📰 Ready for talks with Narendra Modi, says Imran Khan
Not in Pakistan’s interest to allow terror attacks from our territory, says the Pakistan PM
•Making another pitch for talks, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan called for India to make a fresh start during his term to revive the dialogue process between the two countries.
•The talks have been stalled on the issue of terrorism for more than a decade.
•“It is not in Pakistan’s interest that our soil be used for terrorism against others,” Mr. Khan said here on Thursday. He was speaking to a group of Indian journalists invited to cover the Kartarpur corridor groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday. “I can’t be held responsible for the past, hold me to account if I break my promises,” he said, asked about pending terrorism investigations into the 1993 and 2008 Mumbai attacks and the case against Dawood Ibrahim and Lashkar-e-Taiba chief Hafiz Saeed.
•To a question on the status of the ban against Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistani Prime Minister clarified that the United Nations Security Council ban against him remained operational despite the Pakistan government ordinance lapsing in June. “There are UN sanctions against him and there is already a clampdown. On the rest of the 26/11 accused... The case remains sub judice [in trial],” he said.
‘Forget the past’
•India and Pakistan must not keep focussing on the past however, said Mr. Khan. “The past is for learning from, not for living in,” he said, as he described the disappointment he felt about the cancellation of Foreign Minister talks by New Delhi in September this year.
•“I tried to reach out to India from the very first day of my term. But I got a bad response when the meeting at the UN was cancelled. We decided that we could wait for a response until elections in India,” Mr. Khan said, maintaining that the resolution of Kashmir remained the main concern for Pakistan.
•On Wednesday, the Ministry of External Affairs had criticised Mr. Khan’s reference to Kashmir during the Kartarpur corridor groundbreaking ceremony, calling it an attempt to “politicise a pious” occasion.
•Mr. Khan, who claimed he had not seen the Indian response, said that resolving Kashmir was nonetheless important, and had been discussed in the past. Significantly, the Pakistani Prime Minister referred to the “4-step formula” for the resolution of Kashmir that was devised during the tenures of President Musharraf and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, more than a decade after it had been shelved as a possible way forward to consider.
‘Positive response’
•He said that the response in Pakistan to the corridor had been very “positive” and he hoped that India would respond to the “consensus for peace” which he said was shared by all stakeholders including the military in Pakistan.
•To a question about whether he might consider extending the initiative from the Kartarpur shrine to other shrines that Indians are keen to visit, Mr. Khan said that his government hoped to promote religious tourism in the country, and could consider other proposals for shrines such as the Sharada Peeth in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Katasraj temple in Sindh as well as a recently discovered Buddha statue near Islamabad.
📰 Walking the tightrope
India must remain hyperalert on the U.S. waiver on Iranian oil imports and Chabahar
•The six-month waiver on sanctions granted by the U.S. to India and seven other countries importing oil from Iran highlights the importance of economic factors in the India-U.S. strategic partnership. The exemption also puts the spotlight on the link between economics and strategy.
No special treatment
•The waiver gives India a breathing space of sorts and will help maintain India-U.S. ties on an even keel. But the U.S. has not given any special treatment to India. China, India’s main Asian competitor and perceived by the U.S. as its main security threat, has also been granted a waiver. President Donald Trump’s explanation is that he is going slow on sanctions with the intent of avoiding a shock rise in global oil prices.
•The waiver shows that Washington and New Delhi will cooperate on India’s oil and gas needs. Indeed, their Strategic Energy Partnership (April 2018) sees energy cooperation serving “as a centerpiece in the bilateral relationship”. This is because the U.S. believes that it is the world’s leading producer of oil and gas. The U.S. National Security Strategy of November 2017 highlighted the importance of “energy dominance — America’s central position in the global energy system as a leading producer, consumer, and innovator”. India should entertain no illusions about the Trump administration’s wish that it should open up as a key energy market for the U.S. Indeed, since Mr. Trump became President last January oil exports from the U.S. to India have risen. In 2017, India imported 8 million barrels of American crude. Until this July it had imported more than 15 million barrels of U.S. crude.
•But boasts about America’s energy dominance ignore the interdependent nature of today’s global energy market, and of relations between states. Unsurprisingly, India needs the help of both the U.S. and Iran. The U.S. is India’s main strategic partner. Indeed, American naval power is indispensable for preserving maritime freedom and security in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea.
Ties with Iran
•At the same time, friendly ties with a politically stable Iran undoubtedly suit India. But the strengthening of commercial and political ties with Iran has been an uphill climb. In 2009, the International Atomic Energy Agency demanded that Iran stop uranium enrichment. India made it clear that it did not support Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions and voted against it.
•At another level, India has had a bilateral trade deficit with Iran over many years. In 2017 it was $8.5 billion. India’s offer to pay for oil in rupees is unattractive to Iran. Tehran does not want to buy enough Indian goods to make acceptance of rupee payment for its oil worthwhile. But the use of any currency other than the U.S. dollar would mean that a cash-strapped Iran must extend more credit to India. The two countries must find a way out of this conundrum.
•On the security front, India’s cooperation with Iran has to be seen against the broader context of its regional rivalries with Pakistan and China. India and Iran share regional interests. They could build a strategic partnership focussing on Afghanistan, Central Asia and West Asia. Together with Russia and some other countries, they are signatories to the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) agreement, using Iran as the trade route to Russia and northern Europe. INSTC transit routes enable India to bypass a hostile Pakistan by exporting goods via the sea.
•That is why India has been developing the Chabahar port in southern Iran in a strategic bid to connect to Central Asia through Iran and Afghanistan. Chabahar provides war-torn Afghanistan a crucial link to Indian goods and Iranian oil. In December 2017, India made its first shipment of wheat to Afghanistan via the port.
•Realising the advantage of India developing Chabahar, the U.S. has also exempted India from certain sanctions so that it can make progress on the port. The sanctions relief for the port is motivated by a mix of politics and economics. Washington sees Chabahar’s utility in development and humanitarian relief work in Afghanistan. The U.S. is also aware that China has a stake in developing Chabahar port and could easily replace India if the latter were unable to maintain its foothold there.
•On its part, Iran is keenly interested in building the port. Control over Chabahar could put the ace card in its hands as it deals with the competition between China, India and Russia in South and Central Asia.
•Admittedly, India remains opposed to Iran’s alleged efforts to acquire nuclear weapon capability. A nuclear Iran would disrupt the balance of power across West and Central Asia, with serious consequences for India’s economic and strategic interests. But a stronger relationship with Iran would increase India’s influence in West and Central Asia. That could help to counter China. And a friendly U.S. could then approach Iran on nuclear issues through India’s good offices.
•Despite Mr. Trump’s propensity for springing unpleasant surprises, India has, so far, walked the U.S.-Iran strategy-economics tightrope. It has a good chance of remaining on the tightrope.
📰 #MeToo: GoM may review law
WCD ministry has suggested changes
•The Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to examine sexual harassment at the workplace may consider amending the law against sexual harassment at workplaces, according to government sources.
•The GoM headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to meet soon, said a senior Home ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
•The spokesperson of the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry said that with campaigning for Assembly elections in five states drawing to an end, members of the GoM would now be able to meet.
•The WCD ministry has shared with the Home ministry a meeting agenda, which includes changes to the Sexual Harassment of Women and Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, sources in the WCD ministry said.
•“The agenda mentions lacunae in the law as well as suggests ways to improve it,” said a senior WCD ministry official, who did not wish to be identified. He added that the guiding principles for making the amendments would be the Vishaka guidelines.
•The GoM includes Minister for Road Transport and Shipping Nitin Gadkari, Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi.
Vishaka guidelines
•The Vishaka Guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in 1997 lays the onus on the employer to prevent or deter acts of sexual harassment, apart from “providing resolution, settlement or prosecution of acts of sexual harassment.”
•The Act lays down the duties of an employer: ensuring a safe working place, displaying penal consequences of sexual harassment, creating awareness, as well as facilitating an internal probe. The employer is liable to pay a fine of ₹50,000 if he fails to comply with the inquiry report submitted by an internal complaints committee or doesn’t report the number of cases in the annual report.
•The Justice J. S. Verma panel had recommended an employment tribunal instead of an internal committee to probe complaints.
📰 ISRO puts ‘Sharp Eye’ into orbit
Workhorse launch vehicle PSLV C-43 injects Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite into space
•Nearly three minutes after lift-off on Thursday, India’s workhorse launch vehicle, the PSLV, carrying 31 satellites on board soared in a trajectory crossing the path of the Sun and sped to inject India’s Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS), being dubbed ‘Sharp Eye’, towards the launcher’s intended first orbit.
•Over the course of the next one hour, the team at Mission Control waited for the PSLV C-43 to come up on the other side of the Equator to insert 30 small satellites from various countries into another orbit as requested by the customers. The 30 satellites were part of a commercial launch.
•In its 13th flight of the Core-Alone version and 45th launch of the PSLV, ISRO carried one satellite each from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Malaysia, Netherlands and Spain, and 23 satellites from the U.S. on board as co-passengers of the HysIS.
•At 9.57 a.m., the rocket lifted off from the first launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, here. A little over 17 minutes later, the HysIS was injected into a precise orbit of 636 km from Earth. The HysIS is an Earth Observation satellite primarily to assist in a wide range of applications in agriculture, forestry, geological environments, coastal zones, among others.
•To a question whether HysIS could be used for anti-terror operations, ISRO Chairman K. Sivan said ISRO’s job was only to build the satellite, but did not rule out such a possibility. “Our duty is to mainly build the satellite which can precisely identify an object. The usage…we are not bothering. That depends on the users. Right now it is meant for Earth Observation missions. But after seeing the results, may be…but it’s not in our hands,” he said.
All praise for team
•Lauding the ISRO team for making HysIS, Mr. Sivan said the satellite was state-of-the-art technology. “The heart of the system required for the HysIS satellite is basically an optical imaging detector chip. This chip has been indigenously designed by Space Application Centre of ISRO and fabricated at our semi-conductor lab at Chandigarh. I am sure that team ISRO can be proud that they are really giving an excellent space asset to India,” he said.
•Explaining the one-hour wait for the vehicle to come up on the other side and to insert the commercial satellites, Mr. Sivan said the PSLV first travelled Southward and injected the HysIS around 27 degree South of the Equator.
•On the successful injection of the satellites, Mr. Sivan said, “The way it was injected, our customers will be very happy to see their babies are delivered to their homes safely and precisely.”
📰 The case for a progressive international
Only a global alliance can reshape the regulatory regime to make it more democratic
•Earlier this year, it was revealed that India is facing legal claims from international investors in as many as 23 arbitration cases, before various tribunals. These claims, worth billions of dollars, arise out of bilateral investment treaties between India and other states. One striking feature of such treaties is that they allow international investors (primarily MNCs) to initiate a dispute directly in an international tribunal, bypassing the state’s own constitutional system and its courts. Often, the disputes revolve around measures that were triggered by public health emergencies, economic crises or other matters directly involving public welfare — which would therefore be permissible under the Constitution, but which a corporation believes have negatively impacted its financial interests.
Transnational issues
•This reveals an important truth about the contemporary, globalised world: issues that were earlier resolved within a sovereign state in accordance with its constitutional system have now acquired a transnational character. There are other contemporary examples: because of its attempts to make essential medicines affordable through amendments to its Patent Act, India has come under pressure from the U.S. and the European Union (at the behest of prominent pharmaceutical companies), while finding support and emulation in countries like South Africa and Thailand. Indeed, in 2011, the EU seized shipments of life-saving Indian drugs that were being transported to Africa and Latin America, on the basis that it could apply its more restrictive patent and customs laws to goods in transit through its territory.
•Clearly, while global problems cannot be solved without nation-states, nation-states cannot solve their problems on their own. India’s battle to preserve affordable access to medicines is part of a larger struggle, where participation in the global intellectual property regime has severely constrained the ability of countries to respond to public health crises. Whatever a country’s Constitution may say about the right to life and the right to health for its citizens, it will still be dragged before an international tribunal if it attempts to forestall or mitigate a public health crisis by lifting patent restrictions upon, for example, a life-saving drug. The point is not only about who finally succeeds in litigation — rather, it is that the final decision is taken by a set of individuals who are beyond the structures of accountability that are established in democratic and constitutional states.
•As pointed out above, the transnational character of these issues suggests that the response cannot succeed if it is unilateral. In the latest version of the model bilateral investment treaty drafted by India, for example, the scope of investor-state dispute settlement by international tribunals has been curtailed. But it takes many to tango: until the perils of bypassing national constitutional systems are accepted more broadly, individual attempts will fall short.
•The issues are not limited to conflicts before international forums. Recent months have seen clashes between national regulatory authorities and the corporations that drive the new “gig economy”, such as Uber. In October, Uber and Ola drivers in Mumbai called for an indefinite strike over low pay, after a similar strike in Delhi earlier. In the U.K., the EU and various States in the U.S., there has been protracted and bitter litigation over the legal obligations that Uber owes to its drivers. The conflict may take different forms in different countries, but each time there are striking similarities, stemming from Uber’s business model, which is transnational in character. And, like in the case of investment treaties, it is often difficult for one country to tackle the problem alone – especially when the corporation is global in character, and can issue a credible threat of withdrawing substantial levels of investment. Nor is worker power, as long as it is confined within borders, and not trans-nationalised,
sufficient to combat the power of MNCs.
The example of DiEM25
•It is always helpful to look elsewhere, to see how people in other parts of the world have attempted to engage with such issues. A recent example is that of the Democracy in Europe Movement 25. DiEM25 arose after the debt crisis in Greece had resulted in a wide-ranging “structural adjustment programme” imposed upon that country by the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund (or “the troika”). This included severe austerity measures (including cuts to public funding, resulting in mass unemployment) and widespread privatisation, in direct contravention of the publicly expressed will of the people, through both elections and a public referendum.
•The central insight of DiEM25 — one of whose co-founders, Yanis Varoufakis, was Greece’s Finance Minister during the debt crisis — is precisely that today a progressive movement oriented towards social justice and fundamental rights cannot succeed if it is constrained within national borders. Many of the fundamental decisions that shape national policy (with wide-ranging consequences) are simply beyond the ken of nation-states themselves. For this reason, DiEM25 identifies as “pan-European”, and isolates a range of issues “currently left in the hands of national governments powerless to act upon them” — including public debt, banking, inadequate investment, migration, and rising poverty. In its manifesto, DiEM25 returns these issues to democratic control, but also acknowledges that the solutions needed to achieve this can only come from transnational action.
•Another important insight of the DiEM25 manifesto is that the world today is based on “the reduction of all political relations into relations of power masquerading as merely technical decisions.” For example, what steps a country like India must take to ensure the availability of life-saving drugs (and not only during a public health crisis) is a decision that must be taken democratically and politically, within the constitutional framework. At present, however, it always remains ultimately subject to a “technical decision” (potentially taken by an international tribunal) about whether India has breached its obligations under an international intellectual property rights treaty regime. What needs to be done is to reshape that regime to make it more democratic, an effort that, by its very nature, cannot be undertaken by a single country.
•The focus on democracy is particularly important with respect to a third issue: the increasing role of technology in our daily lives. This debate has come to the fore recently, with the long-running conflict over Aadhaar, and the draft DNA Profiling Bill. The relationship between technology and human freedoms will be vital in the future. It is therefore particularly interesting that, through the evolving concept of “technological sovereignty”, DiEM25 has drawn a specific link between technology and democracy, which can help us think through contemporary issues such as platform monopolies, the ubiquity of AI in public decision-making (including on public welfare), etc.
An international new deal
•In September, writing for The Guardian, U.S. politician Bernie Sanders called for a “progressive international”: “an international progressive movement that mobilizes behind a vision of shared prosperity, security and dignity for all people, and that addresses the massive global inequality that exists, not only in wealth but in political power.” Mr. Varoufakis responded to this by calling for an “international new deal”. Movements such as DiEM25, which have sprung up in various parts of the world, serve as potential blueprints and models for what a “progressive international” may look like. It is a conversation that progressive movements in India must take heed of, and engage with, if we are to adequately address the transnational problems that face us today.
📰 Number theory: on lowering UPA-era GDP growth rate
The larger lessons from the GDP back series must not be clouded by a political slugfest
•Backcasting, or reworking past national accounts statistics based on the latest base year, is a regular exercise that governments carry out. Mainly done to enable precise comparison and analysis, it is a difficult exercise prone to contestation as it involves the inclusion of newer data sources, exclusion of outdated ones and making some subjective assumptions in the process. Throw in the political element, and GDP backcasting can become a controversial exercise, as it has now become in the case of the release of back series data from 2005-06 to 2011-12, the new base year. The data computed by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and released by the Niti Aayog show that India never really grew in double-digits in 2010-11, nor was it the high-growth economy in the five years preceding this as earlier thought to be. It so happens that this period covers the two terms of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, and the new data have predictably set off a political storm. The Congress may feel aggrieved as its biggest achievement, of taking India on the high GDP growth path, has come under question. During earlier instances of backcasting of GDP data, the political environment was not as deeply polarised as it is now, and so the exercise remained more academic.
•The danger in the political slugfest now is that the many valuable insights that can be gleaned from the data will be lost sight of. The biggest of these is that India never really decoupled from the global economy during the years of the financial crisis (2008-10), unlike what was earlier believed. The new back series data show a much lower growth rate. This is an important learning for policymakers, going forward. Any criticism of the data has to take into account the fact that it has been generated by a thoroughly professional organisation, the CSO, and the methods have been scrutinised by experts, including past chief statisticians, and the Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics. Certainly, the release of the back series by the Niti Aayog goes against convention and is bad in optics. But this should not be reason to contest its integrity. The method of computation reflects the latest United Nations System of National Accounts; it also captures changes in the economy since 2004-05. Data sources have also been updated. Experts had testified to the robustness of the method when it was introduced in 2015, even while underlining that the availability of reliable data was crucial to arrive at the correct overall picture. There is little doubt that India needs to invest more in data collection and integration and do informal sector surveys more frequently. Robust, updated data are, in fact, insurance against politicians hijacking what is essentially an economic exercise.
📰 Cool it: on labour loss due to heatwave
Increased exposure to heatwaves needs a policy response, nationally and globally
•The staggering loss of an estimated 153 billion hours of labour during 2017 due to rising temperatures around the globe is a reminder to governments that they are not doing enough to dramatically curb greenhouse gas emissions. The Lancet countdown on health and climate has reported that India was particularly affected by the rising frequency of heatwave events and lost about 75 billion hours of work, a significant part of it in the agricultural sector. This has worrying implications for rural employment and the well-being of a large section of the population that depends on farming. At stake for all countries in the developing world is the health of millions, many of them already vulnerable to extreme weather events. Coming on the eve of the UN climate conference in Katowice, Poland, the report of the Lancet panel for 2018 brings clarity, placing connected issues in perspective for governmental action. It is vital that India gets more ambitious about cutting back on carbon emissions, even as it presses for the fulfilment of the climate finance obligations of developed countries under the Paris Agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. A further reduction in the share of coal in the energy mix through sustained support for renewable energy, particularly solar photovoltaics, must form the cornerstone of national policy. This must be matched by a shift away from use of fossil fuels for transport, and the induction of more electric vehicles. Such a policy would yield the parallel benefit of improving air quality; ambient air pollution led to the premature death of an estimated half a million people in India in 2015.
•The consensus on climate change is that it has begun to affect the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events. India’s approach to adaptation should, therefore, prepare for catastrophes with a well-considered plan to provide relief and rehabilitation. If the Centre and State governments can arrive at a consensus on the strong climate link to the excessive rain in Kerala and Cyclone Gaja in Tamil Nadu, for instance, a case could be made for climate funds under the Paris Agreement. Such a claim has to be supported by a perspective plan that identifies vulnerable regions and communities, and incorporates transparent systems for funds utilisation. The importance of funds for adaptation is underscored by Lancet’s finding that 99% of losses from climate-related events in low-income countries were not insured. From a public health perspective, the report sounds a warning that rising temperatures will enable the dengue virus and malaria to spread farther and faster. This is also true of some other infections. The aggravated impact of climate change on health is a serious issue for policymakers to consider when they gather in Katowice for the conference on December 2.
📰 RBI moves to ease liquidity for non-banking finance firms
Relaxes holding period for securitisation of loans to six months from one year
•In a move to make more liquidity available to non-banking finance firms, the Reserve Bank of India has relaxed the securitisation norms by relaxing the minimum holding period requirement. The move follows a demand from the government for a special window for NBFCs, to provide them liquidity support.
•RBI has decided to relax the Minimum Holding Period (MHP) requirement for originating NBFCs, as they are now allowed to securitise loans with maturity of more than five years after holding them for six months on their books, as compared to one year earlier.
•The relaxation on the minimum holding period will be allowed when the NBFC retains 20% of the book value of these loans, the RBI said. “The above dispensation shall be applicable to securitisation / assignment transactions carried out during a period of six months from the date of issuance of this circular,” RBI said in a notification on Thursday.
•The NBFC sector is facing liquidity shortage after Infrastructure Leasing & Finance Services, a core investment company, started defaulting on loans which resulted in the government dismantling the existing board of IL&FS and installing a new one. The cost of funds has gone up for the non-banking finance firms putting pressure on profitability.
•I think this is the best step taken so far; this will add meaningfully to retail type of lenders such as [ourselves],” said Gagan Banga, VC and MD, IndiaBulls Housing Finance.
‘Growth capital’
•“What this means [for us] is between now and May [2019], we can raise additional ₹25,000 crore. In the last two months, we have raised around ₹24,000 crore.
•“From a liquidity standpoint, we are doing extremely well. That said, we needed growth capital. So this is not a liquidity solution but growth capital.”
•“Relaxation in MHP criteria would primarily benefit Housing Finance Companies and NBFCs offering mortgage loans where the loan tenure is typically more than 5 years. A greater proportion of their loan book would now become eligible for securitisation,” said Vibhor Mittal, group head, Structured Finance, ICRA.
•In a separate move aimed at boosting MSME sector exports, the RBI said the interest subsidy on post and pre-shipment export credit has been increased to 5% from 3%. The increased subsidy is applicable effective November 2. Exporters get the subsidy under the ‘Interest Equalisation Scheme on Pre and Post Shipment Rupee Export Credit’
📰 ‘China halts work on gene-editing babies’
Scientist ‘altered the DNA of twin girls’
•A Chinese scientist who stoked criticism over his claim that he had created the world’s first genetically-edited babies faced mounting pressure Thursday as China ordered a halt to his scientific activities and warned he may have broken the law.
•China’s National Health Commission has ordered an investigation into He Jiankui’s experiment, which was condemned by the scientific community in China and abroad.
•Chinese science and technology Vice Minister Xu Nanping said the “gene-edited babies incident as reported by media blatantly violated our country’s relevant laws and regulations”.
•The claims were “shocking and unacceptable” and breached “the bottom line of morality and ethics that the academic community adheres to”, he told CCTV.
•The Science and Technology Ministry “firmly opposes” the experiment and “has already demanded that the relevant organisation suspend the scientific activities of relevant personnel,” Mr. Xu added.
Immune to HIV
•The experiment, which was led by Mr. He, claims to have successfully altered the DNA of twin girls born a few weeks ago to prevent them from contracting HIV.
•The scientist said on Wednesday he was “proud” to have successfully altered the DNA of the twins. But details of the experiment, which has not been independently verified, triggered an immediate backlash and He said the trial had been “paused”.
•Mr. He was supposed to speak at the conference again on Thursday, but he disappeared from the schedule.
•David Baltimore, a Nobel laureate and chairman of the organising committee, told reporters it was Mr. He’s decision not to attend.
•The founder of an HIV support group reported to be based in Beijing said on Thursday that he regretted introducing families to He for the trial, according to Hong Kong media. Bai Hua, the group’s head, said he had introduced 50 families to Mr. He’s team.
