, particularly, has built a personal position of great possibilities, and his international approaches show the imagination and dexterity needed for national greatness. His party’s electoral calculations present our greatest obstacle: of course, elections need winning ways, but at what cost? The furtherance and exploitation of obscurantism and regression will only help our enemies, denying us the progress essential for handling modern challenges. Can (re)building legendary temples help us handle a China already reaching the forefront of technological innovation?
•“Forget the excuse that politics is the art of the possible, remember leadership is the art of making even the impossible possible.” My father Girija Shankar Bajpai’s observation points to the prime necessity: the will to succeed, a carefully thought out plan, a commitment to fulfilment, obviously not to reviving a past irrelevant to today, if indeed it ever existed, but to a state and society adapted to our times. We the people are ultimately responsible but political leaders have to lead. We can only appeal to them to do so — or meander into the anarchy we seem most at home in, or authoritarianism — or both.
📰 Richest 1% own 82% of world's wealth, says Oxfam’s report
Oxfam survey highlights glaring difference in earnings; respondents suggest a salary cut of 60%
•Respondents in India felt that company CEOs should take an average 60% cut in their salaries, according to a new report on income inequality, which also showed that a common worker’s perception of a CEO’s salary was far lower than the actual amount.
•Oxfam’s report titled ‘Reward Work, Not Wealth’ found that the richest 1% in the world owns more wealth than the whole of the rest of humanity; 82% of all growth in global wealth in the last year went to the top 1%, while the bottom half of the world’s population saw no increase at all.
•“Oxfam’s polling in 10 countries, representing one-quarter of the world’s population, shows that the public thinks CEOs should have their pay cut,” the report said. “Across all countries, respondents think CEOs should on average take a 40% pay cut. In countries like the U.K., U.S. and India, respondents think CEOs should take a 60% pay cut.”
•The report also found that while most people in India thought CEOs earned 63 times the salary of an ‘ordinary worker’, and felt that they should earn only 14 times more, the actuality was that CEOs in India earn a shocking 483 times more salary.
•The richest 1% in India accounted for 73% of the wealth generated in the country last year, according to the report, which added that the poorer half of the population —about 67 crore people — saw their wealth increase by only 1%.
•The survey showed that the wealth of India’s richest 1% increased by over ₹20.9 trillion during 2017 — an amount equivalent to the total budget of the Central government in 2017-18.
Billionaire wealth
•“Between 2006 and 2015, ordinary workers saw their incomes rise by an average of just 2% a year, while billionaire wealth rose by nearly 13% a year — almost six times faster,” the report said.
•It also found that about a third of all billionaire wealth was derived from inheritance. “Over the next 20 years, 500 of the world’s richest people will hand over $2.4 trillion to their heirs — a sum larger than the GDP of India, a country of 1.3 billion people,” the report said.
•“In total, Oxfam has calculated that approximately two-thirds of billionaire wealth is the product of inheritance, monopoly and cronyism,” the report added. “Oxfam’s survey of 10 countries shows that over half of respondents think that despite hard work, it is difficult or impossible for ordinary people to increase the money they have.”
•Nearly two-thirds of all respondents felt the gap between the rich and the poor needs to be addressed urgently or very urgently — this number was 73% in India.
•“In countries like India and the Philippines, at least one in every two workers in the garment sector are paid below the minimum wage,” the report found, adding that this imbalance is even starker for women in the sector, with 74% of them earning less than the minimum wage.
📰 Suresh Prabhu urges better India-ASEAN connect
Moots value chains in agri, minerals
•Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu on Monday called for greater trade and investment engagement between India and the ten-member ASEAN bloc, especially in agriculture as well as minerals and ocean resources, and suggested the creation of India-ASEAN regional value chains in these segments.
•Speaking at the ASEAN-India Business and Investment Meet and Expo, Mr. Prabhu also pitched for easier movement of professionals and skilled workers between India and ASEAN countries to boost services trade as well as investment. The Minister also sought an improvement in India-ASEAN physical connectivity through better infrastructure.
•Mr. Prabhu added that India would work closely with ASEAN nations to successfully conclude negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, a proposed mega-Free Trade Agreement between ASEAN and six of its FTA partner nations.
📰 IMF raises global growth forecast, sees U.S. tax boost
Fund sees world economy expanding by 3.9% in 2018 and 2019, spurred by increased investment in the U.S. and a boost to its trading partners
•The International Monetary Fund on Monday revised up its forecast for world economic growth in 2018 and 2019, saying sweeping U.S. tax cuts were likely to boost investment in the world’s largest economy and help its main trading partners.
•However, the IMF, in an update of its World Economic Outlook, also added that U.S. growth would likely start weakening after 2022 as temporary spending incentives brought about by the tax cuts began to expire.
Strengthen the dollar
•The tax cuts would likely widen the U.S. current account deficit, strengthen the U.S. dollar and affect international investment flows, IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld said.
•“Political leaders and policymakers must stay mindful that the current economic momentum reflects a confluence of factors that is unlikely to last for long,” Mr. Obstfeld told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
‘Rising federal debt’
•He said economic gains from the tax cuts would be partially paid back later in the form of lower growth as temporary spending incentives, notably for investment, expired and as rising federal debt took a toll.
•IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde pointed to a “troubling” increase in debt levels across many countries and warned policymakers against complacency, saying now was the time to address structural deficiencies in their economies.
•Mr. Obstfeld said a sudden rise in interest rates could lead to questions about the debt sustainability of some countries and lead to a disruptive correction in “elevated” equity prices.
•U.S. President Donald Trump signed Republicans’ massive $1.5 trillion tax overhaul into law in December, cementing the biggest legislative victory of his first year.
•The tax package, the largest such overhaul since the 1980s, slashed the corporate rate from 35% to 21% and temporarily reduced the tax burden for most individuals as well.
•Pointing to growth in the United States and China, the IMF forecast global growth to accelerate to 3.9% for both 2018 and 2019, a 0.2 percentage point increase from its last update in October.
•The U.S. economy has been showing steady but underwhelming annual growth since the last recession in 2007-2009. The IMF now expects it to expand by 2.7% in 2018, much higher than the 2.3% the fund forecast in October. U.S. growth was projected to slow to 2.5% in 2019, it said.
Euro area, Japan
•The IMF also revised up its growth forecasts for the euro area, especially for Germany, Italy and the Netherlands “reflecting the stronger momentum in domestic demand and higher external demand”.
•However, it cut its forecast for Spain’s growth for 2018 by 0.1 percentage point, saying political uncertainty linked to the Catalonia region’s independence push was expected to impact business confidence and demand.
•The IMF revised up its growth forecast for Japan to 1.2% this year and 0.9% in 2019. It maintained its projection for Britain’s growth at 1.5% this year.
•The IMF maintained its forecast for growth in emerging markets and developing countries for this year and next. China’s economy was expected to expand 6.6% this year and slow to 6.4% in 2019.
•It said growth in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan was also expected to pick up in 2018 and 2019 but remain subdued at 3.6% this year.
•The IMF revised down its growth estimate for South Africa to 0.9% for this year and next amid concerns over political uncertainty.
•In Latin America, it said growth would be weighed down by an economic collapse in Venezuela despite a pick-up in economic activity in Brazil and Mexico.
📰 Detecting the change, early on
How normal cells change into cancerous ones
•Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, have for the first time studied the early stages of normal cells transforming into cancerous cells. Using breast epithelial cells (on the surface) grown in 3D cultures, a team led by Mayurika Lahiri also found a particular protein (DNA-dependent protein kinase, DNA-PK), which normally repairs any damage to cell DNA, playing a central role in the transformation process. The results of the study have been published in the Journal of Cell Science.
•While cells are continually exposed to DNA-damaging agents, the surveillance system in place in cells checks for any errors on the DNA and immediately repairs them. But when either one of them gets compromised, the errors on the DNA tend to accumulate in the genome. After a while, the cells appear abnormal and have most of the characteristics of cancerous cells.
•In the study, an alkylating agent (a drug used in chemotherapy) was used to induce the transformation of breast epithelial cells into cancerous cells by activating the DNA-PK gene. The activated DNA-PK was found to disrupt the structure and function of the Golgi, an organelle found in the cell.
•“Observing the abnormal Golgi was sheer serendipity. Cancer-causing agents cause damage to the DNA, which is found inside the nucleus. But in this case, we found the alkylating agent to also disrupt the Golgi, which is found outside the nucleus,” says Prof. Lahiri.
•As a result of the disruption of the Golgi morphology, the movement of proteins (trafficking) from the endoplasmic reticulum to the cell membrane via Golgi was found to be impaired. As a result, the polarity — ability to distinguish the top and bottom sides of the epithelial cell — was disrupted and the cells were no longer epithelial cells, thus resulting in their transformation to cancerous cells. “Disruption of polarity is one of the hallmarks of cancerous cells,” she says.
•The cells treated with the alkylating agent were found to be forming colonies; the ability of cells to form colonies is one of the important characteristics of transformation.
•To confirm that activation of DNA-PK was causing the phenomena of transformation, the researchers used a small molecule to inhibit the activity of DNA-PK. “The inhibitor was able to partially reverse the polarity disruption and the Golgi regained its normal morphology. But the trafficking could not be reversed at all,” says Prof. Lahiri.
📰 Fourth tiger estimation begins in A.P.
Digital appliances being used to get accurate data
•Amid optimism over an increase in the number of big cats, the fourth All-India Tiger estimation began in the Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve (NSTR) on Monday.
•The confidence stems from the increase in the frequency of the encounter rate in recent times, sources said.
•Equipped with android phones and a new app, forest officials fanned out in the expansive Nallamala forests to collect field data for digital enumeration.
•The app, Monitoring System For Tigers – Intensive Protection and Ecological Status (M-StrIPES) is being used for the first time to avoid human error involved in the traditional recording of the pugmarks and other signs, Markapur Divisional Forest Officer B. Jayachandra Reddy said.
•The field data collection exercise is being done by the forest personnel now in grids of 2 sq. km. each, as against 4 sq. km. earlier, for more accuracy.
•The exercise is also to enumerate the number of panthers, bears and wild dogs in the tiger landscape spread over 3,728 sq. km. including a core area of 1,251 sq. km, and a buffer zone of 1,283 sq. km, he said.
•The officials hitherto have been collecting data manually in the pro forma on paper, which is prone to human errors.
Carnivore sign survey
•“The new app is used for the carnivore sign survey and transect marking to record details such as pellet density, vegetation status etc.,” the DFO said. The carnivore estimation for three days will be followed by herbivore estimation for another three days till January 27 to ascertain whether the reserve has enough prey for the big cats to flourish.
•“After compilation of the figures in two phases, the fourth phase of the survey of collective evidence through camera traps will be taken up in March/April,” he said.
