📰 We’re alert in Doklam, says Defence Minister
Our territorial integrity will be maintained: Sitharaman
•The government is ready for any eventuality in Doklam, said Union Minister for Defence Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday.
•The Minister’s statement comes in the midst of India-China efforts to reset their troubled ties, and ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s expected bilateral meeting with President Xi Jinping in June. Mr. Modi will visit China to take part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held in Qingdao on June 9 and 10.
•“We are alert and ready for any unforeseen situation in Doklam. We are constantly working on the modernisation of our forces. We will maintain our territorial integrity,” the Minister said.
•Her comments also come within days of Indian ambassador to China Gautam Bambawale saying that the Doklam standoff happened because the Chinese military altered the status quo.
Change in strategy
•“The Chinese military changed the status quo in the Doklam area and therefore India reacted to it,” he said in Hong Kong. “If the Chinese military are going to build a road, then they must tell us that ‘we are going to build a road’,” he said.
•The Defence Minister earlier this month told Rajya Sabha that China had undertaken “construction of some infrastructure, including sentry posts, trenches and helipads” close to the face-off point in Doklam. “Post disengagement from the face-off in 2017, troops of both sides have redeployed themselves away from their respective positions at the face-off site. The strength of both sides has been reduced,” she said.
📰 After the emergency
Repairing ties with the Maldiveswill test Indian diplomacy
•The Maldivian government’s decision to lift the state of emergency after 45 days, just ahead of the expiry of its second self-imposed deadline, comes as cold comfort for those concerned about the turn of events in the islands over the past couple of months. In a statement India said the withdrawal of the emergency is but “one step”, and much more must be done to restore democracy in the Maldives. The opposition, mostly in exile and led by former President Mohamad Nasheed, says the emergency was lifted only because President Abdulla Yameen has established total control over the judiciary and parliament since the February 1 court verdict that cancelled the sentencing of 12 opposition leaders and ordered their release. In a dramatic turn of events Mr. Yameen had then ordered the arrest of two judges, as well as hundreds of activists and politicians including former President Abdul Gayoom, and imposed a state of emergency. The remaining judges overturned the February 1 release order, under what is seen to be coercion by the security forces, which had locked down the Majlis (parliament) and court buildings. Therefore, lifting the emergency does not automatically amount to status quo ante .
•Repairing India-Maldives ties, that have taken an equally sharp dip since February 1, will be a tall order. Male has reacted sharply to India’s public statements on the emergency, as well as now to the statement welcoming the lifting of the emergency, saying that the events of the past couple of months were “internal political matters”, and India’s statements of disapproval were “not helpful at all”. The pushback from the Yameen government is in stark contrast to its desire over the past few years to work with India, and it isn’t hard to see why. Bolstered by a close relationship with China, Mr. Yameen has in a matter of months gone from declaring an ‘India first’ policy to disregarding its concerns. With military exchanges, a free trade agreement with China and a slew of Chinese infrastructure investments in place, the Yameen government clearly considers itself sufficiently insulated from any counter-moves by India or the U.S. During the current crisis, China placed its diplomatic might behind Mr. Yameen, and even offered to broker talks between the government and the opposition, a role that India would have been naturally expected to play in the past. It is important to note that a military intervention by India was never a possibility, and comparisons made to India’s actions in 1988 are pointless. India has been wise to keep its counsel and not over-react to the recent events. But going ahead, its challenge is tougher: to demonstrate its relevance to the Maldives as the biggest power in the South Asian region, while helping steer Mr. Yameen to a more reasonable and inclusive democratic course ahead of the presidential election later this year.
📰 The need for ‘special’ attention
It is assumed that special courts are a panacea for judicial efficiency, with hardly any evidence to suggest that
•Last December, the Supreme Court greenlit the Centre’s proposal to set up 12 fast-track courts to adjudicate and speedily dispose of 1,581 cases against Members of Parliament and Legislative Assemblies. Apart from uncertainties about the adequacy of such a measure, a more glaring issue is that the order conflates two distinct judicial features by using them interchangeably: special courts and fast-track courts.
•Special courts, which have existed in the subordinate judiciary since before Independence, are set up under a statute meant to address specific disputes falling within that statute. Over 25 special courts were set up between 1950 and 2015 through various Central and State legislations. However, despite being an old means of addressing the specificities of certain statutes and judicial backlog, there seems to be little if any evaluation of how this system works. Nearly four decades ago, a Bench of the Supreme Court gave its judgment in a decision, titled In Re: The Special Courts Bill, 1978 (Special Courts Case), pertaining to special courts and meant to deal with excesses during the Emergency. Here, the court opined on the constitutionality of and the legislative competence with which Parliament could establish special courts. Based on the discussion on special courts in the judgment, a prima facie definition of a special court can be: A Court which was established under a statute, to deal with special types of cases under a shortened and simplified procedure.
•Fast track courts were the result of recommendations made by the 11th Finance Commission which advised the creation of 1,734 such courts to deal with the judicial backlog. They were actualised though an executive scheme (as opposed to a statute of the legislature) and were meant to be set up by State governments in consultation with the respective high courts. Though meant to be wound up in 2005, the scheme was extended till 2011. Since then, six such courts have been set up in Delhi to take up rape cases.
Inconsistent drafting
•While there is sufficient discussion around fast track courts and tribunals, the same cannot be said about special courts. This vacuum in research and analysis with respect to special courts has led to inconsistencies in legislation and operation. While opinions may differ anecdotally, there is no doubt that this is best demonstrated by Parliament. A look at 28 pieces of Central legislation such as the Special Criminal Courts (Jurisdiction) Act, 1950 to the Prevention of Money Laundering (Amendment) Act, 2012 leaves one with a dizzying set of varied provisions to enact such courts. The Special Courts case clearly uses the phrase “established under statute”, which, in most cases, should imply the creation or establishment of a new court. However, all of two statutes use the term “establish”, while four use “constitute”, two use “create”, eight use “designate”, two use “notify”, and one uses “appoint”. Even the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 uses the words “establish” and “designate” in different places. The unifying thread in these statutes is that these terms have not been defined or procedurally explained. For States and high courts, this leads to ambiguities in operation in setting up such courts. For example, do they require new buildings? Should more judicial officers be hired? If a judge is designated under a special statute, should those matters be added to or replace her roster? This could create confusion with respect to appointments, budgetary allocation, infrastructure, and listing practices.
•What purpose do these courts serve? On a secondary level, 13 pieces of legislation state that the government “may” set up special courts, while 15 say the government “shall”. However, going by the definition, the answer as to whether a law requires a special court or not is a binary: yes or no. In such a situation, leaving options such as “may”, add to the ambiguities. It is also unclear what the legislature intends to accomplish by creating special courts. For instance, there seem to be more special courts under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 as compared to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 despite data showing the former having a tenth of the number of registered cases as the latter (2015). This points to unclear legislative intent while drafting such provisions. If a special court is meant to address the volume of cases under a statute, then why use “may” as the enabling provision instead of “shall”? When combined with the question of how exactly such courts must be set up, a range of possibilities confront the judiciary and the government, with little to no clarity on how these decisions are made.
The status quo
•Apart from the Supreme Court addressing their constitutional status, policy questions pertaining to the need and efficiency of special courts have seldom been analysed. As of October 2017, as many as 71 out of Delhi’s 441 judges in civil and sessions court (or 17% of Delhi’s subordinate judiciary) were designated as special courts under 12 statutes. More recently, the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016 drafts contain a provision for special courts. Therefore, special courts continue to be ubiquitous, despite being under-analysed.
•There are over 2.8 crore cases in the subordinate judiciary, which is the most out of the three tiers of the judiciary — subordinate, high courts and the Supreme Court. Parameters such as the frequency and number of effective hearings and calculating the number of pending cases need to be developed to study the workings of special courts. Without such inquiries, their number continues to grow. Both organs of state continue to believe that special courts are a panacea for judicial efficiency, despite there being virtually no evidence to support this assumption. Finally, it is important to ask questions and determine whether or not this special courts system is in fact helpful in addressing the judicial backlog.
📰 Why do farmers go marching?
Farm distress is increasingly being triggered by excess output and falling prices, but policy fixes are yet to address this
•Why are Indian farmers perpetually in revolt? The question has been raised by many after the recent farmers’ march to Mumbai and simmering rebellions across the States in recent years.
•No doubt, agriculture is one segment of the economy on which vote-conscious governments haven’t skimped on outlays. Over the years, Central governments have allocated ever-rising sums towards procurement, input subsidies and rural employment schemes, while States have periodically announced loan waivers.
•But that farmer protests have persisted, and even intensified, perhaps shows that many of these schemes aren’t addressing the right set of problems. The reasons for agricultural distress have changed quite dramatically in recent years.
From shortage to plenty
•A few years ago, farmers seeking to register their protest used to do so beside wilted crops and parched farmlands.
•But in the last couple of years, farmers from Mandsaur to Salem have given vent to their angst by dumping vast quantities of unsold produce — tomatoes, grapes, onions and milk — on lakebeds and national highways.
•Historically, agricultural distress in India has been linked to truant monsoons, input shortages and lacklustre yields which frequently put growers on the road to penury.
•In recent years though, it is surplus output and unremunerative prices that have decimated farm incomes more often.
•Trends in India’s agricultural output over the last twenty years present an eye-opener to this problem of plenty.
•For an extended period from 1998-99 to 2009-10, India’s rice output stayed stuck at 85 million tonnes to 95 million tonnes, with drought years such as 2002 and 2004 seeing sharp downward blips.
•As consumption hovered at 80 to 90 million tonnes in this period, shortages were more frequent than surpluses.
•But after climbing to 105 million tonnes in 2011-12, India’s rice production has stayed well above the 100 million-tonne mark for the last six years, even scaling110 million tonnes in 2016-17. With offtake still stuck at about 90 million tonnes, there’s been persisting excess stock in the market. As a result, in the last five years, wholesale prices of paddy have crept up at a 2.4% annual rate.
•The wheat story is similar. From a yearly average of about 75 million tonnes in the decade to 2010-11, wheat output leapfrogged to average 94 million tonnes in the last six years. Output, now at 97-98 million tonnes, is now neck-and-neck with domestic demand (about 100 million tonnes) and it may only be a matter of time before it overshoots it. With rising supplies, wholesale wheat prices have inched up at a 2% yearly rate in the last five years.
•Not too long ago, India was facing a severe shortage of pulses, with output struggling to keep up with the rising protein intake of the masses. But farmers have dramatically ramped up pulses production too. From an annual average of 14 million tonnes in the decade to 2010-11, it has averaged 18 lakh tonnes in the last six years. India harvested a record pulses crop of 23 million tonnes in 2017, matching the official demand estimate, thus dampening once-high market prices for a range of dals. This script of galloping surpluses dampening prices has played out in commercial crops such as sugarcane and tea too.
•If unremunerative prices have dogged other crops, fruit and vegetable farmers have been up against the high perishability of their produce. In the last fifteen years, India has doubled its potato output, trebled its tomato harvest and managed a fourfold increase in onion output. But poor storage facilities and State laws that keep farmers bound to their local mandis, have exposed farmers to wild swings in prices.
Driving the output
•It is noteworthy that agricultural output has held up at relatively high levels in recent years, despite erratic monsoons. This could be because the droughts in 2014 and 2015 have been far less severe than those in 2009 or 2002.
•In 2014, a drought year, the country still harvested 105 million tonnes of rice, 86 million tonnes of wheat and 17 million tonnes of pulses. Hefty hikes in the Centre’s Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) have also had a big role to play in farmers ratcheting up output. In the last ten years, the support prices for wheat and paddy have risen 73% and 108% and those on pulses have trebled. In recent years, State governments have also competed furiously with the Centre, announcing bonuses and their own support prices for crops such as onions, tomatoes, potatoes and even green chillies.
Illusory profits
•It is early days yet to say if recent improvements in India’s farm output are here to stay. But after responding enthusiastically to signals from MSPs for many years, farmers have lately found the mechanism failing them. Market prices for many crops have tended to plunge and stay below their official MSPs for extended periods.
•For one, though the Centre announces MSPs for 24 crops, the bulk of its procurement operations (via FCI) are restricted to just two — rice and wheat, with NAFED chipping in on pulses.
•State-level procurement operations are even more adhoc, lacking both direction and funding. Therefore, while a farmer may plant mustard, grapes or onions in any given year based on the MSP promise, there’s really no guarantee that he will get that price when he visits the mandi.
•Two, even in crops where the Centre or State agencies are active, their market interventions tend to be too selective and sporadic to make any real difference to a majority of farmers. Despite the Centre doubling down on procurement in 2017-18, it will mop up only about a third of India’s rice and wheat output and a tenth of the pulses harvest. So, if good monsoons result in more crops moving into surplus zone, market forces will continue to prevail over MSPs.
•Three, given that the Centre’s market interventions on rice and wheat have proved so ineffectual despite large spends, it is unclear how the Centre or copycat States will fund MSPs in a host of other crops.
New fixes
•To be fair, the NDA has been trying out new policy fixes to address such problems. It is piloting ‘price deficiency payments’ in place of MSPs to compensate farmers for price-related losses.
•It plans to replace input subsidies with direct cash transfers. It has kick-started a national electronic market for produce and is nudging States to repeal their APMC Acts, which prevent farmers from selling in markets of their choice.
•But its aggressive inflation-fighting efforts and on-off trade policies still work to the detriment of farmers. In the last couple of years, despite supply gluts, the Centre has continued with sizeable imports of wheat and pulses at low tariffs.
Handling of spikes
•Seasonal spikes in prices of sugar, atta or rice are often met with export taxes, minimum export prices or even outright export bans.
•States, on their part, continue to be quite adamant about levying high taxes and hanging on to the draconian mandis, which force farmers to rely heavily on middlemen.
•This puts the Indian farmer in a ‘Heads I win, tails you lose’ situation. If market prices of crops hit rock-bottom, the government is helpless to rescue them. But if prices soar, the government prevents them from making hay by clamping down.
•All this makes it clear why Indian farmers are seething. It’s for the same reason that salaried employees are often unhappy. Who would like being rewarded peanuts, after being highly productive?
📰 Set aside divestment proceeds for sick PSUs’ revival: panel
‘Govt. must consider job creation potential, among others, while shedding stake’
•A Parliamentary panel has recommended the earmarking of a defined portion of proceeds from the divestment of State-owned enterprises for funding revival, restructuring and modernisation proposals of sick public sector undertakings (PSUs) that have the potential to turn around.
•“In this manner, the government can extend a hand-holding support to the select sick PSUs that have the potential to turn around and sustain themselves in [the] future,” the panel said in a report.
Divestment target
•The government had set a target of raising Rs. 80,000 crore in 2018-19 by selling stakes in the State-owned firms, with strategic divestment of 24 CPSEs (central public sector undertakings) on the cards and privatisation of Air India on track.
•Besides, NITI Aayog is preparing another list of sick PSUs that can be privatised, its chief executive officer Amitabh Kant said last month. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had asked the think-tank to look into the viability of sick State-run companies.
•The Aayog had already recommended strategic divestment of 40 sick public sector undertakings.
•In its report, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry said it was of the firm opinion that while making a decision to disinvest PSUs, especially those that are profit-making, the government must accord due consideration to the jobs supported by them, the track record of their contribution to the national economy, their capex (capital expenditure) creation potential and also their role in balancing the social/regional fabric.
•The committee observed that timely approval of revival/restructuring/modernisation plans of CPSEs with accurate cost estimates, availability of funds with the government and the timely disposal of such funds are crucial factors.
📰 New vehicle scrappage policy may need tinkering
‘Very few CVs conform to age criteria’
•The new vehicle scrappage policy of the Centre is unlikely to have any significant impact on the automobile industry in terms of increased demand, according to rating agencies.
•The policy, cleared by the Prime Minister’s Office and awaiting the approval of the GST Council, targets to take polluting vehicles out of the roads and help the automobile industry register higher sales.
•The draft policy, released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in May 2016, mentioned about vehicles older than 15 years becoming eligible for benefits under the scrappage scheme but the criteria was reworked with benefits being applicable to vehicles older than 20 years.
•The scheme would now come in effect from April 1, 2020, coinciding with the implementation of the BS-VI norms.
Number of vehicles
•“If we look at the various vehicle segments in the commercial vehicles (CV) industry, very few vehicles would actually be older than 20 years in the current vehicular population,” CRISIL Research said in its policy analysis.
•“Medium and heavy commercial vehicles (M & HCVs) that typically have a life of 20 years, would be eligible under the scheme.”
•“The total population of commercial vehicles that will be older than 20 years in fiscal 2021 would be 50,000 vehicles, much lower than the government’s earlier estimate of 2.8 crore vehicles and our internal estimate of 6,40,000 vehicles,” CRISIL Research said.
•“In any case, 70,000 to 90,000 vehicles are scrapped every year. So, we believe the impact of the scrappage policy will be limited. However, the additional benefit from the scheme will prop up commercial vehicle demand to some extent when vehicle prices will increase because of change in emission norms (from BS IV to BS VI),” it added.
•ICRA, in its report, said that the proportion of commercial vehicles above 20 years would be one lakh to two lakh units.
•“The proposed scrappage policy is unlikely to be materially positive for commercial vehicle demand,” it said.
•Shamsher Dewan, vice president and sector head, ICRA said, “Most of these older vehicles are used in rural areas and smaller towns by small fleet operators who operate used vehicles and have limited financial resources to purchase new vehicles.
•Moreover, around 70,000 to one lakh vehicles are scrapped on an annual basis. As a result, the potential impact of the proposed policy on commercial vehicle sales will be limited.”
📰 Banks told to be vigilant on Aadhaar
Use OTPs only in the presence ofcustomers: UIDAI
•The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has asked banks to provide Aadhaar-based onetime password (OTP) for opening of bank accounts only in the presence of the customer, in a banking outlet.
•In a letter addressed to commercial banks, UIDAI Chief Executive Officer Ajay Bhushan Pandey cited instances of misuse of Aadhaar while opening accounts.
•The direction is a huge blow to the banks that are heavily dependent on Aadhaar-based OTP authentication process for account opening (where the customers do not have to visit branches) or use tab banking to open accounts by visiting the customer’s residence.
•“Banks may provide authentication and e-KYC facility (fingerprint, iris, OTP) at all banking outlets so that authentication/e-KYC can be done then and there in front of the customers,” the letter — a copy of which has been reviewed by The Hindu — said. The letter further noted that while banks are using various channels for collection of Aadhaar number from their customers, it was found by the UIDAI that the authentication of Aadhaar numbers was not carried out or authentication best practices were not followed.
•“It has come to the notice of the UIDAI that there has been instances wherein: Aadhaar of person A got seeded with person B’s account to carry out fraudulent transaction,” the letter said.
•“Stolen Aadhaar copy was used to open a bank account and obtain credit, debit card,” the letter said while citing another example.
•The UIDAI said a fabricated Aadhaar card provided to a bank may result in fraud and loss of money, if the bank does not authenticate with finger print or OTP to adequately identify the Aadhaar holder.
•According to RBI norms, there are limits for accounts that are opened through Aadhaar-based OTP authentication process, like deposits cannot exceed Rs. 1 lakh and full KYC requirements, which is submission of documents and giving biometric details, were needed to be made in 1 year.
•Private sector lender Kotak Mahindra Bank, which had launched Aadhaar-based OTP authentication process for opening of accounts in March 2017, said last Tuesday that its customer base swelled from 8 million to 12 million within nine months of introducing the scheme. Since many other banks also offer similar schemes, bankers said account opening is likely to be hit following the UIDAI’s directions.
📰 Fighting forest fires
How information on a fire reaches the authorities and the ways in which firefighting can be improved
•The recent wildfire tragedy in Theni in Tamil Nadu, in which 20 trekkers lost their lives, once again brings into focus forest fires in India. Over the past few years, we have realised that these fires are not spontaneous; human beings set off fires. This tragedy raises several other issues — of approaches in fighting fires and ways of mitigating damage.
Relaying information
•When a fire anywhere in the world is detected by NASA’s MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) satellites, the Forest Survey of India (FSI) analyses the data by overlaying the digitised boundaries of forest areas to pinpoint the location to the exact forest compartment. The resolution of these satellites are up to 375m x 375m, which means that such fires can be detected if their extent is above half the pixel, i.e. about seven hectares. The FSI relays news of the fire to the concerned State, so that the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) in charge of the forest where the fire is raging is informed. A few years ago, the time lapse between spotting the fire and the news reaching the DFO was five to six hours, but this has been reduced to about two hours recently. The frequency of the two satellites orbiting the earth has also been increased from twice daily to once in three hours.
•Meanwhile, news of the fire would have reached the DFO from his guards in watchtowers and on patrol. The DFO decides whom to deploy. Usually, there is a master fire control room which is informed and which sends firefighters from local fire crew stations to fight the blaze.
Four approaches
•There are four approaches to fighting forest fires. The first is what may be called technological, where helicopters or ground-based personnel spray fire retardant chemicals, or pump water to fight the blaze. These are expensive methods and make sense when one is protecting a human community, but are usually not practised in India.
•The second is to contain the fire in compartments bordered by natural barriers such as streams, roads, ridges, and fire lines along hillsides or across plains. A fire line is a line through a forest which has been cleared of all vegetation. The width depends on the type of forest being protected. Once the blaze has burnt out all combustibles in the affected compartment, it fizzles out and the neighbouring compartments are saved.
•The third is to set a counter fire, so that when a fire is unapproachable for humans, a line is cleared of combustibles and manned. One waits until the wildfire is near enough to be sucking oxygen towards it, and then all the people manning the line set fire to the line simultaneously. The counter fire rushes towards the wildfire, leaving a stretch of burnt ground. As soon as the two fires meet, the blaze is extinguished.
•The fourth approach, which is the most practical and most widely used, is to have enough people with leafy green boughs to beat the fire out. This is practised in combination with fire lines and counter fires.
•The lesson to be learnt is that if combustibles are removed or burnt under supervision, a fire can be controlled. This is why there are usually no deaths from burns among personnel fighting forest fires. The danger is asphyxiation, since a vast quantity of smoke is generated, and the lack of oxygen in the immediate vicinity of tall flames can cause breathlessness. Once a person loses consciousness due to asphyxiation, the danger of being burnt alive becomes real, especially if one is alone. Dehydration is also an issue when fighting flames more than a metre high.
•The British introduced a system of controlled burning of undergrowth in safe seasons (say, during winter), so that by summer there would be nothing left to burn. This is an extremely destructive practice, since it wipes out insects, small reptiles, seeds, herbs and bushes.
Mitigating damage
•The question is, what can still be done to mitigate the damage caused by forest fires? While communication and response time have been cut down, the actual numbers of Forest Department personnel that are sent to put out fires are woefully inadequate. The fact that they manage to achieve some control speaks for their enthusiasm. A fire often has a front of several kilometres and a few jeeps full of men are entirely inadequate to fight such a blaze. We need to vastly increase the number of firefighters as well as equip them properly with drinking water bottles, back-up supplies of food and water, proper shoes or boots, rakes, spades and other implements, light, rechargeable torches, and so on. They could also be paid better. Seasonal labour could be contracted during the fire season. With adequate training, they would serve to fill gaps along the line. Local villagers would be the best resource.
•The constraint is funds. Vast amounts of funds are used for frivolous purposes like ‘planting forests’. In practice, they are mostly diverted to corrupt officials and political parties. After more than half a century of planting forests there is little to show for the funds spent on this activity. Instead, those funds would be more than sufficient to cover the cost of a well-equipped and well-paid forest protection force. More Forest Department field staff could be hired to put out fires during the fire season and to patrol the forests during other times. This is the only way to prevent accidents such as the Theni tragedy.
•I believe it is not correct that Indian citizens require permission to enter reserve forests for recreational purposes, as distinguished from the perfectly sensible need to inform concerned authorities or owners about one’s presence in areas under their charge, whether a reserve forest or a private orchard. The rules preventing entry to the public were intended to stop removal of resources, so that the forests concerned would be held in reserve against contingencies like war, when large quantities of both timber and firewood were required. Since recreational visitors remove no resources, there is no valid reason for them to obtain permission to climb a publicly owned hill in India, which has been entrusted to the Forest Department to protect. Therefore, the Forest Act of 1927 is urgently in need of revision, since at present it embodies the spirit of colonialism. Conversely, there is no need for paved paths or tourist ‘facilities’ within reserve forests. These are not tourist attractions. Mass tourism can be nothing but detrimental to forests.
•Increasing the field staff of Forest Departments by discontinuing the claimed ‘forest plantations’ would help control forest fires, which in turn would help rejuvenation of fire-stressed forest ecosystems. This would help indigenous forests grow back. Giving access to the public to reserve forests in their present state would have a salutary effect on the quality of life of our citizenry and the quality of field researchers available within the country.
📰 Controlling the machine
Europe’s new data protection regime offers a sound basis for India to craft its own legislation
•During the throes of India’s independence struggle, an image of Mahatma Gandhi spinning khadi symbolised not only economic and political autonomy but to its critics an insular withdrawal from industrialisation and technology. This tension is gingerly revealed in a letter from Jawaharlal Nehru to Aldous Huxley, as a partial defence of the Mahatma’s position, when he writes, “I believe in the machine and would have it spread in India, but I also believe in the social control of it.” While dialogues of the past do seem distant to the rapid advances in the fields of big data, algorithms and artificial intelligence, they undergird deeper truths and surface visibly in debates over the formation of a privacy and data protection framework.
It’s all connected
•At present India has the second highest number of Internet users in the world, and is an important market for many global companies that have staked dominance within distinct silos of digital services. While Facebook enjoys sway over social networking, Google has completely taken over online search and email, and Amazon continues a growing capture of online commerce. This is further supplemented by a maturing, home-grown technology sector which learns not only its business models and operational strategies but even its corporate culture from such companies. Though there is friction between these global and local firms, they are united in a singular attempt to collect, store and analyse the online behaviour of millions of Indians. It is immaterial whether customers pay for digital services, for the business model of most firms always factors in a premium for personal data.
•Another layer for the extraction of information is added by the government. India has the unique distinction of being one of the few countries that gathers vast amounts of personal data through its compulsory national biometric ID scheme, Aadhaar. Its wide pervasive use goes well beyond public entitlements or regulated services to sundry services such as online matrimonial portals. It almost seems data is not the new oil — it is air itself.
The European template
•Though digital technology is finely threaded with the fabric of our lives, India maintains a curious omission of a comprehensive, enforceable data protection law. The limited protections which do exist are under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and its subordinate regulations remain substantially deficient and practically unenforceable. This stands in stark contrast to the European Union which has taken time to develop an advanced data protection framework, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), that goes into effect in a few months. There is good reason to look toward Europe. Graham Greenleaf, professor of law and information systems at the University of New South Wales, Australia, who has studied more than 50 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, notes the pre-existing presence of elements of European law within their national laws, with most needing to update them and enact a comprehensive statute. Even as a text, the GDPR is a progressive instrument. The very preamble of the GDPR, reflects an attempt to protect the rights of individuals through a data protection law, treating the requirements of industry and state as limited exceptions. It is this exercise of balance which Nehru adverts to in his letter to Huxley, stating that cottage industry is not to the exclusion of the power loom.
•Such search for balance comes from a recognition of the principled protection of the right to privacy within the text of a data protection law and then proceeds to exceptions which are determined under the legal doctrines of necessity and proportionality. Necessity is a threshold evaluation requiring objective evidence that is matched against a proportionality exam in which the advantages due to limiting the privacy right are weighed against the disadvantages. Such principles find legal articulation within the GDPR which makes them practically enforceable. These include a transparent system of data processing which makes users practically aware of what is happening with their personal information at all times. A user’s knowledge is raised to the level of control, where necessity and proportionality are placed both as exceptions and as positive obligations on companies and governments. For instance, they are allowed to use data only for the original purpose under which they were gathered and only to the extent and amount as necessary for performing the function as specified by a user.
•The sister doctrines of necessity and proportionality are not strangers to our own constitutional law. Even prior to their express recognition and linking to data protection by the Supreme Court last August, when it reaffirmed the fundamental right to privacy, they have found passing references through the decades. For instance, the Supreme Court has applied proportionality to strike down a law in the 1950s which completely prohibited the manufacture of tobacco bidis. Since the basis of law was to ensure adequate labour to work in the agricultural seasons, a blanket prohibition for all months was held to be disproportionate. Though further precedent exists which limits the sweep of state action, and further support has recently come from the Supreme Court, many rights advocates hold that a balancing exercise for these doctrines may become an unequal bargain between privacy and the demands of big data and the bigger state. There is a credible basis for such fears as often our courts have wavered from the principle of protecting fundamental rights to permitting an expansion of limitations placed on them, with the exceptions gradually swallowing up the rule.
Challenge ahead
•This sets up a credible challenge to the future of India’s data protection framework, with sufficient powers for the regulatory body and the courts which will function to enforce it and hold powerful corporations and governments to account. While we must learn and draw from the data protection principles of Europe, we must also focus efforts to ensure their effective enforcement. This will naturally be an effort in not only ensuring desirable legal language within the text of a law but also a larger environment of compliance and respect for privacy. Opportunity for positive outcomes exists in the domain of technology as India has already taken a global lead in enacting a progressive net neutrality regulation. But due to a lack of partnership between civil society and the government, there is a sense of cynicism overcast by the lack of a user-oriented data protection law. Many today wonder about their online safety and express a loss of control. In this there is an important lesson from decades past — to continue our belief in the benefits of technology, we must continue to believe in its social control.
•During the throes of India’s independence struggle, an image of Mahatma Gandhi spinning khadi symbolised not only economic and political autonomy but to its critics an insular withdrawal from industrialisation and technology. This tension is gingerly revealed in a letter from Jawaharlal Nehru to Aldous Huxley, as a partial defence of the Mahatma’s position, when he writes, “I believe in the machine and would have it spread in India, but I also believe in the social control of it.” While dialogues of the past do seem distant to the rapid advances in the fields of big data, algorithms and artificial intelligence, they undergird deeper truths and surface visibly in debates over the formation of a privacy and data protection framework.
It’s all connected
•At present India has the second highest number of Internet users in the world, and is an important market for many global companies that have staked dominance within distinct silos of digital services. While Facebook enjoys sway over social networking, Google has completely taken over online search and email, and Amazon continues a growing capture of online commerce. This is further supplemented by a maturing, home-grown technology sector which learns not only its business models and operational strategies but even its corporate culture from such companies. Though there is friction between these global and local firms, they are united in a singular attempt to collect, store and analyse the online behaviour of millions of Indians. It is immaterial whether customers pay for digital services, for the business model of most firms always factors in a premium for personal data.
•Another layer for the extraction of information is added by the government. India has the unique distinction of being one of the few countries that gathers vast amounts of personal data through its compulsory national biometric ID scheme, Aadhaar. Its wide pervasive use goes well beyond public entitlements or regulated services to sundry services such as online matrimonial portals. It almost seems data is not the new oil — it is air itself.
The European template
•Though digital technology is finely threaded with the fabric of our lives, India maintains a curious omission of a comprehensive, enforceable data protection law. The limited protections which do exist are under the Information Technology Act, 2000, and its subordinate regulations remain substantially deficient and practically unenforceable. This stands in stark contrast to the European Union which has taken time to develop an advanced data protection framework, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), that goes into effect in a few months. There is good reason to look toward Europe. Graham Greenleaf, professor of law and information systems at the University of New South Wales, Australia, who has studied more than 50 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, notes the pre-existing presence of elements of European law within their national laws, with most needing to update them and enact a comprehensive statute. Even as a text, the GDPR is a progressive instrument. The very preamble of the GDPR, reflects an attempt to protect the rights of individuals through a data protection law, treating the requirements of industry and state as limited exceptions. It is this exercise of balance which Nehru adverts to in his letter to Huxley, stating that cottage industry is not to the exclusion of the power loom.
•Such search for balance comes from a recognition of the principled protection of the right to privacy within the text of a data protection law and then proceeds to exceptions which are determined under the legal doctrines of necessity and proportionality. Necessity is a threshold evaluation requiring objective evidence that is matched against a proportionality exam in which the advantages due to limiting the privacy right are weighed against the disadvantages. Such principles find legal articulation within the GDPR which makes them practically enforceable. These include a transparent system of data processing which makes users practically aware of what is happening with their personal information at all times. A user’s knowledge is raised to the level of control, where necessity and proportionality are placed both as exceptions and as positive obligations on companies and governments. For instance, they are allowed to use data only for the original purpose under which they were gathered and only to the extent and amount as necessary for performing the function as specified by a user.
•The sister doctrines of necessity and proportionality are not strangers to our own constitutional law. Even prior to their express recognition and linking to data protection by the Supreme Court last August, when it reaffirmed the fundamental right to privacy, they have found passing references through the decades. For instance, the Supreme Court has applied proportionality to strike down a law in the 1950s which completely prohibited the manufacture of tobacco bidis. Since the basis of law was to ensure adequate labour to work in the agricultural seasons, a blanket prohibition for all months was held to be disproportionate. Though further precedent exists which limits the sweep of state action, and further support has recently come from the Supreme Court, many rights advocates hold that a balancing exercise for these doctrines may become an unequal bargain between privacy and the demands of big data and the bigger state. There is a credible basis for such fears as often our courts have wavered from the principle of protecting fundamental rights to permitting an expansion of limitations placed on them, with the exceptions gradually swallowing up the rule.
Challenge ahead
•This sets up a credible challenge to the future of India’s data protection framework, with sufficient powers for the regulatory body and the courts which will function to enforce it and hold powerful corporations and governments to account. While we must learn and draw from the data protection principles of Europe, we must also focus efforts to ensure their effective enforcement. This will naturally be an effort in not only ensuring desirable legal language within the text of a law but also a larger environment of compliance and respect for privacy. Opportunity for positive outcomes exists in the domain of technology as India has already taken a global lead in enacting a progressive net neutrality regulation. But due to a lack of partnership between civil society and the government, there is a sense of cynicism overcast by the lack of a user-oriented data protection law. Many today wonder about their online safety and express a loss of control. In this there is an important lesson from decades past — to continue our belief in the benefits of technology, we must continue to believe in its social control.
📰 A legacy of greed
How science is stepping in to save the northern white rhino from extinction
•The last male northern white rhinoceros, Sudan, died on March 19, aged 45, at Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya, where he spent the last nine years under the watch of a 24-hour armed guard. There was a time when northern white rhinos could be found in southern Chad, the Central African Republic, southwestern Sudan, northwestern Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1960, more than 2,000 were remaining, according to a World Wildlife Fund report. The number shrank to 15 in 1984 as they were hunted for their horns, an ingredient in traditional Vietnamese medicine. Only two northern white rhinos remain: Sudan’s daughter Najin and granddaughter Fatu, neither of whom will be able to carry a pregnancy to term.
•Where traditional conservation methods failed to save this subspecies, science is stepping in. From the sperm of four northern white rhino bulls and living cells collected from 13 northern white rhinos before they died, researchers from Germany, the U.S., Kenya, Japan, Australia, Austria and the Czech Republic are planning a two-pronged approach – in vitro fertilisation and stem cell technology to resurrect the subspecies. The conservation effort is being spearheaded by Professor Thomas Hildebrandt, Department Head, Reproduction Management, of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW). From Berlin, a team of scientists from Leibniz-IZW will go to Kenya in May to extract eggs from Najin and Fatu. In Cremona, Italy, the eggs will be fertilised with the sperm of northern white rhino bulls. Sudan’s sperm is not viable due to lack of genetic distance. Once the eggs are fertilised, they will need surrogate mothers and the closest living relatives are the southern white rhinos. IVF has been performed successfully on the Asian lion and the team at Leibniz-IZW is developing the procedure for rhinos. Steven Seet from Leibniz-IZW is optimistic about IVF. In the next two to three years, it is probable that the world will welcome the first living IVF northern white rhino, he said in an email interview.
•However, one rhino will not resurrect a species or subspecies. Genetic diversity is the key, and this is where the expertise of Katsuhiko Hayashi, a reproductive biologist at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, who produced baby mice from mouse skin cells, comes in. He reprogrammed cells to behave like human embryonic stem cells, which were used to grow fertile mouse egg cells in a dish. Mr. Hayashi’s team will attempt to replicate this with northern white rhino cells. The living cell material of 13 northern white rhinos are stored in laboratories in Germany, the U.S. and Kenya. The aim is to take the cells from existing samples and develop them back into embryo stem cells. After reprogramming, the stem cells can form one cell which can grow into a sperm, and another into an egg. The fertilised egg will be transferred to the surrogate mother. Mr. Seet estimates that over the next four years alone, researchers will need at least €5 million to keep the project going. It is a hefty price to pay for our greed.
📰 GSAT-6A to give armed forces a shot in the arm
Will enable mobile communication from anywhere
•GSAT-6A, the second predominantly S-band communications satellite, is set to be launched from Sriharikota on March 29.
•It will complement GSAT-6, which has been orbiting since August 2015 at 83 degrees East longitude. The 2,000-kg-class 6A, costing about Rs. 270 crore, is a great deal more than a routine communications satellite. It is designated for the use of the Armed Forces and will not add any transponder capacity for general uses, according to sources in the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
•A special feature of the GSAT-6A is its 6-metre-wide umbrella-like antenna, which will be unfurled in once it is in space. The antenna is thrice as broad as the antennas generally used in ISRO satellites. It will enable mobile communication from anywhere via hand-held ground terminals. Regular communication satellites with smaller antenna require much larger ground stations, said a former director of ISRO.
•The S-band’s antenna was developed by ISRO’s Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. The unfurl-able antenna, hand-held ground terminals, and network management techniques could be useful in future satellite-based mobile communication applications. GSAT-6A will also have a smaller 0.8-metre antenna for communication in the C band. GSAT-6A is slated to be launched at 4.56 p.m. on a GSLV rocket.
