CURRENT NATIONAL AFFAIRS
New SEZs cleared
On June 2, 2009, the Union government approved ten special economic zones and allowed one-year extension to four projects, including Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani-promoted Rewas Ports, for land acquisition.
The Board of Approval (BoA) in the Commerce Ministry gave formal approvals to eight proposals, including those of Gulf Oil Corporation, Emmar MGF and Larsen and Toubro. Two other proposals were also given 'in-principle' approvals.
The board also allowed DLF to withdraw four of its IT/ITeS tax-free enclaves, asking the realty major to refund Rs 6-7 crore worth of fiscal sops the company would have availed of. DLF had cited economic downturn as reasons for seeking withdrawal.
However, the BoA outrightly rejected the proposals of Videocon Realty and Writers and Publishers for SEZs in Indore, on the ground that the promoters have not acquired "even an inch" of land.
The two proposals that have got in-principal approval include: Krishnapatnam Infratech in Kota Mandal (Andhra Pradesh) and Maharaja Multitrade in Nashik (Maharashtra), for multi-product and multi-services SEZs, respectively.
Since 2006, when the SEZ Act was notified, formal approvals have been granted for setting up 568 SEZs, of which 315 have been notified.
Yashpal panel report on Education sector
The beginning of bold reforms in the higher education sector was made on June 24, 2009, with the 24-member Yashpal committee—constituted last year to suggest revamp measures—scripting the end of regulatory mechanism era in India and rooting for university autonomy. In its report submitted to the government, the panel favoured vesting universities with full academic responsibility by allowing them the freedom to self regulate, choose the courses they want to offer and even design them.
The panel said institutes of excellence like the IITs and the IIMs should function like world-class universities, offering a range of courses in science, astronomy, management, psychology and philosophy in line with the global trends of inter-disciplinary approaches.
On the regulatory mechanism front, the panel’s report, “Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education”, said the UGC, AICTE and MCI should not have a regulatory role and could be merged with the new National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which the committee recommended.
It called for a constitutional amendment to create the seven-member panel, which would function like the Election Commission. The Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Chief Justice of India would select the members.
The commission would work as a facilitator to higher education institutes, which would be armed with the necessary legal mechanisms to offer courses of their choice. Notably, the commission is a part of the UPA’s promises and was mentioned by the President in her June 4, 2009 address to the Parliament. To bring it to life, the government would now have to bring a draft Bill.
On UGC and AICTE, Yashpal said a new commission could not be created unless old structures were removed. His report takes note of the delays, excessive inspection and corruption in the universities’ dealing with governments.
President’s address to the Parliament
More than six months after the Mumbai terror attacks, India, on June 4, 2009, extended olive branch to Pakistan with President Pratibha Patil asserting that the new UPA government would reshape the relationship with Islamabad provided the neighbouring country sincerely dealt with terrorist groups acting against India.
Emboldened by a reasonable participation by the people in the recent elections in Jammu and Kashmir, she also declared the UPA government’s resolve to constructively engage with all groups that abjure violence in the State, as also in North-East and other parts of the country.
Laying the road-map for the new UPA government in an address to the joint session of Parliament, President Patil announced that the government would maintain utmost vigil in the area of internal security by pursuing a policy of zero-tolerance towards terrorism, set up a national counter-terrorism centre to take anti-terrorism measures and seek an early approval of the bill for the prevention of communal violence.
As the first woman President of the Republic addressed the members from the two Houses in the Central Hall of Parliament, seated on her left was another woman—Meira Kumar—who made history a day before by becoming the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
Noting that creativity, innovation and enterprise held the key to people and nations realising their potential, the President observed that the ‘dreary desert sand of dead habit’ must be left behind. The young people were tearing down the narrow domestic walls of religion, region, language, caste and gender that confined them. “My government will ensure that its policies for education and science and technology are imbued with a spirit of innovation so that the creativity of a billion people is unleashed,” she said, declaring that the next ten years would be dedicated as a ‘Decade of Innovation’.
Describing the armed forces as the nation’s pride, she announced that they would be fully enabled with modern technology to repel any threat from land, sea or air. To enhance combat efficiency as also to address the requirements of modern day warfare, a number of steps were under way.
The address to Parliament also talked at length on the government’s pro-poor policies, and moves to strengthen welfare schemes and boost the economy. There were promises to enlarge the scope of NREGA, which has proved to be an effective social protection measure; introduce a new right to food Act; address the challenges in the health sector such as infant mortality, nutrition and pre-emptive cure; make quality education a right through the enactment of a new law; set up a national literacy mission for women; raise the target of rural housing for the next five years to one lakh twenty crore units; introduce a major housing scheme for the urban poor; and take up initiatives for skill development.
India-Bahrain pact to protect workers
India and Bahrain have inked a key agreement to ensure protection for Indian workers against unscrupulous employers. The agreement included housemaids who were not covered by Bahrain’s Labour Law and was signed during the visit of Overseas Affairs minister, Vayalar Ravi in June 2009. As per the agreement, a committee will be constituted to ensure that directives in the agreement are implemented and will consist of officials from Bahrain’s Labour Ministry and Indian Overseas Affairs Office. Employers who want to recruit Indian workers will now have to specify the nature of the work they will be doing and the required professional skills. Other required details include the duration of contract, an agreed salary and end-of-contract benefits, health services and holidays.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Pak President
A significant meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, held at Yekaterinburg, Russia on June 16, 2009, sent out a clear message that India and Pakistan were edging towards the normalisation of bilateral ties, nearly seven months after the Mumbai terror attacks. They directed their foreign secretaries to meet within the next one month and discuss the “primary issue of terrorism” before the two leaders meet again on the margins of the NAM Summit in Egypt on July 15-16.
“I am pleased to meet you, His Excellency, I have a limited mandate to tell you that the territory of Pakistan should not be allowed to be used for terrorist acts against India,” Manmohan Singh firmly told the Pakistani leader right at the start of their 40-minute meeting. President Zardari was virtually rendered speechless for a while as neither he nor any member of his delegation expected such strong words from the Prime Minister.
The three conditions laid by Manmohan Singh for the resumption of dialogue were: Pakistan must take strong and effective action against forces representing terrorism, act against the perpetrators of terror attacks in India and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure. He also conveyed to Zardari India’s disappointment over the release of Hafiz Saeed, chief of the Jamat-ud-Dawa (Jud), one of the key plotters of the Mumbai carnage.
The beleaguered Pakistan President, who is facing the heat from the Pakistan Army, as well as the ISI back home, explained to Manmohan Singh the steps being taken by Pakistan to tackle terrorism and the problems the country was facing to deal with the menace.
Maoists banned
The Cental government, on June 22, 2009, formally listed CPI (Maoist) as a separate terrorist outfit under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Though the decision will make little difference on the ground as the ban on CPI (Maoist) was already in effect by virtue of its constituents—CPI(ML), People’s War Group and MCC, along with all their formations and front organisations—featuring in the list of terrorist outfits under the UAPA, it is aimed at clearing any ambiguity regarding the illegal status of CPI (Maoist).
The CPI (Maoist) is the 35th organisation to be listed as terrorist outfit under UAPA.
It was formed by the merger of CPI (ML)-People’s War Group and MCC in September 2004. The question of a separate ban on CPI (Maoist) had come up soon after the merger, but the law ministry then took the view that there was no need for such ban as the UAPA clearly listed the formations and front organisations of CPI (ML)-People’s War Group and MCC as terrorist outfits, thus also including in its ambit CPI (Maoist). Besides, there were some differences within the constituent Naxal outfits regarding the acceptability of the merger—the Maoists in Nepal had at the time refused to recognise the merge—leading the Centre to settle for status quo.
The question of a separate ban on CPI (Maoist) cropped up again when Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram took a closer look at status of Naxalite outfits under UAPA. The minister is said to have insisted on a fresh ban on the merged outfits, CPI (Maoist), under which the Left-wing extremists were now operating in most States.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908, empowers the State government to declare an association as “unlawful.” Accordingly, while Orissa, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu have declared CPI (Maoist) as an unlawful association, Bihar has listed MCC and CPI(ML)-PW as unlawful. Andhra Pradesh, MP and Chattisgarh have enacted their own separate State legislations declaring the CPI (Maoist) as an unlawful outfit. Under UAPA, last amended in December 2008, the Centre is also empowered to declare an association as unlawful.
The Act also defines a terrorist organisation in Section 2(1)(m), which are then specifically listed in the Schedule to the Act.
Security forces take control of Maoist-controlled areas in West Bengal
On June 30, 2009, security forces took control of Kantapahari, setting up a police camp after four years in the hub of Maoist-backed tribal agitation, with the West Bengal Government claiming that 95 per cent of the areas have been wrested from the ultras in West Midnapore district. Around 1,600 personnel of paramilitary forces, police and COBRA, the special anti-Naxal force, reached Kantapahari from both Lalgarh and Ramgarh ends as a helicopter kept an aerial vigil.
The Maoists set off a landmine and fired at the security forces in a forested area between Pirakata and Lalgarh but the troops retaliated. In Kolkata, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the joint forces had been able to liberate nearly 95 per cent of the areas. The operations had been bloodless with no major encounter.
Earlier, the Maoists had gone on a rampage, targeting ruling CPM cadres and offices and had virtually taken control of a large area in West Midnapore district after driving away the police and paramilitary forces.
Today’s Bengal is a throwback to the Naxalbari uprising of the 1960s after tribals killed a police sub-inspector. The year was 1967, and the Left-led United Front was in power in the State. The recent Maoist violence has also ignited memories of the Sainbari killings in Burdwan in 1969 where CPM laid a siege. Forty years later, the State seems set for another round of bloodletting with the main opposition, Trinamool Congress, adopting the same tactic as the Left in the ‘60s: upstaging the ruling party on people’s insecurity. Ballot and bullets have ruled these parts since 1999 with rival groups in far flung pockets in West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum and Hooghly fighting protracted gun battles. Violence and counter-violence are a major tactic of political parties to command support in the villages.
Babus to be insulated from netas
The end of the transfer/posting raj is in sight. Bureaucrats are set to get a new deal with the Centre readying a legislation that will not only assure babus of fixed-tenure postings but also protect them from political interference in their day-to-day functioning. Besides, all bureaucratic appointments, transfers and postings will be subject to Parliamentary scrutiny. As a consequence, IAS and IPS officers in the country will no longer be at the mercy of the whimsical transfer regime that operates currently.
However, along with these comforts will come added responsibility. The government plans to bring in a new public service code that will lay down a strict performance evaluation regime for promotions and postings of babus. All these provisions are expected to be part of the Civil Services Bill, 2009, a draft of which is being fine-tuned.
The Bill, which incorporates various suggestions of the second Administrative Reforms Commission, envisages setting up of a new Central Public Service Authority which will not only professionally manage civil services but also serve the interests of babus and citizens alike through checks and balances.
The Civil Services Bill moots: fixed tenure of three years per posting for all IAS and IPS officers; a new agency, Central Public Services Authority, to work as a watchdog against political interference in the bureaucracy. It will also keep a watch on performance of babus; Postings to be strictly on basis of performance evaluated on a number of tasks assigned to bureaucrats over the years.
On June 2, 2009, the Union government approved ten special economic zones and allowed one-year extension to four projects, including Reliance Industries' Mukesh Ambani-promoted Rewas Ports, for land acquisition.
The Board of Approval (BoA) in the Commerce Ministry gave formal approvals to eight proposals, including those of Gulf Oil Corporation, Emmar MGF and Larsen and Toubro. Two other proposals were also given 'in-principle' approvals.
The board also allowed DLF to withdraw four of its IT/ITeS tax-free enclaves, asking the realty major to refund Rs 6-7 crore worth of fiscal sops the company would have availed of. DLF had cited economic downturn as reasons for seeking withdrawal.
However, the BoA outrightly rejected the proposals of Videocon Realty and Writers and Publishers for SEZs in Indore, on the ground that the promoters have not acquired "even an inch" of land.
The two proposals that have got in-principal approval include: Krishnapatnam Infratech in Kota Mandal (Andhra Pradesh) and Maharaja Multitrade in Nashik (Maharashtra), for multi-product and multi-services SEZs, respectively.
Since 2006, when the SEZ Act was notified, formal approvals have been granted for setting up 568 SEZs, of which 315 have been notified.
Yashpal panel report on Education sector
The beginning of bold reforms in the higher education sector was made on June 24, 2009, with the 24-member Yashpal committee—constituted last year to suggest revamp measures—scripting the end of regulatory mechanism era in India and rooting for university autonomy. In its report submitted to the government, the panel favoured vesting universities with full academic responsibility by allowing them the freedom to self regulate, choose the courses they want to offer and even design them.
The panel said institutes of excellence like the IITs and the IIMs should function like world-class universities, offering a range of courses in science, astronomy, management, psychology and philosophy in line with the global trends of inter-disciplinary approaches.
On the regulatory mechanism front, the panel’s report, “Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education”, said the UGC, AICTE and MCI should not have a regulatory role and could be merged with the new National Commission for Higher Education and Research, which the committee recommended.
It called for a constitutional amendment to create the seven-member panel, which would function like the Election Commission. The Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition and Chief Justice of India would select the members.
The commission would work as a facilitator to higher education institutes, which would be armed with the necessary legal mechanisms to offer courses of their choice. Notably, the commission is a part of the UPA’s promises and was mentioned by the President in her June 4, 2009 address to the Parliament. To bring it to life, the government would now have to bring a draft Bill.
On UGC and AICTE, Yashpal said a new commission could not be created unless old structures were removed. His report takes note of the delays, excessive inspection and corruption in the universities’ dealing with governments.
President’s address to the Parliament
More than six months after the Mumbai terror attacks, India, on June 4, 2009, extended olive branch to Pakistan with President Pratibha Patil asserting that the new UPA government would reshape the relationship with Islamabad provided the neighbouring country sincerely dealt with terrorist groups acting against India.
Emboldened by a reasonable participation by the people in the recent elections in Jammu and Kashmir, she also declared the UPA government’s resolve to constructively engage with all groups that abjure violence in the State, as also in North-East and other parts of the country.
Laying the road-map for the new UPA government in an address to the joint session of Parliament, President Patil announced that the government would maintain utmost vigil in the area of internal security by pursuing a policy of zero-tolerance towards terrorism, set up a national counter-terrorism centre to take anti-terrorism measures and seek an early approval of the bill for the prevention of communal violence.
As the first woman President of the Republic addressed the members from the two Houses in the Central Hall of Parliament, seated on her left was another woman—Meira Kumar—who made history a day before by becoming the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
Noting that creativity, innovation and enterprise held the key to people and nations realising their potential, the President observed that the ‘dreary desert sand of dead habit’ must be left behind. The young people were tearing down the narrow domestic walls of religion, region, language, caste and gender that confined them. “My government will ensure that its policies for education and science and technology are imbued with a spirit of innovation so that the creativity of a billion people is unleashed,” she said, declaring that the next ten years would be dedicated as a ‘Decade of Innovation’.
Describing the armed forces as the nation’s pride, she announced that they would be fully enabled with modern technology to repel any threat from land, sea or air. To enhance combat efficiency as also to address the requirements of modern day warfare, a number of steps were under way.
The address to Parliament also talked at length on the government’s pro-poor policies, and moves to strengthen welfare schemes and boost the economy. There were promises to enlarge the scope of NREGA, which has proved to be an effective social protection measure; introduce a new right to food Act; address the challenges in the health sector such as infant mortality, nutrition and pre-emptive cure; make quality education a right through the enactment of a new law; set up a national literacy mission for women; raise the target of rural housing for the next five years to one lakh twenty crore units; introduce a major housing scheme for the urban poor; and take up initiatives for skill development.
India-Bahrain pact to protect workers
India and Bahrain have inked a key agreement to ensure protection for Indian workers against unscrupulous employers. The agreement included housemaids who were not covered by Bahrain’s Labour Law and was signed during the visit of Overseas Affairs minister, Vayalar Ravi in June 2009. As per the agreement, a committee will be constituted to ensure that directives in the agreement are implemented and will consist of officials from Bahrain’s Labour Ministry and Indian Overseas Affairs Office. Employers who want to recruit Indian workers will now have to specify the nature of the work they will be doing and the required professional skills. Other required details include the duration of contract, an agreed salary and end-of-contract benefits, health services and holidays.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets Pak President
A significant meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, held at Yekaterinburg, Russia on June 16, 2009, sent out a clear message that India and Pakistan were edging towards the normalisation of bilateral ties, nearly seven months after the Mumbai terror attacks. They directed their foreign secretaries to meet within the next one month and discuss the “primary issue of terrorism” before the two leaders meet again on the margins of the NAM Summit in Egypt on July 15-16.
“I am pleased to meet you, His Excellency, I have a limited mandate to tell you that the territory of Pakistan should not be allowed to be used for terrorist acts against India,” Manmohan Singh firmly told the Pakistani leader right at the start of their 40-minute meeting. President Zardari was virtually rendered speechless for a while as neither he nor any member of his delegation expected such strong words from the Prime Minister.
The three conditions laid by Manmohan Singh for the resumption of dialogue were: Pakistan must take strong and effective action against forces representing terrorism, act against the perpetrators of terror attacks in India and dismantle the terrorist infrastructure. He also conveyed to Zardari India’s disappointment over the release of Hafiz Saeed, chief of the Jamat-ud-Dawa (Jud), one of the key plotters of the Mumbai carnage.
The beleaguered Pakistan President, who is facing the heat from the Pakistan Army, as well as the ISI back home, explained to Manmohan Singh the steps being taken by Pakistan to tackle terrorism and the problems the country was facing to deal with the menace.
Maoists banned
The Cental government, on June 22, 2009, formally listed CPI (Maoist) as a separate terrorist outfit under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. Though the decision will make little difference on the ground as the ban on CPI (Maoist) was already in effect by virtue of its constituents—CPI(ML), People’s War Group and MCC, along with all their formations and front organisations—featuring in the list of terrorist outfits under the UAPA, it is aimed at clearing any ambiguity regarding the illegal status of CPI (Maoist).
The CPI (Maoist) is the 35th organisation to be listed as terrorist outfit under UAPA.
It was formed by the merger of CPI (ML)-People’s War Group and MCC in September 2004. The question of a separate ban on CPI (Maoist) had come up soon after the merger, but the law ministry then took the view that there was no need for such ban as the UAPA clearly listed the formations and front organisations of CPI (ML)-People’s War Group and MCC as terrorist outfits, thus also including in its ambit CPI (Maoist). Besides, there were some differences within the constituent Naxal outfits regarding the acceptability of the merger—the Maoists in Nepal had at the time refused to recognise the merge—leading the Centre to settle for status quo.
The question of a separate ban on CPI (Maoist) cropped up again when Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram took a closer look at status of Naxalite outfits under UAPA. The minister is said to have insisted on a fresh ban on the merged outfits, CPI (Maoist), under which the Left-wing extremists were now operating in most States.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1908, empowers the State government to declare an association as “unlawful.” Accordingly, while Orissa, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu have declared CPI (Maoist) as an unlawful association, Bihar has listed MCC and CPI(ML)-PW as unlawful. Andhra Pradesh, MP and Chattisgarh have enacted their own separate State legislations declaring the CPI (Maoist) as an unlawful outfit. Under UAPA, last amended in December 2008, the Centre is also empowered to declare an association as unlawful.
The Act also defines a terrorist organisation in Section 2(1)(m), which are then specifically listed in the Schedule to the Act.
Security forces take control of Maoist-controlled areas in West Bengal
On June 30, 2009, security forces took control of Kantapahari, setting up a police camp after four years in the hub of Maoist-backed tribal agitation, with the West Bengal Government claiming that 95 per cent of the areas have been wrested from the ultras in West Midnapore district. Around 1,600 personnel of paramilitary forces, police and COBRA, the special anti-Naxal force, reached Kantapahari from both Lalgarh and Ramgarh ends as a helicopter kept an aerial vigil.
The Maoists set off a landmine and fired at the security forces in a forested area between Pirakata and Lalgarh but the troops retaliated. In Kolkata, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the joint forces had been able to liberate nearly 95 per cent of the areas. The operations had been bloodless with no major encounter.
Earlier, the Maoists had gone on a rampage, targeting ruling CPM cadres and offices and had virtually taken control of a large area in West Midnapore district after driving away the police and paramilitary forces.
Today’s Bengal is a throwback to the Naxalbari uprising of the 1960s after tribals killed a police sub-inspector. The year was 1967, and the Left-led United Front was in power in the State. The recent Maoist violence has also ignited memories of the Sainbari killings in Burdwan in 1969 where CPM laid a siege. Forty years later, the State seems set for another round of bloodletting with the main opposition, Trinamool Congress, adopting the same tactic as the Left in the ‘60s: upstaging the ruling party on people’s insecurity. Ballot and bullets have ruled these parts since 1999 with rival groups in far flung pockets in West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum and Hooghly fighting protracted gun battles. Violence and counter-violence are a major tactic of political parties to command support in the villages.
Babus to be insulated from netas
The end of the transfer/posting raj is in sight. Bureaucrats are set to get a new deal with the Centre readying a legislation that will not only assure babus of fixed-tenure postings but also protect them from political interference in their day-to-day functioning. Besides, all bureaucratic appointments, transfers and postings will be subject to Parliamentary scrutiny. As a consequence, IAS and IPS officers in the country will no longer be at the mercy of the whimsical transfer regime that operates currently.
However, along with these comforts will come added responsibility. The government plans to bring in a new public service code that will lay down a strict performance evaluation regime for promotions and postings of babus. All these provisions are expected to be part of the Civil Services Bill, 2009, a draft of which is being fine-tuned.
The Bill, which incorporates various suggestions of the second Administrative Reforms Commission, envisages setting up of a new Central Public Service Authority which will not only professionally manage civil services but also serve the interests of babus and citizens alike through checks and balances.
The Civil Services Bill moots: fixed tenure of three years per posting for all IAS and IPS officers; a new agency, Central Public Services Authority, to work as a watchdog against political interference in the bureaucracy. It will also keep a watch on performance of babus; Postings to be strictly on basis of performance evaluated on a number of tasks assigned to bureaucrats over the years.
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