📰 Transatlantic rift: on Trump and NATO
Donald Trump shakes the NATO consensus further by talking defence budgets
•The summit of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaders in Brussels was expected to be tense, given the widening rift in the Western alliance over the U.S.’s imposition of trade tariffs. But President Donald Trump’s call to member-countries to double their annual defence expenditure to 4% of GDP has the potential for greater harm than his repeated denigration of NATO or his disregard for diplomatic niceties. European countries have for some time been smarting under Washington’s persistent attack on their failure to honour the current commitment to raise their defence budgets to 2% of annual output by 2024. NATO members were reminded of the unequal burden-sharing within the organisation via letters despatched from the White House ahead of the summit. Mr. Trump can launch his latest offensive largely due to the latitude he enjoys on account of the U.S. spending well in excess of 3% of GDP on defence in 2017-18. He took aim especially at Germany, highlighting in particular the incongruity between its military spending and huge trade surplus with the U.S. A relatively recent dimension to the diatribe is the attack on Germany’s large imports of gas from Russia, a divisive issue within Europe, particularly after the threats posed by Moscow’s regional ambitions. Besides putting Chancellor Angela Merkel in a spot, it served to deflect attention from criticism across the Atlantic of Mr. Trump’s proximity to Russian President Vladimir Putin and their bilateral meeting in Helsinki.
•Notwithstanding Mr. Trump’s claims, Europe’s expenditure on defence has been on the rise since 2014, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). One explanation for this shift is the security situation following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. IISS data also show that Washington’s commitment to Europe’s security is just over 5% of the total U.S. defence budget. Within that, its contribution to NATO’s common funding is an estimated 22.1%, besides investments in other initiatives. Some of Mr. Trump’s predecessors in the White House had sought to address this imbalance, but without ever questioning the commitment of Washington’s allies to the bloc’s collective defence, or using it as a bargaining chip. Conversely, exploiting Europe’s greater dependence on the U.S. security umbrella serves to bolster Mr. Trump’s domestic nationalist constituency ahead of the November mid-term Congressional elections. While not all Republicans may approve of the President’s offensive against American allies, many prefer to emphasise substance over style. The communiqué issued after the summit reiterates the group’s resolve to meet the 2024 deadline on defence spending. But Mr. Trump seems impatient on achieving the target sooner, without spelling out his reasons. The world will learn more about Mr. Trump’s America First agenda in the coming months.
📰 A welcome move: On India's net neutrality regulations
India will now have among the strongest net neutrality regulations
•In a vital decision that will help secure the rights of Internet users in the country, the Telecom Commission has approved the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on net neutrality. By endorsing steps that call for amendments to access services licences for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Telecom Operators, the Commission has made it clear that any violation of net neutrality will be treated as a violation of the licence conditions. It has said that some specialised and emerging services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) may be exempt from the non-discriminatory principles, but these cannot be at the cost of the overall quality of Internet access. Combining this approval with the fact that TRAI had barred telecom service providers from charging differential rates for data services (zero rating, for example), India will now have among the strongest net neutrality regulations. This is as it should be. Net neutrality is the basic principle of an open Internet that does not allow for content discrimination by ISPs. The user is free to access any web location at the same paid-for speed without any discrimination by the ISP.
•This proviso has helped democratise the Internet and undergird its growth from a networked system of computers that enabled e-commerce, social interaction, knowledge flow and entertainment, among other functions. Internet pioneers — including World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee and Transmission Control Protocol/IP Protocol co-inventor Vint Cerf — have consistently maintained that the principle of net neutrality is built into the structure of the Internet itself. The layers and protocols for connectivity via the network have been erected in such a way that access is seamless irrespective of the nature of the physical infrastructure of the network. It is to the credit of the Telecom Commission and TRAI that this principle has been upheld in India — in contrast, in the U.S., on President Donald Trump’s watch, the Federal Communications Commission repealed net neutrality regulations that had been put in place by the Barack Obama administration. The repeal was ostensibly to allow ISPs and broadband providers to invest in new technology although evidence shows that such investment was not affected by the regulations. The other argument for the repeal has been a functional one, suggesting that the Internet is very different today, controlled by a handful of big companies, unlike the much more egalitarian environment earlier; and that therefore, the principle is redundant now. This is misleading. In India, for instance, the steep growth in Internet access and use has allowed for newer services to thrive. The government should now ensure that net neutrality is followed in practice.
📰 Peak hour flights may get costlier with new AAI plan
Government considering congestion surcharge
•The government is mulling over a proposal to impose a surcharge on airlines for operating flights during peak hours to enhance airport capacity and to avoid flight delays, according to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra. Currently, landing fees paid by airlines are determined by the weight of an aircraft and do not vary according to the time of the day.
•“We should not allow congestion to happen during peak hours. There is a large window of non-peak hours that we are persuading airlines to consider. In fact, we are considering whether we can introduce charges for flight operations during peak hours. A concept note is being prepared and global models are being studied. We want to encourage use of non-peak hours. This is right now at a proposal stage and a final decision is yet to be taken,” Mr. Mohapatra told The Hindu in an interview.
•A government official cited the example of Heathrow Airport to make a case for peak-hour pricing at Indian airports.
•Heathrow introduced the formula in 1972 to check air traffic congestion, when it was already witnessing 72 movements during peak hours. It also levies a steep penalty on airlines that fail to be punctual.
•An aviation industry insider with experience at a major airport in the country said the move would help spread demand through the day and, if passengers can pay extra for more comfort and leg room, they would be willing to pay more to fly during popular timings, while leisure travellers looking for cheap fares will still have the option of flying at non-peak hours.
Slots awarded
•Airlines are awarded slots for summer and winter schedules on a first-come-first-served basis as well as on the historicity of slots. An airline is said to maintain historicity of a particular slot if it is able to operate flights during a given slot punctually 80% of the time for a period of six months or the length of an entire season.
•Mr. Mohapatra said the matter was also discussed with airlines at a meeting. An airline executive said on the condition of anonymity that the move will not be welcomed by airlines as it will impose an additional charge on those already holding such slots without addressing the problem of air traffic congestion.
•An airport typically sees four ‘peaks’ in a day.
•These are approximately between 6 a.m.-8.30 a.m., 10.30 a.m.-noon, 4 p.m.-6 p.m. and 7 p.m.-9.30 p.m.
•Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Terminal and Delhi’s IGIA are two of the most congested airports in the country and see up to 52 and 73 movements per hour (landings and take-offs), respectively, during peak timings.
•A senior official from a domestic carrier said on the condition of anonymity, “We don’t welcome such a proposal. The move, if put into effect, is unlikely to change airline behaviour as peak-hour slots are almost impossible to get in large metros such as Mumbai and Delhi. It will become an additional charge on airlines holding peak-hour slots.”
📰 Golden jackal faces threat in its habitat
Destruction of mangrove cover in Bandar Reserve Forest may trigger man-animal conflict
•Destruction of mangrove cover in the Bandar Reserve Forest is forcing the golden jackal (Canis aureus) out of its habitat, triggering a conflict with the local communities.
•Recently, The Hindu documented how a young golden jackal was swimming in the brackish waters out of its habitat for prey near the Palletummalapalem village in Machilipatnam mandal in Krishna district.
•“We have recorded several golden jackals in the BRF through camera traps. The sighting out of its habitat is a sign of its destruction,” said A. Appa Rao, an expert engaged in the restoration of the mangrove cover.
Aqua ponds
•The conservation status of the animal is the ‘least concern’ and it preys on wild crab and fish.
•Amid uproar over the aqua ponds, the Vigilance authorities in 2017 recommended to the State government to hand over the 24,363 acres under the BRF and the BRF extension (I to IV) to the Forest department for protection.
•Since 1970 (G.O.No. 2204), the BRF has been in the hands of the Revenue department as the final notification to de-reserve the forest land (25,259 acres) was still pending owing to various reasons.
•The Revenue authorities, on the other hand, are helpless in preventing the encroachment of the mangrove along the Machilipatnam coastline.
📰 Flying into trouble: Harrier birds decline as grasslands disappear
India has some of the largest roosting sites of this migratory species.
•Harrier birds, a migratory raptor species that regularly visits vast swathes of India, are declining. This may foretell lurking dangers to the country’s grasslands.
•The “poorly studied” species is the focus of a study by two researchers from the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), who compared previous records of sightings with more current observations to determine what many had feared.
•Every winter, several species of harrier birds travel thousands of kilometres to escape frigid Central Asia for the grasslands of the subcontinent.
•Researchers T. Ganesh and M.B. Prashanth collated published data, unpublished accounts and their own field research on roosting harriers to analyse trends in their population since the mid-1980s. At least five species of harriers were recorded in India over the years; India has one of the largest roosting sites in the world for Pallid Harriers and Montagu’s Harriers.
•The researchers focused on six of the 15 major roosting sites in six States, where consistent observations had been made for over five years.
•While a general declining trend was observed in all the monitored sites, researchers noted the most dramatic changes at the Rollapadu Bustard Sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool district, one of the largest. In the mid-1990s, an estimated 1,000 birds roosted here. By 2016, the number was down to less than 100 birds. In Hessarghatta on the outskirts of Bengaluru, Western Marsh Harriers declined significantly, leaving the area nearly deserted.
Less than half
•The importance of area protection can be seen in the number of birds. While there is a median count of 125 harriers in protected areas, it’s less than half that number — 48 — in unprotected areas. The study notes that the population of the species in Central Asia has not seen any drastic changes.
•So, do these results indicate that the migrant birds have found better places to roost than India? The researchers think this is improbable.
•“These are traditional roosting sites for harrier species, so we don’t know what has happened. Considering the overall decline is spread out, the numbers could signify a lowering trend in populations. It is a major concern, and it’s unlikely they have moved elsewhere in India,” said Mr. Ganesh, remarking on the possibility of a combination of multiple factors for the fall.
Pesticide use
•The gravest concern is the loss of grasslands, either to urbanisation or to agriculture. In February-March, peak season for the arrival of the birds, farmlands are burnt or over-grazed. Of the 15 roosting sites surveyed, eight no longer exist as grasslands, and only five are protected.
•Excessive use of pesticides in farms in and around the roosting sites could also be a reason for the lowered population counts. In crops such as cotton, the use of pesticides kills grasshoppers, the harriers’ primary prey, and could lead to mortality of the birds themselves as they are on the top of the food chain, Mr. Ganesh explained.
•Globally, of the 16 harrier species, only two are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, even though most of them are declining. While more intensive research is needed, Mr. Ganesh said, the conservation of India’s grasslands could be a start in protecting the magnificent migrators.
📰 Be cautious in shifting to DBT, RBI tells States
Central bank’s report details benefits, pre-conditions for implementation
•Acknowledging that problems have been experienced by three Union Territories (UTs) in the implementation of direct benefit transfer (DBT) for food subsidy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised States that are planning to shift to cash transfer to be cautious while effecting the migration.
Problems outlined
•In its report on State finances, released a few days ago, the Bank referred to problems such as inadequacy of transfers to maintain pre-DBT consumption levels, insufficiency of last-mile delivery mechanisms and a weak grievance redressal system.
•At present, three UTs — Puducherry, Chandigarh and urban areas of the Dadra and Nagar Haveli — are implementing the mode of cash transfer under which 9.31 lakh beneficiaries receive ₹ 12.82 crore every month through their bank accounts, according to a publication of the Department of Food and Public Distribution in the Union government. The beneficiaries have the choice of buying food grains from the open market.
•In view of complaints of the poor finding it difficult to get rice under the DBT, the Puducherry government, early this year, approached the Centre to permit it to revert to the old system of supplying rice. Last week, Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy told the Legislative Assembly that the Centre gave its “in principle approval” for the UT’s request.
‘Greater autonomy’
•On the question of whether cash transfer is an alternative to the public distribution system (PDS), the RBI has stated that the cash transfer mode reduced the need for large physical movement of food grains. Further, given the wide inter-State and intra-State variations in food consumption habits, the DBT provides “greater autonomy” to beneficiaries to choose their consumption basket, apart from enhancing dietary diversity.
•Another reason for promoting the concept of DBT is to reduce the leakage in the PDS, as the Central government has to absorb a huge food subsidy bill under the existing system of distribution of food grains in fulfilment of provisions of the National Food Security Act (NFSA).
•During 2017-18, the Centre provided the Food Corporation of India and States about ₹ 1.42 lakh crore towards the distribution of subsidised food grains.
•As for the processes to be followed by States prior to DBT execution, the RBI has referred to certain pre-conditions mentioned in the Central government’s 2015 food subsidy rules. The pre-conditions include complete digitisation and de-duplication of the beneficiary database, and seeding of bank account details and Aadhaar numbers in the digitised database.
📰 A helping hand for Indian universities
Leadership in philanthropy is central to enabling an institutional vision for higher education
•The future of Indian universities (public and private) will significantly depend upon our ability to harness the possibility of individual, institutional and corporate philanthropy for the purposes of higher education. A major legal and policy reform to promote some form of mandatory corporate social responsibility (CSR) was initiated through the Companies Act, 2013. Path-breaking, it had the potential to transform the relationship between business and society. Unfortunately, the results so far have not been encouraging.
Misinterpreting CSR
•The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has observed that among the 5,097 companies that have filed annual reports till December 2016 (financial year 2015-16), only 3,118 companies had made some contribution towards CSR expenditure. During FY 2014-15, 3,139 companies had spent 74% of the prescribed CSR expenditure — most were to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund. There has been very little strategic thinking and innovation in the CSR where corporations can play a leadership role in contributing to society. This also shows that companies in India have generally not understood the larger goals of CSR, viewing it more as a charitable endeavour.
•While there is much that deserves attention under the CSR framework for contributing to the social sector, the fact is that higher education and universities do need to receive significantly more attention. Every aspect of a university’s growth requires substantial financial resources: hiring of world class faculty; developing research centres; funding research projects; having rewards and incentives for faculty publications; building physical infrastructure, and making available scholarships for students. The Ministry of Human Resource Development should be working closely with the MCA to have a road map that incentivises CSR funding to be made available for universities.
The funding factor
•Some years ago, a report by a committee constituted by the then Planning Commission and headed by the then chief mentor of Infosys, Narayana Murthy, focussed on the role of the corporate sector in higher education. It acknowledged the importance of stronger private initiatives and recommended steps such as free land for 999 years (sic), 300% deduction in taxable income to companies for contributions towards boosting higher education and 10-year multiple entry visas for foreign research scholars. It also recommended a Rs. 1,000 crore scholarship fund (with tax exemption for corporate sector contributions) to promote greater accessibility of higher education to the underprivileged. However, these recommendations were not implemented.
•A range of reforms are being promoted in higher education. Recognising that universities in India need to be significantly empowered in order to achieve excellence, the government has initiated five major reforms in the areas of regulation, accreditation, rankings, autonomy and internationalisation. However, the most critical aspect of building world-class universities as well as upgrading existing universities is in relation to funding and the availability of substantial financial resources.
•Every year, educationists have put forth the argument that we need to increase the budget for higher education. Marginal increases in budgets and creative reallocation of resources to show more spending on higher education are not going to help. A thorough and even a radical re-examination of budgetary resources is essential. The higher education sector can be truly re-energised only by a significant increase in loans, grants and philanthropy. Banks and financial institutions have been rather timid and even indifferent towards funding in higher education. Therefore, there is an urgent need for policy intervention, where universities and related funding should be designated a priority sector. It should be seen as being more important than infrastructure development.
Issue of philanthropy
•Beyond a few examples of philanthropy in higher education in India, contemporary leadership in philanthropy in higher education is limited and almost non-existent. The historical evolution of public universities in India and their exclusive dependence on the government for all financial resources have contributed to limiting the capacity of funding that could be available for public universities. Today, public universities (State universities and other higher education institutions) face serious financial challenges. While the Central universities and institutions of higher education are better situated, complex procedures, incessant delays, regulatory obstacles and a labyrinth of regulations for access to the funds have created many disincentives for universities to have the necessary freedom and flexibility to spend resources as per their needs and priorities.
•As far as private universities/higher education institutions are concerned, the problem is even more serious. The opening up of the private sector to higher education has ended up creating many mediocre institutions. The privatisation of higher education has not been driven by philanthropy but to a large extent by commercial and for-profit interests that do not have a symbiotic relationship with the vision, values and ethos of a university. Higher education and universities (private or public) by their very nature ought to be not-for-profit and established through philanthropy.
•The Institute of Eminence (IOE) policy by the government did create hopes and expectations for establishing world class universities in India. Unfortunately, the policy, procedure and the process of selecting IOEs has been marred by a lack of transparency, vision and imagination in institution building. Therefore, there is an urgent need in Indian universities to reflect upon the crisis of leadership and the inability to seek reforms relating to institution building. In this, leadership in philanthropy is central to enabling an institutional vision that will help build the future of higher education in India.
📰 In knotty problems
Jute sector hit by shrinking acreage, lack of modernisation
•The outcry and ban against plastic bags and single-use plastic packaging holds potential for the jute sector. But the more than 100-year-old sector, supporting five million families at the farm and the industry-level, may not be in a position to benefit from this opportunity, right away
•The availability of quality raw jute and shrinking acreage on the one-hand and the failure of most jute mills to modernise has left the sector dependent on government-support like packaging reservations. Only a section of the industry has diversified into non-packaging segments.
Eco-friendly products
•A recent initiative called ‘The Jute Foundation’ (TJF) is trying to address many issues pertaining to the environment-friendly product. It is trying to engage all stakeholders –farmers, workers, mills, research organisations and consumers.
•Pointing out that while the convenience of a plastic carry bag is “difficult to beat,” Siddharth Singh, chairman, TJF said an initiative is being introduced for the industry to work jointly with research and development agencies like IJIRA (Indian Jute Industries’ Research Association) and others to develop thin and slim jute shopping bags “that can be rolled into a ladies handbag.” The issue also figured at a recent meeting of the Union Textiles Ministry.
•However, the industry’s ability to rise to this challenge hinges on the quality of the golden fibre. West Bengal is India’s single largest raw jute cultivator producing almost 75 % of the crop in Nadia, Dinajpur, Murshidabad and North 24 Parganas districts.
•But acreage had stagnated amid low productivity and falling prices of the cash crop. The 2017-18 crop is estimated at about 76 lakh bales says the Union Textile Ministry which has noted a 9.5 % drop in the acreage. The Ministry also said that with raw jute prices remaining below the support price in 2017-18, area-under-cultivation may stagnate in 2018-19.
•Primitive, labour-intensive cultivation methods and retting (drenching raw jute in water to extract the fibre) — a crucial determinant in raw jute quality — creates problems. The I-CARE programme unveiled by the National Jute Board and the Jute Corporation of India seeks to address this issue by introducing a pilot project on retting technologies aimed at increasing farmers’ returns.
📰 Domestic tech security firms get priority in govt. purchases
IT Ministry flags tech security as ‘strategic sector’; IP registration not mandatory
•The Centre has mandated giving preference in all public procurement to locally produced cybersecurity products where intellectual property rights are owned by companies or start-ups incorporated in India.
•The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said in an order that it “hereby notifies that Cyber Security being a strategic sector, preference shall be provided by all procuring entities to domestically manufactured/produced Cyber Security Products.”
•The notification is based on Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017 which aims to enhance income and employment in the country.
•Preference will be granted to a firm incorporated and registered in India or to start-up firms that meet the prescribed definition, provided revenue from the product and intellectual property licensing accrues to the firm in India. Though IP registration is not mandatory in the country, a firm claiming benefit should have the right to use and commercialise the product without third party-consents, distribute and modify it, the order said.
‘Promoting propserity’
•“It is imperative for a country to use and promote indigenous cybersecurity products to protect our information space as well as bring economic prosperity,” Innefu Labs co-founder Tarun Wig said.
•“The U.S., China and Russia have already started this process and it’s high time India follows suit.”
