📰 The turning point in 1932
How separate electorates for Dalits could have prevented Partition
•In the current climate of Dalit assertion that has the potential to frustrate the BJP’s dreams of regaining power in 2019, it is relevant to revisit the era when the Dalits asserted their clout in Indian politics for the first time but were stymied by Mahatma Gandhi. This happened under the charismatic B.R. Ambedkar in the 1920s and 1930s and almost succeeded in gaining separate representation for the “Depressed Classes”, as they were euphemistically termed in British legalese, in the central and provincial legislatures. It is equally important to speculate what it would have done to the Hindu-Muslim equation, and therefore the prospect of Partition, if Ambedkar had succeeded in reaching his goal. This article attempts to answer this question.
Deep insecurity
•The politics of the Muslim elite — and all politics in the run-up to Indian independence was elite politics — was driven primarily by a sense of deep insecurity. This tendency was accentuated when it became increasingly clear from the 1920s that the British would have to leave India sooner or later. The Muslim sense of insecurity was rooted in many factors relating to history, demography, lack of progress in English education and, probably most importantly, the shift of the centre of gravity of Indian politics from the heartland of northern and central India, where much of the Muslim elite, theashraf, were concentrated, to Calcutta, Madras and Bombay and their hinterlands dominated by the new English-educated, predominantly Hindu elite.
•Partition was the outcome in substantial part of this insecurity although other factors, including aggressive forms of Hindu nationalism advocated by the likes of V.D. Savarkar, K.B. Hedgewar and M.S. Golwalkar contributed to it in considerable measure as well. The soft Hindutva of many stalwarts within the Congress, including Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai and Vallabhbhai Patel, added to Muslim concerns, as did Jawaharlal Nehru’s disdain for what he termed the Muslim League’s “communal politics”.
•The Muslim elite’s anxieties were centred largely on the demographic and, therefore, political disparity between Muslims and Hindus and the domination of India’s political and economic landscapes by the upper caste Hindu elite. Political parity between caste Hindus and Muslims, therefore, remained the primary goal of the Muslim League through much of its existence as a political party.
•A landmark announcement in 1932 by British Prime Minister Ramsay Macdonald came close to removing these anxieties. He accepted Ambedkar’s demand that it was necessary for the “Depressed Classes” to have separate representation in the central and provincial legislatures in order to protect their interests which ran counter to the interests of the dominant Hindu castes who also hogged most of the seats in the legislatures. This was the case because elections in British India were held under a very restricted franchise based primarily on property, income and educational qualifications. Only about 13% of the population had the right to vote. The Dalits lagged far behind caste Hindus in all the three qualifications that determined the right to vote and, therefore, were not only under-represented but also represented by members of those castes that were opposed to according equality to them.
•The British Prime Minister accepted Ambedkar’s arguments and awarded separate electorates to the Depressed Classes on lines similar to those for Muslims. The Muslim League, recognising the import of this decision in that it had the potential to weaken the caste Hindu leadership’s hold on the entirety of the Hindu population, readily accepted the award. However, to everyone’s consternation, Mahatma Gandhi, who was seen as a leading advocate for Dalit rights, went on a fast unto death to persuade the British to repeal the award. To him, the award was a ploy to divide Hindu society that he found unacceptable. Initially, Ambedkar refused to bend to Gandhi’s coercive fast. However, when it became clear that Gandhi’s life depended on Ambedkar’s decision, Ambedkar was forced to give up his demand in return for reserved seats for Dalits but on the basis of a single Hindu electorate. Years later, Ambedkar came to bitterly regret his decision.
•Equally, if not more important, Gandhi’s extreme reaction to the award of separate electorates to the Dalits convinced the Muslim elite that Gandhi and the Congress were bent on not giving Muslims their due share in the future political arrangement in India. Their reasoning was simple: if implemented, the Communal Award, as it was known, would have led to parity between caste Hindu and Muslim representatives in the legislatures, and the Dalits, who the Muslim elite did not find threatening and who they saw as potential allies against caste Hindus because of the common fear of upper caste domination, would have held the balance. This would have precluded the need for demanding Partition and in all probability kept India united.
•This argument sounds plausible because for most of the 1940s Pakistan was but a bargaining counter for Jinnah and the Muslim League. This is why Jinnah accepted the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946, which would have kept India united in the form of a loose federation, but which Nehru torpedoed. With the failure of this last-ditch British effort to keep India united, Jinnah was hoisted with his own petard and forced to accept what he called a “mutilated, moth-eaten Pakistan.”
More potent than 1937
•It appears in hindsight that Mahatma Gandhi’s stance on the Communal Award — even more than Nehru’s refusal to enter into a coalition with the Muslim League in the United Provinces in 1937, which is widely seen as the turning point in Muslim politics in favour of separatism — was responsible for increasing the Muslim leaders’ distrust of the Congress that made Pakistan an attractive option for them. One could plausibly argue that Gandhi’s rejection of the Communal Award sent the message to the Muslim leadership that he and the Congress were more interested in promoting a monolithic Hindu bloc than in nurturing Hindu-Muslim unity or providing justice for the Dalits in the form demanded by Ambedkar. This increased their sense of insecurity and finally led to the demand for a separate state comprising the Muslim majority provinces of British India. The rest is history.
📰 When India and China meet
The message from Wuhan is: let us give each other space and rationalise our differences in a grown-up way
•The path of India-China relations is strewn with the ghosts of summits past. The leaders of the two countries have met, expressed the loftiest of sentiments, gone their separate ways. No doubt, summits are good, nobody has a quarrel with them, the media at least loves them. The relationship has often benefited from such meetings.
•A note of hope was therefore sounded when Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew into the Chinese city of Wuhan to meet with President Xi Jinping for an “informal” summit last week. The aim, as announced, was to build strategic communication and provide a long-term perspective for what is a complex and adversarial bilateral relationship.
Cautious optimism
•For the duration of a day and a half, the leaders of the world’s two most populous countries held talks against a classic Chinese landscape of gardens and lakes, with and without aides. The optics were reassuring and optimism about the outcome of these conversations was implied. Only a year ago, on the high Himalayan plateau of Doklam on the borders of Bhutan, India and China, overlooking the vital Siliguri Corridor connecting ‘mainland’ India to the Northeastern States, Indian and Chinese troops engaged in a tense stand-off lasting 73 days. The visit of the Dalai Lama, exiled in India for nearly six decades, to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh engendered deep Chinese resentment. The voluble Indian opposition to China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), especially the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) being developed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, was also a source of serious friction. China’s growing inroads in the form of high-profile projects and support for anti-Indian political interests in India’s South Asian neighbourhood fuelled Indian distrust. Hawkish and hypernationalist voices in both countries raised tensions further, and the spectre of armed conflict on a shared but disputed frontier lurked in the shadows.
•Last year was an annus horribilis for the India-China relationship. The Wuhan summit signalled that the two countries are working on restoring a much-needed equilibrium in a deeply disturbed relationship. This is a relationship in therapy. For Mr. Modi, whose scorecard on neighbourhood policy has been underwhelming, a detoxifying policy facelift with China is certainly advantageous both in terms of his domestic political image, with the 2019 parliamentary elections drawing near, as well as in improving his global profile.
•The outcome statement from the Indian foreign office and from the Prime Minister’s social media network speaks about Mr. Modi and Mr. Xi having forged a common understanding in Wuhan on the future direction of India-China relations “built upon mutual respect for each other’s developmental aspirations and prudent management of differences with mutual sensitivity”. These are words that can be variously interpreted. Their distilled essence is: let us give each other space and let us rationalise our opposition to each other and our differences in a grown-up way. The takeaway buzzword from Wuhan appears to be “strategic communication” by both leaderships in order to provide a more cogent sense of purpose and direction that helps heal the relationship.
Two statements
•The Indian statement (the separate statement from the Chinese foreign ministry is not so full-bodied) also makes it known that the two leaders have “issued strategic guidance” to their militaries to strengthen communication in order to especially “enhance predictability and effectiveness in the management of border affairs”. The intention is to prevent incidents in border regions of the Doklam variety, it is presumed. The situation bears watching. There are many pockets along the 3,500 km border between the two countries where the Line of Actual Control is disputed. Transgressions from both sides occur regularly and military establishments, Indian and Chinese, are trained not to yield an inch. Efforts to establish a clearly delineated Line of Actual Control have not succeeded, mainly due to Chinese reluctance. The summit at Wuhan coincided with news that India will build 96 more border outposts along the frontier with China.
•The summit has apparently not yielded (and neither was it expected to) any significant reduction of differences on the CPEC. The Indian government can ill-afford to give the impression of any concession on this question to China given the Pakistan factor — a perennial trigger for public hysteria. The announcement that China and India will jointly work on a project (details yet to be announced) in war-torn Afghanistan is a first and unlikely to give Pakistan comfort, although China will no doubt provide undercover assurances to the former that its interests will not be harmed.
•A sober prognosis for the future of India-China relations is warranted despite the euphoria of Mr. Modi’s visit to Wuhan. The potential for tension on the Himalayan piedmont is aggravated by the clash of Chinese and Indian ambition in the maritime environment of the Indo-Pacific. The growing alignment of interest among three democracies — India, the U.S. (now termed an “indispensable” partner) and Japan — is a source for Chinese insecurity, just as China-Pakistan strategic cooperation and China’s inroads in South Asia make India uneasy. Twenty-first century Asia is not a pacific place. It is multi-polar and multi-aligned and a testing ground for the security architectures of the future.
Securing the Asian century
•Decades ago, India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, famously said that the challenge between India and China “runs along the spine of Asia”. As India and China re-emerge from the shadows of history, hopes for the so far elusive dream of an Asia united will be centred on the progress and development of these two nations. At the same time, tension or conflict between the two takes away from the prospects of the Asian century that their leaders speak of. Perhaps it is this realisation that prompted the rendezvous in Wuhan. The world should have no quarrel with India and China beating swords into ploughshares. We need a regular pattern of more informal summits between the leaders of the two countries. The challenge across the spine of Asia does no one good.
📰 India’s role in ending the Korean war
How it reconciled the two Cold War blocs to restore peace through the Armistice Agreement
•Dramatic events that were inconceivable a few months back are now unfolding rapidly in the Korean peninsula. The Korean war of the early 1950s had never formally ended and an uneasy truce has prevailed for well over half a century. What established the truce was the Korean Armistice Agreement, which was signed on July 27, 1953.
Executing the peace campaign
•Numerous books have been written about the Korean war which directly involved the Soviet Union, the U.S. and China. But in none of these works have the indefatigable efforts of India to restore peace in that region been discussed. The first scholar to do so was a British historian, Robert Barnes, who accessed different archives and wrote a meticulously researched paper called ‘Between the Blocs: India, the United Nations, and Ending the Korean War’, which was published in The Journal of Korean Studies five years back. This is an academic journal with a limited circulation and therefore Mr. Barnes’s article never got the wider attention it deserves.
•Mr. Barnes contends that India played a “much-overlooked but significant role” in bringing the Korean conflict to an end. Naturally, his main focus is on Jawaharlal Nehru, for whom this was a high point. But Mr. Barnes also highlights the role of others who helped Nehru craft and execute the peace campaign. Initially, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, B.N. Rau, was very active. India’s Ambassador in China, K.M. Panikkar, was the channel through which Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai communicated his views on the Korean conflict to the Americans as well as to the UN, since the People’s Republic of China was not a member of that body then. But the pivot of India’s efforts at New York from mid-1952 onwards, for over a year, was V.K. Krishna Menon, who was sent as Nehru’s special envoy. It is well known that the Americans hated Menon; what is less known is that he was quite an anathema to the Soviets as well. But finally on December 3, 1952, the Indian resolution was adopted at the UN with unanimous non-Soviet support.
•Both Nehru and Menon realised that this was only a partial victory and more needed to be done to bring the Soviets and the Chinese on board. Stalin’s death on March 5, 1953, was a crucial turning point. Thereafter, signals from the communist camp were that a quick end to the hostilities would not be unwelcome. Menon submitted another proposal, which, however, was not acceptable to the Americans who came up with their own version. But they agreed to merge their resolution with Menon’s to move things forward. This was then to lead to the Armistice Agreement.
Follow-up action
•One of the follow-up actions to the Armistice Agreement was the establishment of a Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission (NNRC) which was to decide on the fate of over 20,000 prisoners of war from both sides. India was chosen as the Chair of the NNRC, with Poland and Czechoslovakia representing the Communist bloc and Sweden and Switzerland representing the Western world. There was to be a UN Command led by an Englishman and a Custodian Force sent by India. Nehru selected Lt. General K.S. Thimayya as the Chairman of the NNRC and Major General S.S.P. Thorat as the Commander of the Custodian Force India, as it was called. P.N. Haksar, then Krishna Menon’s aide in the High Commission in London, was appointed as one of the two political advisers in Thimayya’s team. Very soon he became the only one, since the other, I.J. Bahadur Singh, had to be repatriated from Korea quickly on health grounds.
•Thimayyya became a hero at the end of the NNRC’s tenure in February 1954. He was feted both at home and abroad for having executed a most thankless task courageously, although he and Haksar had developed serious differences. Haksar felt that Thimayya was far too concerned with American opinion while Thimayya thought Haksar was too solicitous of the communists. The Commission’s reports were drafted entirely by Haksar and submitted to the UN General Assembly, one in December 1953 and another in February 1954. The Swedes and the Swiss wrote their dissent to certain paragraphs in both reports, showing how intensely polarised the NNRC was. At the end of its work, the NNRC was left with over 80 prisoners of war who resisted being handed over and expressed a desire to go to neutral countries. On humanitarian considerations, Nehru decided to bring them to India pending a final decision by the UN on where they would go. Most left immediately for other countries in Central and South America. But a few stayed back and got loans to start poultry businesses. Only one them, Kim Hyeong, now survives. His son too lived in India for over 30 years before taking his ailing father back for good to South Korea.
•Incidentally, four years before his death, Haksar was reminded of his role in Korea by one Colonel Bhupinder Singh, to whom he wrote on March 24, 1994: “I must confess that I am intrigued by your invitation to me to join the members of the Indo-Korean War Veterans in welcoming the new Ambassador from South Korea... It is of course true that I spent some few months of my life in Panmunjom in my capacity as Alternate Chairman of the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission of which General Thimayya was the Chairman and General Thorat was the Commander of the Custodian Forces of India. Our task [was] to ascertain the wishes of the several thousands of prisoners of war which the UN Command had handed over to us. A small number of Korean prisoners opted to come to India. I had the privilege of preparing the report on the entire operation which was submitted to the UN. Be that as it may, I find it awkward to be classified as a Korean War Veteran.”
📰 Collegium puts off decision on pressing Joseph’s case
It may meet next week to decide on the issue and on the names from other HCs
•The five-judge collegium led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Wednesday deferred its decision on the government’s objections to the elevation of Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court K.M. Joseph to the Supreme Court.
•The collegium, which met briefly in the evening, parted on an inconclusive note. It has not recorded a date for its next meeting. However, one may be scheduled next week for discussing in detail “all issues” on the agenda.
Ravi Shankar clarifies
•Later in the evening, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the government’s objection to Justice Joseph had nothing to do with the judgment he authored in 2016 quashing President’s rule in Uttarakhand and restoring the Congress government in the State. “I wish to deny with all authority at my command. It has nothing to do with that at all. A proper government with 3/4th majority has been elected in Uttarakhand. Second that order (of Justice Joseph) was confirmed by Justice J.S. Khehar of the Supreme Court who had also set aside the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act. Yet he became the CJI in the NDA government. Therefore, I deny these insinuations,” Mr. Prasad said at a press briefing.
•The collegium’s agenda on Wednesday was “to reconsider the case of Mr. Justice K.M. Joseph, Chief Justice, Uttarakhand High Court, pursuant to letters dated 26th & 30th April, 2018, received from Ministry of Law & Justice” and to “consider the names of judges from Calcutta, Rajasthan, and Telangana & Andhra Pradesh High Courts for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court, in view of the concept of fair representation.”
•The collegium has not zeroed in on any High Court judges whose parents are the three.
•The next meeting would also consider whether Justice Joseph’s name, after reiteration, should be first sent back separately or in a batch along with the other recommendations from the three High Courts under consideration.
•The source said judges of the Supreme Court have taken strong exception to the government “circulating” to the media its confidential letter on Justice Joseph and breaching protocol.
•If the collegium reiterates its recommendation of Justice Joseph, it would be binding on the government.
•The collegium, also comprising Justices J. Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan B. Lokur and Kurian Joseph, had unanimously recommended Justice Joseph in a resolution on January 11. The government had recently cleared Indu Malhotra’s name while returning Justice Joseph’s file for re-consideration, though both names were sent together.
📰 Cabinet clears constitution of 11th pay panel
To pay Rs. 3,920 crore towards the arrears of the 10th panel
•The Cabinet cleared the constitution of the 11th Pay Revision Commission on Wednesday. Nearly 4.30 lakh government employees will benefit from its recommendations.
•The 10th PRC recommendations were implemented with certain modifications such as allowing the fitment of 43% as against the recommended 29%. It was decided to pay approximately Rs. 3,920 crore towards the arrears.
•The Cabinet decided to form the A.P. Virtual Classroom Corporation to facilitate effective digital learning by students and help in the assessment of knowledge of the students real-time in the government schools.
•The Cabinet resolved to extend a government guarantee for a loan of Rs. 1,092 crore from the public sector banks towards land acquisition, rail connectivity and other developmental activities related to the Machilipatnam deepwater port. This would pave the way for the establishment of an Integrated Logistics and Manufacturing Zone by the Container Corporation of India.
Solar project
•The Cabinet approved the establishment of a 160-MW wind solar hybrid power project comprising 40MW wind power and 120 MW solar power along with a 40-MWh energy storage facility by the Solar Energy Corporation of India in Kanaganapalli mandal of Anantapur district.
•The Cabinet granted permission for Roll-on and Roll-off services between Ibrahimpatnam ferry and Lingayapalem and the Krishna right flood bank in Guntur district to a Vijayawada-based contractor.
•The Cabinet resolved to make certain amendments to the A.P. Compulsory Registrations of Marriage Act, 2002 (Act 15 of 2002) to enable different sections and classes to avail themselves of benefits through a seamless and integrated system under the Chandranna Pelli Kanuka scheme.
Land allotted
•Land measuring 51.92 acres was allotted to various organisations including the CBI, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the Ministry of External Affairs for Videsh Bhavan and 15 others.
•The Cabinet decided to send a committee comprising Ministers M. Adinarayana Reddy, Sujaya Krishna Ranga Rao and Nakka Ananda Babu to chart the course of action that the government had to adopt in the wake of the recent judgment by the High Court in the AgriGold case.
•It was decided to take up procurement of jowar and maize with the Central government for which a panel of Ministers consisting of Prathipati Pulla Rao and Somireddy Chandramohan Reddy was formed.
•They alleged that the Centre had fixed the MSP for those crops but it was not procurement them.
•The Cabinet also resolved to write to the Central government to sanction 20.99 lakh houses on the basis of the findings of the Smart Pulse (Praja Sadhikara) Survey.
📰 SC questions passage of Aadhaar Act as Money Bill
Constitution Bench counters Centre
•The Supreme Court on Wednesday questioned the government’s justification for passing the Aadhaar Act as a Money Bill.
•Countering the Centre’s argument that the sole intent of the Aadhaar Act is to act as a weapon for delivering subsidies to targeted beneficiaries, the Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra pointed to Section 57 of the Act.
•This provision contemplates the use of Aadhaar card as an identification document not only by the government but also by “any body corporate or person.”
•“A body corporate? That is as far as you can go away from the concept of a Money Bill,” Justice Chandrachud challenged Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal, representing the government.
•Section 57 says “nothing contained in this Act (Aadhaar Act) shall prevent the use of Aadhaar number for establishing the identity of an individual for any purpose, whether by the State or any body corporate or person...”
•Mr. Venugopal submitted that the Act’s Preamble itself encapsulates its objective as a legislative “tool” to provide “good governance, efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services.” The expenditure for these welfare activities would be drawn from the Consolidated Fund of India.
Below poverty line
•Mr. Venugopal said the Act might have several “ancillary provisions,” but taken in its entirety the Aadhaar Act comes within the ambit of the definition of Money Bill under Article 110 of the Constitution.
•The AG countered that the Act contemplates the plight of 300 million people in the country living below the poverty line. “Money has to come necessarily from the Consolidated Fund of India to cover the expenditure of the delivery of targeted subsidies. Not a single provision in the Act is unnecessary or unrelated to the main purpose/pith and substance of the Act, which is giving subsidies,” Mr. Venugopal argued.
•The AG was countering arguments raised in a petition by Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh that the Aadhaar Act of 2016 was passed as a Money Bill to “by-pass the scrutiny of the Rajya Sabha.”
Six circumstances
•Mr. Ramesh, represented by senior advocate P. Chidambaram, had earlier argued that a Bill is declared as a Money Bill only in six specific circumstances or matters incidental to them as enumerated in Article 110. The Aadhaar law does not relate to any of these circumstances.
•The petition had termed the passage of the Aadhaar law a “constitutional fraud.” On March 11, the Aadhaar Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha after the Speaker ruled it as a ‘Money Bill’. It was then transmitted to the Rajya Sabha. The Upper House had on March 16 returned the Bill with five amendments moved by Mr. Ramesh.
📰 Govt. approves sugarcane subsidy of Rs. 5.5 per quintal
•The government has approved a subsidy of Rs. 5.5 per quintal of sugarcane crushed in the 2017-18 season to help sugar mills clear more than Rs. 19,000 crore in dues to cane farmers.
•The decision was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday, an official statement said. The assistance will be paid directly to the farmers on behalf of the mills. It will be adjusted against the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of Rs. 255 per quintal set by government as the rate that mills must pay to cane farmers, as well as the arrears of payments pending from previous years.
•Any subsequent balance will be credited into the mill’s account, the statement said, adding that assistance will be provided to those mills which fulfil the government’s eligibility conditions.
•The subsidy will work out to Rs. 1,550 to Rs. 1,600 crore for the current season, said Abinash Verma, director general of industry body Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA). He welcomed the decision, but added that “this can be taken as a first step towards various other initiatives and financial assistance that the Government has to take very soon” to help the mills and the farmers.
•Sugar production has hit record highs this year, crossing domestic consumption prices, and leading to a crash in prices. Industry lobbyist Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) estimates that wholesale sugar prices have fallen by Rs. 9 per kg over the past five months, and the mills are now incurring a loss of Rs. 8 per kg of sugar.
📰 Delivering the goods
GST revenue increase suggests the indirect tax regime is overcoming teething problems
•Collections from the Goods and Services Tax crossed the Rs. 1 lakh crore mark in April, according to data released by the Finance Ministry on tax receipts that accrued in March but were payable in April. To be precise, the total revenue from the new indirect tax in April was Rs. 1,03,458 crore, the highest recorded in a single month since its implementation in July 2017. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has called this a “landmark achievement” and a “confirmation of increased economic activity”. Separate data released last week suggest the number of registered tax-payers filing GST returns by the specified deadline has risen from 57% for July to nearly 63% for March. And since many had consistently failed to meet the deadline in the initial months of confusion over the online returns filing system, it is heartening to note that by the final month of the financial year, they had caught up on their past arrears too. Overall tax compliance for July 2017 is now over 96% of registered taxpayers who are required to file, and ranges from 92% to 80% for each month thereafter, till December. Further simplification of the returns, hanging fire for a while now, must be expedited to improve compliance. Though it referred to the record GST collections as a sign of an upswing in the economy, the government, to be fair, also stressed that this number may be driven by the human tendency to wrap up pending official dues at the last moment — which in this case is the last month of the financial year. Yet, even delayed compliance is a welcome ‘new normal’.
•True, the revenue influx in April cannot be taken as a firm trend for the future. But given the tumult the GST caused in its initial months and the fear of high evasion levels that gripped officials when revenues tumbled after three months of Rs. 90,000 crore-plus collections, it is fair to say that the new tax system has ended its first three quarters on a robust note. By virtue of just the April inflows, the average monthly collection has gone from Rs. 89,885 crore in the first eight months to over Rs. 91,300 crore. This number is important, as by the government’s own reckoning the new regime needed to deliver about Rs. 91,000 crore a month to ensure that revenues lost by the Centre and the States under the earlier indirect tax system are covered. Fresh anti-evasion measures introduced in the past few weeks, such as the e-way billing to track movement of goods, could plug leakages to some extent. The government is keen to start matching tax credits claimed by businesses for inputs from suppliers. While these should boost GST revenues in the new financial year, nothing will beat fiscal stress better than a sustained revival in consumption and investment demand. Policymakers need to ensure that the uptick in car sales and demand for steel and cement is catalysed further.
📰 Protect patents
The Delhi HC’s judgment revoking Monsanto’s Bollgard-2 patent is troubling
•The Delhi High Court (HC) judgment revoking Monsanto’s Bollgard-2 patent is fraught with problems. Bollgard-2 is an insecticidal technology which uses a gene called Cry2Ab from the soil bacterium Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt). When inserted into a cotton plant, the gene confers resistance against cotton pests. Monsanto’s 2008 patent on Bollgard-2 protects several aspects of this technology: the modification of Cry2Ab to make it compatible with the cotton genome, the process of introducing this gene at a specific location in the cotton genome, and the protein expressed by the plant containing the gene.
•So, why did the Delhi HC reject this patent? The judge reasoned that Monsanto’s Bt gene was useless to farmers unless inserted into a cotton hybrid, which farmers could then grow to repel pests. This insertion is carried out by seed companies, who cross a Bt gene-containing plant (from Monsanto’s donor seeds) with their proprietary cotton varieties. The judge argued that this crossing of plants was a natural and biological process. This argument undermined Monsanto’s patent, because under Section 3(j) of India’s Patents Act, a seed or a plant, or a biological process to create a seed or plant cannot be patented. If this argument is correct, few plant biotechnology innovations would be patentable in India. This is a dangerous conclusion because the lack of patent protection would discourage crucial research by the agri-biotech industry.
•The are two key steps in the process of creating a Bt cotton hybrid. The first is carried out by Monsanto, in which it modifies the Cry2Ab gene into a form which doesn’t occur in nature. Next, Monsanto inserts this modified gene into cotton seeds, again an unnatural process that cannot happen without human intervention. Such seeds, called donor seeds, are then sold to seed companies.
•The second step is carried out by seed companies who hybridise cotton plants grown from the donor seeds with their own varieties. This hybridisation, as the HC said, is a biological process that cannot be patented. But that doesn’t mean the insertion of the modified gene into cotton seeds by Monsanto is a natural biological process, says Eashan Ghosh, a Delhi-based intellectual property lawyer. The judgment appears to have conflated a step involving human intervention with a step involving a biological process.
•Transgenic technologies such as Bt cotton are an important part of India’s cotton production arsenal. They are not infallible. But this is true of all technologies, like antibiotics, that fail when used improperly, as was the case with Bollgard-2. The important thing for India is to keep incentivising the development of such technologies and to use them properly. Strong patent protection is a crucial part of this process.
📰 Regulating cryptocurrencies
What is the RBI’s stance?
•In the most direct action taken so far by regulatory authorities on the issue of cryptocurrencies, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), during its monetary policy announcement on April 6, directed all regulated agencies, including banks, to stop doing any business with “any person or entity dealing with or settling virtual currencies (VC)”.
What does this mean?
•The circular says that banks have to stop all services to those dealing in VCs, including maintaining accounts, registering, trading, settling, clearing, giving loans against virtual tokens, accepting them as collateral, opening accounts of exchanges dealing with them and transfer/receipt of money in accounts relating to the purchase or sale of VCs. In addition, the RBI gave its regulated entities three months from the date of the circular to exit any such relationship they might already be in.
Why did this happen?
•This decision did not come out of the blue. The RBI and the government have repeatedly issued warnings to people dealing in cryptocurrencies, with the Finance Ministry even referring to them as “Ponzi schemes” in which investors stand to lose all their money. The fear among regulators and policymakers is that cryptocurrencies, being an alternative source of value to fiat currency, could be misused to launder black money or finance terrorist activities. It has also been reported that the RBI has constituted a committee to look into the merits and demerits of issuing a central bank digital currency, which will have the status of a fiat currency. So, ring-fencing non-state cryptocurrencies could be the first step towards the issuing of a single, fiat virtual currency by the RBI.
What has been the effect so far?
•Several cryptocurrency exchanges have said that though harsh, the RBI’s stance does not explicitly say that it is illegal to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, or that running a cryptocurrency exchange in India is illegal. Instead, this move only segregates cryptocurrencies from fiat currency. Most exchanges are going ahead with their cryptocurrency to cryptocurrency transactions. Some have filed writ petitions challenging the RBI’s order on the grounds that it violates their rights under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution.
📰 Protest against heritage site adoption scheme in Assam
Groups criticise move to hand over four sites in the State to corporate sector
•A Central government scheme that saw the Dalmia Bharat Group adopt the Red Fort in New Delhi has triggered protests in Assam where four sites have been chosen to be handed over to the corporate sector as part of the plan.
•Members of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU),Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) and other organisations on Wednesday protested against the'Adopt a Heritage' scheme, a collaboration among the Tourism and Culture Ministers, the Archaeological Survey of India and the State government.
Four sites
•The four sites chosen in Assam include the KazirangaNational Park, Rangghar, Asia’s oldest amphitheatre,Kareng Ghar, a palace and Shiva Dol, a temple – all inSivasagar district built during the 600-year reign of theAhom dynasty before the British took control of theNortheast in 1826.
•“The four sites selected are the pride of Assam. We will not let them be handed over to any private party for maintenance. The Centre should instead hand them over to the local people if it cannot maintain them,” KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi said.
•The AASU, in a statement, said officers of the ASI should be punished for failing to maintain the monuments entrusted to them.
•The Opposition Congress too slammed the Centre. “This is condemnable,” State Congress president Ripun Borasaid.
Move defended
•The Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government, however, defended the move saying it has been misconstrued.
•“There is a misconception that the four heritage sites are being privatised. Private parties will, under corporate social responsibility, develop and maintain tourist facilities such as toilets, parking and cafeteria on the periphery of the area covered by the historic monuments,” said Jayanta Malla Barua, chairman, Assam Tourism Development Corporation Limited (ATDCL).
•In the case of Kaziranga, he said, private firms would work only on the periphery and not in the core area managed by the Forest Department.
📰 Pollution dipped in 2017, says Environment Ministry
Delhi is 6th most polluted city in world: WHO
•Responding to the air pollution data released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday, the government claimed that various measures have led to pollution levels actually falling in 2017.
•At 143 microgrammes per cubic metre, Delhi’s PM (2.5) levels in 2016 — as reported by the WHO — made it the sixth most polluted city in the world. The government, citing Central Pollution Control Board data, said it was 134 microgrammes per cubic metre in 2016 and 125 microgrammes per cubic metre in 2017. “The government has made serious efforts to deal with air pollution. Data for the year 2017 for PM 2.5 shows improvement over 2016 and so far in 2018, it shows a further improvement, as compared to 2017,” said a statement from the Environment Ministry.
•The CPCB data, based on Continuous Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAAQMS), also noted that PM (10) figures were 289 microgrammes per cubic metre in the year 2016 and 268 microgrammes per cubic metre in the year 2017. “Therefore, even PM 10 levels have come down in the year 2017 against 2016,” the statement added.
•The WHO had cited numbers from the CPCB, along with other peer-reviewed sources, to assess pollution levels in Delhi in 2016. WHO’s global urban air pollution database measured the levels of fine particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) from more than 4,300 cities in 108 countries, according to which ambient air pollution alone caused some 4.2 million deaths in 2016, while household air pollution from cooking with polluting fuels and technologies caused an estimated 3.8 million deaths in the same period. Kanpur and Varanasi led the list of the world’s most polluted cities, with Faridabad, Gaya, Patna, Lucknow, Agra, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurugram, Jaipur, Patiala and Jodhpur also figuring in the 20 most-polluted cities in the world.
📰 10,000 endangered tortoises rescued in Madagascar
They were crammed into a home with no food or water
•International conservationists in Madagascar have been treating more than 10,000 critically endangered radiated tortoises that were seized from traffickers who had crammed them into a home with no access to food or water.
•The Turtle Survival Alliance and other groups are caring for the tortoises at a wildlife facility in the Ifaty region of the Indian Ocean nation, though hundreds have died from illness and dehydration.
•Sick tortoises are being given subcutaneous fluids to rehydrate them and antibiotics if needed.
•The alliance says the radiated tortoises were found by police at a home in Toliara on April 10 and that they likely had been collected for the illegal pet trade, possibly in Asia.
📰 ‘Glow-in-the-dark algae may be a sign of global warming’
Scientists study phenomenon in northern Arabian Sea
•The phenomenon of Mumbai’s beaches glowing in the dark maybe a consequence of global warming and not industrial pollution, according to a year-long investigation by Indian and American scientists.
•The Noctiluca algae, commonly known as sea tinkle, is a parasite and occurs in patches or ‘blooms’ in the northern Arabian Sea. Their bioluminescence has earned them the name ‘sea sparkle’.
•However, these patches ring an alarm bell for ecologists because the algae compete with fish for food and choke their supply. Noctiluca devours one of the most important planktonic organisms at the base of the fish-food chain, namely diatoms, and also excretes large amounts of ammonia, which is linked with massive fish mortality.
•Earlier, the increase in algal patches was linked to coastal pollution from major Indian cities along the west coast. However, researchers from the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) — a Ministry of Earth Sciences body — and the U.S.’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say that “global warming conditions” may be instead be responsible.
•A warming ocean means greater temperature differences among layers of the sea water.
•This slows the upward transport of nutrients like silicate from the ocean bottom, lowering its concentration at the surface. Diatoms growing in surface water need both sunlight and silicate to build their glass skeletons and thus, will fail to thrive when silicate is in short supply.
•On the other hand, Noctiluca remains unaffected by these changes and prey on the remaining diatoms. “Remarkably, the waters in the study area were observed to have sufficient oxygen clearly opposing any linkage between low oxygen and Noctiluca growth.
•Intensifying global-warming conditions may be expected to disrupt the fish-food chain and cause a decline of fisheries in the region,” the researchers stated. The findings have been published in the peer-reviewed journal, Harmful Algae,said S.C. Shenoi, Director, INCOIS.
📰 Call to action
WHO highlights the air pollution crisis in urban India; things are no better in rural areas
•A new report from the World Health Organisation highlights not only how widespread air pollution is in urban India, but also how deficient air quality monitoring is. The report, which summarised 2016 data for 4,300 cities, ranks 14 Indian cities among the 20 most polluted ones globally. While Delhi comes in at number six, Kanpur, Faridabad, Varanasi, Gaya and Patna are ranked ahead of it, by PM 2.5 levels. And yet, Kanpur, Faridabad and several other pollution-choked cities have only one PM 2.5 monitoring station each, while Delhi has several. WHO researchers get around this problem by using alternative data sources such as satellite remote sensing and chemical transport models, along with ground-monitoring stations. The outcome of this exercise makes it clear that air pollution is not a problem of large metropolises alone, even though they have traditionally been the focus of mitigation efforts. Such wide variations in data quality exist across the world. While Europe has the most extensive monitoring network, countries in Africa and the Western Pacific region perform poorly. This means data from these regions are of poor quality, and likely underestimates, resulting in an under-count of the disease burden as well. The report puts the global death toll from air pollution at seven million a year, attributable to illnesses such as lung cancer, pneumonia and ischemic heart disease. In 2016 alone, it says, around 4.2 million people died owing to outdoor air pollution, while 3.8 million people succumbed to dirty cooking fuels such as wood and cow dung. About a third of these deaths occurred in Southeast Asian countries, which include India. Once monitoring improves in these regions, the numbers will likely be revised upwards.
•There are silver linings, however. The report had words of praise for India’s Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme, which has provided 37 million women living below the poverty line with LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) connections. Such schemes will also help cut the indoor air pollution that plagues much of rural India, which is not covered in the WHO analysis. It is important to remember, though, that rural India has problems beyond inefficient cook-stoves. As the recently published draft National Clean Air Programme noted, there are currently no air pollution monitoring stations in rural India. This does not mean outdoor air pollution is not a problem here. Studies have shown that ozone levels are higher in rural areas, as is pollution from insecticide use and crop-burning. The WHO has asked Southeast Asian countries to take swift action to tackle the twin problems of indoor and outdoor pollution. India must realise that its problems are larger than the WHO estimates, and take the call to action seriously.
