NATIONAL AFFAIRS - APRIL 2010

NATIONAL AFFAIRS - APRIL 2010

RBI hikes key rates to tame inflation
On April 20, 2010, the Reserve Bank of India announced a 25 basis points increase in repo and reverse repo rates as part of monetary tightening measures to rein in inflation. The apex bank also announced a 25 basis points increase in the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) for banks. Following the hikes, the CRR now stands at 6 per cent while the repo and reverse repo rates stand at 5.25 per cent and 3.75 per cent, respectively.

The RBI expected the hike in CRR to absorb Rs 12,500 crore from the banking system. The apex bank said it was tightening liquidity in a bid to rein in inflation which was hovering in double digits. The RBI, however, expected inflation to remain at 5.5 per cent during FY 11 with the GDP growing at 8 per cent.

FDI on Tobacco banned
On April 8, 2010, the Union government notified the ban on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in cigarette manufacturing. Manufacturing of cigars, cheroots, cigarillos and cigarettes, of tobacco or of tobacco substitutes have been put under the list of sectors where FDI is prohibited.

The government took the decision to enhance public accountability towards proliferation of the anti-smoking regime in the country. The decision to ban FDI is the latest in the government's long-standing drive against smoking. In 2008, the government had banned smoking at public places and put a curb on tobacco advertisements.

Earlier, 100 per cent FDI was permitted in cigarette manufacturing, but an industrial licence was needed and the proposals required to be approved by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

New foreign investment policy document
The Union government has launched a new policy document consolidating the plethora of rules and norms governing foreign investment in the country under one comprehensive document. The move is aimed at making available all information on FDI policy in one place.

It will lead to simplification of the policy; greater clarity of understanding of foreign investment rules among foreign investors and sector regulators, as also predictability of policy direction.

Having a single policy platform that would subsume the 178 press notes would also ease the regulatory burden for government; it will be updated every six months. This consolidated press note will be superseded by a press note to be issued on September 30, 2010 to ensure that the framework document on FDI policy is kept updated.

Chinese hackers crack India’s top defence secrets
The computer systems of scores of Indian embassies, military establishments and corporate bodies, as well as the email account of the Dalai Lama, were hacked by a Chinese cyber spy ring between September 2009 and April 2010.

Hundreds of documents, including classified files, were stolen, says a Canadian cyber-security team that monitored the ring—the Shadow Network—for eight months.

The Shadow Network focussed on India, especially its military. The Canadians, in effect, hacked the hackers and saw many documents themselves.

The Chinese hackers stole foreign ministry reports on India’s policy in West Africa, Russia and West Asia. They got National Security Council secretariat assessments of security situations in Assam, Nagaland, Tripura and Manipur, as well as the Maoist problem.

The penetration of India’s defence establishments was remarkable. Three air force bases, two military colleges and an array of military institutes like the Army Institute of Technology, Pune, were broken into.

The hackers seemed interested in any defence information they could find: from sensitive issues like live fire exercises and Project Shakti—the army’s artillery command system—to more innocuous material like personnel files.

“This is a very serious, broad spectrum assault,” said strategic technology expert Ajay Lele, whose own agency, the Institute for Defence and Security Analysis (IDSA), was robbed of 180 documents.

The ring is believed to be based in Chengdu, in China’s Sichuan province. The cyber-sleuths, based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, avoided saying this was government-approved but did say it was “possible”.

The Indian security establishment has little doubt the Shadow Network is cast by Beijing. Says K. Santhanam, former IDSA head: “These rings are normally consortia in which Chinese academia, intelligence and military work together.”

Education becomes a basic right
The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Elementary Education Act came into force in the country from April 1, 2010, amid an emotional appeal of collective effort by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and loads of applauses for the government from various parties, including those in the Opposition—the BJP and the Left.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recalled the 100-year old resolve of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who urged the Imperial Legislative Assembly to confer on the Indian people the Right to Education.

With the RTE Act coming into force, the fundamental right to education as incorporated in the Constitution under Article 21 A also became operative.

Right to Education (RTE) Act has, however, come into force amid a whopping shortage of 5.3 lakh school teachers. Add to this, an additional seven lakh teachers that would be required for proper implementation of the Act that gives a three-year window period to States to make education a fundamental right of children in 6-14 age group and mandates setting up of neighbourhood schools with full infrastructure.

Uttar Pradesh tops the list, contributing 32 per cent of all existing teachers’ vacancies in the country. Next is the Left Front-ruled West Bengal, where 53,000 posts were lying vacant, as per MHRD records. Bihar has 51,000 vacancies, the figure for Chattisgarh and Orissa, the other educationally backward States, is 37,000.

Single-teacher schools are another big challenge for the RTE law. Currently, 9 per cent (about one lakh) of the total 12 lakh schools at primary level have only one teacher, whereas the RTE Act specifies that any school with enrollment of up to 60 students must have at least two teachers.

Union Budget passed after Rs 400 crore tax relief
On April 29, 2010, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced changes in tax proposals that will benefit coffee growers, new hospitals and construction sector while making it clear that service tax on domestic travellers would be Rs 100 per domestic journey and a maximum of Rs 500 for international travel.

Mukherjee announced these concessions that would cost the exchequer Rs 300-400 crore a year but did not touch the demand for rolling back the hike in petroleum and fertiliser prices on which the entire opposition walked out before Lok Sabha passed the Finance Bill, 2010.

Explaining the reasons for his inability to concede the opposition's demand, he said the financial position was such that oil marketing companies faced an under recovery of Rs 85,000 crore in 2010, apart from heavy outgo on account of subsidies, interest and other payments.

Five years of National Rural Health Mission
As India celebrated completion of five years of National Rural Health Mission on April 12, 2010, Assam won the best performing State award among the north-eastern State category for implementing the programme well.

Rajasthan was adjudged the best performing State among the high-focus areas, while Tamil Nadu claimed the award in the category of non-focus States.

Claiming credit for arresting the infant mortality rate (down to 53 in 2008 from 58 in 2005 when NRHM started) and maternal mortality rate (down to 254 in 2004 as against 301 in 2003), Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said the government was in the process of designing a comprehensive programme on population stabilisation in consultation with the State governments.

For the record, India has missed the goal of reaching 2.1 total fertility rate by 2010, as envisaged in the National Population Policy of 2000.

For the future, five challenges have been listed for NRHM—transition from curative to preventive health care, human resource management, setting of output and outcome targets, convergence and inclusive growth and approaches to public health that look at the different stages of health transition at State and district levels so that appropriate strategies can be adopted.

SC quashes expulsion of Amarinder Singh by Punjab Assembly
In what is being viewed as a major political victory for former Punjab Chief Minister and Congress leader Capt Amarinder Singh, the Supreme Court has ruled that his expulsion from the State Assembly on September 10, 2008 was “constitutionally invalid” and ordered restoration of his membership.

If Amarinder had committed any irregularities in the allotment of land to a private builder when he was Chief Minister during the tenure of the 12th House of the Vidhan Sabha, the proper course of action for the State government should have been to move the criminal law machinery, a five-member Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan held.

Further, the alleged improper exemption of land from the Amritsar Improvement Scheme “was an executive act” in his capacity as Chief Minister which “did not distort, obstruct or threaten the integrity of legislative proceedings in any manner”, the apex court ruled.

Also, the exemption had taken place during the 12th term of the Vidhan Sabha, whereas the constitution of the Special Committee to inquire into it took place during the 13th term. “It was not proper for the Assembly to inquire into actions that took place during its previous term, especially when there was no relatable business that had lapsed from the previous term.”

The court clarified that its judgment would not act as a hurdle against the investigation, if any, into the alleged role of Amarinder Singh in the Amritsar Improvement Scheme notified on January 13, 2006.

Visit of Afghan President Karzai
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, during his two-day trip to New Delhi on April 26, 2010, sought to allay India’s concerns over the proposed re-entry of the Taliban in the Afghanistan government.

Karzai indicated that his government would enter into a power-sharing arrangement with those elements of Taliban who had accepted the country’s constitution and were not part of the Al Qaida.

His meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came in the backdrop of moves being initiated by the Afghan government to enter into a power-sharing arrangement with the so-called “moderate” elements of the Taliban. New Delhi is worried that such a development will lead to the increased influence of Pakistan in Afghanistan.

In a statement issued after the meeting, Karzai said they had discussed the upcoming Afghanistan peace consultative jirga that, he explained, should “comprise people of Afghanistan, those from all walks of life to advise on how to move forward for reintegration and reconciliation of those elements of Taliban and others who have accepted the Constitution and are not part of the Al Qaida or any terrorist network.”
The Afghan President also requested Prime Minister Singh to send representatives to the follow-up to the London conference in Kabul so that “India can participate once again in Afghanistan’s reconstruction”.

India was forced to backtrack on the Taliban issue after the US and other European countries encouraged Karzai to do business with the Taliban at the London conference held in early 2010. While the US and NATO countries are looking for an exit route from war-ravaged Afghanistan, India is worried that that this will have an adverse impact on the security and stability of the region.

Bangladesh lifts ban on Indian films
On April 24, 2010, Bangladesh announced that it has lifted an almost four-decade ban on Indian films in a bid to boost attendances at cinemas. The move, however, drew loud complaints from local actors and directors.

Films produced by Bollywood were banned from cinemas in Bangladesh since the country’s independence in 1972 in a bid to protect the local movie industry.

The lifting of the ban comes amid warming relations between India and Bangladesh after ties worsened between the neighbours when an Islamist-allied government was in power in Dhaka from 2001 to 2006.

But not everyone supports the move. “Indian films will completely destroy our film industry and our culture. At least 25,000 people will be jobless,” said Masum Parvez Rubel, a leading star and a co-coordinator of a front against Indian films.

India, China Prime Ministers to connect via hotline
On April 7, 2010, India and China signed an agreement to establish a hotline between Prime Ministers of the two countries, as External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi resolved to take the bilateral relationship to new heights.

The agreement, under which dedicated phone lines will be set up in the Prime Minister's office of the two countries, was signed by Krishna and Yang after their talks in Beijing. This would enable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao to hold direct conversations whenever they want.

This is the first time in recent years that India has established a dedicated hotline facility with any country. The two countries also decided to strengthen their cooperation in regional forums and on addressing issues like global financial crisis and climate change.

Summit meeting between India-Pak Prime Ministers
On April 29, 2010, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani held their first bilateral meeting in nine months to end the diplomatic stalemate in ties between their two nations since the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

At their hour-long meeting, described as an “exercise in soul searching” by Indian officials, the two leaders decided to upgrade the bilateral dialogue to the political level, something which Islamabad had been insisting upon for months.

After the Pakistani premier assured Manmohan Singh that his government would not allow the misuse of the Pakistani territory for launching terror attacks in India, the two PMs instructed their foreign ministers and foreign secretaries to meet “as soon as possible” to work out the modalities to pave the way for a “substantive dialogue” on all issues of mutual concern to restore trust and confidence in the relationship.

Political analysts, however, pointed out that this was not the first time that the Pakistani leadership has promised not to allow the misuse of the country’s soil for anti-India activities. This commitment has been given to India time and again by Islamabad since January 2004 when Pervez Musharraf was at the helm of affairs.

The two PMs did agree that there was lack of mutual trust that was impeding the normalisation process and it was time to think afresh on the way to move forward.

ISI mole in MEA held
Madhuri Gupta, a promotee officer of the Ministry of External Affairs who was posted as Second Secretary at the Indian mission for the last three years, was arrested by Delhi police on April 25, 2010, on the charge of passing sensitive information to her contacts in Pakistan’s ISI.

“We have reasons to believe that an official at the High Commission of India in Islamabad had been passing information to Pakistan intelligence agencies. The matter is under investigation. The official is cooperating with our investigations and inquiries,’’ MEA spokesman Vishnu Prakash.

Fifty three-year-old Madhuri, who is a spinster, was summoned to New Delhi on the pretext of discussions on the SAARC Summit when she was taken into custody.

Medical Council Chief held for taking bribe
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Medical Council of India (MCI) president Ketan Desai in Delhi on charges of corruption.

Desai and an associate, J.P. Singh, were picked up for allegedly demanding Rs 2 crore for granting recognition to a private medical college in Punjab. It is the MCI’s responsibility to maintain standards in medical education and in the profession.

Desai is also accused of granting recognition to several colleges that didn’t meet required criteria. In 2001, he had stepped down as MCI president after the Delhi High Court indicted him on corruption charges.

Meghalaya gets its 9th CM in 12 years
Meghalaya Chief Minister D.D. Lapang submitted his resignation to Governor R.S. Mooshahary on April 19, 2010, paving the way for his deputy Mukul M. Sangma to take charge.

Sangma, elected as leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP), was sworn in as the 25th CM since Meghalaya acquired Statehood in April 1970.

Political instability in Meghalaya has seen eight CMs coming and going in the past 12 years. Only two CMs have completed five-year terms since the State was formed.

The Congress-led ruling alliance has a comfortable majority of 44 in the 60-member Assembly, though the Congress has 28 MLAs of its own. Its partners are the United Democratic Party with 10 MLAs and six others, including three Independents.

Sangma, known to be a Lapang loyalist, is a four-time MLA from Ampatigiri Assembly constituency. More importantly, he is believed to be the counter of Congress to Nationalist Congress Party veteran and former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A. Sangma in the Garo Hills half of Meghalaya. This Garo tribe-inhabited half has a traditional ambivalent relationship with the other half dominated by Khasi-Jaintia tribes.

Trouble began for Lapang after some Congress MLAs wanted him to drop three Independents and the lone regional party (KHNAM) MLA from the Cabinet. Lapang declined, saying he could not betray “friends” who helped him form the Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) government.

The Independents and some regional party MLAs had broken away from the NCP-backed Meghalaya Progressive Alliance to help Lapang cobble together the MUA government on March 19, 2008, after voters delivered a fractured verdict in the Assembly elections that year.

Naxals kill 73 security personnel in the deadliest attack ever
In the biggest Naxal strikes in the country, the Left-wing extremists killed 76 jawans of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and critically wounded eight others in the restive Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh on April 6, 2010.

The rebels had meticulously planned the entire operation; inviting security personnel to walk into the trap laid on the Chintalnaar-Tademetla road, about 100 km from the district headquarters and some 540 km south of the State capital.

The Naxalites, who were reportedly 1,000 in number, had planted landmines and created temporary bunkers on the hilltops to easily target the jawans. The kaccha road where the incident took place had been surrounded by hilly terrains and dense forests.

The CRPF jawans did not get much time to take position and retaliate. The Naxalites opened indiscriminate fire from the bunkers located at strategic points and detonated a series of landmines.

A key reason for the CRPF’s dismal response to the Naxal attack has been their lack of training. As CPO units poured into Chhattisgarh for Operation Green Hunt, 5 battalions of the Border Security Force (BSF), 5 battalions of the Indo-Tibet Border Police (ITBP) and 2 battalions of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) were all put through jungle warfare orientation courses at Chhattisgarh’s well-reputed Jungle Warfare College in Kanker. The CRPF, inexplicably, refused to undergo this training.

Training at the Jungle Warfare College, as every organisation except the CRPF seems to have known, has underpinned anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh since 2005, when the college was set up with the help of the Indian Army. Over the last five years, Chhattisgarh has trained 12,700 policemen (including 3700 from other States) at this institution. The college’s credo: Fight the guerrilla like a guerrilla.

Instead of providing adequate training to each battalion that is sent into counter-insurgency operations, the CRPF has relied heavily for success on “elite” units, like its feared “Naga Battalion” which was based in Bastar for several years before being pulled out. In 2008, the Home Ministry authorised the CRPF to raise 10 COBRA (Commando Battalions for Resolute Action) units, for counter-Naxal operations. But the regular battalions remain largely untrained, pushed at will from election duty, to counter-insurgency, to patrolling riot-affected areas, to anti-Naxal operations. The Home Ministry’s approach has always centred on getting the CRPF to the trouble-spot. After that, it is left to the harried battalion or company commander to deliver the goods.

The answer clearly lies in carefully training CPOs, especially before they go into counter-insurgency operations.

New strategy to counter Naxals
The Union government is tweaking its strategy to deal with Naxals. The list of changes includes: segregation within the CRPF to have specialist anti-insurgency units, which will be trained to “attack first”; introduction of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance; more choppers; and re-training of men on the pattern of Indian Army before induction.

“Operations will go on…rather they are still on,” said well-placed sources, adding that 10 such battalions had been trained specially for the “attack first” policy which is the dictum of the Army and the BSF in dealing with adversaries.

The training will include ramping up of infrastructure with firing ranges and also the use of the existing training facilities of the Army in Jungle warfare. The Army’s jungle warfare expertise is such that even the Chinese Army conducted a joint exercise with India in 2009.

For effective use, the CRPF—comprising 2.30 lakh personnel—will be segregated into two parts. One will help the State governments in maintaining law and order duties, while the other, comprising younger men, will deal with insurgents.

The CRPF has also made it clear that the State governments have to start raising special operations groups of its local policemen, like in Andhra Pradesh and J&K. The local boys know the population and glean out good information from villagers which comes handy.

In an indication of sustained economic growth, the per capita income in Delhi has increased to Rs 78,690 in the financial year 2007-08 as against the national figure of Rs 33,283. Delhi's per capita income is the third highest in the country with Chandigarh having per capita income of Rs 110,676 topping the list and closely followed by Goa at Rs 105,582.

The Unique Identification (UID) project of India has been renamed as ‘Aadhaar’.

India has achieved the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for drinking water by providing 84 per cent of its rural population with access to improved sources of water.

With the Right to Education Act coming into force, India has joined the league of 135 countries that have legal guarantee to provide free and compulsory education to children.

BPL Studylite is India’s first eco-friendly rechargeable light-emitting diode (LED) study lamp. It has bagged the Red Dot Product Design Award in the Lighting category, one of the most prestigious international product design awards.

World Book Day is observed on April 23.

Oil India Limited has been granted the coveted ‘Navratna’ status by the government, a move that will empower the board of the compant.

A unique coincidence was created when General V.K. Singh took over as Chief of Indian Army on March 31, 2010. All the three serving Chiefs (Army, Air Force and Navy) are from the same squadron of the National Defence Academy (NDA).

The 37th National Games will be hosted by Chattisgarh.

The tiny north-eastern state of Mizoram recently set a Guinness World Record for the “largest and longest dance”. A 10-minute performance of its colourful traditional bamboo dance, Cheraw, saw an astounding 10,736 dancers in 671 groups set a record in the heart of Aizawl.

World Health Day is observed on April 7.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, cricketer Sachin Tendulkar and economist Amartya Sen are among nine Indians figuring in the Time magazine’s annual list of 100 most influential people.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) has added 83 million tonnes (mt) of oil and gas reserves in 2009-10, the highest in two decades. The reserve had gone up due to Kasomarigaon discovery in Assam, South Mahadevpatnam and Pennugonda in Krishna-Godavari onland, GK-28-1 in Kutch offshore and PER-1 in Mumbai offshore. The company produced 24.858 million tonnes of crude oil in the 2009-10 fiscal, lower than the target of 25.764 million tonnes. Gas production at 23.1 billion cubic metres was higher than 22.24 bcm target.

India's say in the World Bank has increased a bit after member nations approved a shift in voting rights, while its peer China's voice in the funding agency has grown louder than that of Germany, France and the UK. Both India and China hitherto enjoyed an identical 2.8 per cent voting rights. India’s voting power stands increased to 2.9 per cent and that of China leaped to 4.4 per cent— placing it third overall. India is now the seventh largest member in terms of voting power, with United States leading the table with 15.9 per cent, Japan (6.8 per cent), China (4.4 per cent), Germany (4.0 per cent), France (3.8 per cent) and the UK (3.8 per cent).

A non-government organisation, Aranyak, has found that the Kaziranga National Park in Assam has 32 tigers per 100 sq km, as compared to Corbett National Park, Uttarkhand, which has 20 tigers for the same area.

The Indian Air Force has laid the groundwork for operationalising its latest fighter base at Phalodi in Rajasthan.