📰 Naga militant groups | Peace under process, tension in the air
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The Naga militancy, with its roots going back to First World War, is back in the spotlight after the State Governor slammed ‘gun-point extortions’
•Nagaland Governor R.N. Ravi did not name any group when he, in a letter to Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio on June 16, said the legitimacy of the constitutionally-established State government was being challenged on a daily basis by more than half a dozen “armed gangs that question the sovereignty and integrity of the nation”. The Governor, who took charge in July 2019, pointed out instances of “gunpoint extortions” for siphoning off a large chunk of government funds meant for development.
•The Governor’s comments have threatend the tenuous peace process with the militant groups responding sharply to him.
•The Working Committee of the Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs), a conglomerate of seven extremist groups, denied indulging in extortion but admitted to accepting “nominal contribution” that has been “mandatory” since the “inception of our struggle”. Some of the constituents of the umbrella group are breakaway factions of the NSCN (K), or the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, formed by the Myanmar-based Shangnyu Shangwang Khaplang.
•The NNPGs were not the first to counter Mr. Ravi. Their bigger rival NSCN (IM), named after founders Isak Chishi Swu, who died in June 2016, and Thuingaleng Muivah, reacted first by insisting it does not extort people but levies “genuine taxes” on them. “It is the inherent right of any sovereign people and nation to collect taxes from the people and commercial establishments... Taxes have been the source of sustenance that has brought the Naga political movement this far. This was legitimately acknowledged by the earlier interlocutors and Indian authorities and it was never an issue,” the NSCN (IM) said in its defence.
•The letter from Mr. Ravi, who was appointed as the Centre’s interlocutor for the Naga peace process in August 2014 for his hold on the affairs of the northeast, was unprecedented. Those acquainted with extremism in Nagaland and adjoining States where various factions of the NSCN have been active know much of what he said was familiar. The extremist groups have been collecting “taxes” or “donations” from people in their areas of operation before and after the ceasefire agreement with the NSCN (IM) in mid-1997.
Special responsibility
•Mr. Rio’s coalition government, of which the Bharatiya Janata Party is a constituent, objected to the Governor’s reminder of Article 371A (1)(b) of the Constitution that gives the Governor of Nagaland the special responsibility with respect to law and order in the State. In a statement on July 2, the State government pointed out that the procedure of taking the Governor’s approval for the transfer and posting of senior officers was ended through an Assembly resolution in December 2013. It also said any decision to put the clock back “in the guise of discharging special responsibilities” under the said Article “would be against the principles of democracy” and anti-people. But what stood out in the government’s rebuttal was the complaint about the Governor’s reference to “armed gangs”. Terming the organisations such, it said, “may not be congenial to the achievement of lasting peace, which is the desire of both the Central and the state governments”. By using the term vis-a-vis the peace process, both the Governor and the Rio government made it clear which group mattered the most — the NSCN (IM).
The Naga Club
•Mostly comprising the Nagas of Manipur, the NSCN (IM) is 32 years old. But it has its roots in the conscription of some 2,000 Nagas by the British as labourers and porters for salvage work and road-building in France during First World War in 1917. On a foreign land, the Nagas, from disparate and warring tribes, developed a bond and the survivors who returned in May-June 1918 formed the Naga Club, along with some educated locals in October that year. The club aroused a sense of Naga nationalism. In 1929, leaders of the club submitted a memorandum to the Simon Commission, stating that the Nagas should be left alone to “determine for ourselves as in ancient times”.
•The Naga Club was later overshadowed by the Naga Hills District Tribal Council, formed in 1945. A year later, it metamorphosed into a political organisation called the Naga National Council (NNC), which campaigned for sovereignty and secession of the Naga Hills, then a district of Assam, from India. Under the leadership of Angami Zapu Phizo, the Nagas declared independence on August 14, 1947. A referendum organised by the NNC in May 1951 showed “99%” people supported an “independent” Nagaland.
•The NNC’s movement intensified after it boycotted the 1952 general election. As New Delhi deployed the armed forces, the strength of the underground Nagas increased. In March 1956, the NNC formed a parallel government and hoisted the flag of the “republic”, while the radical members floated the underground Naga Federal Army. The intensity of the armed movement lessened with the signing of the 16-Point Agreement between the Centre and a group of the people’s representatives in 1960, leading to Nagaland’s statehood in December 1963.
•The movement, however, continued intermittently. The hopes of peace were raised when the Centre signed the Shillong Agreement with a moderate faction of the NNC in 1975. But a dissident group led by Muivah, Swu and Khaplang, who had been trained in China, rejected the pact outright. They went underground again, spending much of their time in Myanmar and formed the National Socialist Council of Nagaland in January 1980. Differences surfaced within the outfit over initiating a dialogue process with the Indian government. It split into the NSCN (IM) and the NSCN (K) in April 1988 and often engaged in fratricidal battles.
Feelers from Delhi
•In 1997, the NSCN (IM) received feelers from New Delhi for peace talks and a ceasefire agreement was signed. The NSCN (K) followed suit four years later but it unilaterally abrogated the ceasefire in 2015. At least three of its breakaway factions, however, formed the NNPGs to join the peace process two years later.
•In the 23 years since the signing of the truce pact, the NSCN (IM), dominated by the Tankhuls of Manipur, has held more than 100 rounds of peace talks with the Centre within and outside the country. One of its most contentious demands was the creation of a unified Naga homeland, called ‘Greater Nagalim’ by integrating the Naga-inhabited areas of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal with Nagaland.
•The other north-eastern States are opposed to the idea of the pan-Naga homeland, and are wary of the Framework Agreement the NSCN (IM) leaders signed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence in August 2015. The contents of the agreement have not been revealed.
•The NSCN (IM) said Governor Ravi’s letter reflected the intention of an interlocutor who wanted to complicate and prolong the much-delayed peace process. There are reports that key NSCN (IM) leader Phungthing Shimrang and his loyalists have gone underground again for a return to the pre-1997 days if the Nagas do not get the “honourable solution” they seek.
Ministry aims to replace current transportation of goods law
•The Commerce Ministry is considering replacing the Multi-Modal Transportation of Goods Act (MMTG) with a full-fledged national logistics law with a view to promote growth of the sector, a senior government official said on Saturday.
•Special Secretary in the logistics division of the Ministry, Pawan Agarwal said a National Logistics Efficiency and Advancement Predictability and Safety Act (NLEAPS) is under consideration and this law tends to define various participants of the logistics space and create a light regulatory ecosystem.
•“What the logistics sector is all about is not very clear to us as of now and in that direction, we need to clearly define what the logistics sector is and what the various elements in it are... We are considering replacing it with a full-fledged national logistics law.” NLEAPS is under consideration, he said at a webinar organised by industry chamber PHDCCI.
•Multimodal transportation refers to a combination of more than one mode of movement, such as rail, road or sea, for end-to-end delivery of goods.
•“We are working towards finalising a national logistics policy. We will be having consultations once the draft is finalised,” he added.
•The move assumes significance as high logistics cost impacts the competitiveness of domestic goods in the international market. Effective implementation of the policy would help provide an impetus to trade, enhance export competitiveness, and improve India’s ranking in the Logistics Performance Index.
•India’s logistics sector is highly fragmented and the government aims to reduce the logistics cost from the present 14% of the Gross Domestic Product to less than 10%.
•According to an earlier statement from the Ministry, the sector is complex, with more than 20 government agencies, 40 partnering agencies, 37 export promotion councils, 500 certifications and 10,000 commodities.
📰 What will be the impact of Chinese apps ban?
How popular are they in India? Can the government’s move be challenged legally?
•The story so far: In the wake of the face-off with Chinese forces on the India-China border in Ladakh, and a violent clash on June 15 that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, the Indian government on June 29 banned 59 apps of Chinese origin, citing data security and national sovereignty concerns. These include popular ones such as TikTok, SHAREIt, UC Browser, CamScanner, Helo, Weibo, WeChat and Club Factory.
Why were the Chinese apps banned?
•The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in a press release asserted that it had received “many complaints from various sources, including several reports about misuse of some mobile apps available on Android and iOS platforms for stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data in an unauthorised manner to servers which have locations outside India”.
•The Ministry said it had decided to block the 59 apps to safeguard the “sovereignty and integrity of India”, invoking powers under Section 69A of the Information Technology (IT) Act read with the relevant provisions of the Information Technology (Procedure and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules 2009.
•The government also said that several citizens had reportedly raised concerns in representations to the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) regarding security of data and loss of privacy in using these apps. In addition, the Ministry said it had also received “exhaustive recommendations” from the Home Ministry’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre.
•And while the government did not name China openly in its action against the apps, public comments by officials including Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology and Law and Justice — he asserted that the ‘digital strike’ was done “for safety, security, defence, sovereignty & integrity of India and to protect data & privacy of people of India” — signalled that it was aimed at Chinese economic interests.
How large is the user base in India for these banned apps?
•Estimates by Sensor Tower show the video-sharing social networking app, TikTok, for instance, has seen about 611 million downloads in India over the app’s lifetime, while estimates of active users vary with the highest pegged at 200 million. According to media reports, file-sharing tool SHAREIt has about 400 million users. Statcounter places the Alibaba-owned UC Browser second in India market share at 10.19%, after Google Chrome (78.2%). Other reports estimate its user base at 130 million.
How will users be affected?
•Installed apps may continue to exist on mobile devices. But now that the latest versions of the apps have been removed from Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store, users will not be able to access updated versions in future. If a notice goes out to internet service providers asking that data flow from these apps be halted, that could impact the functioning of existing, installed apps.
What are the alternatives and are they easy to find?
•Users of banned browsers or video apps may find it easier to shift to similar offerings from elsewhere. Chingari, a competitor from India to TikTok, saw its downloads soar from 1 lakh to 1 crore-plus on Google Play Store soon after the ban on Chinese apps was announced.
•Users of some apps such as CamScanner may not be able to shift so easily. For example, it is not clear yet how say a pdf, or portable document format, created by a user via CamScanner a couple of years ago and backed up in Google Drive, could be transferred to another app such as the Adobe Scan or Microsoft Office Lens, unless individually downloaded and re-uploaded.
•There are some alternative products such as the India-made Zoho Doc Scanner, which does offer users the option to import all files en masse from CamScanner.
How does the ban affect Chinese app providers?
•The potential loss of advertising revenue impacts app-makers. Tik Tok’s parent ByteDance Ltd. recorded a doubling of global revenue to $17 billion in 2019, over the previous year, with $3 billion in profit.
•Its India business may have yielded only $5.8 million in revenue for the year ended March 2019, but with quicker user adoption more recently, the stakes seem to be getting higher. When TikTok was banned briefly in India last year on the grounds that it reportedly promoted pornography, the company had told a local court that it was losing roughly $15 million a month due to the ban, according to a Reuters report. The app had subsequently been permitted to operate.
What has China’s response been to the ban?
•China has said that it suspects India’s actions could be in violation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. In a statement, the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi said, “India’s measure selectively and discriminatorily aims at certain Chinese apps on ambiguous and far-fetched grounds, runs against fair and transparent procedure requirements, abuses national security exceptions, and [is suspected] of violating the WTO rules. It also goes against the general trend of international trade and e-commerce, and is not conducive to consumer interests and the market competition in India.”
•The Chinese government’s comments indicate that it could file a formal complaint at the WTO.
Will the move hurt India?
•It could, in terms of investments and employment. ByteDance Ltd. had talked of upcoming investments worth $1 billion in India. That will probably remain suspended till further clarity emerges, potentially impacting job creation.
What legal options does the Indian government have?
•In terms of process, there are two options available to the government under Section 69A of the IT Act to issue ban orders — normal and emergency. In the case of the ban on the 59 apps, based on the use of the phrase “interim order” in the statement issued by TikTok, it appears that the government may have adopted the emergency route. The emergency route allows content to be blocked on the directions of the Secretary, Department of IT, who must consider the impugned content and record his reasons for doing so. In the normal course, an order to block content requires: (a) a decision to be made by a government committee (b) relevant intermediaries to be given an opportunity to be heard by this committee.
•These processes are not required when emergency provisions are used. However, in the case of emergencies, the order of the Secretary, Department of IT, must be placed before the government committee within 48 hours. Based on the recommendations of this committee, the order can then be finalised or vacated.
Does the government necessarily have to publish the order?
•The legal order that empowers the designated authority to implement the ban is yet to be made public.
•Rule 16 of the Blocking rules requires strict confidentiality to be maintained regarding blocking requests, complaints received, and actions taken. However, policy experts such as Rishab Bailey, a technology researcher with the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, believe that this provision primarily applies to intermediaries (through whom blocking is implemented). He points out that the government ought to disclose the orders passed (subject to relevant redactions that may be required) in the interests of transparency and accountability.
•Also, and as recognised by the Supreme Court recently in the Anuradha Bhasin case (in the context of Internet suspensions ordered under Section 144 of the The Code Of Criminal Procedure), publishing such orders is the only way in which the reasons and rationale for the decision can be judged. Challenging the decision-making process requires the reasoning to be made public, Mr. Bailey said.
Can the order be challenged in an Indian court?
•Though it is unlikely that the companies concerned may take such a step immediately, either they or any affected individual in India could challenge the blocking orders in court.
•The courts will then decide whether the government has provided sufficient explanation as to the nexus between what these apps are alleged to be doing and the reasons adduced by the government such as protection of national security and strategic interests. Courts will also consider if the ban is a proportionate and necessary step to be taken, given the facts at hand.
•According to Mr. Bailey, another factor to be considered is whether the process for blocking under Section 69A of the IT Act contemplates blocking of content (or apps) on grounds of privacy violations.
📰 Why has Indian Railways opened doors for private players?
Will the move help to expand and modernise the sector, ensuring better services to passengers?
•The story so far: Indian Railways has launched the process of opening up train operations to private entities on 109 origin destination(OD) pairs of routes using 151 modern trains. It has invited Request for Qualifications proposals, for scrutiny of vendor capabilities, from those who can bring modern trains for operations on existing rail infrastructure. At present, scheduled passenger train services remain paralysed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and various railways have been running only specials such as those for workers. Yet, the Railway Board has moved ahead with a long-pending plan, setting a tentative schedule for private train operations, expected to begin in 2023 and in 12 clusters. In December 2019, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal had said that a Group of Secretaries had gone into the question of allowing private train services. There was no proposal to allow more Tejas trains from Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC), the Minister said. The IRCTC, in which the government is the majority shareholder, was given pilot Tejas operations in the New Delhi-Lucknow, and Mumbai-Ahmedabad sectors. These were the first trains allowed to be run by a ‘non-Railway’ operator. The present move takes another step towards competing passenger train operations, bringing new-generation trains and attracting investments of an estimated ₹30,000 crore.
What is the background to the decision?
•Several committees have gone into the expansion and the modernisation of Indian Railways. In 2015, the expert panel chaired by Bibek Debroy constituted by the Ministry of Railways a year earlier, recommended that the way forward for the railways was “liberalisation and not privatisation” in order to allow entry of new operators “to encourage growth and improve services.” It also made it clear that a regulatory mechanism was a prerequisite to promote healthy competition and protect the interests of all stakeholders.
•The present invitation for private operators to submit qualification bids for 151 trains would be, in the assessment of the Railway Board, only for a fraction of the total train operations — 5% of the 2,800 Mail and Express services operated by Indian Railways. The overall objective, however, is to introduce a new train travel experience for passengers who are used to travelling by aircraft and air-conditioned buses.
•From a passenger perspective, there is a need for more train services, particularly between big cities. The Railway Board says five crore intending passengers could not be accommodated during 2019-20 for want of capacity, and there was 13.3% travel demand in excess of supply during summer and festival seasons. Without an expansion, and with growth of road travel, the share of the Railways would steadily decline in coming years.
Why is the move significant for Indian Railways?
•For the Railways, one of the largest organisations in the country operating not just trains for passengers and freight, but also social institutions such as hospitals and schools, it represents a radical change. According to data maintained by the World Bank, in 2018 India had 68,443 route kilometres of railways. It is among the four largest rail networks in the world, along with the United States, China, and Russia, although every kilometre of track in India covers geographical area much less than Germany, Russia, China or Canada, indicating scope for expansion.
•An analysis of passenger and freight operations in the Railways, taken note of by the Economic Survey and the erstwhile Planning Commission, showed that a steady shift to other modes of travel for both categories was affecting economic growth: by as much as 4.5% of GDP-equivalent. It was estimated that a one rupee push in the railway sector would have a forward linkage effect of increasing output in other sectors by ₹2.50. The Debroy committee found this significant to take the ‘Make in India’ objective forward. The panel also noted that passengers were willing to pay more, if they had guaranteed and better quality of travel and ease of access. The move to augment capacity virtually overnight through private capital in train operations pursues this line of reasoning.
Are private train operations sustainable?
•Train services operated by Indian Railways cover several classes of passengers, meeting the social service obligation to connect remote locations, and adopting the philosophy of cross-subsidy for passengers in low-cost trains through higher freight tariffs. In more recent years, it has focused on revenue generation through dynamic demand-based pricing.
•Private operators are not expected to shoulder the burden of universal service norms, and will focus on revenue. Even the first IRCTC-run trains have a higher cost of travel between Lucknow and Delhi than a Shatabdi train on the same route that almost matches it for speed. So private operators would have to raise the level of their offering even higher, to justify higher fares, and attract a segment of the population that is ready to pay for this difference. The government would have to explain that it has monetised its expensive fixed assets such as track, signalling and stations adequately for the taxpayer, who has paid for them.
•The key piece in the scheme is the independent regulator, recommended by expert committees. Before the pandemic struck, the Government of India said in the Lok Sabha in March that it had notified the resolution to set up a Rail Development Authority as a “recommendatory/advisory” body, advising government on, among other things, promoting competition, efficiency and economy, and protecting consumer interests. Private rail operations can thus be seen as a government-led pilot plan, not a full programme for unbundling of the monolithic Indian Railways, although the more attractive parts are being opened for private exploitation.
📰 What are scientists saying about a new virus strain in China?
•The story so far: Reports of an emergent viral infection transmitted from pigs in China dominated the news earlier this week. Newspapers and television channels reported that a new strain of H1N1 (also known as swine flu) had started infecting workers and the recommendations of scientists were that it must be controlled with a great deal of urgency as it had the potential of becoming yet another pandemic.
What are the risks from emerging pathogens?
•At this stage, potential harm from G4 EA H1N1, the new strain, has just been flagged by scientists who predict risk from emerging pathogens. Knowledge of the existence of the virus in pig farms in China has been present since 2016. But a new study (“Prevalent Eurasian avian-like H1N1 swine influenza virus with 2009 pandemic viral genes facilitating human infection”) published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S. (https://bit.ly/2ZuLy7O), said it replicates efficiently in human airway paths and so far, has infected a few people without actually making them ill. They found antibodies for the virus in the blood of pig farm workers, none of whom was sick.
•The authors, who are researchers based in China, recorded in the article: “Pigs are intermediate hosts for the generation of pandemic influenza virus. Thus, systematic surveillance of influenza viruses in pigs is a key measure for pre-warning the emergence of the next pandemic influenza... G4 viruses have all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus. Of concern is that swine workers show elevated seroprevalence for G4 virus. Controlling the prevailing G4 EA H1N1 viruses in pigs and close monitoring in human populations, especially the workers in swine industry, should be urgently implemented.”
•The researchers collected 338 blood samples from workers on 15 farms and 230 from people in nearby households. The results, as published, found that 10.4 % of the workers and 4.4 % of the others tested positive for antibodies to G4 EA H1N1. Over all, 20.5 % of the workers between the ages of 18 and 35 tested positive.
Is G4 a current pandemic?
•No. The paper has merely forewarned of the possibility that the G4 virus might emerge into a pandemic in the future, and the authors have called for greater vigilance in monitoring people. It has not become potent in humans even though their blood contains antibodies for the virus.
•Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and also an adviser in the White House coronavirus taskforce, told the US Senate that U.S. health officials were watching the China developments with reference to G4, which has the characteristics of the 2009 H1N1 virus and the 1918 pandemic flu. The virus, which scientists are calling “G4 EA H1N1,” has not yet been shown to infect humans but it is exhibiting “reassortment capabilities”, the media cited him as saying.
•At this point of time, the alert can be considered an early warning bell. It calls for vigil primarily because this is a new strain against which humans would have no inbuilt immunity from the virus, much like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease, COVID-19.
What is disease/pandemic risk surveillance?
•Most countries have their own disease surveillance mechanisms in place to monitor and track emerging diseases. Public health teams evaluate the risk of a particular pathogen on the community, based on the cases occurring, and warn of potential risks from that pathogen. Early warning systems have been successful in predicting dengue and Ebola outbreaks, among other diseases, in the past, enabling health systems to be pre-warned and, thus, prepared to tackle the challenge. Local outbreaks of cholera or diarrhoeal disease have also been identified in cities, and have helped limit the damage in the community.
•Closely studying a pathogen will yield valuable information on transmission, and behaviour of the organism, giving humans early lessons in its prevention and treatment. Alerts should also be sent out by global health mechanisms, including the World Health Organization (WHO), so that other nations at equal risk might be warned before the outbreak hits their shores.
What is the future?
•Borrowing the urgency of a now famous phrase that WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus used for the coronavirus (‘Test, Test, Test’), the world must seek ‘Vigilance, Vigilance, Vigilance’. All risk assessment systems across the world will have to be on active mode, besides forming a network globally to share information on emerging diseases and pathogens. WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) is at the front of such initiatives to make scientific predictions based on certain models. While there is no doubt that disease and pathogen surveillance have a place in the modern world, it is also important to remember that scientists themselves regard it as an imprecise form, ergo, any undue alarm as a consequence of such studies would quite frustrate the target of preparedness.
