📰 Why it makes sense for India and China to cooperate on Iran’s Chabahar project
The development of the Chabahar port needs to be viewed as Iran’s call for “engagement”.
•After U.S. President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the Irannuclear deal, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has indicated that his government remains committed to that pact and that he would be negotiating with the deal’s remaining signatories — the European countries, Russia and China — to salvage the deal if possible. For Tehran, a lot is riding on how these powers engage in the coming months. India too has a lot at stake in this regard. Iran’s attempt to woo Chinese investment in Chabahar, often projected as India’s pet project (and a response to Gwadar in Pakistan), has raised eyebrows in New Delhi. Inviting Chinese investment is perceived as an attempt to dilute Indian influence.
The view from Tehran
•The development of the Chabahar port, however, needs to be viewed as Iran’s call for “engagement”. The participation of Pakistan’s Minister of Shipping at the inauguration ceremony made it clear that for Iran Chabahar means business. Post-sanctions, the development of the Chabahar port reflects Iranian quest for multilateralism, and China by default is an important player in the Iranian scheme of things. Given the overt hostility of the Trump administration towards Iran, it is imperative for Tehran to maintain cordial relationship with a rising power like China.
•China is one of the few countries which never severed its ties with Iran. In fact, it had played a crucial role in bringing Iran to the diplomatic table to negotiate the P5+1 nuclear deal. A recent World Bank report estimates substantial acceleration in Iran’s GDP growth rate (6.4%) in the year 2016 due to lifting of sanctions. This rebound is poised, if all goes well after the U.S. action, to get further impetus from Iran’s participation in China’s connectivity projects. China was also one of the countries that maintained steady trade relations with Iran even during the sanctions era. In fact, trade figures rose from $4 billion in 2003 to $53 billion in 2013. A large chunk of China-Iran trade is petroleum-based products. China is the largest importer of Iranian oil.
•As of August, 2017 crude and condensate export from Iran to China was approximately 733,000 bpd (barrels per day); a rise of 11% compared to previous year. Besides, China’s iron-ore buyers see in Iran an alternative to Australia and Brazil. Over the years, China has emerged as Iran's leading trade partner.
•Post-sanctions, Chinese President, Xi Jinping was the first head of state to visit Iran, in January 2016. On the sidelines of his visit, both countries decided to increase their bilateral trade to $600 billion in the coming decade. Iran, with its massive infrastructural needs, sees China as its most valued partner and Beijing has been investing in Iran in crucial sectors like railways. China International Trust and Investment Corporation (CITIC), a state owned investment wing has extended $10 billion credit line to Tehran. Besides, China Development Bank has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Iranian government worth around $15 billion.
•Chinese investments in Iran are part and parcel of its ambitious $1 trillion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Apart from their economic rationale, these investments are also a means to generate political confidence/acceptability for a China-centric world order. Iran perceives the BRI as a project that would make it an indispensable transit hub for countries like China, India and Russia and an effective antidote to the U.S. sanctions. Iran’s premium geographical location (as a bridge between Persian Gulf and Central Asia) along with a relatively stable political architecture makes it a central player for China’s BRI. This will give China de-facto control over two of the three major routes to world markets.
•In addition to their economic partnership, China and Iran share substantial defence cooperation with each other. After the 1979 revolution, Tehran has been dependent on Beijing for meeting its defence requirements. China has supplied Iran with surface-to-air missiles and has also trained Iranian nuclear scientists. The November 2016 agreement signed between defence ministers of both countries entails regular military-to-military exercises. In 2014, both countries held joint naval drill in the Gulf. There have been intermittent talks between China and Iran for the sale of J-10 multirole combat aircraft to Tehran.
•China, being permanent member of the Security Council with veto power, could be of great strategic help for Iran when it comes to vetoing any proposal against Iran in the United Nations. A parallel, China-dominated global order suits Iran more than the U.S.-centric world order.
India’s policy options
•This strong relationship between Tehran and Beijing makes it pertinent for New Delhi to navigate its interests in the region accordingly. To assume that Iran would help India counter Chinese influence in the region might be wishful thinking. India needs to resist the temptation of falling prey to “excessive securitisation” in the case of Chabahar agreement in particular and India-Iran relations in general. For India, to be an influential player in the region, economics and politics should complement and not substitute each other. India will have to capitalise upon the existing synergies. It is imperative to compliment geopolitical premises with robust commercial exchanges. In collaboration with countries like Japan, India should offer favourable terms of trade in the region vis-à-vis China. To consolidate its strategic depth in the region, India should focus on initiatives like frequent joint naval exercises in the Persian Gulf. Iran, on the other hand, would do well by maintaining a fine balance between the elephant and the dragon. Experiences of countries like Sri Lanka should encourage prudent thinking on the part of Iranian policy-makers.
•New Delhi will have to adopt a nuanced approach towards Chinese investment in Iran, especially now that Tehran’s reliance upon Beijing is only likely to grow after Mr. Trump’s exit from the nuclear pact. Some form of Chinese participation in the Chabahar project would be helpful for the future of the project, especially if the terms and conditions are clearly specified. India and China are exploring joint economic projects in Afghanistan; they can surely also extend this engagement to the Chabahar.
📰 Focus on building trust: on India and Nepal's bilateral ties
India and Nepal need to muster the courage to address the difficult aspects of bilateral ties
•Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, will pay a return state visit to Nepal this week (May 11-12). This visit by the leader of Nepal’s most important neighbour, and which comes barely a month after Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Oli visited India, signifies the intensity of political engagements at the highest level. There will be civic receptions in Mr. Modi’s honour. He will also visit two religious shrines, at Janakpur and Muktinath. The two leaders will jointly lay the foundation stone of the Arun III hydropower project.
Anchor to deep ties
•Relations between Nepal and India are age-old and multifaceted, as the countries share wide-ranging socio-cultural commonalities and geopolitical realities. No two sovereign and independent nations interact every day in such a comprehensive way as India and Nepal do, at the governmental and people’s levels. People-to-people relations are marked by the unique characteristics of mutual goodwill, respect, cordiality, harmony and understanding, and have never been rancorous even at the worst of times.
•However, these realities do not find full expression at official-level dealings despite words of reassurance from the leadership. The need is to protect the precious state of these relations, avoid a replication of past mistakes, and bridge the gap to realise the full potential of bilateral relations. This requires political acumen and a vision to overcome petty technicalities and bureaucratic meme.
•In August 2014, Mr. Modi’s bilateral visit to Nepal was the first by an Indian Prime Minister in 17 years. He attended the 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit, in November 2014, in Kathmandu. His visit now has great significance against the developments of the last four years: in bilateral relations; fundamental transformations in economic, political and societal terms; and the rapidly unfolding regional and global geopolitical scenarios.
•The August 2014 visit also enhanced mutual trust and confidence and imparted a new momentum to age-old relations. In his address to the Constituent Assembly which was then writing the constitution, Mr. Modi said: “We have always believed that it is not our work to interfere in what you do but to support you in the path you decide to take.” The two Prime Ministers underlined the “indispensability of democratic institutions for peace, stability and development”. Mr. Modi added, “Our only wish is that Nepal’s progress reaches as high as the Himalayas.” His short speech erased long-standing misperceptions in Nepal about India’s role.
•It was inspiring to see the Prime Minister speak to the world, in his Independence Day speech from Red Fort on August 15, 2014, and later at the United Nations on emulating Nepal. He said, “If Nepal could present the best example of moving from the weapons to the books, then it could provide inspiration to the youngsters in the world to abandon the path of violence.”
•In September 2015, Nepal promulgated an inclusive, democratic constitution written by the people’s representatives through the Constituent Assembly. The document is the culmination of seven decades of democratic struggles and sacrifices, exemplifying the victory of peace, non-violence and the ballot over bullets. India has been supportive of democratic movements in Nepal since 1950, a valuable partner in its socio-economic transformation, and friend in need.
•When the institutionalisation of the democratic process was taking a definite shape, India sent a special envoy to warn the Nepali leadership that “if the protests were not addressed politically, the agitation in the Terai areas could intensify.” A onstitution is an internal document. There is no reason for India whatsoever to express its disagreement over its contents and warn of protests along the open border. A reaction of this magnitude from the largest democracy to Nepal’s historic democratic moment remains inexplicable to this date.
•Immediately after the promulgation of Nepal’s constitution, India enforced an undeclared economic blockade that caused unspeakable suffering to the people of Nepal who were also hit hard by the devastating earthquake of April 2015. This act eroded trust and confidence in the eloquent words of the previous year. Had the then Prime Minister, Sushil Koirala, not taken a firm position amid last-minute pressure from India, there would not have been the promulgation of the new constitution. Now three tiers of elections have been held, the democratic process institutionalised, and the present leadership installed this February. Koirala followed courageous pragmatism in the conduct of foreign policy, respected India’s concerns and sensitivities when needed and asserted Nepal’s sovereignty when circumstances demanded. He did not wait to raise the Lipulekh issue over the phone, when it was included in the India-China joint statement without Nepal’s knowledge. This shows that the Nepali people are not ready to barter their dignity and sovereignty for support and goodwill of any kind.
•Nepal can never ever go against India. India’s legitimate interests and sensitivities are well-recognised by Nepal, which has consistently and categorically maintained that under no circumstances will it allow any activities against India. It is only the leaders on the left and the right who choose to use the rhetoric of populism and jingoism unfortunately directed against India. The blockade became rich fodder to add ferocity to national sentiments.
End the doublespeak
•Clues from one-on-one meetings (which Nepali leaders hold without aides leaving no institutional memory for reference) reflect a double standard — saying one thing in public and another thing while in office. A reactive, ad-hoc and divisive approach in foreign policy is shattering international trust in leadership, and this should end immediately.
•The high-level visit this week should lay the groundwork for trust to construct a lasting edifice of India-India relations. After every visit we stand flattered and hopeful of putting “some game changing projects” into action, which remain either underperforming or undelivered. Without trust, relations gain no height. Trust develops only when words are manifested in beneficial partnerships, cooperative actions and concrete results.
•It is time to call spade a spade in India-Nepal relations which are of utmost importance to both. Fyodor Dostoyevsky said: “Nothing in this world is harder than speaking the truth, nothing easier than flattery.” Having exhausted easier outlets, will the leadership display the courage to start the real work on difficult aspects?
📰 Improving social audits
Telangana’s experience is instructive
•The institutionalisation of “social audits” to ensure implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has been challenging. Since being included in the 2005 Act at the behest of social movements, social audits have been ineffective in most parts of the country due to government indifference. So far, 26 States have created social audit units (SAUs), but the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG’s) detailed guidelines are yet to be implemented. In the absence of any real commitment to make mandatory social audits a reality, the Central and State governments have exacerbated the implementation problems facing important social security legislations such as NREGA and the National Food Security Act.
State of play
•A notable exception is Andhra Pradesh (now Andhra Pradesh and Telangana). In Telangana, the SAU has organised regular social audits on NREGA since 2008. It has completed eight rounds, organising 9,125 rural public hearings, and auditing over 21,827 panchayats. Though participatory social audits are designed to expose problems and deter corruption, in an exploratory study, conducted in partnership with the Society for Social Audit Accountability and Transparency (SSAAT-Telangana), we find that social audits are playing a significant role in redressing individual worker grievances, though social audits are not viewed by development practitioners as appropriate grievance redressal platforms or effective deterrents to corruption. Such views, focusing on the punitive impact of social audits, do not pay attention to the iterative and dynamic process that defines the decade long experience in A.P. and Telangana. While state-supported social audits are different from the social movement-led jan sunwais that inspired them, the process in Telangana is charting new grounds aligned with activists’ demands for transparency, participation and accountability.
What the data show
•We surveyed 90% of the social audit facilitators, the majority of whom are Dalit youth (52%, 11% Adivasi), to understand how they perceive strengths and limitations of social audits. Two-thirds felt that 50% of the social audits they facilitated (in 2014-15) helped in deterring corruption.
•An analysis of real time social audit data available through Rapid Social Audit Report (RSR) shows that the percentage of deviation of NREGA funds accepted by the Presiding Officer of the social audit public hearing has increased over the years, from 72.83% in 2014 to 88.35% in 2017. But we find a decline in the percentage of NREGA records given (compared to the total programme expenditure): from 98.71% in 2014 to 87.22% in 2017. Respondents also identified weak state responsiveness to social audit findings (33%) and lack of support from senior officials (21%) as the two major obstacles to social audits.
•Without an independent agency to investigate and act on social audit findings, frontline social auditors in Telangana proactively focussed on individual workers’ grievances, the weakest link of NREGA. Publicly available administrative data show that SSAAT was able to resolve 32% of grievances received between December 2015 and November 2016, prior to the social audit public hearings. Follow up research using RSR Data shows, 57% of all the grievances registered during the audit process were job card related, an additional 26% were related to wage payments. This new problem-solving function of social audits helped local auditors better serve workers by improving on a poor performing phone complaint system that closed grievances without reason or redress. It also prevented individual grievances getting stuck in a non-existent corrective action system, highlighting the preventive role of social audits over the much-studied punitive role (deterring corruption).
Court’s reminder
•On March 19, 2018, the Supreme Court once again reminded us of the importance of social audits in improving government practices. In its final judgment on the National Campaign Committee for Central Legislation on Construction Labour (NCC-CL) petition on the implementation of the Building and Other Constructions Workers (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, the Court directed the Ministry of Labour and Employment, State governments and the UTs to “conduct a social audit on the implementation of the BOCW Act so that in future there is better and more effective and meaningful implementation of the Act”.
•The Supreme Court’s supportive position on social audits suggests this is a good time to take stock of the challenges to the social audit process and think through future strategies to improve the process. As the social audits process in Telangana completes a decade, we have much to celebrate: uninterrupted social audits despite change in state governments, and state bifurcation. This is an opportunity to draw on the decade-long experience in Telangana and A.P. to inform the national process currently being facilitated by the CAG.
📰 ‘SC has power to review laws’
•The judiciary has no power of the “sword or the purse,” but it has the power to ensure that both the government and Parliament function within their limits, the Supreme Court reinforced its authority to judicially review government policies and parliamentary laws.
•The judgment from a five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra comes amidst constant attacks aimed at the highest court for judicial activism, interference in governmental actions and even its quashing of the NJAC law.
•The observations form part of three concurrent judgments authored by Chief Justice Misra, Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan for the Constitution Bench which also comprised Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Ashok Bhushan. The question of law before the Bench was whether the Supreme Court can use parliamentary committee reports as evidence.
•The government had countered that a judicial review of parliamentary panel reports would be a breach of parliamentary privilege and a violation of the doctrine of separation of powers, which fundamentally mandates that the three arms of governance — the legislature, the executive and the judiciary — do not encroach into each other’s turfs. The Chief Justice wrote that ‘separation of powers’ does not mean mere division of labour among the three branches. “There can really be no strait-jacket approach in the sphere of separation of powers when issues involve democracy, the essential morality that flows from the Constitution, interest of the citizens in certain spheres like environment, sustenance of social interest, etc. and empowering the populace with the right to information or right to know in matters relating to candidates contesting election.”
•Justice Chandrachud interpreted that the “doctrine of separation of powers also seeks to incorporate mutual supervision, interdependence and coordination because the ultimate aim of the different branches of the government, through their distinct functions, is to ensure good governance …”.
📰 Walmart to buy control of Flipkart
The $16 bn deal, the largest ever Indian acquisition by a foreign firm, will help U.S. giant battle Amazon
•Walmart on Wednesday said it had agreed to pay $16 billion for about 77% stake in Flipkart, a deal that will pitch the world’s largest retailer in direct competition with its U.S. rival Amazon.com in a battle for dominance of India’s online marketplace. It will be the biggest ever acquisition in India by a foreign firm surpassing the about $13 billion Vodafone spent in 2007 for buying Hutchison’s Indian business.
•“India is one of the most attractive retail markets in the world, given its size and growth rate,” Doug McMillon, Walmart’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “Our investment is an opportunity to partner with the company that is leading [the] transformation of e-commerce in the market.”
•Walmart’s investment in Flipkart would benefit India by providing “quality, affordable goods for customers while creating new skilled jobs and fresh opportunities for small suppliers, farmers and women entrepreneurs,” he said.
•The transaction, once completed, will enable investors in Flipkart, including Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group, to encash their holdings and exit the Indian e-commerce start-up, which was founded in 2007 by two former Amazon employees Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal.
Biggest for Walmart
•Control of Flipkart will provide the Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart access to Flipkart’s network of 1 lakh sellers who retail 80 million products across 80 categories — from mobile phones to apparel and books — to 54 million active customers. The U.S. company, which first entered India in a wholesale store joint venture with the Bharti Group in 2007, is set to make its biggest acquisition ever as it eyes a segment of India’s retail pie that it forecasts will grow four times as fast as the overall retail industry.
•“They [Walmart] are now paying the premium because Flipkart is the only player on which they can place the bet. It is really important for them to have this market [India],” said Satish Meena, a senior forecast analyst at Forrester Research.
📰 Walmart, Flipkart kick off ‘new era in Indian retail’
Deal would help build Indian ecosystem, as in China: Biyani
•Walmart’s move to acquire a controlling stake in Flipkart will start a new era in India for both online and offline retail which will benefit the entire retail sector, said Kishore Biyani, founder and CEO, Future Group.
•“This deal means India is building an ecosystem like in China. A combination of online and offline is the new way forward,” he said.
•“We were expecting it to happen much faster. This deal will grow the market and it is good for the sector. We welcome it,” said Mr. Biyani, whose Future Group includes the Big Bazaar and Nilgiris retail chains.
•He discounted any immediate threat to his retail group. “There is nothing new. Flipkart exists and so does Walmart in India. So, it makes no difference for us now. However, we will know how this deal pans out, in future.”
•The move would also trigger consolidation in the market, said Ankur Bisen, senior vice president, Technopak. “This will allow the sector to respond to market need gaps in the right manner.”
•“New categories like food and groceries that are very big but have not moved online will receive attention. Marketing intensity will reduce and these are all the positives in the maturing of the sector,” he said. “The deal is very positive for both e-commerce and the retail sector in general. The sector will now be known as the custodian of the largest FDI deal in India. This has overtaken the $12.9 billion Rosnoft acquisition of Essar Oil,” he said.
•The online retail market till now has largely pivoted around fashion and electronics but these sectors control only 20% of the total retail pie. Many other categories are yet to move online and that may look appetising for Walmart.
•Mr. Bisen said the Flipkart deal offered Walmart the opportunity to catapult into a leadership position straight away. “No other market, apart from China and U.S., offers such a big opportunity for Walmart. In the U.S., it is already a leader and in China Alibaba is clearly a dominant player,” he said.
•However, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India, without specifically commenting on this deal, said, “We believe that some e-commerce companies in India have not been adhering to the guidelines issued under the Press Note 3 of the FDI Policy for marketplaces.
•“These companies have been directly or indirectly participating in [under]pricing and discounting, which is against the policy that seeks to create a level playing field. We hope the government takes strong steps to ensure adherence to FDI policy,” he said.
‘Control over data’
•The Confederation of All India Traders said the deal was an attempt by Walmart to control and dominate India’s retail trade through e-commerce which was ‘only a bridge to reach out to the offline retail market’. It pointed out that whoever controls the platform, is also in control of data. “It is much more difficult for the government to control and regulate foreign-owned platforms.”
•Additionally, it said, in the absence of any e-commerce policy, predatory pricing and deep discounts would continue in the e-commerce segment. “e-Walmart will certainly vitiate the e commerce and retail market. There will be an uneven level-playing field to the disadvantage of retail traders. Only the venture capitalist, investors and promoters will be benefited and not the country,” CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal said.
‘Japan jinx broken’
•“One complementary effect this deal may have is a strong positive push for Japanese investments in Indian companies. Till now, most big-ticket Japanese investments in India had underperformed or had got entangled in various market-related or company-specific issues,” said Manoj Patkar, executive director and partner, 7i Advisors LLP.
•“This had led to a cautious approach among many Japanese investors while evaluating investment opportunities in India. However, with the Walmart-Flipkart deal, Softbank’s $2.5bn investment in Flipkart has now delivered 60% returns in 9 months. This success story can push more Japanese conglomerates to seriously evaluate and invest in Indian opportunities.”
📰 Only 20% of Clean Ganga Mission funds spent till March 2018
Of ₹20,601 crore sanctioned for 193 projects, only ₹4,254 crore has actually been utilised; 24 of 64 entry-level schemes implemented
•Only about a fifth of ₹20,000 crore allotted for the National Clean Ganga Mission (NCGM) have been utilised till March 2018. That is roughly the same proportion of the sanctioned money utilised the same time last year. Amid complaints that the government’s marquee Ganga-cleaning exercise was dawdling, Union Water Resources Minister Nitin Gadkari had promised, in October 2017, a “visible change” in the Ganga water quality by 2019. At that time, only ₹2,901 crore — or 17% of the sanctioned ₹16,000 crore — had been spent.
•A financial account from the NCGM says that as of March 2018, ₹20,601 crore had been sanctioned for 193 projects. So far, only ₹4,254 crore had actually been spent on their implementation. Figures for April are not immediately available.
•About half the money, or ₹2,814 crore, had been spent on establishing sewage infrastructure. Only 24 of the 65 ‘entry-level’ projects — meant for cleaning the ghats and establishing new ones and cleaning the river front and the river surface — had been completed. They had been allotted ₹492 crore.
•Ministry officials said that while delays characterised several major projects, there had been an uptick in the tenders being awarded in the last few months. Because of this, several of these projects would be rapidly completed in the year ahead.
•About 12,000 MLD of sewage is emptied into the Ganga across 11 States, from Uttarakhand to West Bengal. At present, the capacity for sewage treatment is just 4,000 MLD; of this, 1,000 MLD is functional.
•Coursing 2,500 km, the Ganga is the longest river within India’s borders. Its basin constitutes 26% of the country’s land mass (8,61,404 sq. km.) and supports 43% of its population. Even as the basin spreads across 11 States, five States are located along the river’s main stem: Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal. Much of the river’s pollution load — chemical effluents, sewage, dead bodies, and excreta — comes from these States. Though the industrial pollution, volume-wise, accounts for about 20%, its toxic and non-biodegradable nature has a disproportionate impact. The industrial pollutants largely emanate from tanneries in Kanpur and distilleries, paper mills and sugar mills in the Kosi, Ramganga and Kali river catchments. The municipal sewage, at a billion litres a day, accounts for 80% of the pollution load.
📰 Drowning in dust: dealing with extreme weather
Better infrastructure and targeted forecasts are key to dealing with extreme weather
•A wave of extreme weather over northern States in India has killed at least 124 people and caused much misery, mostly in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The residents of this ‘weather hotspot’ region are used to annual storms carrying natural dust clouds in the pre-monsoon season, from the Thar desert and further west. But they have been hit by a particularly destructive version this year, one that combined hot western winds and moisture from the east. Record April temperatures in parts of Pakistan, at one place exceeding 50°C, are thought to have added to the ferocity of the dust-laden winds. This could be a recurring feature, and there is a need to develop accurate forecasting methods and protocols to mitigate the impact. Many of the casualties in the recent storms were caused by collapsing infrastructure, such as electricity transmission lines that were not built to withstand such weather. Good housing could have saved many. India’s vulnerability to such storms has always been underscored by scientific estimates of the flow of aerosols, or dust particles. Their presence in the country is three times the global average due to sheer abundance of mineral dust. There is also a body of research that points to altered climate patterns due to accumulation of dust particles, which affect even the Himalayan glaciers. Considering the large population in the Indo-Gangetic Plain, where the impact of weather on public health and agriculture is massive, the Central and State governments should do everything possible to cut loss of life and property.
•Globally, the major dust-producing regions pump 1,000-3,000 teragrams of particles into the atmosphere annually, with the Sahara alone responsible for a third of this, according to the UN Environment Programme. India is at the receiving end of winds from West Asia, although some scientists reported recently an overall reduction in dust volumes in the pre-monsoon season due to a pattern of increased rainfall. Even if that were to be true, unexpected surges such as the recent one pose a challenge. The Centre has to raise its game in forecasting, and broadcast early warnings. In fact, as the World Meteorological Organisation points out, clarity and frequency of warnings are key to saving lives. In the wake of the storm on May 2, State governments have blamed the India Meteorological Department for not providing clear warnings, while the IMD claims to have conveyed the forecast of the coming storm to the Centre several days ahead. This clearly points to lack of coordination, that affects disaster-preparedness. Millions of people who are in the path of extreme weather each year expect better from official agencies. On the ground, strong public infrastructure and adequate capacity among administrators and personnel to handle rescue and rehabilitation must be ensured.
📰 Rethinking wind energy
Global research is slowly revealing its high indirect impact on the ecosystem
•The bald tops of the Western Ghats are a pristine ecosystem replete with innumerable animal species and, apparently, an abundance of wind and windmills.
•As the country tries to achieve an ambitious renewable energy target of 175 GW, windmills have popped up in at least 65 sq km of forested area, with permissions for another 30 or so sq km still pending. This isn’t surprising given that India’s potential wind power map envelops the Western Ghats (from Kerala to Gujarat) and even large parts of the Eastern Ghats.
•While this has often led to expressions of concern over the environmental impact — as often in localised protests or civil action suits — these must be articulated in policy to prevent irrecoverable changes in the local ecosystem. Global scientific research has also highlighted the impact of windmills on wildlife. For example, in the first few months of 2018 alone, published papers have shown that in the Pacific islands, bat activity is as much as 20 times lower in areas with windmills. In Poland, higher stress levels have been observed among rodents in the windmill areas of Poland while in Portugal, windmills close to wolf breeding sites are leading to lower breeding rates. And in Texas, there has been a staggering 77% decrease in redhead ducks in coastal ponds within windfarms.
•The situation may not be different in India. In fact, it may be worse considering the high levels of biodiversity in every square kilometre of forest. In Rajasthan, for instance, transmission lines and spinning blades have reportedly led to increasing mortalities of the critically-endangered Great Indian Bustard. In studies of wind farms from Kutch to Andhra Pradesh, direct collisions have been reported. In Karnataka, where over 6,000 acres of forest land have been diverted for windmills, anecdotal evidence suggests that not only birds, but also amphibians and mammals such as wolves could be affected.
•What global research has indicated, and which Indian research is yet to do, is the high indirect impact on the ecosystem.
•At the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, Maria Thaker and her team have been studying the fan-throated lizard around windmills. They have observed that apart from birds, even smaller rodents and mammals avoid these patches due to the constantly whirring turbines. In this predator-less micro-environment, the lizard population has increased, leading to an increase in competition and decrease in consumable resources. “The whole aspect of the ecosystem is changed. The food web is inter-connected, and it is out of whack in these areas,” she says. Only long-term research can reveal if these changes have led to cascading effects on insects, vegetation and the soil. Further, construction denudes forests, fragments them through access roads and transmission lines, and even raises the risk of forest fires.
•Currently, the guidelines for wind energy skirt wildlife impact, while the process for forest land diversion focusses primarily on compensatory afforestation. In some cases, only studies on the direct impact on bird and bat species are called for. However, any mitigation based solely on direct collisions cannot prevent the indirect impacts and the jolts to the local ecosystem.
📰 Corruption in tennis
•A new report details the problem of match-fixing
Why was the IRP set up?
•The Independent Review Panel (IRP) was set up in 2016 after investigations by BBC and Buzzfeed claimed that there was widespread match-fixing and illegal betting in tennis. Reports also suggested that the governing bodies such as the International Tennis Federation (ITF), the Association of Tennis Professionals, the Women’s Tennis Association, the Grand Slams and the Tennis Integrity Unit did little to combat the problem. The panel published a draft report last month, titled the “Independent Review of Integrity in Tennis”, after surveying more than 3,200 tennis players and interviewing 200 others, over a span of two years.
What are its findings and recommendations?
•The report does not give any specific details of players or matches that were fixed but says the sport has been engulfed in a “tsunami” of match-fixing and corruption in the “lower and middle levels of the sport” (particularly the Futures circuit) where the prize money is so low that the players struggle to make a living. This, according to the report, provides an incentive for players to fix matches for a reward.
•The most urgent recommendation is that the ITF stop sharing official live scoring data with Sportradar, the sports data company that sells information to betting companies, which in turn enables betting during low-level tennis matches.
Gambling in tennis?
•Tennis has always been attractive to betting agencies. For many years, bookmakers were a common sight at tournaments, including Wimbledon. Tennis, as an individual sport, also lends itself to betting; you can bet on full matches, individual sets and sometimes even just games. That, coupled with super-fast Internet, has made the sport lucrative for gambling. The governing bodies in tennis also find themselves in an ethical dilemma because sponsorship from betting agencies have become an integral part of the sport.
Are Grand Slams fixed?
•News reports in 2016 claimed that winners of singles and doubles Grand Slam titles are among the “core group of 16 [suspected players]” to have repeatedly lost games when “highly suspicious bets have been placed against them.” The IRP report says there is some “evidence of some issues” at higher levels, such as Grand Slams and Tour events, but it does not reveal a “widespread problem” in elite professional tennis. Most players who compete at the highest levels are those who play for a living.
•The report, however, claims ‘tanking’ — players deliberately giving up or throwing away the match — has become a feature at some high-profile tournaments and has been tolerated too often by the tennis authorities, making it tough to detect actual corrupt play.
📰 World’s second oldest rock is from Odisha
The 4.2 billion-year-old zircon in the rock offers fresh clues about the earth’s origins
•A rock sample recovered nearly eight years ago from Champua in Odisha’s Kendujhar district has put India at the forefront of geological research in the world. Scientists have found in the rock a grain of magmatic zircon (a mineral that contains traces of radioactive isotopes) that is an estimated 4,240 million years old — a discovery of great promise to study the earth’s early years.
•Geologists from the University of Calcutta and Curtin University, Malaysia, along with researchers from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, made the discovery, which was published last week in the journal Scientific Reports.
•Rajat Mazumder, geologist and one of the authors of the paper, said that the only instance of zircon older than this discovery was the one found in Jack Hill, Western Australia, which was 4,400 million years old and is the oldest known rock sample. But the zircon in this case was from metamorphosed sedimentary rock, unlike the Singhbhum one, which was formed from magma.
•“Thus, the Singhbhum rock from where the zicron was recovered is the second oldest and its zircon, the oldest magmatic zircon on earth,” Dr. Mazumder said.
•Along with Dr. Mazumder, Trisrota Chaudhuri, a scholar with the University of Calcutta who is also associated with the Geological Survey of India (GSI), had spent years researching the Singhbhum rocks of Odisha.
Turned to China
•Dr. Mazumder and Ms. Chaudhuri studied the samples at the Geological Studies Unit of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. The isotopic analysis was a big challenge. They approached many laboratories in Australia, Canada, Germany and the US, in vain. They finally turned to China. “The machine used is called Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe (SHRIMP). It is not available in India. Dr. Yusheng Wan, a Senior Researcher with the Beijing SHRIMP Center at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, agreed to analyse only four samples on a collaboration basis,” Dr. Mazumder said. The analyses confirmed the presence of two zircon grains that were 4,240 million and 4,030 million years old.
•“Their study will add valuable information about the presence of water in the first few hundred million years of the Earth’s history. It will also give us clues to when plate tectonics began,” Dr. Mazumder said.
