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Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com

Content

Ukraine's Conflict and Resolution 1

The Next Internet Bust? 2

Course Correction 3

'Pepper Spray MP' 4

Off-target on Monetary Policy 5

A Law for Street Vendors 6

The Street Vendors Bill 7

Rajan's Target: Inflation or the Poor? 9

RBI Report on Financial Inclusion: A Review 10

Thinking about the 21st Century Indian City 11

Holding Up Half the Sky 12

The Ukrainian Crisis 13

MGNREGA and Biodiversity Conservation 14

Break the 'Special 301' Big Stick 15

India's Green Industrial Policy 16

Easing Unbearable Pain 18

Interstate Water Disputes 19

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Notes by vineetpunnoose on www.kiwipaper.com Page 1

Ukraine's Conflict and Resolution Sat, Mar 22, 2014ukraine, EPW, international,

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the use of force to save the Russian-speaking

nationalities in southern and eastern Ukraine would only be the "last, very last resort".

Russia has legally signed bilateral agreements with Ukraine that gives it obligations

and rights in Crimea and grants it a lease for a naval base in Sevastopol on the Black

Sea that is critical for the Russian naval fleet. The presence of Russian soldiers is not

new in this region but such aggravated tension certainly is.

The European Union (EU) huddled into emergency talks even as Russia said that it

would impose counter sanctions on Western countries. Moscow even talked to China

and other countries, and the Western media started the rhetoric of a "New Cold War".

There are multiple reasons for the current crises. The Ukrainian economy is in dire

straits. It needs $35 billion to stay afloat. $13 billion are due as debt repayment this

year. Besides it has huge gas bills to pay Russia. Ukrainian regime was faced with two

options. One option was provided by the EU-US-International Monetary Fund (IMF)

troika. This loan would have come with conditionalities including the devaluing of the

Ukrainian currency, cutting subsidies for gas and energy, besides transparency in

governance.

The second option was offered by Russia in December 2013. This included a $15 billion

loan, besides concessions on the desperately needed gas supplies to this gas-deficit

region.

President Viktor Yanukovych rejected the EU plan that would have imposed harshausterity on an already impoverished Ukraine. He accepted a more generous $15 billion

loan from Russia in addition to natural gas on concessional rates. This decision sparked

protests in the capital city of Kiev which falls in the western part of Ukraine.

But the economy is not the only reason for such polarisation. The Ukrainian Parliament,

some time back, eliminated a law to protect the use of minority languages, particularly

the use of Russian as an official language in those sectors of the country where it is

spoken.

The chaos that followed the violence, the flight of the president, and installation of an

acting president, who appeared to represent only the Ukrainian-speaking western-orientedmass, led to increased threat perceptions in the south and east, especially in Crimea.

Crimea has a semi-autonomous status, earlier within the Soviet Union, now within

Ukraine.

Putin took sanction from the Russian Duma to mobilise troops along the Russia-Ukraine

border and in Crimea on 1 March, in the belief that the Russian-speaking nationalities

in Crimea and eastern Ukraine were under siege.

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Any intervention by one country into another is a violation of international law. But in

the case of Crimea, several historical factors need to be weighed in. Russia and Ukraine

have special treaties on multiple subjects and one of these requires Ukraine to ensure

linguistic and other minority rights within Ukraine, particularly in Crimea, and there

would be Russian obligations.

From the Russian perspective, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's (NATO)

expansion into former Warsaw Pact nations has gone on unilaterally. Also, at the time

of the Soviet break-up, George Bush Sr and James Baker promised Mikhail Gorbachev

that the West would never expand to Russia's borders. But NATO started wooing

Ukraine by 1995 and then the EU started considering Ukraine for EU membership. The

"Orange Revolution" of 2004 deposed an elected but discredited president and brought

in Yulia Tymoshenko as two-time prime minister. She was later jailed, has now been

freed, and will add to this melee.

Ukraine itself is a Soviet construction, and there is no single Ukrainian people. The

state was made up by putting together different nationalities at different historical

periods. This began during the prolonged feudalism under Catherine "the great", extended

to Lenin's reorganisation in 1922 of the eastern part of the country, with largely Russian

speakers.

If Putin is violating international law by sending Russian troops into Crimea after a

violent coup spearheaded by neo-Nazis militias, what about Iraq and the weapons of

mass destruction (WMD) claims by the US and its allies? Or drone attacks in Pakistan

led by the US? Putin has recalled the experience of US in Iraq, Libya and others, when

the US acted without UN Security Council sanction. If sanctions against Russia overCrimea then why not sanctions on Israel over Palestine, others have asked.

The Next Internet Bust? Sat, Mar 22, 2014EPW, economics, internet,

First, as in the years before 2000, firms that have no clear revenue model are being

valued at billions of dollars. So long as a firm is able to attract a large number of users

(as in the case of apps) or viewers (as in the case of websites) it is being considered a

potential revenue earner, even if the route to such revenues is unclear. Second, any

start-up winning attention becomes the object of attraction for a number of potential

acquirers, leading to a bidding war that makes the valuation even more difficult to

explain. Finally, at the end of the game, valuations are at levels where they imply

astronomical and irrational price-earnings (P/E) ratios that are difficult to justify.

Investors are betting on growth of a king, which is an exception rather than the rule.

he first is evidence, from the experience of companies such as Facebook or Google,

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that when revenues do begin to accrue (largely from advertising) they grow at incredibly

rapid rates, at times quickly rendering the firm comparable even in terms of revenue

size with some of the large global companies. The second is that already successful

companies may see competitive benefits in acquiring a particular start-up (such as

WhatsApp), resulting in a willingness to pay high prices for acquisition to beat competitors(such as Google in the WhatsApp case).

Course Correction Sat, Mar 29, 2014EPW, foreign policy, international,

as things stand today, India's foreign policy is closer to its professed aim of seeking

strategic autonomy, promoting trade and economic linkages and, most importantly,

stability and better ties in the immediate neighbourhood.

But since 2008, UPA-I and then UPA-II sought to make some course corrections. Ona range of international issues, India has moved away from the US "bandwagon"; it

refused to vote in favour of military intervention in Libya and in Syria, and recently

voiced clear opposition to sanctions against Russia over Ukraine and Crimea.

ndia has also taken a firm stand at international climate and trade negotiations, and on

the issue of intellectual property rights, resisting pressure from the US, the European

Union and other developed countries. The US has continually complained about India's

reluctance to introduce more market reforms that would allow greater investment and

trade in its favour. Even though India has expanded security and military relationships

with the US through cooperation on anti-terror measures and arms trade, it has been

careful not to tie its strategic aims with that of the US, in particular the latter's ambition

to "contain" China. India's Look East policy has led to a deepening of relations with

south-east Asia and countries like Korea and Japan. India re-engaged with Iran, initially

through backchannel talks and has now even revived the possibility of partnering Iran

on development of the Chabahar port.

The UPA deserves credit for having resisted pressure for military measures against

Pakistan after the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai and for not allowing tensions to escalate

after some of the border incidents were given a hyper-nationalist turn by the media.

In Nepal, India played a positive role in the early part of the UPA's tenure, facilitating

a peace agreement between the Nepali Maoists and the other democratic parties, which

paved the way for the formation of the Nepal republic. Despite a lapse into its old habit

of interfering in Nepal's internal affairs, the Indian establishment now seems to back

a policy of not interfering in Nepal's domestic politics and its torturous process of

constitution writing. The UPA also managed to initiate some significant breakthroughs

in its relations with Bangladesh on border settlements, water sharing, trade and

communications and security cooperation. However, its pusillanimity in Parliament in

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the face of national chauvinists has meant that relations are now in a bit of a limbo.

Even on Sri Lanka, the UPA government, despite some lapses, managed to steer clear

of supporting either the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or the Sri Lankan state, even

though it did not perhaps do enough to defend the human rights of the Tamil minority.

It has joined other countries in putting pressure on the Sri Lankan government to take

steps towards post-war reconciliation and devolve more provincial powers to the north

and east, both bilaterally as well as through the United Nations.

Trade and economic relations have also become central to India's foreign policy, with

the UPA using trade agreements to further diplomatic relations. It has played a proactive

role in helping Indian capital find good investment opportunities in Africa and other

places too.

The UPA tenure might well end in a resounding defeat of the Congress Party and its

allies because of unpopular domestic decisions and corruption, but in its foreign policy

the UPA leaves behind a largely positive legacy.

'Pepper Spray MP' Sat, Mar 22, 2014Parliament, EPW, polity,

Can the Member of Parliament Lagadapati Rajagopal be criminally prosecuted for

attacking fellow lawmakers with pepper spray in the Lok Sabha? The question needs

to be looked at in the context of the privileges and immunities enjoyed by our lawmakers

for "acts" committed in connection with the proceedings of Parliament.

MPs are normally immune from criminal prosecution for "acts" (speaking, voting, etc)

done in connection with the proceedings of the House. Rajagopal's actions therefore

raise a critical question that needs answering before he can be brought to book: does

he enjoy immunity from prosecution despite committing a "criminal" act in Parliament?

Article 105(2) clearly states that no MP shall be exposed to any civil liability or criminal

prosecution for "anything said" or "any vote given" in Parliament. I

The SC has consistently held that MPs enjoy complete and unfettered immunity when

it comes to things said in Parliament. In fact, the courts have gone so far as to hold that

the words "anything said" in Article 105(2) are of the widest amplitude, and it is notpermissible to read any limitation therein.

In the case of P V Narasimha Rao vs State , 4 certain MPs had taken bribes to vote in

a particular way on a no-confidence motion, but not all of them eventually voted on

that motion. By a majority of three is to two, the SC held that the alleged bribe-takers

who had actually voted on the motion were entitled to immunity under Article 105(2),

as their actions were related to a vote actually cast in Parliament. According to the

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majority view, those MPs who had taken a bribe and not voted enjoyed no such immunity

and could be prosecuted under Section 120A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for criminal

conspiracy.

The minority judgment's interpretation of Article 105(2) was that it did not grant

immunity from a liability that arose independently of the speech or vote. Thus merely

treating the commission of a criminal offence as a breach of privilege does not amount

to an ouster of the jurisdiction of the ordinary criminal courts to try penal offences, and

to claim that in such matters the courts have no jurisdiction amounts to claiming a

"privilege to commit a crime". 5

Given the actions of Rajagopal, leaving it to the discretion of the judiciary to make a

case by case determination on whether immunity is available or not is likely to lead to

more uncertainty as the police will have to seek a legal opinion on each and every

occasion. Under Article 105(3), as amended in 1978, the powers, privileges and

immunities of MPs are to be defined by Parliament, and as they are yet to be defined,continue to be governed by British parliamentary conventions.

Amendment of Article 105(2)

To avoid another "pepper spray" episode, the following recommendation of the National

Commission to review the working of the Constitution must be implemented:

A logical extension of this recommendation would mean that MPs like Rajagopal,

who have conveniently retired from politics, will not be able to escape punishment for

committing offences such as "voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means"

(Section 324 IPC), an offence punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, onthe grounds of "privilege".

Off-target on Monetary Policy Sat, Mar 1, 2014Monetary Policy, EPW, economics,

Disregarding international experience of recent years, the Urjit Patel Committee

recommends that the Reserve Bank of India pursue a single objective of infl ation

targeting. It focuses on the interest rate to control infl ation (by influencing inflation

expectations), though experience has shown that in India this mechanism has a weak

impact on inflation and a stronger one on output. It is a disappointing report drawingon a textbook reading of the New Keynesian model.

To start with, the crisis questioned the belief that the United States financial system

represented the best approximation of an efficient financial market with appropriate

levels of competition and transparency - Glass-Steagall was no more the innovation-killing

monster it had been made out to be. Second, as investors who had rushed in during the

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The Street Vendors Act envisages that every city municipal corporation will set up a

town vending committee which will have the municipal commissioner, representatives

of the local planning authorities, residents' associations and the street vendors. It is

this committee that will vet applications for street vending and fix locations for vendors.

Also, the Act requires the demarcation of areas for street vending which is reasonable

and consistent with existing natural markets. However, activists have pointed out that

while this Act overrides state and municipal laws, there are possibilities of centre-state

friction since municipal zoning falls within the jurisdiction of states. I

Implementation is where this Act will be crucially tested. The track record of most

municipal authorities in awarding contracts for utilisation of public spaces, building

public infrastructure and dealing with the needs of the urban poor has been far from

good.

The Street Vendors Bill Sat, Mar 8, 2014Street Vendors Bill, EPW, polity,

The Street Vendors Bill, awaiting the presidential assent, may hinder an otherwise

informal and flexible business model.

. The bill which is awaiting assent of the president to be an Act, 1 is being treated as a

milestone in progressive policy response to unemployment and economic displacement

of the urban poor. However it appears that in seeking to protect street vendors from

mistreatment by the civic agencies and the police, the SVB opens floodgates of a new

set of problems While the need for regulation of street vending is imperative, equallyimportant is the need to view and review it critically with the objective of arriving at

the best possible practice.

The National Policy on Urban Street Vendors estimates the number of street vendors

in a city as 2% of its population The street vendors routinely carry out petty transactions

in cities unmindful of vehicular congestion and pedestrian rush. Public sympathies

oscillate between periods of tolerance to anguish and intolerance.

The ruling of the SC marked a shift in the perception about street vendors as a nuisance

disturbing public order to one in which they are accepted as contributors to the economic

situation and as providers of goods and services to the people at their convenience. TheSVB provides a sense of victory to the vendors as it marks a watershed moment in their

prolonged struggle to secure dignity and freedom from harassment at the hands of civic

authorities and the police.

The SVB is preceded by the National Policy on Urban Street Vendors, 2009 which

aimed at creating a social and economic environment that is conducive to the pursuance

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of street vendors' livelihood.

The SVB provides for setting up a town vending committee (hereafter TVC) in each

local authority. 2 The TVC would be chaired by the municipal commissioner or the

chief executive officer. Street vendors will comprise at least 40% of the members elected

from among themselves. 3 The SVB states that the number of other members, as may

be prescribed, would be nominated by the government representing the medical officer

of the local authority, the local authority, the planning authority, traffic police, association

of street vendors, market associations, traders associations, non-governmental organisations,

community-based organisations, resident welfare associations, banks and such other

interests as it deems proper. 4

The TVC will be entrusted with tasks of (i) maintaining updated records of registered

street vendors, publishing street vendors' charter, and carrying out social audit of its

activities; (ii) conducting survey of all street vendors once in five years; and (iii) issuing

certificates of vending and identity cards to all street vendors with preference to scheduledcastes (SCS), scheduled tribes (STS), Other Backward Classes (OBCS), women, persons

with disabilities, minorities, etc

The SVB in its present form is well intended, particularly in its provision of allocating

space to street vendors so that they are not asked to move away from a congested area

and then await an opportunity to get back

Regulating street vendors, or offering promotion and support, requires interactions

between dozens of local officials and thousands of vendors, with enormous potential

for misunderstandings, avoidance and deception. In the absence of such a rigorous

exercise, attempts at regulating street vending may not end up benefiting vendors much.

While for some, street vending is a part-time activity which they pursue only for a few

hours in a day, for others it is a day-long activity, and yet others engage with street

vending occasionally. While there are street vendors who have been selling at the same

place for a long time and in that sense are stationary, there are also those who are on

the move most of the time following a single route or changing it occasionally or

frequently, as the desire or need to.

Following the SVB, the issue of certificate of vending under categories of a stationary

vendor, a mobile vendor or any other category specified in the scheme laying down the

timings and place of vending category is likely to curtail the freedom of street vendors.It will foreclose the opportunity of switching from one way of operating to another and

changing place of selling according to one's own will, situation, circumstances and/or

business acumen. These may well create various opportunities for harassment

The first is that many street vendors will be forced to abandon their best-suited selling

spaces because they could not make it in the draw of lots.

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Street markets have given gainful employment to the urban poor with low skill sets

and to the displaced (Bhowmik 2010), and in doing so has helped them emerge as

important nodes of economic growth. What makes street markets a viable place to carry

out transactions is the informality of work and working conditions that broadly allow

individual street vendors to sell at places of their own choice and schedules of selling.

The SVB tends to overthrow the benefits of informality as it makes street vending a

kind of formal enterprise by way of regulating it in ways that are detrimental to the

vendor.

Rajan's Target: Inflation or the Poor? Sat, Mar 29, 2014EPW, economics, inflation,

India has been witnessing significantly high rates for inflation since mid-2009 and,

except for some blips here and there, inflation has continued to remain quite high. Thisobviously hurts those whose income is not indexed to inflation.

The way IT works is that it is assumed that there is a trade-off between inflation and

output; so to bring inflation down one needs to reduce the level of output (thereby the

level of employment too gets affected). Output can be brought down with a higher rate

of interest, which would adversely affect two of the most important components of total

output, private investment and credit-financed consumption.

While the index of industrial production (IIP) has seen a declining trend in growth over

the period of a continual hike in interest rates, inflation has hardly abated except in the

rise in prices of commodities where the monsoon has played a supportive role

This brings us to the question of why inflation has been so stubborn over the past few

years. The answer to this question lies in looking at the cost rather than the demand

side. Kalecki, a Marxist economist, had proposed that while prices of industrial

commodities are cost-determined, those of primary commodities are demand-determined.

So it is obvious that inflation which has entered the system with the rise in prices of

the latter, cannot be controlled by bringing down the production of the former. Moreover,

inflation because of a rise in prices of critical imported inputs like oil (because of an

increase in dollar prices and/or depreciation of the rupee) also cannot be controlled by

bringing down production and employment. What the government needs to do then is

not follow a conventional IT approach but attack the real sources of inflation by (a)

countercyclical taxation of oil and related items (increase tax rates when their prices

in rupee terms are low and vice versa); (b) improvement and investment in storage

capacities across the country; (c) controlling the futures market; and (d) cracking down

on commodity hoarders.

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RBI Report on Financial Inclusion: A Review Sat, Mar 1, 2014EPW, economics, financial inclusion,

It is debatable if the report of the Reserve Bank of India's committee on comprehensivefi nancial services - the Nachiket Mor Committee - offers practical solutions for

extending banking services to the poorer sections of society and small businesses.

The following recommendations about priority sector lending (PSL) in Chapter 4.8 are

worthy of adoption: (a) all loans to landless labourers and small/marginal farmers

should be counted as part of PSL; (b) investment by banks in bonds of institutions must

qualify for PSL, where wholesale lending to the same institutions already qualify for

PSL; (c) non-fund based (NFB) limits to priority sector should be included under PSL,

subject to the total credit of a bank, also including NFB. This would reckon exposure

levels instead of amounts lent; (d) PSL targets should be computed on a quarterly basis;

(e) banks should purchase bank-wide portfolio insurance to guard against naturalcalamities affecting a region/nation.

In Chapter 4.8, the report recommends that "each district of the country should achieve

at least a 50% credit to GDP ratio" with sector and sub-sector level ratios. More

particularly, the vision statement states that each district and every significant sector

(and sub-sector) should have a credit to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio of at least

10% by 1 January 2016, which should increase every year by 10% to reach 50% by

2020. The RBI and/or government are expected to monitor the compliance of banks.

Practically, the burden of giving credit in each district in relation to GDP (largely

reflected by bank deposits) would fall primarily on public sector banks (PSBs). And,monitoring would be done by junior government officers who would take pleasure in

hectoring senior bank officials to lend more, irrespective of risk.

(i) Universal Electronic Bank Ac counts: The committee wants each resident above 18

years to "have an individual, full-service, safe and secure electronic bank account" by

1 January 2016. The dissenting note deems it to be an aspirational goal and January

2018 to be more realistic.

(ii) Disclosure of Stress Tests: The committee has recommended that all banks should

be required to disclose the results of their stress tests both at an overall balance sheet

and segmental level, at least annually. The dissenting note is against this view. It rightlysays that "public disclosure of the results may lead to unintended consequences".

(iii) Universal Accessibility: The committee wants the number of distribution and

electronic payment access points to be expanded so that every single person is within

15-minutes walking distance from such a point by 1 January 2016. The distribution

channel would include bank branches, agents, non-bank financial companies (NBFCs),

business correspondents (BCs), ATMs, mobile phone networks, and the like.

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(iv) Payments Bank: Chapter 3.6 waxes eloquent on the concept of a payments bank

to be licensed by the RBI. Broadly, they will be similar to "narrow banks" and would

invest only in risk-free government paper with less than three months duration. (The

concept of narrow banks was examined by the authorities about a decade ago and given

up as impractical.)

(v) Equity Investments of Banks in Rural Infrastructure Companies: The committee

considers that banks should facilitate creation of rural infrastructure by investing in the

equity of companies setting them up. The dissenting note has stressed that banks should

not be asked to invest in equities, as their role is to provide debt capital. This is a valid

objection.

Thinking about the 21st Century Indian City Sat, Mar 15, 2014

JNNURM, EPW, urbanisation, economics,

The 21st century will be an urban century with much of this urbanisation taking place

in Asian cities, especially in India and China. Ironically, however, in India since the

1980s, due to a larger rural electorate, cities have not dominated political imaginations

and from the public policy agenda. Yet in the next 20 years, it is likely that India's

economy will move from a more than 50% urban economy to an economy that is

two-thirds or even three-fourths urban. Thus, the greatest challenge today is to build

an imagination of an Indian society in which cities have a central part.

Whatever the exact definition may be, it is clear that urbanisation carries with it

tremendous potential for economic prosperity, the consolidation of middle-classaspirational lifestyles, growth of civil society and experiments with local democracy.

But at the same time, this rapid urbanisation also presents significant challenges including

the degradation of urban poverty and inequality, the inadequacy of infrastructure, and

the ecological impact of stifling pollution and increasing carbon footprints.

there is an urgent need for attention to the urban informal sector (the source of an

estimated quarter of India's GDP) and the urban poor. The informal sector has often

been dismissed as insignificant, even though this is a sector of tremendous productivity

and potential.

And just as the informal sector has been neglected in policy discussions, so have smalltowns, as the government continues to underinvest in them, even though they offer key

opportunities for job creation and economic growth. Even under the existing 74th

amendment (which guarantees statutory provisions for local administrative bodies in

urban areas such as towns and cities), K C Sivaramakrishnan of the Centre for Policy

Research argued that, "It (the 74th Amendment) has not helped small towns or megacities.

Money is distributed without attention to what is needed, and urban concerns are reduced

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only to issues of real estate." It is time for the 74th amendment to be revisited, higher

thresholds for municipal status should be considered, and governance mechanisms

should be clearly refined.

India has a top-heavy urban structure, with 23.5% of the urban population in cities with

over five million people. Thus, because existing policies and frameworks are often

limited in their scope, new visions, policies, and programmatic frameworks that can

adapt to changing realities and capture the dynamism and mobility of India's cities and

small towns are desperately needed.

"Ultimately, welfare regimes have become a zero-sum game, with welfare regimes

simply offsetting policy distortions",

Holding Up Half the Sky Sat, Mar 22, 2014

EPW, elections, polity, women,

Perhaps the most serious charge that can be laid against almost all the parties, with a

few honourable exceptions, is that there has been no attempt to engage with women to

know their real issues or to give them the opportunities to participate and grow politically.

These range from passage of the long-pending Women's Reservation Bill to measures

to improve the child sex ratio, inclusion of women's self-help groups as part of priority

sector credit outlays and regulation of microfinance institutions and moneylending to

greater access to public services, promoting the interests of women farmers and a host

of economic, educational and gender justice categories Had the Women's Reservation

Bill been passed into law, 181 seats in Parliament and 2,060 seats in the various stateassemblies would have had to be set aside for women. Parties that support the Reservation

Bill do not show the same alacrity in fielding women candidates. Neither do women

constitute a sizeable presence in the hierarchies and decisive posts of these parties

including those headed by women leaders. More reprehensible and cynical is the fielding

of women candidates in areas/seats where the party's chances of winning are poor or

next to impossible.

Take the example of Mizoram. Women voters not only outnumber their male counterparts

in the electoral rolls (51%) but also in the actual turnouts. Yet, Mizoram's legislative

assembly does not have a single woman since 1984. Neither is the picture any better

in the fielding of candidates by parties in that state. Therefore, political parties continue

to primarily focus on the men and shift attention temporarily when an atrocity against

women dominates public and media attention. Even in a majority of such cases, the

parties tend to be reactive and regressive rather than proactive and progressive.

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The Ukrainian Crisis Sat, Mar 15, 2014Ukraine, EPW, international, budapest memorandum,

More than two decades have gone by since the end of the Cold War, but the ongoingevents in Ukraine (and, some would say, in Syria as well) would however suggest that

great-power geopolitics is alive and well. The Russian actions clearly breach not only

the sovereignty of its neighbour, but also the 1994 Budapest Memorandum signed by

Russia, the US and the UK. The signatories had agreed that external powers will not

use any coercion - military or economic - against Ukraine for their interests or work

against its territorial integrity andindependence. But are the Russians alone to blame

for this turn of events?

Western powers had a major role to play in pushing Yanukovych out following violent

protests that killed about a hundred people in the period. It is therefore not enough to

single out Russia's present indiscretion. The outpouring of protestors on the streets ofKiev reflected the yearning for a closer integration with the rest of Europe in western

Ukraine. Yanukovych and his party (Party of Regions) have been far more popular and

strong in the industrialised eastern parts of Ukraine which have had a more entwined

economic relationship with the erstwhile Soviet Union, his election to the presidency

was nullified following protests in what was called the "Orange Revolution".

This time around, a coalition of forces was ranged against Yanukovych. There were

those from the middle and upper middle classes who resented the influence of the

eastern oligarchy that had propelled Yanukovych to power and who sought closeness

with the EU. One key demand from the protestors was the restoration of amendmentsmade to the Constitution in 2004 (and controversially rescinded in 2010) that had

drastically cut down powers of the presidency vis-a-vis the elected parliament.

A significant part of the protests was also led by ultranationalists who had long envisioned

Ukraine's destiny to be part of Europe rather than Slavic Eurasia.

As protests raged on in the capital, it soon became clear that both the EU and the US,

and, of course, the Russians were keenly guiding different forces involved in the uprising

in order tofurther their respective geopolitical goals. The US sought to use the protests

to marginalise Russian influence and as a ploy to checkmate the Russians who had

successfully prevented the Americans from launching strikes against Syriarecently.Russia was keen on retaining Ukraine as a part of its immediate zone of influence, as

it has tried to prevent Ukraine from integrating into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Putin presidency has used a policy of carrot and stick - carrots such as the proposed

buying of Ukraine's government bonds valued at $15 billion and a cut in the price of

natural gas exports to Ukraine in December 2013 and sticks such as the use of protectionism

against some Ukrainian products following the initialling of the EU agreement in 2012

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MGNREGA and Biodiversity Conservation Sat, Mar 8, 2014MGNREGA, environment, EPW, Biodiversity Conservation,

The various activities being promoted under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Guarantee Scheme such as water harvesting and soil conservations could have high

positive results on environment security and biodiversity and environment conservation.

The scheme also seeks to create durable assets to augment land and water resources,

improve rural connectivity and strengthen the livelihood resource base of the rural poor.

MGNREGS works are largely focused on land and water resources, which include

water harvesting and conservation, soil conservation and protection, irrigation provisioning

and improvement, renovation of traditional waterbodies, land development and

drought-proofing. These MGNREGS works have the potential to generate environmental

benefits such as groundwater recharge, soil, water and biodiversity conservation,sustaining food production, halting land degradation and building resilience to current

climate risks such as moisture stress, delayed rainfall, droughts, floods, etc (Tiwari et

al 2011; MoRD 2012).

the environmental implications of the programme is less explored. The potentials of

the programme in environmental security are relatively less addressed, perhaps a

reflection of the low concern among the policymakers and think tanks on the environmental

security amidst the larger clamour for economic growth Poverty alleviation is linked

to environmental security more intricately and inclusively, and therefore, policies and

strategies need to reflect the same. The various activities being promoted under

MGNREGS such as water harvesting and soil conservations implicitly could have high

positive results on environmental security and biodiversity and environmental

conservation. In fact, protecting the environment is mentioned as one of the major

activities conceived in NREGA (IAMR 2009).

considerable environmental benefits were derived by executing various programmes

under the MGNREGS (IIS 2013). The major benefits identified are the improvement

in water resources (such as water conservation and harvesting works, drought-proofing,

irrigation provisioning and improvement works, and renovation of traditional waterbodies,

improved groundwater levels, increased water availability for irrigation, increased

area irrigated by ground, surface water sources, and finally, improved drinking wateravailability for humans and livestock), environmental benefits and vulnerability reduction,

improvement in land resources (land development works such as land levelling,

conservation bench terracing, contour and graded-bunding, field-bunding, pasture

development, silt application and drought-proofing), contributing to improved soil

organic carbon (SOC) content, reduced surface run-off and soil erosion, enhancement

of crop diversity and crop yields and positive impacts on forests, plantations and fruit

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orchards.

Though it has been envisaged under MGNREGS to take up works related with

biodiversity conservation and enhancement, available information indicates that

biodiversity conservation is yet to be internalised as one of the focal areas of MGNREGS.

Break the 'Special 301' Big Stick Sat, Mar 8, 2014special 301, intellectual property, EPW, economics,

designate India as "Priority Foreign Country" (PFC) in its 2014 Special 301 Report

which is due for release on 30 April. They have complained that India has denied

"adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights" (IPRs) and accused

it of back-pedalling "fair and equitable access to US persons who rely on intellectual

property". They claim that the grounds on which India has issued compulsory licences

and the standards for patentable subject matter found in Section 3(d) of the Indian PatentAct (IPA) have violated its obligations under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects

of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Unilateral action under Special 301 was one of the big sticks that the US began wielding

in the course of the Uruguay Round (1986-93) of the General Agreement on Tariffs

and Trade. It was an effective imperialist weapon then, but what of it now, almost two

decades since the formation of the WTO in 1995?

Under the "administrative adjudications" of Special 301 the USTR merely establishes

that the countries it blacklists (the term itself has racial connotations) are in violation

of the US government's interpretations of the TRIPS agreement. India has been on the

Special 301 priority watch list all along, ever since the first Special 301 Report in 1989,

except when it was upgraded to PFC for three years. During the Uruguay Round

negotiations, India was deemed to be among the leading countries opposing the TRIPS

agreement in the making, alongside Brazil, Argentina and Egypt, but New Delhi soon

fell in line, perhaps even before 1992 when the mere threat of being designated as PFC

seems to have worked.

India's first-ever compulsory licence, that on Bayer's patent on sorafenib (brand-named

Nexavar) for the treatment of kidney and liver cancer, was essentially to combat the

ridiculous monopoly price of the imported drug, even as Bayer was given a relatively

high royalty rate of 6%. Can the US dare challenge this policy action by the Indiangovernment in the WTO under Section 31 of the TRIPS agreement and the Doha

Declaration on the TRIPS agreement and Public Health? Indeed, the US itself issues

compulsory licences to combat monopolistic practices.

Charging exorbitant prices all over the world Novartis has already appropriated as

private profit the gains from much of the tax-supported research investments made by

US' National Cancer Institute into the invention of cancer drugs, including Glivec.

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India's Supreme Court did well in denying it a patent under Section 3(d) of the IPA

for a mere derivative of the known substance for treating cancer that did not even

enhance the efficacy and safety of the original version.

India's Green Industrial Policy Sat, Mar 1, 2014environment, EPW, Green Industrial Policy, climate change,

The current global financial crisis demands swift action by governments to support,

restructure and sustain industrial activities. Simultaneously, addressing the global

climate change requires significant modifications in industrial incentives and regulations

GIP, seeking to develop new industries and adopt new technologies, involves essential

policy changes. It is different from conventional industrial policy in two ways: first, it

requires different policy instruments; second, it involves stronger state engagement in

markets. Under GIP, states seek to promote sustainable patterns of production andconsumption by pricing resource consumption and promoting efficient technologies

through market transformation.

Considering the fact that energy is a major input for industrial process and major

contributor to industrial emissions, GIP seeks to tame energy consumption and hasten

the development of low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels. Will the alleged GIP, with

its emphasis on clean energy production and consumption, lead to green growth and

sustainable development?

Keeping with the global trend, India seems to be pursuing the GIP, particularly since

the past decade. India is not only a major emerging economy with high industrial growthprospects, but also a major consumer of energy resources. Consequently, production

and use of clean energy have rightly been prioritised in India's GIP for achieving the

goals of green growth and sustainable development. India has been promoting renewable

energy (RE) as an alternative to fossil fuels to meet rising industrial energy demand,

and energy efficiency (EE) measures to tame the demand.

The country has set a target to raise its RE capacity to 74 gigawatts (GW) by 2022,

including 22 GW of solar capacity. With a renewable installed capacity of 27.7 GW

(13% of total installed capacity), the country is already a global leader Over the Twelfth

Five-Year Plan period (2012-17), it aims to install 30 GW of renewable capacities with

a federal outlay of around $4 billion. The private sector has a strong role to play in

executing the plan; in fact, much of RE development so far has taken place with the

private sector. Nearly one-third of the planned investment in infrastructure sectors over

the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period has been earmarked for the electricity sector; about

half of this investment is sought from the private sector.

While wind constitutes a large share (about 70%) of India's existing RE installed

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capacity, considering the potential of solar energy, the country has developed a strategy

to tap it. A national mission - the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM)

- has been set up to facilitate solar energy development to achieve the target of 20 GW

grid-connected and 2 GW off-grid solar capacities by 2022.

The state has made several policies to mandate and incentivise RE production at national

and sub-national levels. Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) is a key policy to create

demand for RE. Each sub-national electricity regulatory commission has set a specific

RPO for the utilities in their respective states. The national target was set at 5% for the

financial year 2009-10 and was to be increased by 1% each year for the next 10 years,

with the aim to procure 15% of consumable electricity from RE sources by 2020. The

policy also makes a provision for solar-specific RPO set at 0.25% in 2012, to be raised

to 3% by 2022. The Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) programme is being implemented

to penalise the utilities that fail to meet their RPO; they have to compensate by purchasing

equivalent RECs (Charnoz and Swain 2012).

To encourage private sector engagement, the state has made provisions for capital

subsidy and interest subsidy for setting up RE production units. RE generators have

the choice to trade electricity at a preferential tariff or to trade RECs separately after

selling the electricity at a competitive tariff. In addition, the state is providing tax

benefits to both generators and manufacturers on import of RE technology (e g, solar

panels) and additional support on R&D. Simultaneously, the state has enforced local

content requirement (LCR) - raised to 75% in the second phase of the JNNSM - to

promote growth in domestic manufacturing.

India has an equally ambitious target for EE, with a target to save 10 GW by 2014-15

and, thus, avoid 19 GW of additional generation capacity. The National Mission on

Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE) has been set up to facilitate the process with

mandatory provisions and incentive mechanisms. The perform, achieve and trade scheme

targets energy-intensive industries, which account for 60% of India's total primary

energy consumption, and are required to meet a certain level of EE in a specified time

period. Those who achieve EE gains beyond their target are rewarded with energy

saving certificates (ESCerts); those who fail to meet their target can buy ESCerts to

make up the difference, or pay a penalty (ibid).

The Way Forward

India's GIP holds good promises for green growth and sustainable development.

Achieving the JNNSM target will result in mitigation of 95 million tonnes (Mte) of CO

2 e annually by 2022. Simultaneously, NMEEE has potential to achieve mitigation of

98 Mte of CO 2 e annually. While promoting dynamic clean energy industries, GIP is

expected to reduce carbon intensity of Indian industries. Clean energy-based industrial

growth is expected to be inclusive by promoting regional development, employment

generation and improved energy access.

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two fundamental challenges weigh upon India's GIP, viz, finance gap and lack of

market transparency. While access to private finance is crucial for development of the

clean energy industry, current interest rates remain too high and financing institutions

remain reluctant to invest. Prevailing lack of market transparency in the sector may

result in rent-seeking and market distortion.

Addressing these challenges, which are not insurmountable, will largely depend on

state-business relations, private sector capacity, bundling of interests and policies, and

creative manoeuvres taken by the state. Much depends on the extent to which the private

sector shares the state goals, and the way they are organised and their capacity for

collective action.

Easing Unbearable Pain Sat, Mar 15, 2014

social, EPW, palliative care, health, narcotics,

The passage of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) (Amendment)

Act, 2013 means that for the first time since 1985, cancer, HIV/AIDS patients and

others suffering excruciating pain will have proper access to opioid medicines. Among

the most effective and inexpensive of these is morphine that can make a humongous

difference not only to the estimated 24 lakh cancer sufferers (15 lakhs at the unbearable

pain stage) but also to the terminally ill among the 16 lakh HIV/AIDS patients in India.

Patients in severe pain also often suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts accompanied

by extreme anxiety, resulting in further deterioration in their quality of life. Introduced

in the face of real and speculative fears about the misuse of narcotics and psychotropicsubstances, the 1985 law saw hospitals and medical colleges preferring not to stock

narcotics meant for medical use.

Health activists consider access to palliative care to be an issue of fundamental human

rights. Thanks to the unrelenting pressure by doctors appalled by the sufferings of their

patients, and M Rajagopal of the Indian Association of Palliative Care, in particular,

the central government directed all state governments to follow modified rules from

1998 onwards.

Now the newly amended NDPS Act will ensure that the different regulations in each

state and union territory will become uniform regarding opioids. The central governmentwill hold the right to amend these rules, and, more importantly, instead of a number of

departments and bodies giving the licensing nod, it will now only come from the drug

controller.

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Interstate Water Disputes Sat, Mar 1, 2014Inter state Water Disputes, EPW, polity, federalism,

The politicisation of interstate water disputes in India is an inevitable fallout of thehistorical and structural conditions that obtained at the time of forming the Indian union.

The Government of India (GOI) notified the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT)

award on 19 February 2013, just short of six years after it was awarded on 5 February

2007. This followed an exasperated and angry fiat by the Supreme Court (SC). While

setting the deadline for its notification, the Court admonished the central government

and accused it of "flouting the law" of the Interstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956

(IRWDA 1956).

Mainstream political parties are increasingly using interstate water disputes as avenues

for pursuing their political goals. The engagement of political parties in other recentdisputes such as Mullaperiyar and Bhabli has been no different.

Politicisation is an inevitable and ineradicable feature of interstate water disputes because

of certain historical and structural conditions that existed at the time of forming the

Indian union.

The current dispute has its roots in supposed violations of earlier agreements of 1892

and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras presidency and Mysore princely state, and it

was inherited by the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, respectively, in independent

India. The GOI tried resolving the dispute through mediations and negotiations for

several years before constituting the CWDT in 1990 under the provisions of the IRWDA1956 for adjudication.

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