📰 The Russian ride: on Modi's meeting with Putin
PM Modi’s meeting with the Russian President signals a necessary recalibration
•With his visit to Sochi to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for a day-long “informal summit”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to set a new normal in his foreign policy outreach. As was his Wuhan meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Sochi visit was aimed at resetting and rebalancing bilateral ties that have weakened over the past few years. The special understanding between India and Russia has frayed, with India drifting closer to the U.S. and Russia to China. The personal touches — hugs, handshakes, a boat ride on the Black Sea — projected the impression of two strong leaders addressing each other’s concerns “man to man”. Substantively, Mr. Modi’s visit was premised on a number of new realities facing India. First, India’s existing dependence on Russian military hardware, with orders for about $12 billion more in the pipeline, must not be jeopardised at any cost. These have been made more difficult by a new U.S. law (Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act) that would hit India’s big-ticket hardware purchases and energy deals from Russia, and Mr. Modi would have wanted to reassure Mr. Putin that India will not bow to such pressure. Second, Russia’s recent military exercises and helicopter sales to Pakistan as well as its outreach to the Afghan Taliban have been viewed with deep concern by India, which has sought to extract assurances that this would not in any way hurt its national security interests. Third, the new push to strengthen ties is driven by the global instability that the Donald Trump administration has set off. India appears to have decided it can no longer depend on consistency in the U.S.’s foreign policy.
•As a result, the recalibration of Mr. Modi’s foreign policy from its perceived Western tilt to a more even-handed approach of aligning with all in India’s interests is welcome. Informal summits of the kind in Sochi and Wuhan are also useful to break the ice and reset relations when needed. But a comprehensive shift in foreign policy must be accompanied by greater transparency. If India is contemplating a turnaround from its earlier postures with world powers, it needs to explain the change of course. The secrecy surrounding Mr. Modi’s dashes to Wuhan and Sochi is intriguing since he is already scheduled to meet both Mr. Xi and Mr. Putin at least twice in the next two months, at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Qingdao and the BRICS summit in Johannesburg. Even more curious are the official outcomes of the informal summits that India and China will cooperate in Afghanistan, while India and Russia will coordinate on the Indo-Pacific. Both have hitherto only been referenced in India’s ties with the U.S. and its allies, Europe, Japan and Australia. Without clarity, at a time of global flux India may appear to be attempting to travel in two boats at once.
📰 For better protection of human rights
Giving teeth to the National Human Rights Commission
•The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been often described as a paper tiger, unable to protect ordinary citizens from human rights violations, committed at times by the state machinery. In one such case, the NHRC, disillusioned by its helplessness in bringing justice in the alleged extrajudicial killings of 1,528 persons in Manipur, had last year referred to itself as a “toothless tiger” before the Supreme Court.
•On April 4, the Union Cabinet approved the Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018, in order to protect and promote better human rights in India. The Bill intends to give the NHRC teeth as well as claws to act against human rights violations.
•The Bill makes many proposals. One is to ensure that the NHRC is more inclusive. For this, the Bill proposes to include one member of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights within its fold as a deemed member as well as a woman member.
•It proposes to enlarge the scope of eligibility and selection of the Chairperson of the NHRC as well as of State Human Rights Commissions. It also proposes to incorporate a mechanism to look into cases of human rights violations in Union Territories.
•Further, it proposes to amend the term of office of the Chairperson and members of the NHRC and the State Human Rights Commissions to ensure that it is in consonance with the terms of the Chairpersons and members of other commissions.
•The Amendment Bill seeks to strengthen human rights institutions so that they can discharge their roles and responsibilities effectively. Moreover, the amended Act will be in sync with the agreed global standards and benchmarks on ensuring rights relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of individuals in the country.
•The amendment to the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 will make the NHRC and State Human Rights Commissions more compliant with the Paris Principle “concerning its autonomy, independence, pluralism and wide-ranging functions in order to effectively protect and promote human rights”.
📰 Sheikh Hasina to have luncheon meeting with Modi
To also visit Rabindra Bhavana
•Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will have a luncheon meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday following the inauguration of Bangladesh Bhavana at the Visva-Bharati University in Santiniketan.
•Her younger sister Sheikh Rehana will also be with her, sources on both sides confirmed to The Hindu. Before the programme around mid-day, the two Prime Ministers will attend the annual convocation of the Visva-Bharati University.
•Clearing the confusion on whether Ms. Hasina can have lunch during Ramzan, as she is fasting, an Indian government official said that the Bangladesh Prime Minister “does not observe fast while travelling.”
Convocation
•On Friday, the Prime Ministers will also visit Rabindra Bhavana, the museum that houses Rabindranath’s original manuscripts, paintings, letters and sketches. PM Modi, the Chancellor of the University founded by Rabindranath Tagore in 1921, will attend the convocation for the first time after being appointed Chancellor in 2015.
•On Saturday, Prime Minister Hasina is “likely” to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata after her visit to Kazi Nazrul University (KNU) in Paschim Bardhaman in a Special Convocation programme presided over by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, Chancellor of KNU. She will be conferred with Degree of Doctor of Literature (Honoris Causa) by the University.
•Bangladesh’s Minister of Cultural Affairs Asaduzzaman Noor said in Santiniketan that the sharing of water of the Teesta river will be discussed in the meetings.
📰 Narendra Modi to visit Indonesia, Singapore
During the tour the Prime Minister was expected to focus on agreements in defence, skill development and connectivity.
•In a boost to India’s Act East policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will pay a visit to Indonesia and Singapore between May 29 and June 2. The External Affairs Ministry on Thursday announced that during the tour the Prime Minister was expected to focus on agreements in defence, skill development and connectivity.
•“As far as defence cooperation with Indonesia is concerned, there is interest on maritime domain awareness and Navy-to-Navy cooperation is an important element (in this). We are also talking in terms of the renewal of the defence cooperation agreement,” said Priti Saran, Secretary in-charge of the eastern hemisphere in the Ministry.
•The official said that defence interaction between India and Indonesia had intensified in recent years. “There are some agreements that are under discussion in the areas of defence, space and science and technology which are still being negotiated,” Ms. Saran said.
•She confirmed that India was in talks to upgrade ports and airports of Indonesia. The maritime affairs minister of the country had informed that India would soon be getting access to the strategic port of Sabang on the Strait of Malacca.
•She said a kite-flying festival featuring tales from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata would be the cultural highlights during the visit of the Prime Minister.
•The second part of the tour will include a visit to Singapore. “Prime Minister Modi will deliver the keynote address at the Shangri La Dialogue on June 1. The dialogue is a platform to articulate regional security issues and our Prime Minister will convey India’s view on peace and security in the region,” Ms. Saran said.
•Ms. Saran said the Shangri La Dialogue would be attended by several other international leaders but declined to confirm if Mr. Modi would be holding any bilateral meeting with counterparts from other countries.
📰 Trump cancels summit with North Korea's Kim
Cites ‘tremendous anger and open hostility’ in the young leader's recent statement
•U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday called off his planned June 12 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, which was to take place in Singapore. In a letter to Mr. Kim, Mr. Trump wrote: “..based on the tremendous anger and open hostility displayed in your most recent statement, I feel it is inappropriate, at this time, to have this long-planned meeting."
•"I was very much looking forward to being there with you," the President said in his letter, which was released by the White House.
Dramatic U-turn
•In a dramatic turnaround in March, Mr. Trump had accepted an offer from Mr. Kim of a summit, conveyed through South Korean interlocutors. After months of diatribe and threats, Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim appeared willing to negotiate denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula but the initiative began to unravel early this month with both countries resorting to fresh threats.
•In the most recent statement that Mr. Trump mentions in his letter, Choe Son Hui, a vice-minister in the North Korean Foreign Ministry, talked of a "nuclear-to-nuclear showdown" with the U.S, threatening to call off the summit. The statement from North Korea was in response to a statement from U.S Vice-President Mike Pence on May 21, in which he warned off a "Libya model" if Mr. Kim did not agree to denuclearise.
•"There was some talk about the Libyan model last week, and you know, as the President made clear, this will only end like the Libyan model ended if Kim Jong-un doesn't make a deal," Mr. Pence said on Monday. When pointed out that this could be interpreted as a threat, he told Fox News: "Well, I think it's more of a fact." "Whether the US will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States," Ms. Choe said in response.
His meetings with Moon, Xi
•The recluse leader of North Korea had met with South Korean President President Moon Jae-in, and traveled to China twice to meet with President Xi Jinping since the announcement of the summit. But what appeared to be a diplomatic breakthrough until weeks ago began to collapse with a statement by White House National Security Adviser John Bolton who proposed a "Libya model" for Korean nuclear talks in the last week of April. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi dismantled his nuclear programme in an agreement in 2004 but ended up murdered by political opponents supported by America in 2011.
•Mr. Trump, who had been showcasing the summit as a landmark diplomatic achievement of his presidency, made a public statement distancing himself from Mr. Bolton and guaranteeing Mr. Kim's survival and security even as North Korea talked off pulling off from the summit. Though North Korea followed through on its commitment to free Americans held hostage and dismantle its nuclear test sites, the mutual distrust and fear appeared to have carried the day.
•"Please let this letter serve to represent that the Singapore summit, for the good of both parties, but to the detriment of the world, will not take place," Mr. Trump wrote. "You talk about your nuclear capabilities, but ours are so massive and powerful that I pray to God that they will never have to be used," he said.
•"I felt a wonderful dialogue was building between you and me, and ultimately it is only that dialogue that matters…Some day, I look very much forward to meeting you,” the President said, thanking the North Korean leader for releasing Americans imprisoned by his regime.
📰 ‘Clean Air India Initiative’ launched
Campaign plans to rope in Indian start-ups and Dutch companies to combat air pollution
•Prime Minister of Netherlands Mark Rutte, who is in India on a two-day visit, launched the ‘Clean Air India Initiative’ in the national capital on Thursday. The campaign aims to curb air pollution in Indian cities by promoting partnerships between Indian start-ups and Dutch companies and build a network of entrepreneurs working on business solutions for cleaner air.
•The Clean Air India Initiative is a collaborative project between Get In The Ring, a platform for start-ups, the government of the Netherlands, Start-up India, and INDUS Forum, an online matchmaking platform of Indian and Dutch businesses.
•Speaking at the launch, Mr. Rutte said, “Governments need to be articulate about the problems they want to solve, bring together the right partners, and channelise entrepreneurs in the right direction to find solutions to global problems.” “Sustainable businesses present an opportunity to do social good, as they represent a for-profit orientation in the right framework. They advance the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] in a smartly profitable way,” said Ms. Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation.
•A major business opportunity for Dutch firms that was highlighted included the potential for sale of equipment (such as sensors), data, and solutions concerning air quality monitoring (AQM), with experts estimating that 80% of India is not covered by AQM data collecting which is the first step toward monitoring and combating air pollution.
•Also under focus was the severe air pollution in Delhi caused by the burning of paddy straw in neighbouring Haryana and Punjab. An ‘INDUS impact’ projects aims to halt the hazardous burning of paddy stubble by promoting business partnerships that “upcycle” it. This entails using paddy straw as feedstock to make materials that would find use in construction and packaging — a technology and expertise that Dutch companies are keen to market in India.
📰 Government schools to get grants for buying sports equipment
Scheme to make school education an integrated whole
•The Centre will give government schools grants for buying sports equipment so as to promote sports in schools.
•This is the integral part of Samagra Shiksha, a scheme to make school education an integrated whole from pre-school to Class-12.
•“Sachin Tendulkar wanted to say, in his maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha, that sports should be seen as important, but he did not get a chance to speak. But he will be happy that the government is taking it [his idea] forward,” Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said here on Thursday. “Each year, the government will give money to all 11.5 lakh government schools for the purchase of sports equipment, so that one hour can be devoted to sports daily.”
•A note from the Ministry said sports education is an integral part of the curriculum.
•Every primary school will receive sports equipment at a cost of ₹5,000, upper primary school ₹10,000 and secondary and senior secondary school ₹25,000.
•Mr. Javadekar said the government paid attention to learning outcomes so as to check the spread of low-quality education.
📰 The transatlantic variants
India must be careful in picking up best practices from elsewhere in drafting a data protection law
•While the Americans and Europeans both call a sport football, they play a very different game. This difference is rooted not only in culture but in the rules of the game that provide rewards for goals, and penalties for breaching allowances. In the case of privacy regulations too, such a marked distinction is visible. With the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect on May 25, 2018, the absence of a comparable regulation across the Atlantic poses a question for India: What path should it take? Should it follow the U.S. or Europe? Or, in fact, should India take the lead in this regard?
American exceptionalism
•Last year, in November, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Carpenter v. United States, which many commentators termed as one of the most critical electronic surveillance case in decades. Among other finely threaded legal arguments was the “third party doctrine”. It reasons that once a person turns over her data to a third party (such as a bank or a website), her expectation of privacy ends. This severely cripples the immunity that protects people from “unreasonable search and seizures”, thereby permitting the government to requisition data from third parties such as banks. Our Supreme Court realised the error in this narrow doctrine, rejecting it more than a decade ago in the case of District Registrar v. Canara Bank, ruling that our privacy protections would continue to apply as they ultimately vest in a person rather than the possession of personal artefacts. Another area where the U.S. seems to be a poor defender of privacy and data protection is when it comes to the conduct of private parties. With revelations around Cambridge Analytica and growing concern around the power of technology companies, new concerns have come to the fore. The consumer interest approach enforced by the Federal Trade Commission for unfair and deceptive trade practices and a panoply of sectoral regulators and state laws are an ineffective substitute to a federal regulator that draws its power from a comprehensive data protection law. This is not only a deficiency in the absence of law, but a fundamental design error in which legal regulation has been designed to protect property, rather than people.
•While the U.S. may present a dismal picture for data protection, it has seen an incremental movement towards surveillance reform after the disclosures made by Edward Snowden on surveillance programmes. While data protection and surveillance may seem like separate issues, they build off each other since they both concern personal data — greater government surveillance weakens and hurts data protection offered by private companies. Even before the disclosures, the U.S. had an imperfect body under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has the legal authority to pass interception orders. We in India have no such counterpart or even a bare acknowledgement that interception requires prior judicial sanction. Even existing procedures which are supposed to act as safeguards are flouted with little repercussions. For instance, evidence which is gathered illegally in the U.S. may eventually lead to an acquittal, but our courts have consistently reasoned that such an impropriety at best could lead to a departmental inquiry against the erring official. Even when it seems we are much more progressive in our constitutional doctrine, there always remains room for learning.
Growing European influence
•In contrast, the GDPR seems like as a modern, progressive text. The GDPR is in a lot of ways closer to our constitutional understanding of data protection as articulated by the Puttaswamy judgement last August, in which nine judges of the Supreme Court unanimously held privacy to be a pivot for our fundamental rights. So when the GDPR provides for an explicit consent-based mechanism and continuing control for users, it seems to be setting a legislative template for India. However, it is not as if there are no risks in parroting the European solution. When it provides a “strong law” for users, the GDPR also seems like a strong-arm law to trade and commerce. Two common business objections are made. The first cites a rise in costs that would impact users, in which a bureaucratic apparatus would require companies to pass on a data protection tax. Such an argument is clearly out of step with the realisation of recent months that leaving personal data unprotected erodes trust in technology.
•The second objection concerns the wider, sectoral ambitions of India’s IT entrepreneurs who ideologise permission-less innovation. They argue that regulation will make them unable to compete globally. This is incorrect on several counts, beside being self-defeating. It ignores that privacy and data protection are inherent to the coming waves of innovation. Data protection will act as a regulatory springboard to the next generation of online products and services. This, in turn, will provide a cleaner, sustainable and rights-friendly alternative to the existing theology of treating data as a fossil fuel. If anything, “strong” data protection is beneficial for the long-term health of the technology sector by improving user trust and sectoral competitiveness.
•If we hasten, we are sure to fall. Blind adoption of the GDPR would present immediate peril for several reasons. As an ambitious project, the text of the GDPR has tremendous breadth and is riddled with business exceptions which may provide porous sieves for personal data. While refinements may be incrementally made in Europe, we in India at the outset need to have foresight in adopting the drafting choices of a foreign, even if influential, text. For instance, two areas where concern arises are its impact on the right to free speech and expression and the right to information laws. A joint statement by two of the leading digital rights organisations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Article 19, have stated that in the context of the right to be forgotten, the GDPR “poses a significant risk of misuse to stifle free expression online”.
•Much closer to home, there has been constant worry by activists defending the embattled Right to Information Act. Their prior experience makes them wary, as the judiciary has been frequently citing privacy to undermine government transparency. For instance, in Girish Deshpande v. Central Information Commissioner, the Supreme Court upheld an order denying access to the income tax returns of a public servant. Hence, every effort should be made that the motivation to correct the absence of a data protection law does not end up hurting individuals by making government opaque and unaccountable.
Synthesise carefully
•As India stands at a crossroads, it should chart its course picking up the best ideas and practices that promote user control over data. This requires adaptation from both the U.S. and the GDPR. Our challenges are extensive, and our interests diverse. Here virtue lies in the humility to learn from others and care to protect our residents. As a public policy goal, we should borrow freely but use such knowledge within legal regulation to enlarge individual liberty.
📰 Seller beware: homebuyers and Bankruptcy Code
The proposed change to the Bankruptcy Code must treat homebuyers a step above lenders
•Homebuyers parted of their money by real estate developers have some relief coming their way. The Union Cabinet has cleared an ordinance amending the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), a law which came into force in November 2016 to hasten the process of winding up failed businesses. While the government refused to divulge specific details of the amendment, the change to the law is expected to help offer better treatment to homebuyers when it comes to recovering their dues from bankrupt companies. A 14-member panel formed by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs had recommended last month that homebuyers should be treated as financial creditors during the bankruptcy resolution process. It is yet to be known whether homebuyers will be treated better or worse than banks and other financial lenders under the amended law. But there is a sound reason to treat them a step above these traditional lenders. Economically speaking, homebuyers are not creditors but only customers to real estate developers. Unlike traditional creditors such as banks and institutional investors, they do not offer their money in expectation of excess returns. Homebuyers simply want the delivery of a good that was promised to them. It is thus unfair to push homebuyers, who did not choose to risk their money on an uncertain venture in the first place, down the pecking order when it comes to sharing the spoils of a bankrupt entity.
•Until now, homebuyers have had to knock on the doors of the courts to uphold their rights, while other stakeholders benefited significantly at their cost. The travails of several homebuyers in the Jaypee insolvency case, in which the Supreme Court had to intervene in favour of homebuyers in the bankruptcyresolution process, is a case in point. The amendment, if it meets expectations, could also reduce the inconsistencies between the IBC and the Real Estate Regulation Act (RERA). While RERA was introduced with the goal of protecting the rights of buyers by ensuring the timely and honest delivery of homes, they have had to be content with a relatively low status among the various stakeholders in a bankruptcy proceeding. In fact, buyers have been treated as unsecured creditors. The removal of this inconsistency can help courts deliver better justice to homebuyers in the future. Along with RERA, the proposed amendment can go a long way in stopping unscrupulous real estate developers from fleecing homebuyers with promises that they cannot really keep. While upholding homeowner rights could cause pain to wayward real estate developers and large creditors like banks, it will help in the development of a transparent and more efficient real estate market.
📰 Divided by the Brexit debate
The Labour party may be forced to specify EU exit strategy as internal rifts intensify
•Last weekend, Labour party members queued outside the premises of Trinity, a school in the southeast London borough of Lewisham, where the hustings for the party’s candidate for a forthcoming by-election was due to take place. Among the groups campaigning there was People’s Vote, a cross-party group pushing for a public vote on any final Brexit deal reached with the European Union (EU).
The choice of candidate
•Optimism was high among those campaigners about the potential signal that the by-election, triggered by the resignation of Heidi Alexander, the constituency’s popular anti-Brexit MP, could have. Initially the loss of Ms. Alexander had been mourned by many seeking change in the party’s approach to Brexit, but that soon gave way to hope as Janet Daby, a candidate who supports remaining in the European single market as well as the customs union, won the internal party contest by a large majority later that day.
•In the days running up to the by-election, the internal party contest had come to be seen as a reflection of the tensions within Labour. The choice of candidate was crucial: the party had won the seat by a comfortable majority in the general election last year, so the person chosen will, excepting a major upset, end up as the MP.
•The party put up three candidates, all ethnic minority women, reflecting different positions in the party. Ms. Daby, a centrist, supports maintaining very close ties with Europe, and has even in the past endorsed a second referendum. Sakina Sheikh, the candidate fielded by the left-wing Labour campaign group Momentum, has stuck firmly to the party’s official line, insisting that remaining in the single market would mean “taking rules but having no power to make them”. A third candidate, supported by unions and said to be close to the Labour leadership, also stuck closely to the party line.
•“Hugely significant that Janet Daby, sensible and strongly anti-Brexit, won,” said Andrew Adonis, a Labour member of the House of Lords and a vocal anti-Brexit campaigner, following the result.
Contradictory pulls
•While the by-election has reignited debate within the party about the direction of its strategy on Brexit, it has also highlighted the contradictory pulls on the party. Since the referendum, Labour has insisted that it had to abide by the decision of voters. “Labour respects the result of the referendum and Britain is leaving the EU,” Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said in a speech earlier this year.
•While 61% of those who voted Conservative in the 2015 general election voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, according to an analysis by YouGov, the choice that Labour was faced with was far more complex. About 65% of those who had voted Labour in 2015 voted to remain. However, while boroughs such as Lewisham voted heavily in favour of remaining, a number of northern Labour constituencies voted heavily to leave (despite, in many cases, having Labour MPs who campaigned to remain).
•From the early days after the referendum, Mr. Corbyn himself faced criticism over his approach, with some suggesting that more vigorous campaigning in favour of remaining from the Labour leadership could have yielded a different referendum result. Mr. Corbyn has shrugged off such suggestions. He said that despite being critical of the EU, he continued to believe that remaining in Europe was in Britain’s best interests. However, the party’s commitment to respecting the vote had led to it on occasion to vote against attempts to thwart Brexit legislation. Just earlier this month, 83 members of the House of Lords defied a party whip to not vote for an amendment requiring the government to negotiate membership of the single market (the Labour Party is officially against remaining in the single market but wants some form of customs union membership).
•Many have also pushed for clarity on the party’s position on Brexit. Alongside uncertainty on what the party means by customs union membership, Labour has faced criticism over what its commitment involved in holding the government to account for its promise to deliver the same benefits outside the EU as it had inside of it. Would it be willing to oppose Brexit if those criteria were not met?
•The uncertainty has offered space for the resurgence of some of the older, centrist voices of the party, such as former leader Tony Blair, who in a blog warned that the party risked alienating voters, with its stance that offered the “worst of both worlds” convincing neither Remainers nor Leavers that it was taking up their fight.
•Adding to the pressure have been the growing questions over the referendum itself and the spending of various Leave campaign groups. Earlier this year Leave.EU, one of the main campaign groups, was fined over £70,000 for breaching spending limits by Britain’s Electoral Commission, while its CEO was referred to the police by electoral authorities. Vote Leave, the official leave campaign, supported by senior members of the cabinet, is also under investigation over its adherence to spending limits. The investigations have heartened a number of campaign groups that have sprung up to fill a political vacuum left by the two main political parties’ stance on Brexit.
Many concerns
•Last week, four northern Labour MPs joined forces to demand the party’s support for a second referendum. “Whatever you think of Brexit, there’s no denying that it’s a big deal, and it is only now that the full implications of any Brexit deal are becoming apparent. People are therefore entitled to have their say on the deal before irrevocable steps are taken,” they wrote in a letter to Mr. Corbyn. A poll of Labour party members earlier this year found that over three-quarters wanted Britain to remain in the single market and the customs union, while leaders of Labour students and Young Labour came together to urge the party leadership to hold a vote on Brexit at a forthcoming conference. How much these concerns will be heeded remains to be seen.
📰 Windfall oil tax on ONGC in offing to soften fuel prices
Oil producers would have to part with any revenue they earn from prices crossing $70 per barrel; States may be asked to cut VAT
•The government may levy a windfall tax on oil producers like Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), as part of a permanent solution it is working on for moderating the spiralling retail prices of petrol and diesel.
•The tax, which may come in the form of a cess, will kick in the moment oil prices cross $70 per barrel, sources privy to the development said.
•Under the scheme, oil producers, who get paid international rates for the oil they produce from domestic fields, would have to part with any revenue they earn from prices crossing $70 per barrel mark.
Paying retailers
•The revenues so collected would be used to pay fuel retailers so that they absorb spikes beyond the threshold levels, they said.
•This may be accompanied by a minor tinkering with excise duty rates to give immediate relief to consumers. States too would be asked to cut sales tax or VAT to show a visible impact on retail prices.
•Sources said the thinking in the government is to levy cess on all oil producers — both public and private sector — so as not to attract criticism of stifling State-owned explorers. A similar tax was considered in 2008 when oil prices were on the rise but the idea was dropped after stiff opposition from private sector firms like Cairn India.
•Windfall tax, they said, is levied in some of the developed countries globally. The U.K. in 2011 raised the tax rate to be applied to North Sea oil and gas profits when the price was above $75 per barrel.
•China on April 1, 2006, began levying the special upstream profit tax on domestic oil producers to redistribute and allocate the windfall income enjoyed by the oil companies and subsidise disadvantaged industry and social groups that are most affected by soaring crude oil prices. It, in 2012, raised the windfall tax threshold to $55 per barrel.
•Sources said the windfall tax is one of the options being considered by the government as a permanent solution to dealing with the problem of spike in oil prices.
Excise duty cut
•This follows reluctance on part of the Finance Ministry to cut excise duty as it has to ensure adequate funds are available to social welfare schemes in the election year. In particular, resources have to be arranged for the National Health Protection Scheme (NHPS) that aims to provide health insurance cover of ₹5 lakh to every eligible household.
•On Wednesday, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had stated that the government will take a long-term view on the retail prices of petrol and diesel, which had touched record high instead of having an ad hoc measure.
•Petrol and diesel prices were raised for the 11th day in succession on Thursday as the State-owned oil firms gradually passed on to the consumer the increased cost of international oil that had accumulated since a 19-day freeze was imposed just before Karnataka elections.
•Since the time the hiatus ended on May 14, rates had gone up by ₹2.84 a litre in case of petrol and ₹2.60 in diesel. Petrol costs ₹77.47 a litre in Delhi and diesel ₹68.53. Sources said a $70 per barrel threshold for the windfall tax is sufficient to cover for capital expenditure requirement of ONGC and other oil producers.
Fuel subsidy
•Incidentally, ONGC and Oil India Ltd. had till June 2015 provided for up to 40% of the annual fuel subsidy bill.
•This they did by way of providing discounts on crude sold to downstream refining and marketing companies, IOC, BPCL, and HPCL. This discount helped the retailers make good a part of the losses they incurred on selling petrol and diesel below cost.
•The government raised excise duty nine times between November 2014 and January 2016 to shore up finances as global oil prices fell, but then cut the tax just once in October last year by ₹2 a litre.
•The Centre levies ₹19.48 as excise duty on a litre of petrol and ₹15.33 on diesel. State sales tax or VAT varies from state to state. Unlike excise duty, VAT is ad valorem and results in higher revenues for the State when rates move up.
📰 Govt. order on coal supply may hit non-power sectors
Supply priority to power plants may hit cement, aluminium
•The government’s decision to prioritise coal supply to power plants will greatly hurt other industries dependent on coal such as cement and aluminium, according to industry players who had written to Railways and Finance Minister Piyush Goyal to voice their grievances.
•The Ministries of Coal, Railways, Power, and Finance held a meeting on May 17 in which they decided, given the shortage of coal with power plants, to instruct companies such as Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) to deploy rakes of coal only for power plants and not to do so for other consumers of coal. The letter to MCL, accessed by the The Hindu, says that this decision would be in force “till further directives”.
Stock position
•According to data with the Central Electricity Authority, 17 power plants had super-critical (less than three days worth) of coal stocks as of May 22 while three power plants had critical (less than five days worth) of stocks.
•The Railway Board wrote to all zonal railways on May 18 saying that “it has been decided that loading of coal for power houses (i.e. plants of Central/State power utilities and IPPs) from goods sheds should be accorded higher priority till June 30, 2018”. These instructions were made applicable from May 19 onwards.
Fuel supply pacts
•“The CPP (captive power plant) consumers have signed fuel supply agreements (FSA) with CIL (Coal India Limited), which is a legally binding agreement with long-term coal supply assurance and hence abrupt stoppage of supply will bring the industry to a grinding halt which will have a severe impact on the downstream industry like transmission and distribution, packaging, cement, consumer products, paper, tyre manufacturing, resulting in a loss of jobs for millions,” the Indian Captive Power Producers Association wrote in a letter to Power, Coal and Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.
•The letter goes on to show how, while CIL’s coal supply to independent power producers (IPPs) had grown every year and by as much as 8.1% in 2017-18, the supply to captive power plants contracted by 6.2% in 2016-17 and saw no growth in the next year.
Coal shortage
•What we have requested the government is that we understand that there is a genuine issue of IPPs running short of coal and that this would affect the end-consumers and that they should be given priority, but this should not mean zero supply to other sectors, and it shouldn’t be without any advance notice,”said Samir Cairae, chief executive officer of Diversified Metals (India),Vedanta Limited said.
•“As [a] normal practice, you can tell us about one month in advance to make alternative arrangements, but in this case we got a notice of just a few hours!”
•Other industry analysts lay the blame for the shortage of coal stocks in power plants on the government’s laxity regarding maintaining critical stocks and its untimely decision to stop all coal imports for power generation, increasing the pressure on domestic supplies.
•“Even when there was adequate supply of coal, many power plants did not keep sufficient stocks of coal because they felt that there was enough supply,” one sector analyst told The Hindu on the condition of anonymity. “The government took no action against them for this. And then, the government, last year decided to bring down coal imports for power to zero, which has resulted in this shortage now. Everybody knows that Coal India’s supply falls short in the May to June period, which is then followed by the monsoon when supply is naturally low.”
📰 Global warming may have ‘devastating’ effects on rice
As CO2 rises due to the burning of fossil fuels, rice will lose some of its protein and vitamin content, putting millions of people at risk of malnutrition,
•As carbon dioxide rises due to the burning of fossil fuels, rice will lose some of its protein and vitamin content, putting millions of people at risk of malnutrition, scientists warned on Wednesday.
•The change could be particularly dire in southeast Asia where rice is a major part of the daily diet, said the report in the journal Science Advances. “We are showing that global warming, climate change and particularly greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide — can have an impact on the nutrient content of plants we eat,” said co-author Adam Drewnowski, a professor at the University of Washington.
Risk factor
•“This can have devastating effects on the rice-consuming countries where about 70% of the calories and most of the nutrients come from rice.” Protein and vitamin deficiencies can lead to growth-stunting, birth defects, diarrhoea, infections and early death.
•Countries at most risk include those that consume the most rice and have the lowest gross domestic product (GDP), such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, Mr. Drewnowksi said.
•The findings were based on field studies in Japan and China, simulating the amount of CO2 expected in the atmosphere by the second half of this century — 568 to 590 parts per million. Current levels are just over 400 ppm.
•For the experiments, 18 different strains of rice were planted in open fields, surrounded in certain areas by 56-foot wide octagons of plastic piping that released extra CO2.
•Researchers found that iron, zinc, protein, and vitamins B1, B2, B5, and B9 — which help the body convert food to energy — were all reduced in the rice grown under higher CO2 conditions. “Vitamin B1 (thiamine) levels decreased by 17.1%; average Vitamin B2 by 16.6%,” said the report.
