📰 Consult UPSC for selecting police chiefs, SC tells States
‘Send list of probables to service commission for shortlisting three names’
•The Supreme Court on Tuesday restrained the State governments from appointing Directors-General of Police without first consulting the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
•The State government concerned has to send to the service commission the names of the probables three months before the incumbent DGP is to retire. The UPSC will prepare a list of three officers fit to be DGP and send it back. It shall, as far as practicable, choose the people who have got a clear two years of service and must give due weightage to merit and seniority. The State, in turn, shall ‘immediately’ appoint one of the persons shortlisted by the commission.
•A Bench, led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, passed the directions on an application by the Centre for modification of a September 22, 2006 judgment on a petition filed by former DGPs Prakash Singh and N.K. Singh for reforms in the police forces.
•In 2006, the court passed seven directives, primarily to “ensure that State governments do not exercise unwarranted influence or pressure on the police.”
📰 Take action to stop spread of fake news, govt. tells WhatsApp
•Amid reports of lynchings across the country over fake messages on WhatsApp, the government said on Tuesday that it had told the service provider “in no uncertain terms” to take immediate measures to ensure that its platform was not misused.
•Instances of lynching have been reported in Assam, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tripura and West Bengal by mobs provoked by “irresponsible and explosive messages” on WhatsApp.
•“Deep disapproval of such developments has been conveyed to the senior management of WhatsApp and they have been advised that necessary remedial measures should be taken to prevent proliferation of these fake and at times motivated/sensational messages,” the Ministry of Electronics and IT said in a statement.
•The government also directed that the spread of such messages be immediately contained through the application of appropriate technology. “While the law and order machinery is taking steps to apprehend the culprits, the abuse of platforms like WhatsApp for repeated circulation of such provocative content is equally a matter of deep concern,” the statement said.
📰 Supreme Court verdict on Centre-Delhi tussle today
Likely to provide clarity on the role of L-G and government
•The Supreme Court will pronounce its verdict on Wednesday on the ongoing tussle between the Centre and the democratically elected Arvind Kejriwal government over who wields the power to administer and govern the national capital.
•A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will deliver its verdict on the Delhi government’s appeal challenging the August 2016 High Court judgment holding the Lieutenant-Governor as the administrative head of the Capital.
High Court verdict
•The High Court had ruled that all decisions taken by the Delhi government Ministers must be communicated to the L-G, dealing a blow to the Aam Aadmi Party which has been engaged in a perpetual power struggle with the Central government-appointed official.
•At the core of the dispute is Delhi’s unique position as a Union Territory functioning as the national capital. The AAP government has repeatedly highlighted that its government has no say over important departments like law and order and agencies such as the Delhi Development Authority.
Repeated run-ins
•After its landslide victory in the Assembly elections in February 2015, the AAP government has clashed with the L-G over appointments, file clearances and control of the police department, which reports to the Centre.
•Last month, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Cabinet colleagues held an unprecedented nine-day sit-in at the official residence of Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal.
•Mr. Kejriwal accused the Delhi bureaucrats of skipping meetings called by him and his Ministers.
•He further claimed that the officials were “on a strike for four months” and that it was being “orchestrated by the PMO and coordinated by the L-G”.
•Last year, the Supreme Court’s Constitution Bench heard both sides of the argument for over a month and later reserved its verdict on December 6.
•The Supreme Court is likely to provide clarity on whether the L-G can unilaterally administer the Capital without being bound by the “aid and advice” of the elected government.
•The Delhi government had argued that the legislative powers of the L-G, as a delegate of the President, is limited compared with those possessed by the Delhi Assembly.
•The Union government, however, argued that the Delhi government was at best meant to take care of the “daily utilities” of the Capital and the “real power to administrate the national capital” was vested with the President and the Union of India.
📰 Justice Indira Banerjee to head inquiry panel
Chief Justice of Madras HC to head panel to probe complaints against two Odisha HC judges
•The Chief Justice of Madras High Court, Indira Banerjee, has been selected by the Supreme Court for the second time to head an in-house inquiry committee to probe allegations of impropriety against sitting High Court judges in other States.
•Justice Banerjee will leave for New Delhi on Thursday to chair a committee constituted to probe complaints pending against Justices Indrajit Mahanty and Sangam Kumar Sahoo of the Odisha High Court since 2016.
Panel revamp
•Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had recently reconstituted the committee and made Justice Banerjee its chairperson. Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice Ravi Shanker Jha of Madhya Pradesh High Court were the other two committee members.
•In a communication to one of the complainants, Jayanta Kumar Das, Justice Banerjee informed him of the committee’s decision to meet for the first time at Tamil Nadu House on Thursday and asked him to be present there to explain his complaints against the two judges since April 15, 2016.
•This is the second time that the CJI had appointed Justice Banerjee as the chairperson of an in-house inquiry committee. She had earlier headed a committee which found Justice S.N. Shukla of Allahabad High Court guilty of having acted in a manner unbecoming of a judge while dealing with a case related to medical admissions.
•In the Odisha issue, Justice Mahanty is accused of running a hotel in Cuttack in violation of the code of ethics for judges. Justice Sahoo is accused of misusing public funds by spending money for renovating his official residence.
📰 EC launches app to report electoral malpractice
Allows anonymous, real-time sharing of breach of MCC
•The Election Commission on Tuesday launched an Android-based mobile application named “cVigil” for citizens to share proof of malpractices by political parties, their candidates and activists when the Model Code of Conduct is in force.
•The mobile application also facilitates sharing of geo-tagged photographic and video evidence without disclosing the identity of the sender.
•The uploaded information will be transmitted to the control room, and from there the field units or flying squads, mapped on a Geographic Information System, will be immediately alerted for further action.
•In case the complainant does not opt for anonymity, the person will also receive an action-taken report within about 100 minutes. The application, whose Beta version has now been released, will be made available for use during the four State Assembly elections scheduled for later this year.
•The mobile application, for which EC officials will be trained for effective back-end operations and action against the malpractices reported ahead of the elections, was launched against the backdrop of the inauguration of a two-day national consultation programme on “Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) in the Electoral Process.”
‘Accessible elections’
•At the event, Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat also launched a voter education and electoral participation portal, which has an entire section dedicated to PwDs.
📰 Mizoram facing a battle with bottle
A regional alliance has launched a poll-oriented crusade against liquor
•A battle with the bottle is brewing in church-wary Mizoram ahead of the battle of the ballots.
•The Mizoram Liquor (Prohibition and Control) or MLPC Act of 2014, which allowed opening of liquor shops and bars in the State, might be history if the Zoram People’s Party comes to power after the Assembly elections to be held this year-end.
•The ZPM is an alliance of seven regional parties and groups minus the Mizo National Front, the principal Opposition party in Mizoram.
•The MLPC Act, implemented on January 16, 2015, replaced the Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act of 1995 that was enforced two years later. The church – more than 87% people of the State are Christians – had played a major role in banning sale of liquor under the MLTP Act.
•“The MLPC Act warrants selling of liquor to card holders. But liquor is sold illegally to minors and adults without permit. Consumption of liquor has killed many young people, greatly affecting the Mizo society,” K. Sapdanga, general secretary of ZPM, told The Hindu from State capital Aizawl.
•“If we win the polls, illegal selling of liquor will be stopped first. We will also consult social NGOs and church leaders about MLPC Act, whether to continue with it or scrap it for the greater good of the society,” he said.
‘Thousands dead’
•The ZPM’s poll-oriented crusade against liquor has come a week after MNF president and former Chief Minister Zoramthanga blamed the ruling Congress for the death of thousands of people due to consumption of liquor.
•“More than 500 policemen and 5,000 civilians have died after opening of liquor shops since 2015,” Mr. Zoramthanga had said, insisting his “god-fearing” party was and will always be against any policy or act that encourages liquor consumption.
•On March 2017, the State of 1.1 million people had 71,158 liquor card holders. A card holder is entitled to six 750 ml bottles of IMFL and 10 bottles each of wine and beer a month from 51 operational outlets.
•A card costs Rs. 300 and can be renewed annually for Rs. 100. Visitors to Mizoram are allowed to buy liquor from licenced outlets after showing their inner-line permit, an entry document valid for a week but extendable. Officials in the State’s excise department said more than 60 people hold liquor vendor licence.
•Mr. Lal Thanhawla was the Chief Minister when the church-dictated liquor ban was imposed in Mizoram in 1997. The populist move did not help the Congress win the 1998 Assembly polls.
📰 The bilateral limits of hype
Given the transactional nature of American foreign policy, India-U.S. ties can do without grand theories
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump have both built their politics on the promise of making their countries great again. Placing India and the U.S., respectively, as leaders on the world stage is the stated objective of their foreign policy. The project of regaining national glory is based on another assumption that they inherited a mess from their respective predecessors. Yet another shared trait is their love for spectacle over meticulous, prolonged and often frustrating pursuit of strategic goals.
Theatre as strategy
•The postponement of the India-U.S. 2+2 dialogue between the Foreign and Defence Ministers of both countries, that had been scheduled for this week, has to be understood in the context of the similar personality traits of Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi. Hugging Mr. Trump may be a good spectacle for Mr. Modi, but the same may not be true for the former. Mr. Trump has set his eyes on spectacles that suit him. Mr. Trump, still basking in the denuclearisation deal that he’s said to have struck with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, is now looking forward to the next big event: a summit meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. His every move on the global stage enrages his domestic political opponents and the professional strategic community alike and he is happy, as this keeps his political base constantly on the boil.
•North Korea, Syria, Afghanistan, trade deficit, and all global challenges before America are the faults of his predecessors, he repeatedly tells supporters. Most recently, at the G7 summit in Canada in June, he declared: “I blame our past leaders for allowing this to happen (trade deficits)…You can go back 50 years, frankly.” Such rhetoric may sound familiar to Indians. In Mr. Trump’s war on the legacy of all Presidents before him, India is on the wrong side. The remarkable growth in India-U.S. relations since the turn of the century had been nurtured by three U.S. Presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, two Democrats and one Republican who have all been the target of Mr. Trump’s ire. India neither promises him the opportunity of a spectacle nor offers the grounds for destructing the legacy of a predecessor. So he told Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to deal with North Korea and Russia, and 2+2 with India could wait. “Nobody wakes up in DC daily thinking of India,” says a former U.S. ambassador to India, pointing out that 16 months into the new administration, there is no Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia in the State Department.
Impact on ties
•To buttress one’s own claim to be a trailblazer by denying the achievements of predecessors may be good political tactics for these leaders, but trying to wish away history itself is not a sustainable strategy. Against the backdrop of a programmatic negation of history in both countries, Mr. Trump’s bursts of unhinged rhetoric against China and Pakistan lend themselves to easy and convenient interpretations by supporters of improved U.S.-India ties as moments of enlightenment for the U.S., even as turning points.
•But Mr. Trump cannot undo all the legacy with a magic tweet. U.S. relations with Pakistan and China took shape during the Cold War. Pakistan might be the longest ally of the U.S. after the U.K., first in the fight against communism, and then in the fight against terror that was created in the first fight. China used the Cold War to its own advantage in its ties with the U.S.
•China today threatens the dominance of the U.S., but the America’s security establishment and political elite are obsessed with Russia. India gets caught in that internal American fight too, such as in the case of an American law that now requires the President to impose sanctions on any country that has significant security relations with Russia.
•Mr. Trump sees the challenges posed by China, but not in a manner helpful for India. For, India and China are in the same basket for Mr. Trump on many issues that agitate him. He has repeatedly mentioned India and China in the same breath as countries that duped his predecessors on climate and trade deals. His administration considers India and China as violators of intellectual property laws, as countries that put barriers to trade and subsidise exports and use state power to control markets. The nationalists in the Trump administration, including U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and White House National Trade Council Director Peter Navarro are all gunning for China, and India is in the same firing line. Many Americans who think that China took the U.S. for a ride — many Democrats among them — suspect that India is trying to do the same thing.
•But there are two constituencies in the U.S. that promote India against China: the Pentagon and the U.S. arms industry. This works to India’s favour. While the Obama administration could not overcome State Department objections to offer India even unarmed drones, the Trump administration has done so, offering armed drones. Here, Mr. Trump is not guided by any grand theories of ‘rule-based order’, etc. that professional strategists talk about, but by the opportunity to sell.
•Given Mr. Trump’s views on trade, American companies that used to argue China’s case are now guarded in their approach. Still, companies such as General Motors and Ford have come out against a trade war with China. This has implications for India too. American companies that eye the Indian market are allies in the pushback against Mr. Trump’s nationalist trade policies. Mr. Modi has realised this dynamic that puts India and China in the same corner in Mr. Trump’s perspective — and that significantly explains his Wuhan summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the third big leader who is gaming for the glory of his country.
War against legacy
•The enlightenment that Mr. Trump purportedly brought on America’s Af-Pak policy also appears to have been short-lived. If one looks at the tough messages from Nikki Haley, U.S. Ambassador to the UN, in New Delhi recently on Pakistan and Iran, it is clear where the political priorities of the Trump administration lies. Here again, Mr. Trump is determined to gut his predecessor’s legacy, a key component of which was rapprochement with Iran. The war in Afghanistan is the worst optics for Mr. Trump’s showman politics, and his administration’s approach has been to sweep it under the carpet. The Pentagon has restricted release of data on the war but a report last month paints a picture of a deteriorating situation. The U.S.’s ability to arm-twist Pakistan has been limited anyway, and Mr. Trump’s determination to turn the screws on Iran makes it tougher. National Security Adviser John Bolton, who had advocated bombing Iran, believes that a hardline policy against Pakistan is not desirable.
•All told, Mr. Trump might accept Mr. Modi’s invitation to be the chief guest at the 2019 Republic Day parade just ahead of the Lok Sabha campaign, triggering another round of commentary on their ‘body language’ and ‘chemistry’. A series of significant defence purchases and agreements could be concluded in coming months. But India-U.S. relations will be better off without hype and grand theories, often encouraged by the government. Otherwise, every rescheduling of a meeting will be interpreted as the collapse of ties. Similarly, avoiding the hyperbole could help manage India’s troubles with Pakistan and China better. The U.S. has overlapping interests with China, and India has overlapping interests with both. The trouble with big-chest, small-heart hyper-nationalism in foreign policy is that it also causes short sightedness. The audacity of hype has its limits.
📰 A faint resonance
Even as scholarship on Kabir grows, the lack of ambition in marking a key anniversary is puzzling
•Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh’s mural that depicts the religions of India is a welcome sight at Mumbai airport. At its right edge is the tiny figure of Kabir, poet saint and weaver which many may overlook. Despite his extraordinary popularity over the last half millennium, no major celebration to commemorate the 500th death anniversary of this poet seems to have taken place in India.
•As an academic working on Rabindranath Tagore, I have participated in events remembering him: a commemoration of Tagore’s 150th birth anniversary in 2011 and the 100th anniversary, in 2013, of his winning the Nobel Prize.
•There have been lectures and conferences linked to these not only in India but across the world resulting in a number of important publications. The only poet who Tagore translated into English (apart from himself) is Kabir.
•There have been some local level commemorations and last week Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the Sant Kabir Academy, but otherwise Kabir’s anniversary seems to be drifting along. As a historical fact, we do not know whether Kabir did live till 1518 but having no better alternative, scholars tend to use this heuristic date. Professor David N. Lorenzen’s research on Kabir has confirmed that most people whom legends associated with Kabir lived around this time. The book, Images of Kabir (Monika Horstmann) , is the result of an international symposium held in 1998 commemorating the 600th anniversary of Kabir’s supposed birth. Although it is far more likely that Kabir died around 1518 than us being certain that he was born in 1398, the lack of ambition in commemorating his anniversary is puzzling.
Wide acceptance
•As a poet, Kabir transcended many of the divisions that existed in India. He can be celebrated as Dalit hero or as a Brahmin. Kabir and the Kabir Panth are accepted as a part of Hinduism. He is one of the Bhagats of the Sikhs and a large corpus of his poems is included in the Guru Granth Sahib. His presence in Indian Islamic thought, Qawwali singing and architecture has also been well documented. His rauza in Maghar (Uttar Pradesh) is a part of the architectural heritage of the country. Nineteenth century missionaries noted the similarity of his thoughts to Christianity, speculating that he must have composed his poems under Christian influence. His indebtedness to Buddhist Siddhas has been a subject of scholarship in the last century. Jain poets emulated his style, so much so that the 17th century Anandghan was dubbed as the “Jain Kabir”. As far as Parsis are concerned, one of the earliest non-Hindi mentions of Kabir comes from theDabistan-i Mazahibcomposed by a neo-Zoroastrian (around 1653).
•Kabir has also transcended space and time. In archives in north India, from Maharashtra to West Bengal, one can find his poems almost everywhere. Even modern readers and listeners are fascinated by his couplets and songs as they are a catalyst in creating new poetry. Over the past centuries, the Kabir textual corpus has seen a substantial enlargement as new songs were written bearing his signature.
Depth of study
•By 2018, the range of scholarship on Kabir has grown exponentially, with scholars on four continents engaged with his study. Images of Kabir for example presents different perceptions, reminding us of the richness and variety of meaning in his poetry. The early Kabir songs are available while his legends have also been published and studied. There has been new analysis, by Czech scholar Jaroslav Strnad, of the language of his early poems recorded in Rajasthan. Aspects of performed Kabir have been studied in detail by Kabir scholar Linda Hess. Film-maker Shabnam Virmani’s “The Kabir Project” has mapped Kabir singers in India and Pakistan. Writer and academic Purushottam Agrawal has presented Kabir in the light of indigenous modernity. Researcher Peter Friedlander has shown how Tagore’s interest in Kabir was also influenced by Tagore’s colleague, Kshitimohan Sen. Several articles by the academic Jack Hawley have been devoted to Kabir’s manuscripts and Vaishnava background while scholar Thomas de Bruijn has studied the shifting semantics in his poems. There are also excellent new translations by Vinay Dharwadker and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra. New verse translation appears in Chinese and Hungarian. We must acknowledge that the pioneering works of Shyamsundar Das, Hazariprasad Dvivedi and Mataprasad Gupta in the middle of the 20th century are what prepared the ground for the rich global academic discourse on Kabir.
•Several academic bodies abroad have expressed interest in paying tributes to Kabir. There is a discussion about a panel on Kabir at the Annual Conference on South Asia at Madison, U.S. China may also organise an event next year while Oxford is going to have online, one of the earliest available dated manuscripts of Kabir’sBijak.
📰 In an alien academic terrain
How to deal with culture shock at Australian universities
•If you are ready to board the flight to your dream educational programme at an Australian university, you may have memorised the exchange rate, planned to post selfies, perhaps even practised important phrases of the Australian slang. You would, most likely, have attended a useful pre-departure orientation by your university. Despite all this, you may not have had sufficient time or inputs to truly get to grips with the learning process that awaits you at the university.
•Australia’s informal culture, which is comfortable with students addressing their lecturers by their first names, might surprise new students from India. Meeting many Asian students who speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean or Japanese on campus could be unexpected on an Australian campus, but there are real possibilities.
•In my years of experience at Australian universities, academic under-preparedness of Indian and other non-Western students, a phenomenon I describe as “academic culture shock”, has always caught my attention.
Unfamiliar pedagogy, different assessment
•This is caused when a student enters an academic environment entirely different from what he is used to in his home country. It is experienced from the very first day, when the student is exposed to an unfamiliar pedagogical practice such as a combination of lectures with tutorials, or to terms like ‘units’, ‘credits’, ‘electives’ and ‘shell units’. It may also take time and effort to comprehend the grading system.
•However, the toughest culture shock is experienced in the context of assessments. These include diagnostic, summative and formative assessments and they are often undertaken at the beginning, during and at the end of the semester, respectively. There could be informal assessments too such as discussion-board contributions. These could be in written or oral forms, and could also include, on some occasions, a student-led evaluation. Academic honesty and integrity are important. Universities have a zero-tolerance policy towards plagiarism, which is equivalent to cheating but is more than just copying. Not giving due credit to the sources from which you have borrowed amounts to plagiarism. There are stipulated techniques to avoid inadvertent plagiarism. These include consistently citing the source of information and providing a relevant and complete list of sources you have used at the end of every assignment.
•Academic culture shock can be very frustrating and could jeopardise your performance. A little bit of preparation before you catch the flight is a great way to pre-empt any potential disappointments.
📰 A good beginning
With the Cauvery Authority in place, it is time for the basin States to end all litigation
•That the first meeting of the Cauvery Water Management Authority took place in a cordial atmosphere augurs well for a sustained phase of constructive cooperation among the States concerned. The CWMA has been formed by the Centre to implement the water-sharing award of the Cauvery Water Dispute Tribunal as modified by the Supreme Court earlier this year. At its meeting on Monday, it asked Karnataka to release 31.24 tmcft (thousand million cubic feet) of water in July. The quantum is based on the monthly schedule drawn up by the Tribunal, and excludes the surplus realised on the Tamil Nadu side in June. For the Authority to successfully perform its role, it needs the cooperation of the States in gathering data on rainfall, inflows and outflows, cropping patterns and periodic withdrawals from reservoirs. The CWMA is expected to meet once every 10 days during the monsoon months. The south-west monsoon has been active for nearly a month, and is forecast to be normal this year. Therefore, the CWMA may not face any major problem in overseeing the release of water to Tamil Nadu. As long as the inflows into Karnataka’s major reservoirs are substantial, it has had no problem releasing its surplus water into the lower riparian areas of the basin. It is only in a distress year that the CWMA will face a significant challenge, as determining the extent of distress, and dividing the shortfall among the States on a pro rata basis can be tricky exercises.
•Karnataka is planning to challenge in the Supreme Court the Centre’s notification constituting the Authority. It will be unfortunate if this dispute gets into another round of litigation. The provisions of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act, 1956, make it clear that it is the Centre’s duty to notify a scheme to implement the award of a Tribunal. Parliament has the power to modify the scheme, or leave it as it stands, but Karnataka’s claim that the scheme requires parliamentary approval before it is implemented is questionable. Further, the Supreme Court approved the draft scheme only after finding it to be “in consonance with the dictum and directions in the Award as modified by this Court and also in conformity with Section 6A of the 1956 Act”. Now that the CWMA has become functional, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry should approach the issue of sharing the waters of the inter-State river in a spirit of cooperation and help the Authority in implementing the verdict. The parties concerned should leave behind the era of litigation. There is now a non-political mechanism available to make sound professional decisions on water availability and sharing of distress, if any, after discussing the issues threadbare. After having been locked in a contentious legal dispute for so long, all parties concerned must embark on a new era of mutually beneficial water-sharing.
📰 ‘Lack of trust permeates India-U.K. bilateral ties’
Former envoy says London doesn’t have an ‘India strategy’
•A “lack of trust” permeates the bilateral relationship between Britain and India, Britain’s former High Commissioner to India said this week, raising questions about the ability of the two countries to forge a closer relationship in the wake of Brexit.
•When it came to India, the British government “doesn’t have a strategy,” said Sir Richard Stagg, who was High Commissioner in New Delhi between 2007 and 2011, adding that rather than involving a joined up approach, “random interventions” were made by individuals within the British government that were “inevitably ineffective”.
•Pointing to India’s concerns around Britain’s relationship with Pakistan, the recent efforts of the Indian government to extradite high net worth individuals such as Vijay Mallya back to the country (and reports that Nirav Modi may have sought asylum in Britain), and the recent row over student visas, Mr. Stagg, warned that the U.K. government had to “internalise” the reality of India’s shifting priorities, and recognise the areas where it sought cooperation, if it were to further the relationship.
•“Not only is the U.K. quite a small dot but the U.K. government is also very distracted by other issues... the disjoint makes it very difficult to get the relationship working on shared interest and trust,” he said at an event in Parliament on post-Brexit bilateral ties.
•Among the key obstacles, he said were the perception in India that Britain was “too supportive” of Pakistan, and concerns about the impact of Britain’s visa regime. He also pointed to the growing perception in Indian government circles that the British were “not doing as much as they could or should to facilitate” the return of high net-worth “Bollygarchs” who had sought refuge in the U.K., though also noted there was little the British government could do on this count because most cases were within the judicial system.
•Mr. Stagg , who had spent four and a half years working on the EU-India Free Trade Agreement while High Commissioner, also raised questions about Britain’s ability to forge a trade agreement with India. “The country that has been most difficult with the issues was the U.K.,” he said of the EU-India FTA negotiations, pointing to British demands around opening up of financial and legal services in India, and its opposition to India’s visa and mobility demands as part of any agreement.
📰 ‘Centre open to discuss RBI’s power over regulating PSBs’
No proposal to pare ownership in state-run banks to less than 51%, says Goyal
•Finance minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday said the government is open to discuss the issues that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had raised recently over the lack of powers in regulating state-run lenders.
•Amidst criticism that the apex bank had failed in its regulatory oversight over government-owned banks following the Rs. 13,500-crore PNB scam, RBI governor Urjit Patel had recently blamed it on the lack of powers to control them.
•“The government is open to discuss with the RBI all the issues it has on regulating state-run banks,” Mr. Goyal told an industry event here. The minister also ruled out government paring its stake in public sector banks (PSBs), saying there is no proposal with the government to lower its ownership in state-run banks to under 51% in 20 of them.
•The statement comes amid strong opposition from banking and LIC unions to the government plans to sell its majority stake in the crippled IDBI Bank to LIC.
•Admitting that the banking system had failed to meet the public’s high expectations, Mr. Goyal said bankers had failed to live up to the high standards and ethics expected of them. He also said the government will back all the state-run banks with enough capital.
‘No interference’
•While PSBs had faced political interference in the past, Mr. Goyal said under the present government, no minister was interfering in the operational matters of lenders.
•A day after accepting the Sunil Mehta panel recommendation to set up an asset management company to resolve smaller loan defaults of up to Rs. 500 crore, Mr. Goyal said liquidation can’t be the panacea for all NPAs as there are genuine business failures which need to be resolved.
📰 MCX plans currency derivatives foray
To tap commodity market participants who use the currency segment to hedge against risks
•The Multi Commodity Exchange of India (MCX), the country’s largest commodity bourse in terms of market share, plans to enter the currency derivatives segment.
•The exchange has been mulling an entry in the currency arena for a while now and the idea has even been discussed among the board of directors who are not averse to the idea, said a person familiar with the matter.
‘Continuous evaluation’
•“Starting a currency derivatives segment has been under continuous evaluation within the exchange and it has been discussed at the board level as well,” the person said, on condition of anonymity. “While the board has been receptive, they have sought more clarity and hence the exchange is seeking further feedback from market participants,” he added. The unified licence regime kicks in on October 1 and will allow equity and commodity exchanges to expand their offerings by starting new segments. The BSE and the National Stock Exchange (NSE) have already announced plans for commodity trading under the new regulations framework.
•“The advent of universal exchanges provides multiple opportunities,” said an MCX spokesperson, replying to a query from The Hindu . “However, at this point of time we see better opportunities in the commodity ecosystem. We continue to evaluate over time and expedite appropriately as and when needed.”
•Currency derivatives see average daily volumes in excess of Rs. 60,000 crore. The BSE is the largest player in the currency segment followed by the NSE with the Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India (MSEI) having small share. In June, it reported an average daily turnover of Rs. 33,961 crore on its currency derivatives platform while the NSE clocked Rs. 29,161 crore. MSEI reported a daily average turnover of only Rs. 239 crore in June.
Steady rise in turnover
•The average daily turnover of the currency segment of NSE was Rs. 12,705 crore in 2014-15, which rose to Rs. 18,603 crore in 2015-16 and thereafter to Rs. 20,779 crore in 2017-18.
•This fiscal till date, the average daily turnover is pegged at Rs. 29,008 crore.
•Market experts are of the view that while a commodity exchange would not benefit much by venturing into equity or equity derivatives, the currency segment could help in hedging for existing participants of the commodity markets
•“MCX adding currency derivatives alongside commodity markets may facilitate hedging by import- / export-focused commodity merchants,” said Patrick Young of D.V. Advisors, a Europe-based capital markets advisory firm.
•“Dislodging incumbent market leaders in derivatives is difficult but forex contracts are homogenous and not subject to licensing such as Nifty futures. At the same time, MCX has nothing to lose here and market participants are likely to enjoy lower fees through competition, at least for a while.”
📰 E-vehicles pose threat to forging industry, says AIFI
Need road map for level-playing field: industry association
•The Centre’s renewed focus on electric vehicles (EVs) is a key issue that could impact the future of the Indian forging industry, said a top official in the association representing the forging industry.
•“EVs are likely to hamper the growth of the forging industry, which has been witnessing growth in the recent past,” said S. Muralishankar, president, Assocation of Indian Forging Industry (AIFI).
•He said the industry needed “a clear road map to provide a level playing field.” Pointing out that the forging industry would get a clear picture by early 2020 or 2022, he said EVs were going to be the biggest threat to the industry as 60% of forging units are involved in the manufacture of auto components and that a majority are engaged in applications related to engine transmission.
•“As a result, 40%-50% of demand for forged auto components would decline, resulting in job losses and a shutting down of units.”
‘No plan yet’
•Currently the Centre does not have a concrete plan to switchover to EVs, he said. The industry should have basic infrastructure such as charging stations and availability of lithum batteries as well as guidelines for disposal of batteries, he added.
•India is the third-largest manufacturer of forging globally, after China and the EU. Currently, it is facing challenges arising out of rising steel and oil prices, a demand-supply gap and technology upgradation.
📰 Tariffs cut on Asian imports under APTA
Move to benefit Chinese goods too
•The Centre has implemented the tariff concessions agreed to under the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement by cutting duties on the import of 3,142 items from the signatories to the accord, including China.
•“The results of the fourth round of negotiations under the Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) [formerly the Bangkok Agreement] among six countries namely, Bangladesh, China, India, Lao PDR, Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka, have been implemented with effect from July 1,” the government said in a release on Monday.
Higher concessions
•APTA is a preferential trade agreement, under which the basket of items as well as the extent of tariff concessions are enlarged during the trade negotiating rounds that are conducted periodically.
•The fourth round of trade negotiations under the agreement was conducted on January 13, 2017.
•“As a founding member of APTA, India is committed to strengthening the APTA process through these concessions,” the release said.
📰 Indian-origin scientist gets funding for project
On futuristic ‘thinking skin concept’
•An Indian-origin scientist working on a project to create a robotic hand covered in so-called brainy skin that mimics the human sense of touch has won 1.5 million pounds in funding for the project.
•Professor Ravinder Dahiya, a faculty at the University of Glasgow’s School of Engineering, said the futuristic “thinking skin concept” is inspired by the real skin.
•The super-flexible, hypersensitive skin may one day be used to make more responsive prosthetics for amputees, or to build robots with a sense of touch.
•Brainy skin is critical for the autonomy of robots and for a safe human-robot interaction to meet emerging societal needs such as helping the elderly, said Professor Dahiya.
•Along with his Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (BEST) team, the scientist has plans to develop ultra-flexible, synthetic “Brainy Skin” that thinks for itself . Brainy Skin reacts like human skin, which has its own neurons that respond immediately to touch rather than having to relay the whole message to the brain.
•This electronic thinking skin is made from silicon-based printed neural transistors and graphene — an ultra-thin form of carbon that is only an atom thick, but stronger than steel.
•The new version in the making is said to be more powerful, less cumbersome and would work better than earlier prototypes.
Mimics skin morphology
•Professor Dahiya explains, Human skin is an incredibly complex system capable of detecting pressure, temperature and texture through an array of neural sensors that carry signals from the skin to the brain.
•Inspired by real skin, this project will harness the technological advances in electronic engineering to mimic some features of human skin, such as softness, bendability and now, also sense of touch. This skin will not just mimic the morphology of the skin but also its functionality.
•The research, dubbed neuPRINTSKIN (Neuromorphic Printed Tactile Skin), received the latest 1.5 million pounds in funding from the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC).
•The team’s work means tactile data is gathered over large areas by the synthetic skin’s computing system rather than sent to the brain for interpretation.
•With additional EPSRC funding, which extends Professor Dahiya’s fellowship by another three years, he plans to introduce tactile skin with neuron-like processing. This breakthrough in the tactile sensing research will lead to the first neuromorphic tactile skin, or brainy skin .
•To achieve this, Professor Dahiya will add a new neural layer to the e-skin that he has already been developed using printing silicon nanowires.
📰 ‘Tow-an-iceberg’ plan for Cape Town
The threat of drought is expected to return to the South African city again next year and beyond
•It is a plan as crazy as the situation is desperate — towing an iceberg from Antarctica to Cape Town to supply fresh water to a city in the grip of drought.
•Earlier this year, Cape Town came within weeks of shutting off all its taps and forcing residents to queue for water rations at public standpipes.
•The cut-off was narrowly averted as people scrambled to reduce their water usage and Autumn rains saved the day. But the threat is expected to return to the coastal South African city again next year and beyond.
Textile insulation
•“The idea sounds crazy,” admits maverick salvage expert Nick Sloane, the brains behind the tow-an-iceberg scheme. “But if you look at the fine details, it is not so crazy.”
•Mr. Sloane suggests wrapping the iceberg in a textile insulation skirt to stop it melting and using a supertanker and two tugboats to drag it 2,000 km towards Cape Town using prevailing ocean currents.
•The iceberg, carefully selected by drones and radiography scans, would be about one kilometre in length, 500 metres across and up to 250 metres deep, with a flat, tabletop surface.
•Melted water could be gathered each day using collection channels and a milling machine to create ice slurry — producing 150 million litres of usable water every day for a year.
•Mr. Sloane’s idea might be dismissed as mere fantasy.
Up for the task
•But the 56-year-old Zambian-South African has a reputation for taking on the impossible after he re-floated the giant Costa Concordia cruise ship that capsized in 2012 off the Tuscan island of Giglio, killing 32 people — one of the world's largest and most complex maritime salvage operations. “Icebergs are made of the purest freshwater on earth,” the founder of Sloane Marine Ltd said earnestly.
•He estimates it would cost $100 million to haul an iceberg on a journey that could take up to three months, and another $50-60 million to harvest the water for one year as it melts. “In Russia, they have pushed (icebergs) away from oil installations — but small ones, they are about half-a-million tons. (Here) we are talking about 100 million tons,” said Mr. Sloane.
•To tackle the drought, Cape Town has enacted measures ranging from building seawater desalination plants to issuing strict instructions to only flush toilets when necessary.
•But whether Cape Town authorities will be persuaded to embrace the iceberg project is unclear. “At this stage it appears to us that in fact the groundwater or desalination options are cheaper or at least equal cost price,” said Cape Town's deputy mayor, Ian Neilson.
•There are also questions on how the water from the iceberg will be channelled into the city's distribution system.
•Another problem is that there is no guarantee that by the time the iceberg is hauled to Cape Town, it will still be able to produce the promised volumes of water.
•Once there, the iceberg could be anchored in an old submarine channel, suggests Mr. Sloane.
•As the iceberg melts, water will be collected each day, pumped into tankers and driven to Cape Town. “It won’t sort out Cape Town's crisis, (but) it will be about 20 to 30% of their annual needs,” said Mr. Sloane.
•“The project is crazy — no question,” said Olav Orheim, a Norwegian glaciologist with four decades of experience on a similar project for Saudi Arabia.
