May-2012-National

NATIONAL AFFAIRS

Copyright Act amended
On May 22, 2012, India moved decisively to secure a lifelong right of artistes over their literary, musical and dramatic creations, ensuring that every time anyone uses their work for entertainment or profit-making, the artiste gets a share in the killing and doesn’t end a pauper, as the case often is.

Under the copyright law so far, filmmakers and producers would enter into a contract with creative artistes (lyricists, composers, singers) literally buying off their works for eternity in exchange for a pittance.

While artistes would end up in penury, having abandoned literary and monetary claims over their own creations, film producers would sell these works to business interests, including music companies and telecom firms, making lifelong profits in which artistes had zero share.

Parliament has now corrected this anomaly by amending the archaic Copyright Act of 1957 and making creator king. The Copyright Amendment Bill 2012 defines the author of copyright as its owner, and secures his right to royalty over the work.

The Bill also requires broadcasters (radio and TVs) to pay for use of copyrighted material. However, the Copyright Board and not the copyright owner will determine the quantum.

The amendments end the era of indiscriminate remixing of hit songs and says that no cover versions (remakes) can be made till six years of the creation of the work.

Piracy has been made punishable with two years imprisonment and fine and persons with disability can no longer be charged for use of copyrighted material.

The Bill also guarantees exclusive rights to performers like snake charmers, jesters and conjurers, mandating payment of royalty to them every time their performance is used for commerce. Performers will also have moral rights.

Union Budget—GAAR deferred; duty hike on jewellery rolled back
In a bid to appease foreign investors, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has put off the implementation of the controversial tax evasion measure, General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR), for a year and also offered sops to jewellers by rolling back duty hike, but did not climb down on taxing Vodafone-type transactions.

Moving the Finance Bill 2012 in the Lok Sabha on May 7, 2012, Mukherjee surprised the markets with a clarification on GAAR at the beginning of the debate itself. GAAR had been introduced in the Union Budget proposals to check tax evasion through tax havens like Mauritius, but foreign institutional investors (FII) had protested vehemently saying that the move was sudden and lacked clarity.

After the Budget, FII inflows had dried up leading to a fall in the markets and causing the rupee to weaken consistently.

Given the high current account deficit and the dire need to balance it with incoming dollars, the Finance Minister said he has postponed the provision to 2013-14 to give time to tax payers and tax administration to resolve all issues.

To curb the flow of unaccounted money in the bullion and jewellery trade, the threshold limit for TCS (tax collection at source) on cash purchase of jewellery will be raised to Rs 5 lakh, from the present Rs 2 lakh. Bullion will not include any coin or other article weighing 10 gm or less.

In a relief to the real estate market, Mukherjee announced that the 1 per cent tax deduction at source on sale of property is being withdrawn.

J&K interlocuters present their report
The report of the three interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir has recommended setting up of a Constitutional Committee to examine threadbare all Central laws extended to the State, while seeking restoration of the sanctity of Article 370 which grants special status to the State within the Indian Union.

Touching upon various subjects, particularly Centre-State relations, the interlocutors —mandated to open dialogue with various sections of society in October 2010 after a four-month spell of violence on the streets of Kashmir —said in their report: “The State’s distinctive status guaranteed by Article 370 must be upheld. Its “erosion” over the decades must be re-appraised to vest it with such powers as the State needs to promote the welfare of the people on its own terms.”

The 176-page interlocutors’ report suggests a road-map listing confidence-building measures that include review of Disturbed Areas Act and re-appraisal of application of the controversial AFSPA. It also recommends that Jammu and Kashmir be part of the Indian Union as one entity and ruled out a return to pre-1953 position for the State.

It also seeks amendments in the Public Safety Act (PSA) that gives sweeping powers to security forces to detain people on grounds of propagating or attempting to create feelings of enmity or hatred or disharmony in the State.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Myanmar visit
On May 27, 2012, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh become the first Indian Prime Minister in 25 years to visit Myanmar— to boost trade, connectivity, security and energy cooperation. He flew down to Nay Pyi Taw, the new capital of the country.

During his three-day trip, Manmohan Singh underlined India’s full support for Myanmar's democratic transformation that saw long-time political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi enter Parliament in May 2012.

A delegation of CEOs of major Indian companies also accompanied the Prime Minister to Myanmar. It was led by Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Enterprises and Rajya Vardhan Kanoria of Kanoria Chemicals and Industries Ltd.

On the second day of the visit, as Prime minister Manmohan Singh sat down for a summit meeting with President Thein Sein in the sprawling 100-room Presidential Palace, the two sides signed an exhaustive list of deliverables that spanned trade and investment, connectivity, development and security.

That list included a decision to double bilateral trade that currently totals $ 1.3 billion by 2015 or in the next three years. India made a major effort to involve its private sector to give “greater depth and spread,” to trade and investment tie-ups between the two countries.

With Myanmar sitting on huge oil and gas reserves, many Indian companies have shown interest in investing in available blocks for exploration. At the bilateral meeting, a production sharing contract was signed between the Myanmar government and Jubilant Energy, a privately owned Indian oil exploration company, for an onshore block.
The bilateral meeting went far beyond the scheduled time, with Manmohan Singh reiterating “India’s readiness to extend all necessary assistance in accelerating the country’s democratic transition.”

Both India and Myanmar are acutely conscious of China’s overarching influence in the region and are keen to diminish it by strengthening ties with each other for differing reasons. While Myanmar needs India to increase its bargaining power with China and lessen its dependence to it, India is keen to strengthen ties with Myanmar because in many ways it sees the country as the gateway to its ‘Look East’ ambition of a significant engagement with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Among the other decisions taken by the two leaders was to significantly enhance connectivity between the two countries to promote both trade and tourism. They decided to speed up the trilateral connectivity with Thailand by putting on fast-track the construction of the highway linking Moreh in Manipur with Mae Sot in Thailand via Myanmar.

To ensure that there would be seamless trilateral connectivity by 2016, Manmohan Singh announced that India would repair and upgrade 71 bridges on the Tamu-Kalewa friendship road, apart from upgrading the Kalewa-Yargi road segment. On its part, Myanmar would upgrade the Yargyi-Monywa stretch to Thailand.

The two leaders also agreed to launch a trans-border bus service from Imphal in India to Mandalay, Myanmar’s business hub.

As significant was the signing of a new Air Service Agreement between the two countries that provides for expansion of air connectivity to cover more carriers, flights and destinations. The agreement provides for what is known as “5th freedom rights” that enables Indian carriers to combine their flights to Myanmar with other destinations in South East Asia and elsewhere – a rare concession. Currently, there are no direct flights between India and Myanmar and the new agreement is to give incentives to airliners both public and private to correct the situation.

 A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) provides for the setting up a Border Haat on a pilot basis at Pangsau Pass, Arunachal Pradesh. Many such Boarder Haats are being proposed primarily to enhance trade between the border States of the two countries. An MOU was also signed on India-Myanmar Border Area Development to look at infrastructure development and micro-economic projects including up-gradation of roads and construction of schools, health centres and bridges.

The joint statement after the bilateral meeting stated that both Manmohan Singh and Thein Sein, “reaffirmed their shared commitment to fight the scourge of terrorism and insurgent activity in all its forms and manifestations.” That included committing that the territories of either country would not be allowed to be used for “activities inimical to the other including for training, sanctuary and other operations by terrorists and insurgent organisations and their operatives.”