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Transparency is posible

India’s RTI Act, which completed its first decade of implementation this year, is arguably one of the world’s most widely used freedom of information acts. In one year alone (2011-12), over two million requests were submitted to the Central government and 10 of India’s 29 states. Yet, choosing to file an RTI is not always an innocuous[i'nók-yoo-us(harmless,अहानिकर)] act.

Exposing corruption can make you enemies, and accounts abound of RTI users and activists being threatened, harassed, even assaulted or killed as a result of their requests.

As the RTI starts its second decade, we need India’s government to ensure that information provision has a more impersonal face. This requires the government to invest in a data infrastructure that will allow it to go from passive to active transparency.

The RTI and other freedom of information laws around the world are examples of how governments offer transparency, but passively. The citizens are the active agents, filling out request forms and, in the process, often dealing with resistance and delays.

In recent years, many countries have opened their administrative datasets to the public, with several goals in mind: To make government more transparent and accountable, track progress toward performance targets, and help policymakers and administrators do their jobs effectively. Such active transparency brings huge benefits to citizens who can directly access data without filing requests. Citizens also benefit circuitously[sur'kyoo-i-tus-lee(indirectly,अप्रत्यक्ष)] as researchers begin to use this data for a range of purposes, including to evaluate policy. While active transparency requires technical and organisational know-how['now,haw(knowledge,जानकारी)] as well as political shifts, as researchers engaged with the ministry of rural development (MoRD) on making MGNREGA data usable, we are convinced that active transparency is feasible[fee-zu-bul(possible,संभव)] in India.

From its inception in 2005, the MGNREGA has shown a commitment to transparency. But in 2013, when we had a look at the website providing access to the data — one of the largest databases for a social programme in the developing world — we saw that its design made the data difficult to access and use to gain insights for research or to improve implementation. In collaboration with the MoRD, we created the MGNREGA Public Data Portal, an interface designed to serve as a one-stop shop for over 50 indicators deemed pivotal[pi-vu-t(u)l(crucial,निर्णायक)] for evaluating the MGNREGA.

In the process, we identified three lessons on what it would take to foster[fós-tu(promote,बढ़ावा)] active transparency across ministries.

First, invest in technical inputs. Ironically, safeguards against cronyism, which are otherwise beneficial, can keep ministries from hiring the technicians needed to complement the skills of their staff. The government can also improve its digital services, especially website speed, by increasing the use of open-source technologies, which avoid costly licensing fees that can create procurement bottlenecks, and by taking advantage of efficient cloud web-hosting services.

Second, encourage collaboration between policymakers, researchers and technicians from the get go. Our team at Evidence for Policy Design has created a method we call “Smart Policy Design”, where researchers don’t just provide answers, they sit down with policymakers to help formulate the question. Together with MoRD officials, we determined the best indicators to track and how to present the data. Then we worked side-by-side with technicians at India’s National Informatics Centre to build the portal. (That’s literally side-by-side: We often worked two to a computer, as there were none to spare.) Since completion, the ministry has not only maintained the portal, it’s updated it, making it more robust[row'búst(strong,मजबूत)] and versatile.

Third, employ “agile[a,jI(-u)l(active,सक्रिय)] ” methodologies. The tech team at the National Informatics Centre and the “client” — bureaucrats — struggled to communicate and meet each other’s needs. Software developers now widely use “agile” methodology to keep fast-moving projects from going astray and creating waste. Using a clearly defined set of user needs, the team creates prototypes and proceeds through short rounds of cooperative iteration[i-tu'rey-shun(repetition,पुनरावृत्ति)] . This method can benefit a wide range of government initiatives by keeping all sides informed and involved, and the project on track.

Through the portal, MGNREGA data now enters the public sphere automatically. Mention increasing automation in government and you risk conjuring images of grey dystopias[dis'tow-pee-u(terror state,आतंक राज्य)], where the government has no human face and the citizen is just a number. However, automating systems that are currently in the hands of biased[bI-ust(partial,पक्षपातपूर्ण)] individuals may be the best option to actively increase the data the programme produces on itself and, thereby, strengthen human rights and quality of life.

This will take money, and policymakers grapple[gra-pu(fight,लड़ना)] not only with tight budgets, but often with organisational resistance to change. However, investments in data infrastructure are like investments in physical infrastructure such as roads and power lines — up-front costs may well be outweighed by long-run benefits. Plugging some of the MGNREGA’s many holes could itself pay the costs of automating aspects of its implementation.

Automation can serve purposes outside the immediate operational concerns of the particular programme. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include Goal 17 on revitalising the global partnership for development. This includes efforts “to increase significantly the availability of high-quality, timely and reliable data”. Although it is the last goal on the list, it would enable us to track progress on all the others.

The “timely” aspect is key: The more real-time data we have, the earlier we can correct ourselves and set a path toward goals that will improve the lives of individuals. And the best source of real-time data is a machine programmed to broadcast it

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The difference alumni can make

India should study the U.S. experience to foster[fós-tu(promote,बढ़ावा)] alumni participation and corporate support, and lower the cost of higher education and make it relevant
Back in the late 1990s, responding to a call from my alma mater, the University of Arizona, I reluctantly[ri'lúk-tunt-lee(unwillingly,अनिच्छा)] made a $100 gift to the university. To my surprise, the dean of the business school left a voice message the next day thanking me, saying my gift quadrupled[kwó'droo-pul(four times,चौगुना)] with corporate matching. He suggested that the gift be used to support students and improve the quality of education. That reluctant relationship blossomed — every year after that, I created a small endowment at the University of Arizona to support a needy student.

There are two important issues in the above example: alumni engagement and corporate support in higher education, both important for Indian colleges going forward. They can lower the cost of education and fundamentally transform the educational experience for students.

Let us look at the cost side. The cost of attending higher education institutions in India is moving in the direction of the U.S. universities. Despite public outcry, tuition fees in most U.S. universities continue to increase each year. Among the state universities, one of the reasons for this is the declining government funding as a percentage of the university budgets. At my university, the state of Texas funded 85 per cent of all educational costs in 1970. Today, the state pays around 13 per cent.

The Indian government subsidised higher education in government institutions to the tune of 90 per cent in the 1990s, but has recently asked various institutions to become self-reliant. This is leading to dramatic increases in tuition fees at premier institutions and is expected to exasperate[ig'zãs-pu,reyt(worsen,बिगड़ना)]. To offset this higher tuition fees, new educational loan programmes have been instituted through banks. These actions look a lot akin[u'kin(similar,के समान)] to those in the U.S.

Today, in the U.S., over 43 million students have borrowed a staggering[sta-gu-ring(surprisingly,चौका देने वाला)] $1.3 trillion. Since 2006, the total debt has increased 300 per cent. The availability of student loans has unintended consequences[kón-si-kwun(t)s(result,परिणाम)] . Access to loans makes it easy for colleges to increase tuition fees since students do not have much of a choice. That is why loan availability correlates heavily with higher tuition fees.

Mitch Daniels, the president of Purdue University, argues that there are broader societal consequences. “Home buying, marriage, child-rearing and even moving out of the family house are all now commonly delayed because of student debt,” he says. He argues that potential innovators seek traditional pay cheques to pay off loans rather than to pursue entrepreneurial lifestyle.

Before the situation gets out of control, the government and various institutions need to explore ways to contain the cost of education and proactively engage alumni and corporations to avoid societal costs.

Alumni engagement

Most U.S. universities now focus on engaging alumni both to raise funds and to improve the educational experience for students.

At the University of Texas at Austin, the alumni association called Texas Exes gave $3.45 million in scholarship to 641 students in 2015-16. This does not include alumni support to individual colleges on campus. The U.S. universities nurture the culture of pride and loyalty to their institutions. Alumni are emotionally committed to the success of their alma mater. There are both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and rewards in supporting universities.

We frequently hear of capital campaigns from numerous[nyoo-mu-rus(many,बहुत से)] universities to raise gargantuan[gaa'gan-choo-un(large,बड़ा)] amount of funds to support scholarship, faculty research, buildings, and so on. These funds are required to attract bright students, and advance knowledge, innovation, and teaching. The University of Texas just raised $3.12 billion in its campaign. Other major capital campaigns include Harvard University at $6.5 billion, Stanford University at $6.2 billion, Cornell University at $4.75 billion, and Yale University at $3.9 billion. Indian colleges may have to think similarly to advance opportunities and knowledge.

We are beginning to see college rankings include alumni giving-rate as one of the factors. This is an circuitous[sur'kyoo-i-tus(indirect,अप्रत्यक्ष)] way to measure how institutions are engaging their alumni and leveraging successes of those students to enhance their own educational mission. Alumni bring context and practical relevance to what is being taught in the classroom. An incoming student is more likely to be influenced by a recent graduate than a professor on the relevance of topics to his or her career. Mid-career alumni can reinforce[ree-in'fors(strengthen,मजबूत)] the facet[fa-sit(aspects,पहलु)] of schooling that impact their day-to-day life. Often they can relate to the students better than the faculty does.

Universities increasingly rely on industry projects or capstone classes to provide experiential learning. Often it is the alumni who help arrange projects for professors and assume a mentoring role.

Alumni are a great resource during the recruiting process. They are brand ambassadors and advocates for students. Colleges that have a deeper engagement with alumni also have an easier time placing their students. Engaging alumni early on will help students find internships, and firms can identify promising talent. Furthermore, alumni can help with mock interviews to prepare students to do well in the process of searching for jobs.

Corporate engagement

Corporate engagement not only brings financial resources, but also helps with recruitment efforts, change, and innovation in universities. The executives who represent corporations bring credibility and act as brand ambassadors. In the U.S., it is a matter of pride for executives to be part of universities and various programmes. Corporations have tantamount[tan-tu,mawnt(equal,बराबर)] responsibility as, or even more than, the government in developing talent that benefits them and society. Corporations know their needs for talent and skills better than the government. Corporations must play a significant role in developing talent rather than just being consumers of the talent. They have to invest in the future.

Here’s a case in point. I proposed a Master’s programme in business analytics where there is significant shortage of talent in the U.S. A major retailer, whose chief financial officer is an alumnus of McCombs School of Business and a member of the McCombs Advisory Board, committed $3,00,000 as seed money to jumpstart this programme. We were quickly able to assemble ten companies from different industries with similar need for talent to support our initiative. Many of these companies sponsored capstone projects where students apply their learning to solving real problems and gain practical experience in how to communicate with executives. As faculty, we were able to understand the need for different skills and types of problems industry is trying to solve. Industry has opportunities to seek advanced knowledge from faculty research.

Corporations can engage in allowing their employees to teach specialised classes. We have senior managers from Google and Dell teaching in our programmes. They bring practical knowledge and academic rigour[ri-gu(hardness,कठोरता)] to students that supplement the learning process.

If universities and colleges in India need to prepare students for the 21st century, they have to engage their alumni and corporations actively. This engagement is a partnership that benefits all stakeholders.

(Prabhudev Konana is Distinguished Teaching Professor and William H. Seay Centennial Professor of Information Management , Department of Information, Risk & Operations Management, McCombs School of Business, Austin, Texas.).

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Nothing free or basic about it

The airwaves, the newspapers and even the online space are now saturated with a Rs. 100 crore campaign proclaiming that Internet connectivity for the Indian poor is a gift from Facebook which a few churlish[chur-lish(ungracious,अभद्र)] net neutrality fundamentalists are opposing. In its campaign, Facebook is also using the generic phrase “free, basic Internet” interchangeably with “Free Basics”, the name it has given its private, proprietary platform. This is in blatant[bley-t(u)nt(open,खुल्लमखुल्ला)] violation of Indian rules on advertising, which forbid generic words being used for brands and products. This is from a company which, in spite of having 125 million Indian subscribers, refuses to be sued in India, claiming to be an American company and therefore outside the purview of Indian law. Nor does it pay any tax in India.

The Free Basics platform is a mildly tweaked rehash of the contentious[kun'ten-shus(controversial,विवादस्पद)] internet.org that Facebook had floated earlier. Facebook and Reliance, the sixth-largest mobile service provider in the country, have joined hands to offer it as a platform for free data services restricted to a few websites. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has stopped this service for now, pending its public consultation on the subject. Facebook’s campaign is essentially to influence the outcome of such a consultation.

Data as commodity

Evgeny Morozov, one of the most insightful commentators on technology, has written extensively on how Silicon Valley seeks to subvert the state, promising to give the people connectivity, transport and other facilities, if we only hand over our data to them. Instead of people demanding that the state provide access to various services — from drinking water to transport and communications — people are being led to believe that a few capitalists from Silicon Valley will provide all these services. We will have Internet connectivity instead of education, and Uber will provide private taxis, instead of public transport. To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, let the people have cake instead of bread. This is the Internet monopolies’ agenda of obscure[ub'skyûr(hidden,छुपा हुआ)] and mass-scale privatisation of public services.

By accepting the Silicon Valley model of private services, we pay the Internet monopolies with our data, which can then be monetised. Personal data is the currency of the Internet economy. Data as commodity is the oil of the 21st century. Facebook and Google’s revenue model is based on monetising our personal data and selling it to advertisers. Facebook generates an estimated revenue of nearly $1 billion from its Indian subscribers, on which it pays no tax.

Free Basics is not free, basic Internet as its name appears to imply. It has a version of Facebook, and only a few other websites and services that are willing to partner Facebook’s proprietary platform.

Today, there are nearly 1 billion websites. If we consider that there are 3.5 billion users of the Internet, 1 out of 3.5 such users also offers content or services. The reason that the Internet has become such a puissant[pyoo-i-sunt(powerful,दमदार)] force for change in such a short time is precisely because anybody, anywhere, can connect to anybody else, not only to receive, but also to provide content. All that is required is that both sides have access to the Internet.

All this would stop if the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or telecom companies (telcos) are given the right to act as gatekeepers. This is what net neutrality is all about — no ISP or telco can decide what part of the Internet or which websites we can access. Tim Wu, the father of net neutrality, has written that keeping the two sides of the Internet free of gatekeepers is what has given a huge incentive for generating innovation and creating content. This is what has made the Internet, as a platform, so different from other mass communications platforms such as radio and television. Essentially, it has unleashed the creativity of the masses; and it is this creativity we see in the hundreds of millions of active websites.

Facebook’s ads and Mark Zuckerberg’s advertorials talk about education, health and other services being provided by Free Basics, without telling us how on earth we are going to access doctors and medicines through the Internet; or education. It forgets that while English is spoken by only about 12 per cent of the world’s population, 53 per cent of the Internet’s content is English. If Indians need to access education or health services, they need to access it in their languages, and not in English. And no education can succeed without teachers. The Internet is not a substitute for schools and colleges but only a complement, that too if material exists in the languages that the students understand. Similarly, health demands clinics, hospitals and doctors, not a few websites on a private Facebook platform.

Regulate price of data

While the Free Basics platform has connected only 15 million people in different parts of the world, in India, we have had 60 million people join the Internet using mobiles in the last 12 months alone. And this is in spite of the high cost of mobile data charges. There are 300 million mobile broadband users in the country, an increase fuelled by the falling price of smartphones.

In spite of this increase in connectivity, we have another 600 million mobile subscribers who need to be connected to the Internet. Instead of providing Facebook and its few partner websites and calling it “basic” Internet, we need to provide full Internet at prices that people can afford. This is where the regulatory system of the country has to step in. The main barrier to Internet connectivity is the high cost of data services in the country. If we use purchasing power parity as a basis, India has expensive data services compared to most countries. That is the main barrier to Internet penetration. Till now, TRAI has not regulated data tariffs. It is time it addresses the high price of data in the country and not let such prices lead to a completely truncated[trúng'key-tid(short,संक्षिप्त)] Internet for the poor.

There are various ways of providing free Internet, or cost-effective Internet, to the low-end subscribers. They could be provided some free data with their data connection, or get some free time slots when the traffic on the network is low. 2G data prices can and should be brought down drastically, as the telcos have already made their investments and recovered costs from the subscribers.

The peril[pe-rul(danger,खतरा)] of privileging a private platform such as Free Basics over a public Internet is that it introduces a new kind of digital divide among the people. A large fraction of those who will join such platforms may come to believe that Facebook is indeed the Internet. As Morozov writes, the digital divide today is “about those who can afford not to be stuck in the data clutches of Silicon Valley — counting on public money or their own capital to pay for connectivity — and those who are too poor to resist the tempting offers of Google and Facebook” (“Silicon Valley exploits time and space to extend the frontiers of capitalism”, The Guardian, Nov. 29, 2015). As he points out, the basic delusion Silicon Valley is nurturing is that the power divide will be bridged through Internet connectivity, no matter who provides it or in what form. This is not likely to happen through their platforms.

The British Empire was based on the control of the seas. Today, whoever controls the data oceans controls the global economy. Silicon Valley’s data grab is the new form of colonialism we are witnessing now.

Net neutrality is not an esoteric[ee-su'te-rik(secret,गोपनीय)] matter, the concern of only a few netizens. It is fundamental to the world, in which the Internet is a source of knowledge, a means of communication, an artery of commerce. Whoever controls access to the Internet will control our future. This is what the current battle over Facebook’s Free Basics is all about.

(Prabir Purkayastha is chairperson, Knowledge Commons, and vice-president, Free Software Movement of India.)

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Monopolistic vs free market

If the objective is to connect the whole world to the Internet, then Free Basics by Facebook (previously known as internet.org) is a polemical[pu'le-mi-kul(controversial,विवादस्पद)] method to achieve it. The company wants to provide a subset of the Internet free of charge to consumers, with mobile telecom operators bearing the costs of the traffic. Facebook acts as the unpaid gatekeeper of the platform.

This kind of arrangement has come to be called “zero rating” and attracted criticism from Internet civil society groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation. It argues that the Free Basics scheme has “one unavoidable, inherent flaw: Facebook’s central role, which puts it in a privileged position to monitor its users’ traffic, and allows it to act as gatekeeper (or, depending on the situation, censor)... there is no technical restriction that prevents the company from monitoring and recording the traffic of Free Basics users. Unfortunately, this means there is no guarantee that the good faith promise Facebook has made today to protect Free Basics users’ privacy will be permanent.”

Monopolists vs free market

In India, Internet civil society activists are opposing Facebook’s scheme for additional reasons. While the attempt to introduce new users to the Internet is a good thing, they argue, the scheme risks breaking the network into many smaller ones and skewing the playing field in favour of apps and services that enjoy privileged pricing.

Zero rating in general and Free Basics by Facebook in particular has many defenders among advocates of free markets and capitalism. They argue that if the mobile operator wishes to lose money or cross-subsidise some users at the cost of others, then it should be allowed to do so. Government intervention in pricing usually has bad unintended consequences[kón-si-kwun(t)s(result,परिणाम)] , and it should be no different in the case of Internet traffic.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has re-engaged in a public consultation seeking submissions on which path it should take: the conservative path of insisting on net neutrality, a laissez-faire[ley,zey'fehr(individualistic,अबन्ध नीति)] approach of non-intervention in the decisions of private firms, or other options in between these two.

What seems to be taken for granted but should really surprise us is that companies and policymakers accept that getting the developing world online requires methods that are different from how the developed countries got there. So, how did the hundreds of millions of people around the world become Internet subscribers? Not because of government schemes, but because they could afford it. They could afford it because market forces — competition — drove prices down to levels that made an Internet connection affordable. Unless government policies get in the way, there is no reason why the same forces will not reduce prices further to make the service affordable to ever more people, with lower disposable incomes.

There is empirical[em'pi-ri-ku(experimental,अनुभवजन्य)] evidence for this: the 980 million mobile phone subscribers in India are able to make phone calls because they can afford the charges. Even after some price capping by TRAI, most mobile telecom operators are doing well. Despite persistent[pu'sis-tunt(continuous,लगातार)] call drops and atrocious[u'trow-shus(bad,घटिया)] customer service, consumers enjoy reasonably good service and the industry as a whole is fairly healthy.

All this happened without a mobile phone operator providing free calls to a limited set of numbers in order to demonstrate the value of mobile phones and to encourage more people to take up subscriptions. Operators did, however, innovate in retailing, launching prepaid packages and recharging these connections. On the flip side, they also cut costs by skimping[skimp(work carelessly,लापरवाही से काम करना)] on customer service, overloading spectrum and sharing tower infrastructure.

Competition is the key

TRAI should reflect on its own success in transforming India from a low teledensity country to a moderately high teledensity one. This happened not due to “no-frills services for poor and developing country users” but by ensuring that market competition is allowed to take its course. There is no reason why mobile Internet services will not become as popular as mobile phone services as long as there is adequate[a-di-kwut(enough,पर्याप्त)] competition.

Therefore, the debate on whether or not to permit zero rating is beside the point. What TRAI ought to be asking is whether there is sufficient competition in its current policy framework. Should it be licensing more telecom operators? Has the government made enough spectrum available so that mobile operators can lower prices and ensure adequate service quality? Are there bottlenecks in the hands of monopolists that raise the costs of service?

The path to achieving the dream of Digital India lies not in foreign companies deciding on what basic services India’s poor ought to access free of charge, but by encouraging ever greater competition and a level playing field. This calls for the regulator to have a hawkish[ho-kish(warlike,युद्धकारी)] approach towards anti-competitive behaviour by existing market players.

Now, let’s say that the government really wishes to make the Internet affordable to citizens whose incomes are too low to pay for it. There is a good case for this based on positive externalities: that some benefits of an individual’s connection to the Internet accrue[u'kroo(collection,जमा)] to society as a whole. Much like primary education, an Internet connection allows a citizen to participate in the modern economy. Just as society as a whole benefits if all citizens are educated, it benefits if all citizens are connected. To be clear, this is not an argument for the government to run telecom businesses. Rather, it is to say that it is in the public interest for nearly everyone to be connected to the Internet.

Growth as a force multiplier

While it is tempting to provide free or subsidised services — like we do in India for many such things — the best method to achieve this outcome is to raise people’s incomes. If the Indian economy grows at 8 per cent over several years, the income effect will make Internet connections more affordable even if prices do not fall.

In other words, the best scheme to bring the Internet to all involves boosting competition to bring down prices and pursuing economic growth to raise people’s incomes. This is the formula that has worked elsewhere in the world, has worked in India and will continue to work. Schemes like Free Basics by Facebook and Airtel Zero are superfluous[soo'pur-floo-us(unnecessary,अनावश्यक)] from the perspective of connecting the unconnected.

Now, Facebook is not a charity. So, it probably must have a good explanation to its shareholders why it is spending so much of its time and resources in promoting a good cause. That explanation is likely to go: “more Internet users in the world means more users for Facebook, which we monetise in our usual ways”. It might also hint that being the gatekeeper, however open, of Internet content for hundreds of millions of people will give it a lot more market power. This is important, for as Chamath Palihapitiya, venture capitalist and an early Facebook executive says, the company worries that it will lose out if it does not capture most of the world’s Internet content on its own platform.

TRAI must take a call on whether such business strategies are anti-competitive. But in dealing with the question, the regulator must not allow itself to be persuaded[pu'sweyd(convince,मनाना)] that such schemes are necessary for bringing the Internet to the masses.

(Nitin Pai is director of the Takshashila Institution, an independent think tank and school of public policy.)

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Moving on in chennai

The Chennai flood has left a watermark. It speaks of the heights the swollen waters had reached. And, ironically, the depths the city is now touching, as well. Almost on a daily basis, we see photographs of the city’s leading industrialists and businessmen posing with “Amma”, handing over cheques of Rs 1 crore and above towards the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Within a week of the waters subsiding, we turned a tragedy into a political, financial and branding exercise.

Donations such as these earn tax rebates. As one hand offers the cheque, the other quietly accepts the rebate, one that these large companies can forgo[for'gow(give up,त्यागना)] for sure. Nevertheless, the drama plays out unquestioned. Then, there is the publicity generated from this show of generosity for both the corporate and the chief minister. This is a corporate-political coup, one in which the real happenings are forgotten and savvy[sa-vee(smart,चालाक)] philanthropy[fi'lan-thru-pee(charity,लोकोपकार)] holds sway. There is always the counter argument that publicity is a necessary component to “giving” since it in turn inspires others to do the same. There is some truth in this but so often giving “in the spotlight” turns into “basking in the limelight”.

We, the people, look at the amounts on these cheques and feel reassured that the corporate world has responded to this crisis. But the crisis was not because of what the skies did, it was also the consequence['kón-si-kwun(t)s(result,परिणाम)] of what happened on earth. Contributing to the collapse of the “urban settlement” we call Chennaipattinam was the thoughtless growth of industries — private and public — and the pollutants they discharged into our land and water. Not to forget the filling up of water bodies by the developer, builder and realtor nexus.

However, there seems to be one unwritten agreement among business houses. Companies will never come out and hold a compatriot[kum'pa-tree-ut(person from same country,हमवतन)] accountable unless the law of the land convicts him or his actions affect their own interests. Cheques, therefore, mean nothing unless the industries, individually and through a collective voice, look beyond their own business interests and say, “our development methodology has been at fault; we must all take a new look at it”. What is needed, more than cheques, is corrective action. No amount of outreach activities can replace honest empathetic living.

And what about the ordinary citizens of Chennai? Where do we go from here? We packed food, sourced much-needed relief material, even rescued people. Now that it is done and we feel wonderful about ourselves, is it time now to “move on”? But what does “moving on” really mean? Are we going to casually leave behind the hurt, bruising, suffering, loss of livelihood and health that we were witness to? Time will heal and memories will fade, we are told. But I don’t want these horrible memories to dissolve. The politician only takes advantage of who we are, a society of corrupt self-serving power brokers.

As a person of Chennai, I need to change my mind-map of the city. It can no longer be limited to my geo-stationary position and functionality. Space is unbounded; we have carved out varied shapes, pushing people into matrices; social, financial and political hierarchy[hI-u,raa-kee(structure,वर्गीकरण)] being the determinants. This manipulation needs to be addressed if we want to avert[u'vurt(avoid,रोकना)] another rain-related or cyclone-driven crisis. Chennai, to me, must, hereafter, mean every narrow road, housing board settlement and fishing village that dots its coast. The fruitseller I pass everyday en route to my 15th floor air-conditioned cabin must become more than just another face on the street. The construction of a flyover must not only be about transport convenience and job creation. It must also be seen as a more-than-likely cause for environmental degradation, waterbody-strangulation, forced migration and unemployment. After seeing heaps of waste on our streets, will I realise that my waste does not just go away? That it is only removed from my sight and dumped in places where people who don’t matter live. They suffer the consequences of my avariciousness[a-vu'ri-shus-nus(greedy,लालची)] , forcing them to scavenge[ska-vinj(pick from garbage,कूड़ा करकट से उठाना)] through my rubbish for just one square meal. And let us please see this as clearly as we see that garbage heap. The lack of awareness about indiscriminate[in-di'skri-mu-nut(wholesale,अंधाधुंध)] consumption and waste disposal is not a problem of the uneducated masses, it is of the educated rich class. We have created an aspirational living model that is inherently abusive.

Culturally, too, we have to rediscover our identity. Culture moulds the way we think, feel, experience and respond. Therefore, a fundamental shift is essential. The gana songs inspired by Kunangudi Masthan Sahib and sung by a Dalit daily wager living on the banks of the Cooum, and a Tyagaraja kirtana rendered[ren-du(given,देना)] by a Mylapore Brahmin Carnatic musician, must live equitably within all of us.

I have heard many proudly proclaim that Chennai is back on its feet. But which Chennai are we talking about? The one that exists between Alwarpet and Besant Nagar or the one that exists in the irrelevant by-lanes of the less affluent[a-floo-unt(rich,अमीर)] Vyasarpadi, Manali, Mudichur and Nesapakkam? Things are normal for whom? There are scores of people still battling the financial and emotional trauma of the floods.

Heading back to work is not a choice, it is the unfortunate compulsion of their reality. Normalcy is only a convenient expression used by the privileged to justify their insensitivity.

The drowning of Chennai was a watershed moment, not just for the inhabitants of its landscape. It revealed the undeniable inter-connectedness of all our lives. The Chennai disaster was man-made, some even call it mass-murder by sterile['ste,rI(-u)l(unimaginative,अकल्पनाशील)] , synthetic people. It is an environmental, political and social issue, but at its very core are questions about human nature. The sooner we begin living with this awareness, the greater the chance of transformation. Cosmetic solutions will conceal the wound, not heal. When on another December night, the gash reopens, we may have a heavier price to pay.

Written by T M krishna

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Story of national Herald case

But for BJP leader Subramanian Swamy’s court case against Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son and party vice president Rahul, and some of their hangers-on, could the National Herald have hogged the headlines after the Gandhis were ordered to appear personally at Delhi’s Patiala House court? The answer is an emphatic no. The first hearing of the case on December 19 had turned into a tumultuous[tyoo'múl-choo-us(unquiet,अशांत)] drama; the grant of bail to all the “accused” was claimed as “victory” by both sides. What will happen on the next hearing on February 20, 2016 remains to be seen. For the moment, it seems necessary and fair to sum up the Herald’s story from its glorious birth to its pathetic death.

Since Jawaharlal Nehru founded it in Lucknow, almost a year before the start of World War II, the Herald enjoyed a wide readership. The main reason for its popularity was that Nehru, when not in jail, used to write signed editorials often enough.

He also appreciated the work of M. Chalapathi Rao (usually called M.C.), who was the paper’s much-respected editor. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Indira Gandhi, who was in Europe at the time, use to receive clippings from the Herald. She would send back either her comments or some “unpaid contributions”. After her marriage in 1942, her husband Feroze became the newspaper’s managing director. Indira and Feroze set up a small house in Lucknow while Nehru, along with other Congress leaders, was imprisoned in the Ahmednagar Fort in Maharashtra because of the Quit India Movement.

But even after his release in May 1945, Nehru remained preoccupied, first with the failed Simla (now Shimla) Conference and later with the intense negotiations about Independence and Partition. Widowed in 1936 and strenuously[stren-yoo-us-lee(strongly,सख्ती से)] busy, especially since September 1946, when he took over as the head of the interim government and later became India’s first prime minister, Nehru needed to be looked after. Indira alone could have done that. Feroze had to remain in Lucknow to manage the Herald and could move to Delhi only in 1950, when he became a member of the provisional Parliament and the Delhi edition of the newspaper was being set up.

Although welcomed by those associated with the freedom movement and the Herald’s original Lucknow edition, its arrival in Delhi did not make much impact. For one thing, The Times of India of Bombay (now Mumbai) started its Delhi edition at about the same time with far greater resources. Unfortunately, advertisers simply ignored the Herald’s Delhi edition.

While newspaper sales do matter, what keeps them going is the income from advertisements. Indeed, in one of my conversations with him, Feroze said that he had once asked J.R.D. Tata why the latter never gave any advertisement to the Herald. The eminent[e-mu-nunt(famous,प्रशिद्ध)] industrialist’s reply was: “None of your readers bathes with eau de cologne soap, which is the only brand I have to sell.” It was on October 1, 2008 that the Herald and its Urdu edition, Qaumi Awaz, went into limbo[lim-bow(forgotten,गुमनामी)] . In fact, on several occasions, the company directors made formal proposals to stop publishing both newspapers. But each time, Sonia Gandhi rejected them firmly. “This lamp,” she would say, “was lighted by Jawaharlal Nehru; it must not be allowed to be extinguished[ik'sting-gwisht(destroy,नष्ट)] .”

However, there arrived a stage when emotions had to yield[yee(-u)ld(give,देना)] to ground reality. News agencies like PTI and UNI had withdrawn their services from the Herald because they had not been paid for months. Moreover, failure to pay the staff salaries on time caused acute[u'kyoot(sharp,तीक्ष्ण)] labour unrest.

Abid Hussain, one of the last people to head the Herald’s board of directors, was once gheraoed[gheraoed(protest,विरोध)] for 20 hours. Above all, the paper’s archaic technology ruined its production quality.

To say that the Herald’s problems began only during its last decade will be wrong. In a very long and very angrily worded letter, dated December 16, 1949, Indira Gandhi told Nehru that a rot of a different kind had set in the Herald soon after Independence.

Her main complaint was that the chief minister of UP, Govind Ballabh Pant, was collecting “proxy votes to elect petty[pe-tee(small,छोटा)] businessmen with unsavoury[ún'sey-vu-ree(offensive,घृणित)] reputations” to the paper’s board. She further wrote: “Are you prepared to have the Herald, which everyone associates with your name, to be run by black marketeers?”

It is ambiguous[am'big-yoo-us(unclear,अस्पष्ठ)] how this matter was resolved eventually. But there was another episode related to the Herald where Indira had her way. In her view, M.C. “was living in the past and should be asked to go”. Eventually, she got rid of M.C. in a manner that was vintage Indira.

On the day that M.C. completed 30 years as editor of the Herald, she held a big reception in his honour. She eloquently[e-lu-kwunt-lee(in meaningful manner,अर्थपूर्ण ढंग से)] praised him, but at the end of her speech announced his retirement, which he had never sought. His numerous[nyoo-mu-rus(many,बहुत से)] successors, most of them eminently forgettable, collectively share the blame for the Herald’s fate.

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Free run for the rent-seekers

The 10th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which also marked the completion of two decades of functioning of the most recent of the multilateral institutions, ended with an agreement among trade ministers of the member countries that may have pushed the organisation to the precipice. The WTO faces this existential threat for two reasons: the post-Nairobi work programme has very few substantive issues that can meaningfully engage its 162 members, and, more importantly, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), that has been the lifeline of the WTO for nearly a decade and a half, now faces the imminent[i-mu-nunt(close in time,आसन्न)] threat of closure.

The Doha agenda

When it was adopted in 2001, the DDA was seen as the collective articulation[aa,tik-yu'ley-shun(Voice,अभिव्यक्ति)] of the developing countries for working towards a just and equitable trading system, one which would provide the opportunities to laggards in the global trading system to benefit from engaging in trade. WTO members agreed that for realising this objective, the rules in each of the areas must be appropriately designed. Thus, it was agreed that agriculture must be stripped of all policy distortions, including the unacceptably high levels of subsidies that provide unfair advantage to the large conglomerates[kun'gló-mu-rut(Empire,समूह)] controlling global trade in commodities. At the same time, it was decided that the existing Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) would be amended to address smallholder agriculture and give developing countries new instruments to address concerns regarding food security, protection of rural livelihoods and rural development. The understanding therefore was that the trade regime would prevent the occurrence of a situation where small farmers in developing countries are pitted against the powerful commercial interests.

It was also agreed, in the same vein, that developing countries would be able to enjoy flexibility while reducing tariffs in both agriculture and industry, so as to ensure that these enterprises are prevented from facing competitive pressures before they are adequately[a-di-kwut-lee(sufficiently,पर्याप्तता)] prepared to do so. And, finally, in the area of services, most developing countries, including India, have been seeking ways to improve their presence in the global services markets, especially through cross-border trade in services and through movement of natural persons (the so-called Modes 1 and 4 respectively).

This approach towards the resetting of trade rules seems tailor-made for India at the present juncture[júngk-chu(occasion,मोड़)] , given the slew of initiatives that the government of the day has taken for preparing the domestic economy to face the multifarious challenges. Thus, the amendments sought in the AoA would have provided to the government the flexibility to adopt farmer-friendly policies as well as to operate a public distribution system for implementing the National Food Security Act. At the same time, calibrated['ka-lu,brey-tid(measured,नापित)] reduction of tariffs, which has been one of the key elements of the DDA, must be considered critical for the pursuit of the ‘Make in India’ programme.

The Nairobi distortion

How does the Nairobi Declaration affect the DDA and its key components mentioned above? The first and the most ominous[ó-mi-nus(threatening,अनिष्टसूचक)] sign for the DDA is that the WTO members did not unanimously[yoo'na-nu-mus-lee(in complete agreement,सर्वसम्मति)] support its continuance. The United States Trade Representative, Michael Froman, was more forthright in his comments on the future of the DDA. He said that “while opinions remain divided among the WTO Membership [on the continuance of DDA], it is clear that the road to a new era for the WTO began in Nairobi”. As regards the activities of the WTO in the post-Nairobi phase, Mr. Froman stated that “as WTO members start work next year, they will be freed to consider new approaches to pressing unresolved issues and begin evaluating new issues for the organisation to consider”. Thus, even while a vast majority of developing countries, back the continuance of the DDA, the U.S. has stated unambiguously[ún,am'bi-gyoo-us-lee(clearly,सुस्पष्ठ)] that it is no longer inclined to discuss the DDA and its covered issues.

If the DDA is being abandoned[u'ban-dund(give up,छोड़ना)] , what would be the likely content of the future deliberations in the WTO? This answer appears in the Ministerial Declaration, through the following observation of the Ministers: “... we note that WTO Members have also successfully worked and reached agreements in plurilateral formats”. This laudatory[lo-du-t(u-)ree(praising,प्रसंसनीय)] statement in favour of the “plurilateral formats” is tacit[ta-sit(silence,मौन)] recognition of the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), one of three mega-regional trade agreements (the others being the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership). The TPP is a 12-member arrangement, led by the U.S., whose underpinnings are unbridled[ún'brI-duld(uncontrolled,अनियंत्रित)] quest for markets, without any consideration being given to the ability of smaller countries in the grouping to be able to compete with the larger countries; in other words, countries of vastly unequal strengths would be treated equally. Yet another problem with the TPP is that it ignores the presence of large policy distortions, for instance, the granting of high levels of farm subsidies by the U.S. while pushing for opening of markets.

But above all, the TPP allows the large rent-seekers in the international markets, the transnational corporations, to earn unacceptably high rents through the exercise of the extraordinary rights they have been promised for their intellectual property and their investments. These transnational corporations are already making several countries pay very high prices for the products based on their intellectual property, including those of life-saving drugs, something that has been viewed with concern even in their home countries. At the same time, an increasing number of these corporations have successfully brought cases against their host countries before international arbitration panels when the latter have tried to bring domestic regulations to check flagrant[fley-grunt(badly,घोर)] violation of norms.

With the WTO facing the imminent danger of being taken over by a grossly unjust and undemocratic governance structure that would be dominated by the powerful interests, India and other developing countries need to seriously consider the contours of their future engagement with this organisation. More specifically, they must find ways of bringing back centre stage in the WTO negotiations the issues that would help their farmers and the workers in the manufacturing and services sectors get decent jobs and to put their economies on the path of sustainable development.

(Biswajit Dhar is a professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, JNU.)

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Children of the internet

Sixteen years ago, at the stroke of midnight, when the clocks rolled over into the year 2000, computers worldwide were affected by an unexpected bug. Y2K, readers might recall, became a popular name overnight. This bug occurred partly due to the practice of representing a year with its last two digits — the year 1998 as x98, 1999 as x99, and so on. When we entered the new millennium, the computers got confused — is x00, the next year, 2000 or 1900? Is the year a leap year or not (2000 is, but 1900 is not)? Moving forward, what would x01, x02, etc, mean?

In effect, the machines did not anticipate, or understand, what it meant to move into the next century. I think their lack of comprehension was similar to that of my generation. Our transition into the next millennium wasn’t smooth. Instead of taking just another assured step, where all that changed was the date in the homework and classwork columns, it was like being swept away by powerful winds and hurled[hurl(throw,फेकना)] into alien territory.

The internet, of course, was the most powerful of these winds of sudden change. Not only did it herald an age of information, an age of too much information, but it also mapped a new world where physical distances had little significance. Before we knew it, we were in Yahoo chatrooms and Orkut communities, debating with like-minded people from around the country, if not the world, stalking the other sex, connecting with estranged[e'streynjd(unloved,विरक्त)] friends and befriending strangers. In schools, we made friends based on accidents — who sat next to us, who used the same bus or auto rickshaw. Not anymore. We were no longer restricted to forming acquaintances[u'kweyn-t(u)n(t)s(relationship,जान पहचान)] based on geographical limitations. Age, sex, location were conversations starters, not enders.

The second of these forces was that of globalisation — the earth becoming a flatland, as a renowned economist put it. Suddenly, we were looking and were compelled[kum'pe(force,बाध्य)] to look at ourselves from new vantage points(viewpoint,नजरिया). From the outside in. We realised we were part of a larger world, a living, thriving[thrI-ving(growing,पनपना)] world — unlike the dead ones on the pages of an atlas — where many kinds of people and cultures existed. The amoral Manhattan lifestyle of How I Met Your Mother and Friends, for instance, fascinated us, and the cute, adventurous and uninhibitedly[ún-in'hi-bi-tid(unrestrained,उन्मुक्त ढंग से)] fantastical life of children in Japanese manga gave flight to our imaginations. Some of us were intrigued[in'treeg(fascinate,कुतूहल)] by war movies and through them deliberated on the lasting impacts of the Holocaust, imperialism and the quest for democracy in the Middle East. And others like me came to terms with the fact that Nagraj, Super Commando Dhruv and their nemeses weren’t wholly original conceptions, nor were some of our favourite Bollywood flicks.

In the light of this new knowledge, this exposure, we found ourselves questioning our identity and discovered, as a result, the power to redefine ourselves. The power to constantly unlearn and relearn. Once we were away from home — in the hostels of our colleges, in metros for jobs, on the road while travelling — we didn’t have to carry on the narratives that were handed to us. We didn’t have to behave strictly as a Baniya or Brahmin, as a “north Indian” or “south Indian” or “Bong”, a native or non-native to a city, as “upper middle class” or “lower middle class”, or even as a “decent girl” or a “suitable boy”. We could be anything. For good or bad, we became, and aspired to be, rootless. A branch cut off from the vine.

The third, and an often overlooked factor, is our physical coming of age. I was 13 years old when the famous Y2K bug made headlines. I was smart enough to know that the naked pictures of celebrity actors on a certain popular Indian site were fake, but I was naive and still fixated with them. I had three email IDs — on AOL, USA.net and netfundu.com (for which I also received personalised visiting cards) — and I had no clue what to do with them. Kids my age were driven by curiosity. Unconcerned about potential harm and unmindful of benefits, we explored this other world and escaped the one in which we were restricted by default. In which everyone is restricted by default.

And look where we are now. As a result of our rootlessness, we have become a generation of wanderers. We switch companies, cities, partners. We become atheist one year, practising Buddhist the next, never taking our religious identities too seriously (in the last few months there has been evidence to the contrary, but I would like to continue to hold this belief). Our cricket icons retired one by one — and we looked for new heroes, new franchises, new sports.

We have been in constant flux. But reason has found its way with us and we understand — the preparation for MBA, IAS, bank entrance exams has made us understand — what it means to read, write and think critically. So that we score well in general knowledge and awareness sections, we have read editorials of newspapers and award-winning contemporary literature. The practice has enriched us without our knowledge. We have also spent hours on Wikipedia, and are well aware of all the isms and logies, from Marxism to Scientology, from Taoism to Freudian psychology. We have been sufficiently enchanted[en'chãn-tid(influenced,मंत्रमुग्ध)] and disillusioned with them in turns.

Our rootlessness has, eventually, become the fountainhead of our liberation.

The year-end is a time to look back and reflect. And as I do that, I wonder if the ripples of the effect of that turbulent[tur-byu-lunt(unquiet,अशांत)] hurling into this century can still be felt. I am an electronics engineer who left a well-paying (and “prestigious”) PSU job to embrace writing and poverty. I am still unmarried. I have still not bought an apartment or a car, not rooted myself to a new place. But I am cognizant[kóg-ni-zunt(aware,जागरूक)] of the power of redefining myself, and the efficacy of this power. That’s where, I suppose, I find solace[só-lis(comfort,सांत्वना)] .

Written by mohit parikh

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Transformation of Iran

The Vienna agreement between Iran and the P5+1 in July 2015 was a stellar[ste-lu(major,मुख्य)] milestone for the Middle East’s geopolitical future. It was also a breath of fresh air for Iranian domestic politics. The question to ask now is what the nuclear deal means for Iran’s future economic and political role in the region and the world. Two brawny[bro-nee(strong,मजबूत)] arguments have emerged from the hawks and doves in Tehran and Washington. Opponents of the deal, in Israel, Saudi Arabia and the US, continue to argue that Iran is at the root of many problems in the Middle East and that the only correct policy is economic and political containment, or military invasion. Supporters of the deal have a more nuanced[nyoo,ónst(subtle difference,सूक्ष्म भेद युक्त)] understanding of Iran’s regional role and intentions.

Moreover, there’s a abiding[u'bI-ding(permanent,स्थायी)] disagreement between two competing visions within Iran. The first group — represented by President Hassan Rouhani, the moderates and reformists — believes that Iran must collaborate with Russia, Turkey, Iraq and the West to re-establish security and stability in the Middle East. From their perspective, Iran can’t remain an island of stability unless there’s an end to the ongoing regional conflicts. Proponents of the second view — represented by the conservatives and ultra-conservatives close to the Supreme Leader and the erstwhile[urst,wI(-u)(past,पहले का)] government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — argue that collaboration with the West and non-ideological engagements in the region should be reduced to a minimum. For them, the war against the Islamic State is not Iran’s fight. They also believe Iran’s regional interests can be best served by defending only core Shia interests in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, etc.

This debate comes at a sensitive moment. In the next 18 months, three important elections are scheduled. In February 2016, Iran will hold parliamentary elections and also elect the Assembly of Experts, whose key mandate is to choose the next Supreme Leader. In June 2017, Iranians will choose their next president. With Ayatollah Khamenei ageing and probably ill, many wonder if the assembly will choose his successor, and one who could reshape the constitution. Moderate forces advocate more power for elected bodies, while supporting the candidacy of the late Ayatollah Khomeini’s reformist grandson, Hassan Khomeini, for the assembly. Khamenei himself supported Rouhani’s push for the nuclear deal, but showed serious doubts about its implementation and consequences[kón-si-kwun(t)s(result,परिणाम)] vis-a-vis[vee-zu'vee(face to face,आमने सामने)] relations with the US.

Despite resuscitating[ri'sú-si,teyt(Revive,पुनर्जीवित)] Iran’s economy with prudent[proo-d(u)nt(wise,बुद्धिमान)] diplomacy, Rouhani will face many difficulties in following up on his social and political liberalisation. As a result, Rouhani and his cabinet are under daily pressure from the ultra-conservatives. Yet, everyone in Tehran seems to be looking for some progress towards a regional security architecture. If this analysis is correct, any proactive shift in Iran’s foreign policy towards a less interventionist stance may help reduce Middle Eastern tensions. But this analysis can’t be valid without demolishing the myth of Shi’ite Iran — spread by Saudi Wahhabism — provoking sectarian wars for supremacy over the Sunni world. The truth is that Iran has little interest in challenging the Saudis, for the simple reason that Tehran doesn’t see Riyadh as an important menace[me-nis(threat,खतरा)] to its security. Iran’s support for Iraq’s Shias and Syria’s Alawites, or its aid to Lebanon’s Hezbollah, is less about sectarianism and more about political realism.

Iran appears to be moving towards greater accommodation with regional states. The proof is Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s letter to the Lebanese daily al-Safir, addressing the Arab world about security threats that confront all Middle Eastern states alike. Zarif suggested regional cooperation for a peaceful resolution to violent conflicts, signalling Iran’s goodwill. This new effort at partnership, post Vienna, is a transformative process, changing Iran from an insular security state to a regional power. If that’s the case, one should be prepared to witness a heightened economic partnership between Iran and Europe, and also with some Arab states and India.

Still, some believe there will be an escalation in Arab hostility[hós'ti-lu-tee(enmity,शत्रुता)] to Iran to weaken Tehran’s hand, since the Gulf states have an innate[i'neyt(natural,सहज)] fear of Iran’s re-emergence as a new regional policeman. What’s certain is that, if Tehran plays its cards correctly, the coming years may see Iran emerge as a respected regional power and a more visible partner in the global policymaking arena.

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Seed of an idea

Even as governments of the world were grappling[grap-ling(fight,लड़ना)] with the nitty-gritty[ni-tee'gri-tee(most important,महत्वपूर्ण पहलू)] details of the Paris Agreement, social media platforms were abuzz with discussions on the Chennai floods and the National Green Tribunal’s curbs[kurb(restrict,सख्ती)] on the plying of diesel vehicles in Delhi. Two sentiments dominated these discussions. One, a sense of betrayal, with political parties being painted and panned as ruthless[rooth-lus(merciless,निर्दयी)] villains. Two, the need for a planned course of action for all those who want to change the narrative of a civilisation that is on a constant warpath[wor,paath(unfriendly,विरोधी)] with nature. These discussions threw up the idea of a Green Party — a political party with ecological wisdom and participative democracy as its roots.

As far as innovations go, the idea of a Green Party is not exactly a brainwave; Western countries have seen their share of political parties and alliances that have been established on a ‘green’ platform. For instance, the German Green Party (now called Alliance ’90/The Greens), established in 1980, is one of the oldest and most prominent of these groupings. Many of these parties have made it to their respective Parliaments and some even to the European Parliament.

Need of the hour

But is there really a need for a Green Party? Can’t the existing parties, which anyway seem one too many, reorient, recalibrate and attune themselves to emerging needs? The answer, it seems, is both a yes and a no.

Yogendra Yadav, senior fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and a renowned psephologist, social activist, and former Aam Aadmi Party leader, says there is a “crying need for environmental politics”, as our flawed economic developmental model has left a trail of shattered homes.

However, M. Pushparayan, social activist and one of the principal forces behind the anti-Koodankulam movement, says that while he agrees with Mr. Yadav’s overall assessment of the need for a green party, he keeps his counsel on its near-term viability.

Mr. Pushparayan’s scepticism[skep-ti,si-zum(disbelief,संशयवाद)] is not entirely unfounded. Many of the current discussions around environmental issues and green politics are restricted to the now and here, with broader contentious[kun'ten-shus(controversial,विवादास्पद)] topics such as industrialisation and exploitation of natural resources continuing to divide people.

“In Chennai, at least, the new-found sensitivity to environmental issues is more of a knee-jerk[nee-jurk(natural,स्वाभाविक)] emotional response to the floods. [What people don’t understand is] that when we talk about things like a cleaner sea and garnet mining, we are speaking for the world at large and not just for the local communities,” he says.

If this is the way Chennai would look at what is happening in Kanyakumari or Tuticorin, then is it reasonable to expect people to make common cause with the happenings in Odisha or the Northeast?

But Mr. Yadav does not see this problem as insurmountable[in-su'mawn-tu-bul(impossible,असंभव)] . He says this yawning divide between various interest groups is, in fact, a basic and unique feature of our democracy that we must take into account while coming up with a political response to new social mores.

“Forget about the disconnect between the people living in urban areas and those living in rural areas. Today, fishermen are disconnected from the Adivasis. The Adivasis are disconnected from the small and medium farmers. The small and medium farmers are disconnected from the locals,” he says.

Given these unique challenges, the strategy of the green parties in the West seems malapropos[ma,la-pru'pow(inappropriate,अनुपयुक्त)] in the Indian social milieu[meel'yû(surrounding,परिवेश)] . Warns Mr. Yadav: “We should not try to ape[eyp(copy,नक़ल)] the Western model. There, the environmental concerns are the concerns of the urbane and the educated. They are post-materialistic. In India, the environmental concerns revolve around necessities. They are the concerns of the rural poor, the Adivasis, the fishermen, the tribals and even the urban castaways. If green politics does not restrict itself as urban environmental activism but emerges as a binding agent of all these groups and concerns, it definitely has a future in India.”

This coming together of various interest groups on a broader national platform could lend them the political heft and the electoral sting that green parties in the West seem to lack, despite their early start.

Also, with the near unanimous[yoo'na-nu-mus(in complete agreement,सर्वसम्मति)] view that existing political parties are not the solution but are part of the problem, one has to look beyond conventional politics and politicians. Says environmental crusader and author Vandana Shiva, “We need fresh infusion [of people] and fresh formations which can act as the political and ecological conscience of society.”

Conventional mainstream political parties may eventually wake up to the ground realities and may add elements of sustainable development and environmentalism to their agenda. But before that, they need to be convinced that ignoring these issues is indeed making a huge dent in their vote base, says Yadav.

Looking West

It is not as if there are no lessons that we can learn from the green parties of the West. Says Dr. Shiva, who works closely with many green party members of Parliament and members of the European Parliament on global issues: “We fight genetically modified organisms and Monsanto. They fight Monsanto too. We fight the takeover of the city by the builders’ lobby, which is cementing the soil and water bodies, and they too are.”

Green parties will also push the boundaries of democratic space, which is currently being hemmed in by various forces. “With corporates trying to shut out ecological movements, Greenpeace being a recent example, there is a need for a broad green alliance,” Dr. Shiva says.

It looks like green parties in India are just a seed of an idea, but an idea that holds a lot of promise.

vasanth.srinivasan@thehindu.co.in

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Unusual start of new year

It will be an peculiar[pi'kyoo-lee-u(unusual,असामान्य)] start to the New Year for Delhi. The city will be subject to the much-discussed driving restrictions, according to which between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. most private vehicle operators will only be able to take their vehicles out on alternate days, from Monday through Saturday, depending on whether their license plate numbers are odd or even.

The restrictions were devised after the Delhi High Court likened the city to a “gas chamber” and ordered the Delhi government and the Central government as well as the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to produce an action plan to tackle the city’s alarming levels of air pollution. In early December, the city, which had already been declared the world’s most polluted city by the World Health Organisation, recorded a level of atmospheric particulate matter that was 10-16 times higher than what is considered safe.

Other models

Delhi now joins a list of cities including Sao Paulo, Bogota, Beijing, Mexico City and Santiago that have driving restrictions to bring down air pollution. Unfortunately, there is enough evidence to suggest that these programmes do not necessarily achieve their goal of pollution reduction but can, in fact, be detrimental[de-tru'men-t(u)(harmful,नुकसानदायक)] to air quality over the long run.

Consider for instance, Mexico City’s Hoy No Circula (‘“Your car does not circulate today”) programme instituted in 1989 to bring down record levels of ozone. The restrictions, which have evolved over the years and continue today, mean that almost all private vehicles are banned for one day per week. There is sufficient evidence from published scientific studies, discussion papers and direct experiences that suggests the programme did not achieve its pollution lowering objective. Published in the Journal of Political Economy, Lucas W. Davis’s study, “The Effect of Driving Restrictions on Air Quality in Mexico City”, demonstrates that there was no evidence that the concentration of pollutants declined. Citizens did not sufficiently substitute their private car trips for subway, bus or taxi rides. Instead, the number of vehicles in circulation increased, and with a greater proportion of second-hand high-emitting cars.

Other cities have similar stories to tell. In Bogotá, Colombia, traffic restrictions have been in place since 1989, under the Pico y Placa (‘Peak and Plate’) regulations, whose current form includes driving restrictions based on license plates from 6 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. on all weekdays, and from 6 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. in the city centre. Unsurprisingly, this has not solved the pollution problem; it has exacerbated[ig'za-su,beyt(worsen,बिगाड़ना)] it. In the absence of an adequate[a-di-kwut(enough,पर्याप्त)] public transport solution, car-owning residents of Bogotá started getting to work progressively earlier, to beat tightening restrictions, says Federico Torres, a transport and infrastructure expert and resident of Bogota. The restrictions simply spread the peak travel hours out, Mr. Torres told The Hindu.

In a recent study on the effectiveness of Pico y Placa, Cynthia Lin Lawell, an associate professor at the University of California at Davis, and her co-authors provide empirical[em'pi-ri-ku(experimental,अनुभवजन्य)] evidence to suggest that across the different versions of driving restrictions, not only was there no significant improvement in air quality, there was actually a significant increase in the atmospheric concentration of nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and ozone. The concentration of nitric oxide alone decreased in one version of the restriction. City residents buying second-hand vehicles or making more than one trip during unrestricted hours to compensate for each trip forgone during restriction hours were among the reasons for the policy’s ineffectiveness, Ms. Lawell told The Hindu.

Closer to home, China too introduced driving restrictions in Beijing for a limited period during the 2008 Olympics before making them more permanent. When compared to research on other cities, there is less agreement on whether driving restrictions were effective in Beijing. One cited[sit(mentioned,उल्लेख)] reason for the more favourable impact on pollution levels, from researchers who reach this conclusion, is that the automobile stock (from which a second car is bought for instance), is newer and more fuel efficient than the Mexican auto stock. Some research findings also say air quality was not impacted, or impacted slightly negatively, while traffic congestion eased up.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, Delhi can build on the experience and learnings of its global counterparts. Specifically, those designing and implementing the policy will need to analyse what substitutions citizens will make for private vehicle trips during restriction hours. This is a key to understanding the effect of driving restrictions on emission levels.

According to the Economic Survey of Delhi 2014-15, 31 per cent of Delhi’s households were using bicycles, 39 per cent were using scooters and motor cycles, and just 21 per cent cars.

Change in aspirations

In India, car ownership is an aspiration as individuals get wealthier. There are different attitudes to public transport across generations and geographies. In the United States, for example, there is a greater reluctance[ri'lúk-tun(t)s(unwilling,अनिच्छा)] to use public transport except in large cities serviced by mature metro and bus systems and across Generation Y. On the other hand, most of Europe and parts of East and Southeast Asia (Singapore and Japan, for instance) are more public transport-friendly. At the heart of the longer term solution to Delhi’s current transport pollution problem is a shift in attitudes and aspirations. This is going require a comprehensive strategy from the government targeting all populations from the child in the classroom to the retiree, to create a stronger culture of public transport across the board. Mark Carney, the Bank of England governor, was famously spotted taking the London Underground (subway system) on his first day to work and historian and journalist Boris Johnson championed the cause of bicycles around London, so much so that the bikes were known as ‘Boris Bikes’. To think of politicians and high-ranking government officials taking a metro ride to work (except perhaps on its inaugural day) requires more than a little stretch of the imagination.

When underlying values change, behavioural changes are often not far behind. However, shifting values can take time, and transport mode-choice can be influenced concomitantly[kón'kó-mi-t(u)nt-lee(at the same time,साथ में)] at the behavioural level. Behavioural economics offers many transport-related experiments conducted in other cities. Behavioural incentives, some of which are already in place in most cities and systems, range from the simple and obvious, such as congestion charging or building speed breakers, to the more complex and subtle[sú-t(u)l(harmful,नुकसानदायक)] , such as providing incentives to companies that allow their employees to telecommute. A careful application of these strategies can help transition larger numbers of people to more frequent public transport use.

If a city were to encourage people through behavioural incentives to use public transport, that posits the existence of a reliable public transport system with sufficient capacity to meet the additional demand. This is certainly not the case in Delhi or most large cities in India. Delhi’s metro transports approximately 2.4 million people per day, according to government data. At the end of Phase I and II of its construction, the system covered 190 km and has a planned expansion to 405 km by 2021. However, according to a 2014 study by the Transport Research and Injury Prevention Programme at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, over 80 per cent of metro riders take long trips of more than 10 km, while only 17 per cent of trips in Delhi are 10 km or more. The research suggests that transport policies need to focus on modes that cater to short trips, including non-motorised transport. Another finding is that the metro overestimated its ridership by at least 75 per cent; planning and forecasting carefully for the remaining phases is crucial. As far as buses are concerned, this newspaper recently reported that despite Delhi’s 4,700 DTC and 1,500 cluster buses, the city has a shortfall of at least 10,000 buses. These are severe bottlenecks to a medium- to long-term solution to the automobile pollution problem.

An opportunity to collect data

Is the fortnight of restriction then without value? Far from it. Apart from a reduction in emissions for the period itself, it offers an opportunity to collect limited data; ‘limited’ partly because behavioural changes over a fortnight are not going to be reflective of longer-term behavioural changes if the restrictions were to become permanent. For instance, if the experience of other cities is anything to go by, individuals who can afford to buy one or more additional cars are unlikely to do so just to tide them over a fortnight. Policymakers therefore need to interpret the January data with caution.

“ This is a wake-up call to other cities to do whatever is necessary to prevent the entirely avoidable position Delhi finds itself in. ”

Perhaps the most valuable insights from next month’s traffic experiment will not be collected by the government and transport specialists but by ordinary citizens. The January restrictions have already fuelled intense debate in Delhi. Some car owners will have to take buses, carpool, use the metro and learn first-hand what the bottlenecks and frustrations of public transport are — end point connectivity (or lack thereof), capacity, peak hours, ease of interchange from one mode of transport to another, and so on. They will thus become stakeholders in the city’s public transport in a direct way. Companies will think about setting up and reorganising systems and staff to make telecommuting easier. They too will be compelled[kum'pe(force,बाध्य)] to become larger stakeholders in the development of public transport.

When the relatively wealthy minority that uses cars has no other choice but to become direct stakeholders in the city’s public transport in a conscious way, and face, albeit[ol'bee-it(even though,यद्यपि)] for a short while, the difficulties the city’s many but less fortunate citizens face, then there will perhaps be sufficient pressure to give the city’s public transport planning and building the thought and capacity it very urgently needs. This is also a wake-up call to other cities to finish their unfinished metros, procure their electric buses, roll out their intelligent transport systems and do whatever is necessary to prevent themselves from landing in the polluted, congested, cornered and struggling but entirely avoidable position Delhi finds itself in.

sriram.lakshman@thehindu.co.in

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Diplomacy with pakistan

Ever since Mr. Modi swept to power in the summer of 2014, his foreign policy has been packed mostly with spectacle and some boldness. He kicked off by inviting the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) leaders to his swearing-in, but soon let strident[strI-d(u)nt(harsh,तीक्ष्ण)] rhetoric[re-tu-rik(speak efficiently,वाक्पटुता)] lead the bilateral engagement with Pakistan. That early spark of hope was dashed by aggressive statements from the highest levels, and almost a wanton[wón-t(u)n(unmotivated,व्यर्थ)] abandonment[u'ban-dun-munt(give up,त्याग)] of restraint along the International Border (IB) and the Line of Control (LoC).

Diplomatic engagements with Pakistan nosedived[nowz-dIv(drop,गिरावट)] to embarrassing childishness. In August 2014, Foreign Secretary-level talks were called off after the Pakistani High Commissioner, Abdul Basit, met Kashmiri separatists; the same excuse was given a year later to call off National Security Adviser (NSA)-level talks in New Delhi. The Modi government’s strategy gave a new lease of life to Hurriyat factions, while adversely affecting the situation in the Kashmir Valley and along the IB and the LoC.

Militant infiltration and the occasional provocation from across the border have long been the routine, but the tough posture adopted in the wake of the April-May general election in India coincided with, if not resulted in, a dramatic rise in cross-border firings. Dozens of civilians and many paramilitary personnel were killed or injured, and normal life along the border was disrupted.

The pattern of terrorists sneaking[snee-king(hidden,गुप्त)] into India from across the border and, within hours, launching attacks on a target close to the border, be it a security installation or a civilian target such as Gurdaspur in Punjab in July 2015, became more pronounced. In the Kashmir Valley, the fog of war intensified. While more local youth took to militancy, the mysterious rise of flamboyant[flam'boy-unt(showy,भड़कीला)] militant commanders, their unusual escape from several encounter scenes, and final elimination after a few months of their stardom was a recurrent phenomenon.

The new aggressive phase wasn’t all that surprising, given the verbal volleys lobbed by Mr. Modi against Pakistan in the run-up to the 2014 general election.

Reality from South Block

The grand settings of Lutyens’ Delhi have an uncanny[ún'ka-nee(supernatural,अतिप्राकृतिक)] capacity to temper a ruler, even if he pretends to be a macho outsider. Mr. Modi is finally showing signs of realism that his neighbourhood policy cannot be complete without engagement with Pakistan. His efforts over the past few weeks, to rekindle India-Russia bilateral ties and to reach out to Pakistan, are signs that the former Gujarat Chief Minister is now finally becoming the Indian Prime Minister. Dramatic summits and humongous[hyoo'múng-gus(big,बड़ा)] announcements do not often account for great diplomacy; it requires patience and perseverance[pur-su'veer-un(t)s(determination,दृढ़ता)].

Against the new mature phase of Mr. Modi’s diplomacy, it was, in hindsight['hInd,sIt(Understanding the nature of an event after it has happened,पश्च दृष्टि)] , not a great surprise that he flew into Lahore from Kabul, on December 25, where the vagaries[vey-gu-ree(An unexpected and inexplicable change in something,उतार चढ़ाव)] of violence are interspersed with buried egos of empires and signposts of India’s strategic interests. If Afghanistan wasn’t the real reason that prompted Mr. Modi about the need to calibrate[ka-lu,breyt(measure,नापना)] his Pakistan policy, then he has to only walk a few yards from his office to an unnamed government bungalow close by, where the widow and children of former Afghan President Mohammad Najibullah have been staying for over a quarter century. It was from the remnants[rem-nunt(leftover,अवशेष)] of the Afghan mujahideen who fought Najibullah’s forces that the Kashmir insurgency of the past three decades acquired sophistication, weapons and manpower, after New Delhi messed up its Kashmir policy.

Young warriors from madrassas of Pakistan who rode into Kabul to drag Najibullah by a pickup truck, in 1996, and hang him in the streets were soon to shelter the al-Qaeda. From this sponsorship by Pakistan, of non-state violence and regressive political Islam, the world got its new generation of terrorists and their broader ideology. From New York City’s World Trade Center complex to Paris’s Bataclan theatre, from Mumbai’s streets to the many bombed markets across India, the signatures of violence nurtured by sections of the Pakistani establishment and flourishing under its guidance cannot be ignored. Precisely for this and other factors, India needs to remain engaged with the Pakistani establishment.

Vajpayee, Manmohan Singh eras

Rhetoric about large-scale annihilations[u,nI-u'ley-shun(destruction,विनाश)] and macho responses to a dysfunctional democracy sound impressive in the heat of an election campaign but for a government, the challenge is to find ways to deal with the delinquent[di'ling-kwunt(guilty of misdeeds,अपराधी)] next door. Mr. Modi seems to have now picked up the gauntlet[gont-lut(challenge,चुनौती)] .

It is the realisation of the complexity of dealing with Pakistan that forced successive Prime Ministers to risk so much to engage with the neighbour, often without much success. Atal Bihari Vajpayee took the gamble of riding a bus across the contentious border, only to be faced with the Kargil incursion a few weeks later. It may be a mere coincidence that Nawaz Sharif was the one who hosted Mr. Vajpayee in Lahore then, and now Mr. Modi, despite his perilous[pe-ru-lus(dangerous,खतरनाक)] survival in a military-dominated state.

Both Mr. Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh worked with a significant number of Pakistan experts, within the Prime Minister’s Office and Ministry of External Affairs and on the track II circuit, to steer their policies. Pakistan is a state like none other. As you sit back taking in the success of diplomatic outreach, militants can sneak across the border to occupy strategic heights; as you prepare for a major push to improving bilateral trade, you may find a few men rowing across the sea to launch a deadly terrorist attack on your commercial capital. Pakistan is a state in deep crisis, fighting its many demons, and with statecraft deeply embedded in misguided military chauvinism[show-vu,ni-zum(blind patriotism,अंधदेशभक्ति)] . However, those, and other factors, cannot be the only issues to dictate India’s engagement with Pakistan.

The engagement should be primarily informed by the fact that India’s economic growth, including its ability to keep government expenses under check, enjoy global market trust and attract investment, is all critically hinged on(depends,निर्भर)] a peaceful South Asia. No other reason is needed to appreciate why India will have to keep talking to Pakistan.

Dealing with Pakistan is like playing football on a rainy day and on a muddy ground. The team needs to have the skill, the ability to anticipate the unexpected, the response without losing one’s nerve, and the stamina to keep playing despite the downpour. No one who has watched the Modi government closely will grant all that to his narrow, centralised, decision-making structure where very few seem to have any influence on foreign policy. If the Lahore drop-in was the first key step in Mr. Modi’s new balanced Pakistan policy, then it must immediately be followed by a broadbasing of intellectual inputs that inform his decisions.

Defining permanent interests

The excuses offered by the Modi government to muddy India-Pakistan relations over the last year-and-a-half were no new discoveries. For long, even under both Mr. Vajpayee and Dr. Singh, India has introduced new goalposts, or moved existing ones. On the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Kathmandu in 2001, Mr. Vajpayee’s Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh, was clear with the demand: he produced a list of 20 wanted people allegedly living under state protection in Pakistan, and asked that Islamabad dismantle[dis'man-t(u)(break,तोडना)] the infrastructure of terror. By the end of 2008, after the Mumbai attacks, the Manmohan Singh government’s demands were focussed on action against those responsible for the attack on Mumbai.

The fact is that India still does not have a consistent diplomatic posture against Pakistan, which has been perilously close to being a full-blown, dysfunctional nation state over the past several years.

Mr. Modi’s diplomatic moves since he took office in 2014 capture the bigger trouble with India’s international positioning. It still does not have a grand strategy regarding its diplomatic and military ambitions on the global stage, including how to deal with Pakistan, that carries political approval across the spectrum.

If states have only permanent interests, then India is yet to define them. Until then, New Delhi will swing between chaotic[key'ó-tik(disorder,अस्तव्यस्त)] state responses to terrorist attacks and that of dramatic bilateral summits.

josy.joseph@thehindu.co.in

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