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Sunday, April 25, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Present Political Scenario - Solution
"Electronic voting machine buttons - 1. I party, 2. II party, 3. III party, and there should be another one - No one is eligible for my vote."
And it should be implemented rather soon than later. That is the only solution for the present scenario.
There may be an option; its purely personal-one can suggest another persons name who is more eligible than the political party sponsored mere human being.
It may be a joke at first but later it has the power of its own.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Deepest Part of the Ocean | frozenly.com
Deepest Part of the Ocean | frozenly.com
Filed under Oceanography, Scienceno comments
The Mariana Trench is located in the Pacific Ocean, just east of the 14 Mariana Islands (11″21′ North latitude and 142″ 12′ East longitude ) near Japan. As you probably already know, it is the deepest part of the earth’s oceans, and the deepest location of the earth itself. It was created by ocean-to-ocean subduction, a phenomena in which a plate topped by oceanic crust is subducted beneath another plate topped by oceanic crust.
Fact-The Mariana Trench is 11,033 meters (36,201 feet), (6033.5) fathoms deep. The Pressure at the deepest part of the Mariana Trench is over 8 tons per square inch. The Mariana Trench is 2, 542 km (1,580 miles) long and 69 km (43 miles) wide.
Amazing Creatures:
Friday, April 16, 2010
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Naxalism – Need To Revisit Basics
Article Window
JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A HAMMER, every problem is not a nail. Left extremist problem is serious but use of Army is no solution. We first need to understand the nature and ingredients of the problem. Naxalism is a variant of Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) in which civil society is the critical element of war. This war is to protect the civil society and at the same time fought in the battle ground of civil society.
Experiences of the armies world over, including India, have been that armies have not proved best antidotes against warriors who are camouflaged in civil society and hold no defined ground. Armies are trained, structured, equipped and work on doctrines suited to fight against visible enemies and defined territories. The studies conducted so far indicate that the societies that are fragile, fragmented and alienated on one hand and ruled by governments low in legitimacy, credibility and capacity on the other are not only vulnerable to threats from 4GW but quite often lose them — their military strengths notwithstanding.
The modern day guru of 4GW William Lind aptly observes that, “If nation states are going to survive, people in power must earn and keep the trust of the governed.” Addressing the American Council of Foreign Relations, he said: “The heart of Fourth Generation Warfare is a crisis of legitimacy of the state”. How true to the Indian model when he added that, “The establishment is no longer made up of ‘policy types’— most of its important functionaries are placemen. Their expertise is in becoming and then remaining members of the establishment. Their reality is covert politics and not the competence or expertise”. When the 4GW will visit them their response would be to “close the shutters on the windows of Versailles”. To meet the challenge India has to raise its level and style of governance, build capacities and raise legitimacy of the political class.
The immediate need in India is for all the political parties, national or regional, to realise that Left wing extremism is a political plan to acquire power through blood bath and it is their politics which is responsible for it. Maoists feel and are able to sell that ousting their form of polity is doable as the political class is fast losing its legitimacy and credibility due to its subordinating national interests to electoral policies, craving for power only to make money and perpetuate themselves, allowing vested interests to undermine the civil society at the cost of justice and fair play and using their political genius to fragment the society on all conceivable fault lines to gain power. All this provides the right recipe for a 4GW and in a setting like this any external adversary will exploit it as a low cost and sustainable option to bleed India.
Developing a political consensus, cutting across party lines, and all democratic forces joining hands together treating it as a common threat is the first national requirement. With a political consensus it should be possible to invoke Article 355 of the Constitution, empower the Centre to suo moto deploy central forces in badly hit areas with total central support, legislate new laws and empower central security agencies to undertake more effective initiatives.
Majority of Maoist supporters or even their cadres have little to do with Maoism. They are only frustrated and angered people with a perceived sense of injustice, oppression and indignity. Maoists are cleverly exploiting this sentiment to their advantage — caste conflicts in Bihar, resentment against landlords in Andhra, discontent against forest laws in tribal areas, unemployment amongst youth and radicalism amongst Muslims prescribing capture of power through gun as solution of all their grievances. The local grievances need to be effectively addressed through improved governance and ruthless accountability.
Maoist propaganda must be effectively countered, particularly at the political level. All parties should activise their local units to counter the pernicious Maoist ideology — a job that has been totally ignored and cannot be done by policemen on their behalf. Additionally, through a concerted, credible and sustained psy-war offensive highlighting contradiction in their ideologies and practices, tales of their brutalities, collaborations with the rich to collect funds and their use for personal comfort, incidents of moral turpitude etc. should be exposed. The local and national media, think tanks and NGOs operating in the region could be leveraged for the purpose. Some of their front organisations, masquerading as think tanks and NGOs, engaged in subversive propaganda also need to be tackled effectively, through new legislations, if necessary.
Money is one of the most important factors helping extremists to acquire weapons and explosives, raise their cadre strength by recruiting youth on regular salaries and carrying out mass mobilisation programmes. They are reportedly collecting Rs 1,600-crore a year, which is big money for carrying out armed insurrection in an impoverished area. With a determined effort and no risk, the governments can take stern actions against business houses paying protection money, transporters paying levies, contractors giving taxes and corrupt government officials sharing the loot from the developmental funds. Most would be willing to cooperate if provided sense of security and protection which can be achieved at a much lesser cost.
The most important advantage of 4GW warriors is the advantage of invisibility. Only quality operational grade intelligence can make them visible for counter physical or legal actions. It is also the only instrumentality through which proactive operations can be launched. The tendency to underplay the role of intelligence and doing little to strengthen it is largely responsible for recent tactical setbacks. The tendency to raise additional battalions without corresponding accretion in intelligence network creates little pressure on the extremists and only provides them more visible targets to hit. State police forces, with their intimate knowledge of the terrain, language and local recruitment are best equipped to develop ground intelligence. They need to be resourced and trained for intelligence work at war footing. Diversion of atleast 30% of central modernisation grants to state police for intelligence work should be made mandatory.
Naxalism – Need To Revisit Basics
JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A HAMMER, every problem is not a nail. Left extremist problem is serious but use of Army is no solution. We first need to understand the nature and ingredients of the problem. Naxalism is a variant of Fourth Generation Warfare (4GW) in which civil society is the critical element of war. This war is to protect the civil society and at the same time fought in the battle ground of civil society.
Experiences of the armies world over, including India, have been that armies have not proved best antidotes against warriors who are camouflaged in civil society and hold no defined ground. Armies are trained, structured, equipped and work on doctrines suited to fight against visible enemies and defined territories. The studies conducted so far indicate that the societies that are fragile, fragmented and alienated on one hand and ruled by governments low in legitimacy, credibility and capacity on the other are not only vulnerable to threats from 4GW but quite often lose them — their military strengths notwithstanding.
The modern day guru of 4GW William Lind aptly observes that, “If nation states are going to survive, people in power must earn and keep the trust of the governed.” Addressing the American Council of Foreign Relations, he said: “The heart of Fourth Generation Warfare is a crisis of legitimacy of the state”. How true to the Indian model when he added that, “The establishment is no longer made up of ‘policy types’— most of its important functionaries are placemen. Their expertise is in becoming and then remaining members of the establishment. Their reality is covert politics and not the competence or expertise”. When the 4GW will visit them their response would be to “close the shutters on the windows of Versailles”. To meet the challenge India has to raise its level and style of governance, build capacities and raise legitimacy of the political class.
The immediate need in India is for all the political parties, national or regional, to realise that Left wing extremism is a political plan to acquire power through blood bath and it is their politics which is responsible for it. Maoists feel and are able to sell that ousting their form of polity is doable as the political class is fast losing its legitimacy and credibility due to its subordinating national interests to electoral policies, craving for power only to make money and perpetuate themselves, allowing vested interests to undermine the civil society at the cost of justice and fair play and using their political genius to fragment the society on all conceivable fault lines to gain power. All this provides the right recipe for a 4GW and in a setting like this any external adversary will exploit it as a low cost and sustainable option to bleed India.
Developing a political consensus, cutting across party lines, and all democratic forces joining hands together treating it as a common threat is the first national requirement. With a political consensus it should be possible to invoke Article 355 of the Constitution, empower the Centre to suo moto deploy central forces in badly hit areas with total central support, legislate new laws and empower central security agencies to undertake more effective initiatives.
Majority of Maoist supporters or even their cadres have little to do with Maoism. They are only frustrated and angered people with a perceived sense of injustice, oppression and indignity. Maoists are cleverly exploiting this sentiment to their advantage — caste conflicts in Bihar, resentment against landlords in Andhra, discontent against forest laws in tribal areas, unemployment amongst youth and radicalism amongst Muslims prescribing capture of power through gun as solution of all their grievances. The local grievances need to be effectively addressed through improved governance and ruthless accountability.
Maoist propaganda must be effectively countered, particularly at the political level. All parties should activise their local units to counter the pernicious Maoist ideology — a job that has been totally ignored and cannot be done by policemen on their behalf. Additionally, through a concerted, credible and sustained psy-war offensive highlighting contradiction in their ideologies and practices, tales of their brutalities, collaborations with the rich to collect funds and their use for personal comfort, incidents of moral turpitude etc. should be exposed. The local and national media, think tanks and NGOs operating in the region could be leveraged for the purpose. Some of their front organisations, masquerading as think tanks and NGOs, engaged in subversive propaganda also need to be tackled effectively, through new legislations, if necessary.
Money is one of the most important factors helping extremists to acquire weapons and explosives, raise their cadre strength by recruiting youth on regular salaries and carrying out mass mobilisation programmes. They are reportedly collecting Rs 1,600-crore a year, which is big money for carrying out armed insurrection in an impoverished area. With a determined effort and no risk, the governments can take stern actions against business houses paying protection money, transporters paying levies, contractors giving taxes and corrupt government officials sharing the loot from the developmental funds. Most would be willing to cooperate if provided sense of security and protection which can be achieved at a much lesser cost.
The most important advantage of 4GW warriors is the advantage of invisibility. Only quality operational grade intelligence can make them visible for counter physical or legal actions. It is also the only instrumentality through which proactive operations can be launched. The tendency to underplay the role of intelligence and doing little to strengthen it is largely responsible for recent tactical setbacks. The tendency to raise additional battalions without corresponding accretion in intelligence network creates little pressure on the extremists and only provides them more visible targets to hit. State police forces, with their intimate knowledge of the terrain, language and local recruitment are best equipped to develop ground intelligence. They need to be resourced and trained for intelligence work at war footing. Diversion of atleast 30% of central modernisation grants to state police for intelligence work should be made mandatory.
Taking stock of climate negotiations
Article Window
AS CLIMATE negotiators again converge in Bonn this week, it is appropriate that we take stock of the key issues that must be resolved if climate negotiations are to yield an equitable solution that is also acceptable. Beyond the political rhetoric that is bound to follow, progress on the issues listed will be the key determinant of the degree of success.
The most critical unresolved issue vexing the negotiations is the issue of accepting and interpreting historical responsibility. The touchstone of “common but differentiated responsibilities” under the Framework Convention embodies the historical responsibility of the developed world that is home to less than 20% of humanity but responsible for almost 80% of the current greenhouse gas concentration of our planet.
Post Bali, the North (led by the US) has denied any historical responsibility. The North recognises that in a climate constrained world, the developing countries cannot even reach poverty levels of the North without significant incremental cost that will eat into the South's priority and, indeed, its right to development. All proposals crafted by the North, including the Copenhagen Accord, not only seek to preserve a disproportionate share of even the remaining environmental space for the North but require the South to make binding commitments to address climate change and bear the cost of such commitments to varying degrees but, in all cases, disproportionate to the South's contribution to the problem.
If one ignores historical responsibility, the position of the North can be defended. However, the Framework Convention and the Bali mandate recognise historical responsibility and hence make all mitigation actions by the developing world voluntary and require the developed world to pay the full incremental costs incurred by the developing world for such voluntary actions and for adaptation to climate change. Clearly one cannot decide how much reparation to pay (in the form of money and/or technology) unless one first agrees on the extent and nature of the historical responsibility.
The planet's carbon constraints were formally recognised by the international community at Stockholm in 1972. One way could be to equitably distribute the world's cumulative carbon budget to its citizens using 1972 as the base year. Unused entitlements could be traded to pay for the incremental costs of addressing climate change. Such a formulation would implicitly take care of when a country “peaks” or “graduates”.
Agreement on the level of mitigation actions within the borders of the developed countries is the second major unresolved issue. Quite apart from the inability to extract binding and ambitious emission reduction targets from Annex I countries for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, it needs to be recognised that the level of OECD's consumption of energy and other natural resources to sustain its lifestyles is simply unsustainable. The proposed market mechanisms that will reduce emissions where they are most economic to reduce (i.e., the developing world) will be only as successful as we are in redistributing, more equitably, the world's energy and natural resource consumption.
THIS can happen only if OECD's consumption comes down significantly. As an example, OECD continues to disproportionately consume the incremental supplies of commercial energy that are coming into the market. The developing world cannot reduce or trade emissions that it does not have because of low levels of access to energy and natural resources. Under current patterns of production and consumption, the world is on auto pilot for a 3.5° C temperature rise unless the Annex I countries undertake to reduce emissions within their borders by 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020. This assumes that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change numbers are right.
The third area of discord that must be addressed is the negotiating forum and the enforceability of the negotiated outcomes under international law. While the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the recognised multilateral forum for these negotiations, its processes are being openly questioned and its decisions do not appear to have the force of international law. There are many parallel negotiating forums in play that are clearly not compatible with or authorised by the UNFCCC. I am not against progress through parallel initiatives.
However, all such initiatives must be legitimised by the only multilateral forum that is recognised today by all and we must find a way that gives legal teeth to the outcomes of such legitimised negotiating processes. An acceptable solution is only likely either under the UNFCCC or a process/forum duly authorised by it.
The fourth area of disagreement that must be addressed is the issue of Shared Vision. The long-term global goal is not as important nor is it essential to cast it in stone. Given knowledge gaps in climate science and the impossibility of predicting the potential and timing of new and disruptive technologies, what really needs to agreed is committed actions by different countries in the next 10, 15 and 20 years. Even the 15- and 20-year commitments should not be cast in stone and should be open to review at the end of each period in light of improved understanding of scientific and technological truths. Suffice it to say that if we cannot agree and commit to deliver what we agree for the next 10 years, there is little value in what we might agree on for 2050.
There are dozens of additional issues that are bracketed in the negotiating texts pending agreement. Space constraints limit my ability to address them all. But all the remaining disagreements are second degree issues in my mind. If we can reach consensus on the four issues highlighted above, there can be rapid progress on the balance.
(The author is the former principal
adviser, energy, and core climate
negotiator, the government of India)
All proposals crafted by the North not only seek to preserve a disproportionate share of the environmental space for the North but require the South to make binding commitments to address climate change, says Surya P Sethi
AS CLIMATE negotiators again converge in Bonn this week, it is appropriate that we take stock of the key issues that must be resolved if climate negotiations are to yield an equitable solution that is also acceptable. Beyond the political rhetoric that is bound to follow, progress on the issues listed will be the key determinant of the degree of success.
The most critical unresolved issue vexing the negotiations is the issue of accepting and interpreting historical responsibility. The touchstone of “common but differentiated responsibilities” under the Framework Convention embodies the historical responsibility of the developed world that is home to less than 20% of humanity but responsible for almost 80% of the current greenhouse gas concentration of our planet.
Post Bali, the North (led by the US) has denied any historical responsibility. The North recognises that in a climate constrained world, the developing countries cannot even reach poverty levels of the North without significant incremental cost that will eat into the South's priority and, indeed, its right to development. All proposals crafted by the North, including the Copenhagen Accord, not only seek to preserve a disproportionate share of even the remaining environmental space for the North but require the South to make binding commitments to address climate change and bear the cost of such commitments to varying degrees but, in all cases, disproportionate to the South's contribution to the problem.
If one ignores historical responsibility, the position of the North can be defended. However, the Framework Convention and the Bali mandate recognise historical responsibility and hence make all mitigation actions by the developing world voluntary and require the developed world to pay the full incremental costs incurred by the developing world for such voluntary actions and for adaptation to climate change. Clearly one cannot decide how much reparation to pay (in the form of money and/or technology) unless one first agrees on the extent and nature of the historical responsibility.
The planet's carbon constraints were formally recognised by the international community at Stockholm in 1972. One way could be to equitably distribute the world's cumulative carbon budget to its citizens using 1972 as the base year. Unused entitlements could be traded to pay for the incremental costs of addressing climate change. Such a formulation would implicitly take care of when a country “peaks” or “graduates”.
Agreement on the level of mitigation actions within the borders of the developed countries is the second major unresolved issue. Quite apart from the inability to extract binding and ambitious emission reduction targets from Annex I countries for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, it needs to be recognised that the level of OECD's consumption of energy and other natural resources to sustain its lifestyles is simply unsustainable. The proposed market mechanisms that will reduce emissions where they are most economic to reduce (i.e., the developing world) will be only as successful as we are in redistributing, more equitably, the world's energy and natural resource consumption.
THIS can happen only if OECD's consumption comes down significantly. As an example, OECD continues to disproportionately consume the incremental supplies of commercial energy that are coming into the market. The developing world cannot reduce or trade emissions that it does not have because of low levels of access to energy and natural resources. Under current patterns of production and consumption, the world is on auto pilot for a 3.5° C temperature rise unless the Annex I countries undertake to reduce emissions within their borders by 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020. This assumes that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change numbers are right.
The third area of discord that must be addressed is the negotiating forum and the enforceability of the negotiated outcomes under international law. While the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the recognised multilateral forum for these negotiations, its processes are being openly questioned and its decisions do not appear to have the force of international law. There are many parallel negotiating forums in play that are clearly not compatible with or authorised by the UNFCCC. I am not against progress through parallel initiatives.
However, all such initiatives must be legitimised by the only multilateral forum that is recognised today by all and we must find a way that gives legal teeth to the outcomes of such legitimised negotiating processes. An acceptable solution is only likely either under the UNFCCC or a process/forum duly authorised by it.
The fourth area of disagreement that must be addressed is the issue of Shared Vision. The long-term global goal is not as important nor is it essential to cast it in stone. Given knowledge gaps in climate science and the impossibility of predicting the potential and timing of new and disruptive technologies, what really needs to agreed is committed actions by different countries in the next 10, 15 and 20 years. Even the 15- and 20-year commitments should not be cast in stone and should be open to review at the end of each period in light of improved understanding of scientific and technological truths. Suffice it to say that if we cannot agree and commit to deliver what we agree for the next 10 years, there is little value in what we might agree on for 2050.
There are dozens of additional issues that are bracketed in the negotiating texts pending agreement. Space constraints limit my ability to address them all. But all the remaining disagreements are second degree issues in my mind. If we can reach consensus on the four issues highlighted above, there can be rapid progress on the balance.
(The author is the former principal
adviser, energy, and core climate
negotiator, the government of India)
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Saturday, April 03, 2010
One can replace a word 'human flesh' in the place of non-vegetarian.
Imagination can be used anywhere. The biological as well as common man's view suggest that the flesh of animals are more similar than anything else. If beef is the flesh from cow, then human flesh can also be eatable. Go and eat some and then talk about the goodness of non-vegetarianism.
We can think in anyway. Animals are animals and should behave like they are. And never will say 'rational'. Only some humans says they are ahead of them all. Its so poor and pathetic that beings are here in the natural world and using language as their tools to dominate. The day surely will come and all will recognise at that time only that, beings are mere part of this universe - soon or later.
Me not against killing or something else. But one should not take control over the nature as it is above our capacities. The Cow, goat, pig, rabbit or any animal should not be used for a business purpose. Just because, when a day come our next generation definitely will use fellow humans for their business purposes. It is already in the business as well. Organ selling and blood business etc. were the aftershocks now a days. If one can take these examples into strong points, never do it on any natural thing. Beware of the future. All of them were going to struggle in the next coming days.
Killing is not good for living at all.
April 2
Politics & the Nation
- Education is fundamental right for kids aged 6-14
- Education for children aged between 6 and 14 has finally become a fundamental right with the notification of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act on Thursday.
- While the notification is an important milestone, the government acknowledged that the real challenge lay in the effective implementation of the Act.
- With education becoming an entitlement, efforts will have to be made to ensure that those on the margins are able to seek redressal.
- It has been a long and arduous journey for this fundamental right. Despite the unanimous support for the move, the enabling RTE legislation hasn’t had an easy passage. Work on RTE was started by the NDA government soon after Parliament passed the constitutional amendment in December 2002. The first delay came when the NDA was voted out of power in May 2004. Work on the RTE was then taken up by the Kapil Sibal committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE). The Sibal draft slated the financial implications, estimated by the then National Institute of Education Planning and Administration, at a minimum of Rs 3,21,196 crore to a maximum Rs 4,36,458.5 crore over six years. This is where the proposed legislation ran into trouble. The question of funding was to hold up the bill for the next four-and-a-half years. The ministry of human resource development then worked to bring down the financial implication of the bill. Finally, whittling it down to Rs 171,000 crore.
- Some excellent words in the context of the dedication of the right to education act:
- Rights, in other words, are not passively dispensed by an enlightened administration to a supine populace, but actively enforced by citizens in exercise of their political agency.
- The point is, the law should be seen as a means of mobilising and empowering the people, rather than as an act of emancipation in itself.
Finance & Economy
- Migrants land sops as labour shortage grows
- Years of migration has depleted the workforce back home, and today, Punjab and Kerala are rolling out the red carpet for immigrant hands from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Orissa as their mostly-agrarian economies face stagnation in the face of a crippling labour shortage. Plantation owners in Kerala and the Punjab government say that to retain the immigrant workforce, they will offer provident fund, gratuity and pension.
- PM bats for caution on easing of capital account
- Amid concerns that India may attract a chunk of the money flooding emerging markets, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that there are good reasons to be cautious in opening up the capital account. But he was categorical that Indian companies must have the instruments needed to hedge against exchange rate volatility.
- Look at what he reportedly said: “...Growth will occur in an economic environment where India will remain open to the world and Indian companies will operate globally. Management of forex risk would be an important concern in future and the financial system must, therefore, provide our companies with instruments they need to manage these risks at reasonable costs.”
- The state of our health
- Take a look at these distressing statistics!!!
- The following lead you to conclude that India’s primary healthcare system dysfunctional: the system has failed to deliver basic health services to the poor, notwithstanding numerous schemes launched with fanfare, including the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana and Health For All.
- The Economic Survey, 2009-10, highlights a shortage of 20,486 sub-centres, 4,477 PHCs and 2,337 community health centres (CHCs) based on 2001 population norm. Only 13% of rural residents have access to a PHC, 33% to a sub-centre, 9.6% to a hospital and 28.3% to a dispensary or clinic. About two-thirds of country’s registered hospitals are private.
- The National Rural Health Mission, launched on April 12, 2005, with an annual allocation of Rs 12,000 crore — increased by Rs 2,057 crore in 2009-10 — aims at providing accessible health services to the poorest households in the remotest regions of the country. The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana claims to have covered 4.5 million below-poverty-line families by issuing biometric cards. In reality, the programmes deliver far short of their avowed claims.
- Over 17 lakh children in the country die annually before reaching their first birthday. India accounts for a fifth of the global disease burden: 23% of child deaths, 20% of maternal deaths, 30% of tuberculosis cases, 68% of leprosy cases and 14% of HIV cases. Tuberculosis kills around 2 million people a year around the world; in India, the disease takes a toll of 4,21,000 lives.
- With almost a third of the country's population living in cities — more than half the number in 23 metropolitan areas — the healthcare infrastructure is far too inadequate. While there is need to raise the availability of doctors from 6,00,000 to 20,00,000 and nurses from 16,00,000 to 44,00,000, some 165 medical colleges annually turn out only about 16,000 doctors in the country.
- THE number of physicians per 1,000 population for the world is 1.5; for India, it is 0.6. Against a world average of 3.98 hospital beds per 1,000 population, Russia has 9.7, Brazil 2.6, China 2.5, and India 0.9. Per-capita per-year in-patient admissions for India aggregate 1.7 compared to 9 for the world and 5.5 in lowincome countries.
- Public health expenditure in the country has been only about 0.9% of GDP — central government 0.29% and state governments 0.61% — which is below the low-income countries’ average of 1%, and even sub-Saharan Africa’s 1.7%.
- As much as 63% of the entire spending goes to wages and salaries, leaving meagre resources for drugs, supplies, equipment, infrastructure and maintenance.
International
- Manufacturing Inc roars back to life across globe
- Factories in the US, Europe and Asia cranked up production last month, suggesting recovery from a deep recession was taking root in economies around the globe.
- The US manufacturing sector grew at its fastest pace in more than five years last month and activity in Europe bounced higher, with a cheaper euro helping stimulate exports.
- UK manufacturing expanded at its fastest pace since 1994 while China’s vast industrial sector also grew in March.
April1
Politics & the Nation
- A very good editorial comment in the context of the ongoing communal strife in Hyderabad
- There is a wider problem of a brand of politics that sustains on religious strife and competitive identity management. Communal strife will continue to plague India until that politics is challenged and delegitimised. But at a local level, heightened community policing and participation in dispute resolution can prove effective in averting such conflagrations.
- The economics of higher education militates against the entry of the best foreign universities in India. Comment.
- If you are ever asked such a question, nothing can be a better answer than today's op-ed by TT Ram Mohan. Take a look. An interesting read.
- Khurshid roots for more districts in minority list
- In a move that is certain to generate a lot of controversy, the minority affairs ministry on Wednesday said it wanted the government to change the eligibility criteria for classification of “minority concentrated districts (MCDs)” by reducing the criterion for such grouping from the existing 25% to 15%.
- Union minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid reportedly said that the government also favoured a “fresh look” at the Supreme Court-sponsored restriction on the government for notifying any community as “national minority”.
- An interesting news report. Take a look at it in full here.
- On Ranganath Mishra Commission report
- Here is an explosive article on the report. Penned by no less a person than the Member Secretary of that Commission who gave a dissenting report, this is quite forceful. Take a look.
- Gen. V.K. Singh takes charge
- He assumed charge today as the country's Army Chief. More about it here.
Finance & Economy
- Surprise surge in bond yields helps banks cut treasury losses
- Banks, which are struggling to meet loan-growth targets for FY10, have managed to stave off huge treasury losses as a surprising year-end surge in bond prices helped them set aside less money to provide for possible losses on investments. Banks have to set aside funds to make up for notional losses as bond prices fall whenever yields rise.
- Yields on the benchmark 10-year government bond, which crossed 8.02% on March 22, retreated to 7.85% at the end of the last day of the fiscal, although analysts and research reports had earlier forecast that yields would close at over 8% in end-March. Had yields closed on Wednesday at over 8% as forecast earlier, banks would have had to set aside at least over Rs 1,000 crore to provide for a fall in the value of the securities in their investment portfolio.
- The rally in bond prices over the last few days, however, has ensured that banks will be able to cut their treasury losses.
- One reason for the unexpected rally is that banks stand to gain hugely if bond prices rise. And this time, banks are more exposed to treasury losses as they have been forced to invest 31.3% of their deposits in government bonds owing to poor loan growth compared to previous years.
- Government bonds form the largest component of a bank’s investment portfolio, since the banking regulator mandates that a fourth of a bank’s liabilities should be in liquid government securities, known as the statutory liquidity ratio.
- Banks have to arrive at the market value of their bond portfolio based on the yield on the last day of the quarter.
- Banks hold government bonds under three categories. Available for sale (AFS), held to maturity (HTM) and held for trading (HFT). AFS and HFT are the two categories where banks have to provide for profits and losses, according to market prices of the securities. Treasury officials usually hold their medium-term securities (3-5 year segment) in the AFS category. These need to be marked to market (MTM), inviting provisions. The third category, held to-maturity, or HTM, which need not be marked to market and hence is not vulnerable to depreciation.
- All of the above excerpt is fine; but why do bond prices fall when yields rise? This is the question that should be bothering you; right? You will find an excellent explanation in this beautiful article. Read it if you care.
- Farmers milking tech for big yield
- RFID tags help improve production at dairies. How are they doing it? By right sizing the food given to cattle everyday.
- Overeating among cattle can lead to fatal diseases such as enterotoxemia, and insufficient diet can cause weight loss among other complexities.
- A tiny microchip, or radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, punched on the cattle's ear sends information about her daily dietary needs and feeding details, among many other information, to a radio sensor located inside the farm premises. This, in turn, communicates with computer systems maintained in the farm.
- The data collected by this system is then accessed real time by dairy managers and other supervisors for carrying out specific activities, such as monitoring the health and changing the nutritional mix.
- Thousands of milk farmers in Maharashtra and Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu are becoming part of a technology revolution that can have a far-reaching impact on milk productivity of the Indian dairy industry.
- Though India is one of the world’s largest milk-producing nations, the yields here are very low when compared with others. The American dairy industry, for instance, has an average yield of 10,000-11,000 litres per lactation cycle, compared with around 1,000-1,200 litres for buffaloes in India.
- Brazil took our Gir breed 20 years ago and has made it ten times more productive using technology. It’s an irony that in India our per animal productivity has not improved since 1950.
- Unlike a plastic plate with a unique 15-digit number—the farmers’ traditional way to identify cattle, an RFID tag is a more intelligent device. The tag consists of a microchip with 4kb memory for storing information and a radio antenna which transmits information via Bluetooth and other wireless protocols to a computer or a mobile handset.
- Food prices cool on rich reap
- Grain, cooking oil and sugar prices have dropped by up to a third in March due to better-than-expected harvests across the world, forcing popular Indian food brands to slash shelf prices and bring relief to consumers.
- The price crash in India mirrors declines in the global market. Global wheat prices are at a two-year low because of ample supply while sugar prices are heading for the biggest quarterly drop since 1985 on hopes of higher output in India and Brazil. Palm oil is at a seven-week low.
- Prices could decline further in the next couple of weeks as wheat, chana, maize and sugar pile up within India, and cooking oil in the main exporting countries such as Argentina, Malaysia and Indonesia.
- The slump could bring relief from sticker shock to consumers hurt by soaring food prices after a weak monsoon last year hit farm output.
- Net services earnings may fall in 9 years!
- India's net earnings from trade in services such as software and consultancy are headed for the first fall in a decade, leaving the rupee’s value at the mercy of overseas investment flows.
- Exports of services other than software may not be accelerating as fast as merchandise exports since they are not so essential for crisis-hit Western economies.
- Net invisibles -— the difference between income and expenditure on items such as travel, insurance and software -— fell 7.7% in the nine months ended December, preliminary data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) show. It last fell in the fiscal year ended 2001.
- The fall in net earnings from invisibles could make the rupee unstable against the dollar as the rupee rally last quarter—the second straight one—was more due to portfolio investments than improvement in trade.
International
- What is 'market economy status' and why is India refusing to grant one to China?
- All about it in today's ET in the Classroom column.
- In the context of the recent global financial crisis the phrase 'systemic risk' became a permanent fixture in many an article.
- What exactly is it? Take a look at how BIS (Bank for International Settlements) defines it:
- "a risk of disruption to financial services that is caused by an impairment of all or parts of the financial system and has the potential to have serious negative consequences for the real economy”.
- gyp: Verb
- Deprive of by deceit
- eg: We all are an agglomeration of atoms and by crashing atom against atom we are only trying to prove that all religious tomes gypped us with Genesis.
Friday, April 02, 2010
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