The Fall and Rise of a Merchant STORY 8

In a city called Vardhamana, lived a very dexterous(efficient,कुशल) and felicitous(prosperous,संपन्न) merchant. 

The king was aware of his abilities, and therefore made him the administrator of the kingdom. 

With his efficient and astute(intelligent,बुद्धिमान) ways, he kept common man very happy, and at the same time he impressed the king on the other side. Such a person, who can keep everybody happy, is rarely found. 

Later, there came a time that the merchant's daughter was getting married. He arranged for a opulent(lavish,खर्चीला) reception. 

The merchant not only invited the king and the queen, who obliged by attending, but he also invited the exhaustive(entire,सम्पूर्ण) royal household and all respected people of the kingdom. 

During the reception, he ensured to provide his guests with the best of treatments. He gave out gifts to guests to show them respect for attending to his invitation. 

A servant of the royal household, who used to sweep the palace, was not invited but attended the reception. 

He took a seat which was reserved for royal nobles, not meant for common invitees. 

This made the merchant very disgruntled(angry,गुस्सा). He caught him by the neck and ordered his servants to have him thrown out. 

The royal servant felt very insulted, and could not sleep all night. He thought, "If I can have the king to disfavour this merchant, I will have my vengeance(revenge,बदला). But what can I, a common fellow, do to detriment(harm,हानि) a egregious(powerful,प्रबल) person as him". Thinking such, he abruptly(suddenly,एकायक) had a plan. 

Several days later, the servant was sweeping the floor near the king's bed early in the morning. He observed that that the king was still in bed, half awake. The servant started mumbling, "Good heavens! The merchant has become so nonchalant(carefree,लापरवाह) now that he dared to embrace the queen!" 

When the king heard this lying in his bed, he jumped up and asked the servant, "Is it true? Have you seen the merchant embrace my queen yourself?" 

The servant at once fell at the king's feet, "O Master, I was gambling all night. I feel drowsy for I didn't sleep last night. I don't know what I have been mumbling, but I said anything fallacious(improper,अनुचित), please forgive me." 

The king spoke no more, but the servant knew he had sowed the seed of distrust. The king thought, "It can be true! The servant moves about the palace freely, and so does the merchant. It is feasible(possible,संभव) that the servant has seen something." 

The king was troubled with jealousy. From that day onwards, he withdrew his favours from the merchant and even forbade him to enter the palace. 

One day, when the merchant was entering the gateway to the palace, he was stopped by the guards. The merchant was surprised due to this sudden change in the king's attitude. 

The servant was nearby, and mocking shouted at the guards, "Ho Guards! That merchant is favoured by the king. He is a powerful person. He can have people arrested or released or even thrown out, just like he had me thrown out of his daughter's reception. Beware, for you may suffer the same fate." 

On hearing this, the merchant understood that the servant has caused all this trouble somehow. He felt melancholic(dejected,उदास), and returned home upset over the incident. 

He gave everything a second thought, and then he invited the royal servant to his house. He treated the servant with utmost respect, and flattered him with gifts and garments. He said kindly, "O friend, that day I did not have you thrown out due to anger, but it was improper of you to occupy the seat reserved for the royal nobles. They felt insulted, and out of compulsion I had to throw you out. Please forgive me." 

The servant was already flattered with all the gifts, and he was full of joy, "Sir, I forgive you. You have not only expressed your regrets, but also honoured me with utmost respect". 

He ensured the merchant, "I will prove you how clever I am. I will have the king favourable towards you, like he was before". The servant went back home. 

Early next morning, when he started sweeping the floors of the palace, he waited till when the king was lying half-awake. 

When the opportunity came, he started sweeping around his bed and started mumbling, "Our king is crazy, he eats cucumber in the lavatory!" 

On hearing this, the king was taken aback. He got up angrily and shouted at the servant, "What nonsense do you talk about? Had you not been by royal servant, I would have punished you dearly. Have you ever seen me doing such thing yourself?" 

Once again the servant fell on his knees and prayed, "O Master, please forgive me if I said something improper. I was gambling all last night and didn't sleep. I feel drowsy and I don't know what I have been mumbling." 

The king thought to himself, "I have never eaten a cucumber in the lavatory. What he mumbled about me is ridiculously false. Surely then, what he mumbled about my trusted merchant the other morning must have been ridiculously false too. It was improper of me to mistreat the merchant." 

He wondered, "After all he has been so efficient in the whole administrative system, that without him it has become slack." 

Thus, having considered carefully, the king invited the merchant to the palace and flattered him with gifts, jewels and garments. He re-appointed the merchant to his previously held position, and favoured his services as before. 

The wise indeed say:
One should treat one and all, even the lowest, with respect.

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EXPUNGE

Expunge (V):- to eliminate completely; remove by erasing or crossing out or as if by drawing a line.

Synonyms: excise, scratch, strike

Uses:- -I would like to expunge my ex-husband from my memory.

-The president has the power to expunge any person’s criminal history in order to give that individual a fresh start in life

When I received the diamond ring from my husband, I felt the need to expunge any anger I previously felt towards him.    

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No proof required: A data dependent MPC

The recent decision by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to lower the repo rate by 25 bps to 6.25 per cent has been met with criticism and skepticism(doubt,संशयवाद). Some analysts have gone as far as to assert that there has been faulty judgment.

This criticism and commentary is all part of a healthy democratic system. Also fair is that some critics (like myself) find fault with the criticism of the critics, and even find it unfair. As it happens, I also think that the RBI-MPC is unnecessarily using some very faulty tools. Just to put my cards on the table, I believe that the MPC and RBI Governor Urjit Patel have reached the best decision that was possible with the data they had. Historically, except for occasional lapses, the RBI has been a data dependent institution, and it is encouraging to see that the tradition is being strongly reinforced(strengthen,मजबूत) by the MPC.

Questioning of the MPC decision has proceeded along the following lines: First, and most importantly, that the inflation rate is too high to warrant a rate cut. The last four year-on-year headline inflation numbers have been as follows: 5.5 (April 2016), 5.8, 6.1 and 5.1 per cent (August 2016). The target of the RBI is five per cent for March 2017. So how can the MPC cut rates now, and that also with a unanimous(united,एकमत) vote?
Surely, and unlike Raghuram Rajan, the MPC is giving in to political pressure (Ministry of Finance) and major corporates (who always want interest rates to be cut). Further, the MPC is emphasising growth over inflation, that is, they have all turned doves.

It is likely that the unfortunate manner in which Rajan was not reappointed is colouring perceptions and interpretations of many commentators. For the fact remains that rather than being different than Rajan, the MPC (and Patel and RBI) are doing what Rajan would have done. How do we know that?

We know that from the second criticism by the “experts”. A popular conclusion of the experts is that the RBI has softened because it has reduced the real policy rate range from 1.5-2 per cent to 1.25 percent, that is the RBI was now targeting a 1.25 percentage points gap between the repo rate and CPI inflation. This was articulated(expressed,उल्लेख) by MPC RBI member Michael Patra in the press conference following the MPC decision.
So the experts are right in stating that the real policy rate is now 1.25 per cent.

But the experts are very wrong in deducing(conclusion,निष्कर्ष) that this is a change in policy. Look at the following headline after the June policy meeting of the RBI under Rajan: “Will have room to cut rates if inflation stays at 5 per cent” (IE, June 9). The article goes on to quote Rajan: “If we get confident of achieving five per cent inflation target by March 2017, then we will get more space to cut.” What the RBI and MPC did on October 4 was a continuation of the RBI policy. There has been enough data on food prices, especially of pulses (and fruits and vegetables), to suggest that the next six-month course of such prices is at best stable at current levels, and likely to be lower because of the influence of good weather and increased acreage, and prospects of higher yields(return,मुनाफा), for an “inflation-elastic” crop like pulses.

This assessment, and forecast, has no relationship with being dovish, or looking at growth more than inflation, or giving in to the demands of industrialists and/or the Ministry of Finance. Indeed, if the MPC members had not unanimously agreed to cut rates, they would likely have had egg (and worse) on their faces next week when the CPI data for September is scheduled to be released — a figure around 4.3 per cent year-on-year headline inflation will not be entirely surprising. The simple point is all of us are rightly expecting the MPC to be responsible — and when they do act responsibly, by cutting rates in the face of considerable evidence, let us not besmirch(disgrace,गन्दा) their honour, or intelligence, by attributing to them false motives.

But the MPC has room to improve. A central feature of all inflation targeting regimes, and all bankers, and all economists, is that the key to lowering inflation rates is the lowering of inflation expectations. In the case of already low inflation, the goal is to keep expectations stable. And as we now know for some developed economies (Japan, Europe), the key to successful monetary policy is to raise inflationary expectations.
In the first MPC-RBI policy statement, one finds the following statement on inflationary expectations, and how important and influential they are: “Households reacted to the recent hardening of food inflation adaptively and raised their inflation expectations in the September 2016 round of the Reserve Bank’s inflation expectations survey of households.”

Given the importance of inflationary expectations, one would think, and believe, that central bankers would strive to make sure that they measure properly such expectations. Or at least measure them to the best of their ability. It is not clear that the RBI has ever fulfilled this mandate. In January 2015, at the beginning of this rate-cut cycle, the RBI cited(mentioned,उल्लेख) the results of its most recent inflation expectation survey (RBI-IES, December 2015), as supportive of a rate cut (25 bps from 8 to 7.75 per cent). This survey had shown a decline in one year forward expectations to 9.3 per cent from 13.5 per cent at the end of the previous quarter (September 2015). I had this to say: “Since when was high expectation of inflation of nine per cent low enough to warrant a rate cut? I fully agree that interest rates should be cut — but not because a junk RBI survey shows a decline in inflation expectations to a high nine per cent level. Better to junk junk than to offer it as an explanation — it makes all of us look bad”.

One and a half years later, and with an MPC in place, there is no change in this one bad habit of the RBI — the bad habit of using a junk survey, a junk result, to justify its otherwise very sound reasoning. Don’t take my word, or believe me, but do peruse(think,सोचना) the chart. There are two lines in the chart — actual year-on-year CPI inflation for each quarter, and the year ago forward expectation for the same quarter. For example, at the time Rajan cited the junk survey in January 2015, year-on-year inflation in 2014Q4 was 4.1 per cent. The forecast of the junk survey for this same quarter was 13.5 per cent!

Note also that there is no learning by doing on the part of the survey respondents. As inflation has declined, the forecast error (gap between forecast and actual) has widened, and to a near double-digit magnitude. It is intellectually embarrassing to even report these data, let alone use it.

The MPC is a new and progressive institution. The reasoning behind the vote, and the vote, of each MPC member will be made public 14 days after each meeting. We already know that it was a unanimous vote to cut. Let us hope that none of the members cite junk inflationary expectations.

courtesy:indian express
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DOWNLOAD MONTHLY PDF OF SEPTEMBER

 Now you can download monthly pdf of SEPTEMBER month.these articles are not only for english but also it will expand your current affairs.this ebook also contains exclusive articles from know your english.

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know your english

What is the meaning of ‘moxie’? (K Rajesh, Delhi)

First, let us deal with the pronunciation of this word. The first syllable rhymes with ‘box’, ‘fox’ and ‘pox’, and the ‘ie’ in the second sounds like the ‘i’ in ‘bit’, ‘sit’ and ‘hit’. It is pronounced ‘MOK-si’ with the stress on the first syllable. The word is mostly used in informal contexts to mean determined. A person with moxie is a fighter; he does not give up easily - no matter how often he is knocked down, he gets up. He is courageous in adversity.

Suraj showed a lot of moxie when he questioned some of the CEO’s decisions.

The girl has a lot of moxie in her. There’s no way she’s going to give up now.

The word comes from the name of a soft drink that was quite popular in the States in the early twentieth century. The advertisements claimed that the drink would ‘build up your nerve’. It is possible to buy a can of Moxie even today.

What is the difference between ‘terrified’ and ‘petrified’? (V Radhika, Madurai)

Both words suggest that you are extremely scared or frightened of something or someone; you are in a state of panic. When you are ‘terrified of’ something, you may choose to run or you may stand still because you are too scared to move. When you are petrified, you become paralysed; you stand there like a stone. You are too scared to move. The word ‘petrified’ comes from the Latin ‘petra’ meaning ‘stone’.

When they saw the tiger, the terrified villagers ran into their houses.

When the villager saw the tiger, he was petrified.

What is the meaning of ‘in the groove’? (Ajit Kumar, Vizag)

The ‘oove’ in ‘groove’ rhymes with the ‘ove’ in ‘prove’ and ‘move’. A ‘groove’ is a long, thin cut on a hard surface. For example, sliding doors and windows have grooves cut into them. They make it possible for a person to slide the door/window easily. When you say that you are ‘in the groove’, what you are suggesting is that you are doing something quite easily, without any real effort.

When Federer returns in 2017, it’ll probably take him time to get in the groove.

Anand didn’t like being a Manager at first; but now, he’s getting in the groove.

When you are bored of doing something over and over again, you say you are ‘stuck in a groove’. You have been doing the same thing for a long time and have become very set in your ways.

Anita’s job no longer excites her. She’s stuck in a groove.

Is it okay to say, ‘It’s high time you clean the motorcycle’? (M Priya, Chennai)

No, it is not. It should be ‘cleaned’ and not ‘clean’. The expression ‘high time’ is mostly used in informal contexts to mean that it is time to do something that should have been done a long time ago. In other words, you have unnecessarily delayed doing something. It’s high time Laxman bought a new car.

It’s high time that the children went to bed.

courtesy:the hindu

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The great GDP fudge

“I am puzzled by the new GDP growth numbers. This is mystifying because these numbers, especially the acceleration, are at odds with other features of the macro economy. Import of goods declined. typically growth booms are accompanied by surges in imports not declines… similarly, real gross capital formation declined”. This was the chief economic advisor (CEA) Arvind Subramanian in an interview to the Business Standard on February 3, 2015. Lest you be fooled into believing that the CEA was being intellectually honest about the state of the current economy, he was actually talking about the revised GDP number for the year 2013-14, when UPA 2 was in power.

After the new GDP series was rolled out under the current government, it revealed that India’s GDP growth in 2013-14 was 6.9 per cent compared to the reported 5 per cent, as per the old methodology. A 6.9 per cent GDP growth in 2013-14 would have meant that India was the second fastest growing large economy in the world, after China. But the CEA expressed bewilderment(mystification,हैरानी) at that number because he said this was in dissonance(dispute,मतभेद) with the actual macro-economic reality. He explained meticulously(clearly,बारीकी से) how other economic parameters such as imports, gross capital formation etc are truer indicators of GDP growth and dismissed the view that India’s GDP could have grown as fast in 2013-14.

Fast forward to September 2016. India’s imports have fallen for 20 straight months. In April 2016, India’s imports touched a six-year low. Exports are still at 2011 levels, down significantly from the 2013 peak. Industrial production which creates real jobs in the economy is actually shrinking(smaller,सिकुड़ना). Gross fixed capital formation has fallen. What does the same CEA have to say this time about the same macro-economic indicators — “It signals improvement in underlying real economy, holds out hope for the corporate sector”.

In a poorly disguised attempt at face-saving, the CEA has waxed eloquent(fluent,सुवक्ता) about how most commentators have misinterpreted the latest GDP numbers showing 7.1 per cent growth, driven almost entirely by government spending (IE, September 8). He says “Nearly all commentary has focused on decline in constant price GVA and GDP. But real story lies in nominal magnitudes”. This is the first time that we are being asked to judge the economy’s health by nominal GDP and not real GDP, that is GDP adjusted for inflation. In a hair-splitting effort, he argues we should focus on nominal growth, then argues that the nominal growth should not be assumed to be solely due to increase in prices but also an increase in quantity but does not explain if that was the case, then why not just use real growth directly.

Instead, he makes a convoluted(complex,जटिल) point about corporate revenues growing faster than interest costs which could boost the currently anemic(weak,कमज़ोर) credit growth, going forward. He then lays out a string of conditions — if monsoons boost agriculture growth, if falling exports have bottomed out, if the construction sector can perk up due to “reforms” — then we can be cautiously optimistic about GDP growth.

Technical mumbo-jumbo and caveats(warning,चेतावनी) aside, he essentially surmises(guess,अनुमान) that we should be ecstatic(happy,खुश) that nominal GDP growth is now in double digits. One really had to scrape the bottom of the barrel if one had to go back to the basics of nominal and real GDP growth and take solace(relief,सांत्वना) in a nominal double-digit growth, albeit with cute quotes about “nominal being real” and “real being nominal”, this time.

All this hiding behind economic theory misses the simple point — using exactly the same yardstick that the same CEA applied in passing judgment about India’s 2013-14 GDP growth calculated under the same methodology. India’s current state of the economy is in utter(absolute,निरा) disarray(disorder,अव्यवस्था). While we all endorse the Bernard Shaw quip that “if all economists were laid end to end, they would never reach a conclusion”, this one is about the same economist in the same position reading the same set of numbers but taking two diametrically opposite views. If the CEA had a well-argued position on his reservations about India’s 2013-14 GDP growth, then how can he be optimistic about the state of the current economy using exactly the same macro-economic parameters?

We have been repeatedly witness to this dangerous trait of the current government and its inhabitants becoming delusional with their own rhetoric(oratory,वाक्पटुता). We saw that with the government’s claim of savings of Rs 15,000 crore in the LPG subsidy scheme due to Aadhaar based Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT), which, again, the CEA endorsed healthily through similar articles in the English press. It turned out, as the CAG pointed out last month, that a meagre Rs 1,764 crore (approximately 10 per cent) of the subsidy savings was due to DBT and the remaining 90 per cent of the savings was due to the fall in global oil prices. The government and its CEA were simply disingenuous(dishonest,बेईमान) and resorted to such misleading claims to falsely justify their decision to table the Aadhaar bill as a money bill and pummel it through Parliament. The current claims of the CEA about the health of the economy are similarly misleading.

I have known Arvind Subramanian to be a fine and fearless economist for almost three decades. I have myself tried in the past to lure(entice,लुभाना) him back but the timing was not ripe for him. He has never been an apologist for anything dubious(doubtful,संदिग्थ). My piece of unsolicited(unasked,अनचाही) advice to him: Spin is a powerful tool in both cricket and politics but not in economics. Leave it to those who have made a brilliant career out of it — such as his senior minister.

courtesy:indian express

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From Plate to Plough: Connecting the drops

Till June end this year, the government was worried about how to cope with back-to-back drought. But by the second half of August, the scene changed dramatically and several states were in the spate of floods. In Bihar, more than five million people have been affected and 6,50,000 displaced from their homes; in Assam 1.8 million people were affected with 2,40,000 displaced, and in UP 8,70,000 were affected. Floods also occurred in areas that were earlier not considered flood prone, such as the cities of Jaipur, Jodhpur and the southern districts of arid Rajasthan. Even in Madhya Pradesh, 300,000 people were affected.

There is a growing concern that floods cause large-scale damage to crops, cattle, property and even human lives, and this trend is increasing over time. As per the estimates of the Central Water Commission (CWC), the cumulative damage from floods during the period 2000-2013, converted at 2014-15 constant prices, stood at a whopping Rs 2,63,848 crore. While in 2003 alone the damage was Rs 23,045 crore, the same escalated(increase,बढ़कर) to Rs 46,802 crore in the 2009 floods (both at 2014-15 prices).

Most of the floods in India occur in the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Barak basin as the distance between the world’s highest peaks in the Himalayas and the outlet at the Bay of Bengal is short and the contributing tributaries like Kosi, Gandak, Ghaghara and others disgorge large volumes and devastate(destroy,विनाश) the fertile plains of eastern Uttar Pradesh, northern Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. For these states, flood control is a developmental as well as humanitarian issue. The options are limited but need to be given a fair trial with adequate(enough,पर्याप्त) resources.

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The key question, therefore, is: How best can the problem of floods and droughts be addressed so that the losses are minimal and the system becomes more resilient? In this context, one important point that needs to be noted is that India gets “too much” water (about 75 per cent of annual precipitation) during 120 days of the monsoon season (June to September) and “too little” for the remaining 245 days. This skewed water availability has to be managed and regulated for its consumption throughout the year. No wonder, leaders of independent India quickly embarked(entered,प्रवेश) upon a number of large multi-purpose river valley projects such as Bhakra-Nangal, Hirakud, Nagarjuna Sagar, Rihand etc to store water for smoothening its supplies throughout the year. But, unfortunately, they lost interest in further developing such river valley projects very soon, partly due to changed priorities towards heavy industrialisation since 1956 and partly due to widespread inefficiencies and corruption in large irrigation projects. Later on, the issue of resettlement of displaced people became a rallying point for many NGOs to oppose these projects, leading to drying up of funds from the World Bank.

As a result, in 2015, India’s per capita water storage capacity through dams was abysmally(depressing,निराशाजनक) low at 194 cubic metre (m3). In contrast, China’s per capita water storage capacity was three times that of India at 590 m3 (2013). Amongst other BRICS countries, Brazil was at 3,370 m3, Russia at 5,587 m3 , and South Africa at 569 m3, all in 2015 (FAO). Further, USA was at 2,254 m3 and Australia at 3,395 m3 (see chart). So, it is amply(sufficiently,पर्याप्तता) clear that India is way below in storing water when it falls in abundance(excessive,बहुतायत), resulting in floods during monsoons and deficiency of water later. This also lowers cropping intensity (less than 140), meaning less than 40 per cent of India’s farm land is double cropped.

So, what are the policy options now? Nitish Kumar, in his meeting with the prime minister on the flood situation in Bihar, asked for de-silting of the Ganga and removal of the Farakka barrage, as it was causing accumulation of silt flowing from the Himalayan rivers and making the flood situation in Bihar grim. He had a point, but this seems to be only a partial and temporary solution.

The more lasting solution lies in a “buffer stocking of water” during the monsoon months and releasing it during lean seasons. This “buffer stocking of water” can be done over ground through dams, or underground, by recharging aquifers. Recent studies by the World Bank indicate that about 18 per cent of the peak flood volumes can be safely stored in the existing and planned dams along the Indo-Nepal border. A holistic approach at basin level, encompassing credible resettlement policy for displaced people, and supported by pro-active hydro-diplomacy amongst riparian(onshore,तटवर्ती) countries can render(give,देना) rich dividends.

The time is also ripe to crank up the Ganges Water Machine through Underground Taming of Floods for Irrigation (UTFI), where surplus flood water is directed to aquifers through well-designed structures placed in ponds and other depression areas and evacuated through large-scale pump irrigation during the dry season. Flood control strategies also need to include the use of smart geo-spatial techniques for flood forecasting and construction and strengthening of embankments at critical locations. The Modi government is also talking of inter-linking of rivers. A beginning can be made at intra-state level, particularly within Bihar and Madhya Pradesh.

Further, on the demand side, there is a need to promote flood-tolerant “scuba rice”, sugarcane, jute and high-value aquatic crops in this region; access to affordable crop, livestock and asset insurance products; and education and preparedness to live with the floods. Finally, with increasing urbanisation, agriculture will have to shed its current share of 78 per cent in water to, say, 70 per cent by 2030. This calls for focus on “more crop per drop”. Research indicates that rainfed areas covering pulses, oilseeds and nutri-cereals can give high productivity if they get even two irrigations.

Cascading(flow,व्यापक) check dams, drips and sprinkler irrigation can help. PM’s Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY) talks of all this, but with paltry(small.तुच्छ) resources (Rs 5,767 crore), one wonders how many years one will have to wait to see the objectives of “har khet ko paani” being met.

 courtesy:indian express

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Transit at Gojadanga

It had stopped raining when I reached the Gojadanga Border Security Force (BSF) border observation point (BOP) at night along the India-Bangladesh border in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district. A robust(strong,मजबूत) figure, handcuffed and accompanied by two border personnel, emerged from the dense haze and walked towards the BOP.

It was Mohammad Ehsan (name changed), a Bangladeshi national, who was apprehended(arrested,गिरफ्तार) by BSF personnel late in the evening for crossing the border. He had fake documents which had been prepared by a tout from Bangladesh. Ehsan told me that he was from Satkhira district in Bangladesh and had entered Gojadanga with help from the same tout, to seek medical treatment for his chronic back pain. He didn’t seem ill going by his inconsistent statements and robust appearance.

Migrant smuggling from Bangladesh is a critical issue along the Gojadanga border. Article 3 of the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, defines migrant smuggling as “the procurement, in order to obtain, directly or indirectly, a financial or other material benefit, of the illegal entry of a person into a state party of which the person is not a national”.

Gojadanga is an obscure(unclear,अस्पस्थ) zero line village and shares the border with Bhomra village in Satkhira district of Bangladesh. Gojadanga is manned by the BSF while the Bhomra border is looked after by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB). A BSF official said, “The Indo-Bangladesh land border along the Gojadanga village, which stretches 3 km, is completely unfenced, with habitation up to zero line on both sides of the border. This makes it extremely vulnerable(weak,कमज़ोर) to illegal migration from Bangladesh.” The key reasons for illegal migration include job opportunities, medical treatment and visits to families on the Indian side of the border.

When I tried to probe further on trafficking in persons, drugs, cattle and fake currency, he asserted, “Hardly any cases of human trafficking have been detected in the past few years.”

He continued, “a few years back, cattle smuggling was rampant(uncontrolled,अनियंत्रित) along the border. However, due to the efforts of the current government, it has drastically reduced. And trafficking in drugs and fake currency is not an issue along the Gojadanga border.”

But a local source told me that smuggling of Phensedyl cough syrup does take place from India to Bangladesh.

Dynamics behind trafficking

As far as human trafficking is concerned, it is extremely difficult for the BSF to detect it along the border. First, the illegal migrant who was apprehended by the BSF can remain in its custody for not more than 24 hours. Thereafter, the migrant is usually sent to the police station from where the case proceeds. Second, migrants from Bangladesh are often unaware that they are being trafficked. They may cross the border with help from a tout who promises them job opportunities in India and on entering West Bengal or other parts of India from West Bengal, he sells them into prostitution or forced labour. Here it may become difficult for the BSF to make a distinction(difference,भेद) between migrant smuggling and human trafficking. A State official told me that there have also been cases where BSF personnel have been complicit in helping Bangladeshis cross the border.

Once the Bangladeshi victim of trafficking and the migrant smuggler or trafficker are apprehended by border personnel, they are most often sent to the police station. They are usually charged under the Foreigners Act, 1946, for illegally entering India. The act states that if an offender is a foreigner, he/she should be punished under this act and deported. The cross-national touts/migrant smugglers are set free after a sentence of few months. However, the victim is mostly sent to a shelter home in West Bengal till the time the he or she can be repatriated to Bangladesh.

Indian laws barely penalise traffickers adequately(sufficiently,पर्याप्तता). The trafficker can be charged under Section 366B of the Indian Penal Code, which states that importation of a girl below the age of 21 years is a punishable offence. However, this provision is rarely implemented since police officers are usually unaware of it.

Vulnerable stretch

Gojadanga is divided into Uttarpada and Dakshinpada. While Dakshinpada’s population is entirely Hindu, Uttarpada is Muslim-dominated. Large-scale poverty and unemployment in the village has driven some of its residents to engage in murky and illegal activities. A local said, “Due to poverty some villagers have made migrant smuggling their profession.”

A State official added, “The touts of Bangladesh and India are part of a larger network. They have made bases in the bordering villages taking advantage of a similar cultural, religious and linguistic character.” Moreover, “some panchayat members are directly or indirectly involved in migrant smuggling; some of them are ex-smugglers and ex-touts.”

According to a BSF official, “Fencing along the Gojadanga border may help reduce illegal migration and other illegal activities; work towards building the fence along the border is ongoing.”

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime notes, “Migrant smuggling affects countries of origin, transit and destination”. Thus, it “requires the collaborative response of all” and strong multi-agency cooperation. It further requires a multi-dimensional and comprehensive response, which focusses on addressing the socioeconomic root causes of irregular migration, and the prosecution of those who commit smuggling-related crimes.

courtesy:the hindu

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The Margarita mirror

The 17th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) will be held between September 13-18 in Margarita, Venezuela. Heads of government of 120 member states will descend(get down,उतरना) on this Venezuelan island, which sits at the edge of the Caribbean Sea. NAM was formed in 1961, at the initiative of Egypt, India and Yugoslavia. It is telling that of these three, one no longer exists (Yugoslavia), one no longer has the kind of magnetic sway(influence,बोलबाला) it had in the 1950s and 1960s (Egypt), and the third seems disinclined(unwilling,अनिच्छुक) to favour the idea of non-alignment (India).

Indeed, India will not be represented by its head of government — Prime Minister Narendra Modi — but by its Vice President. Only once before has the Indian Prime Minister not been to the NAM Summit, and that was in 1979 when caretaker Prime Minister Charan Singh did not go to Havana (Cuba). Is NAM now irrelevant, so much so that India’s head of government no longer feels the need to attend its meetings?

From Brijuni to Baku

In July 1956, Egypt’s Gamel Abdel Nasser, India’s Jawaharlal Nehru and Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito met at the island retreat of Brijuni on the Adriatic Sea to discuss the state of the world. The previous year, in Bandung (Indonesia), newly independents states of Africa and Asia gathered to inaugurate a new approach to inter-state relations: non-alignment. Fresh out of the darkness of colonial rule, these new states, they felt, should not be sucked into alignments with the West or the East. These camps would suborn the independence of the new states, drawing them into military obligations and economic entanglements(complexities,उलझने). But sovereign foreign policies could not be sustained by these individual states. They needed to shelter together, to forge an alternative, to fight to build a peaceful world order where the obligations of the UN Charter could be met.

In 1961, Tito hosted the first NAM meeting in Belgrade, where 29 states gathered to lay out this new order. Their bravura(skills,कुशलता) was sneered at in Washington, where the government suggested that non-alignment was merely capitulation(surrender,संधिपत्र) to the Soviet Union. The Soviets, meanwhile, saw an opportunity in the NAM, where a newly free Cuba, with close ties to the Soviets, had begun to assert its leadership despite its tiny(small,छोटा) size. NAM announced that it would push for an alternative economic order and that it would campaign against the arms race that had put the fear of nuclear annihilation(destruction,विनाश) across the planet. These were halcyon(slow,धीर) days for NAM, asserting its moral authority against war and poverty.

Over the course of the past 60 years, the NAM has seen an erosion of its authority. The Third World debt crisis of the 1980s crushed the economic ambitions of these NAM states. By the time NAM gathered in Delhi in 1983, it was a shadow of its origins. In NAM they had wished the centuries away, but now, awash(flooded,भरा) in debt, they had to settle for the present. The Soviet Union collapsed, the U.S. bombed Panama and Iraq, and history seemed to end with American ascendency(dominance,प्रभुत्व). Proud nations queued up to curry favour with Washington, settle accounts at the International Monetary Fund and begin to sniff their noses at platforms such as NAM.

By the early 1990s, several important powers of NAM began to back away (Argentina left in 1991). Yugoslavia crumbled, with war tearing apart its promise. India went to the IMF and gestured to the U.S. that its days of non-alignment had gradually(slowly,धीरे धीरे) come to a close. Over the past few years, countries with a more skeptical(doubtful,संशयवाद) attitude towards American power have held the mantle of NAM — South Africa (1998), Malaysia (2003), Cuba (2006), Iran (2012) and now Venezuela (Egypt, which presided over NAM from 2009, was convulsed in the Arab Spring during its presidency). NAM oscillated(shake,डगमगाना) between suspicion of U.S. motives and attempts to regenerate the economic engines of its members. The next president of NAM after Venezuela will be Azerbaijan, which is a newcomer to NAM and one that does not have a presence on the world stage.

Turmoil in Venezuela

Venezuela has been eager to make this NAM summit a success, a showcase for the resilience of its social revolution. Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro argues against the view that the ‘NAM has lost its raison d’être(purpose,उद्देश्य) upon the end of the Cold War’. Indeed, he suggests, using language that is resonant of the earlier NAM and alien to the Modi government, “we are convinced that neo-colonial dominance can be seen nowadays in both an aggressive and brutal manner”. Mr. Maduro points to the wars of aggression and the deep social and economic inequalities that plague the planet. The emergence of multi-polarity, he stresses, needs to be shaped by the Global South, whose instrument is NAM. Venezuela’s socialist government does indeed face steep challenges. Steve Ellner, who teaches at the Universidad de Oriente, identifies the three issues as “declining oil prices, economic war, and the exchange rate distortions(deform,विकृति)”. The decline in oil prices has certainly struck this oil-exporting state. This crisis has been magnified by an economic war by the business elites in Venezuela who have on several occasions sought to overthrow this government. Poor policy decisions by the government to handle inflation and currency manipulation have further weakened its hand. When Mr. Maduro travelled to Margarita Island, where the summit will be held, a crowd banging pots and pans jeered at him. Mr. Maduro and the socialist movement are fighting to regain the trust of the people against both genuine problems facing the government and exaggerations(overstatement,अतिशयोक्ति) from the U.S.-backed opposition.

NAM will be one of the largest gatherings in Venezuela in recent years. It is hoped by the government in Caracas that this would help the country by shoring up an alternative bloc to the West. But such an alternative will require a visionary leadership. What should be the contours(outline,रूपरेखा) of the emerging multipolar world? How would the new poles tackle the difficult problem of poverty and joblessness? It is not sufficient to point fingers at the West. An alternative has to be developed. At the 1973 NAM meeting in Algiers, the member states laid out the New International Economic Order (NIEO), a charter for a different way to manage political disagreements and trade across states. The NIEO proposed a new path. It had an electric effect, but it died in the rubble of the debt crisis. A new charter for a 21st century NAM is needed. If the NAM is to be relevant, it needs to develop such a visionary document.

courtesy:the hindu

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The Roll-out Challenge

Canada’s Constitution explicitly(clearly,स्पस्थ्तया) mandates the free flow of goods and services within the vast country. But its bureaucracy has devised ways of slowing down internal trade by creating the need for licenses and permits from every municipality and utility company. According to the Canadian Senate’s Banking Committee, the annual losses from internal trade barriers is approximately $99 billion. The cost of trade barriers in India could turn out to be equally shocking.

There is a near unanimity(full agreement,मतैक्य) on the potential of GST as a gamechanger. On the one hand the government is encouraging enterprise through initiatives like Make in India, Start-up India and a focus on improving “ease of doing business” and on the other hand it is bringing in changes in labour laws, the direct tax code to replace the archaic(old,पुराना) Income Tax Act of 1961 and a new bankruptcy law to protect the interests of key stakeholders.

The current labyrinthine(complex,जटिल) tax structure is an important reason why logistics costs in India, at around 14 per cent of the value of goods, are among the most expensive in the world. Trucks are idle for about 40 per cent of the time — queuing up, filling forms and paying CST and octroi at numerous(many,बहुत से) check-posts. A check-post free movement can bring down the transportation time and cost by 30 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. In practice, however, this may be wishful thinking. Since there are a number of goods that are outside the GST — sin goods, for example — check-posts will continue at least at state borders. Moreover, the state transport departments will continue to have check-posts for non-tax checks like vehicle registrations and road permits. Coordination between the transport departments across states could be an innovative way forward. The use of technology will be imperative(obligatory,अनिवार्य) in facilitating information flow between the states. Smart tags and scanners could alleviate(reduce,कम) some of the pain. The true gains of the GST will be realised only if there is a seamless movement of goods and services amongst states.

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The GST Network is the most critical component in ensuring successful implementation of the GST. It will facilitate online registration, GST credits, tax payment and return filing seamlessly amongst multiple stakeholders. “Blockchain” technology offers a historic opportunity to develop a GSTN based on “distributed ledgers”, in a true spirit of cooperative federalism.

The April 2017 deadline set for the rollout of GST is going to be challenging. The GST Council has to be formed within 60 days of the Presidential assent to the bill, it has to agree and make recommendations on modern GST laws and rates. The states have to pass their own legislations. The endless bargaining of large versus small, consuming versus producing states, and the ever elusive(deceptive,भ्रामक) RNR will be gigantic(huge,विशाल) stumbling blocks. The GST council is an interesting innovation with veto powers to both the Centre and collectively to the states. The centre has one-third and all the state governments have two-thirds weight and decisions have to be taken with at least three-fourths majority. So dogmatically(clearly,स्पस्थ रूप से), states can never reach the magic figure of 75 per cent without the Centre’s help and similarly, the Centre needs the support of at least 19 states. Interestingly, the BJP and its allies have governments in 15 states. However, the GST council only has recommendatory powers, it cannot override the states’ right to set taxes given in the Constitution.

GST provides a chance to draft a modern law aligned with the technological advancements of the 21st century. The tax administration has to implement a truly modern tax law, the foundation of which, unlike earlier ones, is laid on trust.

The PM’s clarion(loud,बिगुल) call that the GST will end “tax terrorism” will be realised only if a “consumer first” strategy with a strong dose of technology is made central to the implementation plan. Otherwise, “one country, one tax, one market” could remain an unrealised dream.

courtesy:indian express

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Weighing the burden of proof

 “An honest civil servant should not be harassed by anybody or agency or institution while in service or after retirement. It would make the civil servants working in the system nervous and edgy, which would not be in the interest of the country,” Sanjay Bhoosreddy, Honorary Secretary of the Central IAS Officers Association has said.

Ponderous(burdensome,कष्टकारक) words indeed in the context of former Union Coal Secretary H.C. Gupta, who is facing trial in several Coalgate cases, choosing not to have any lawyer to defend him. Mr. Gupta told the trial judge recently that he did not have the money to hire a lawyer. He also turned down an offer of state aid made by the judge. In all likelihood, he will argue his own case. This is an extraordinary decision that could prove to be a double-edged weapon. The skill required to defend an accused in a criminal case is a specialised one. In my view, Mr. Gupta is taking too big a chance out of desperation and disgust at the way things are taking shape around him.

Appeal to good senses

Mr. Gupta is obviously outraged(angry,गुस्सा) at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) action. He probably understands that the law on the subject is against him, and he would therefore appeal directly to the good senses of the judge, something bordering on an attempt to play on emotions. Not for him the technicalities of what he is accused of. In his own eyes, he has done nothing wrong, and cannot be placed in the company of the corrupt and wily. He is only partly right.

Many in government and outside may dismiss him as a maverick(unorthodox,अपरंपरागत). From whatever I have heard of him, Mr. Gupta was an outstanding officer with a reputation for integrity. Remember also that the formal charge sheet against him by the CBI do not allege that he ever obtained any gratification for showing favour to the private companies that had received licences to operate a few coal mines. The charge sheet indicts him only as part of a ‘conspiracy’ to confer undue favour on private parties, and which caused loss to the public exchequer. This implied that he was negligent(careless,लापरवाह), and there was no application of mind on his part when the screening committee headed by him decided to examine the licence applications in question. There is no recorded evidence, however, that he dissented(disagreement,असहमति) from the majority opinion which favoured the grant of licences to some firms.

The conclusions of his committee were purely recommendatory in nature. That the final authority here was the Coal Minister, who, at that point of time, was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and that he was not prosecuted by the investigating agency, is not very relevant to Mr. Gupta’s defence — although the CBI decision, possibly backed by legal opinion, smacked of double standards. Remember, in Bofors, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi figured posthumously in the charge sheet as ‘accused not sent for trial’ only because he held charge of Defence. There was no charge that Bofors made any payment to him. Interestingly, what many of us would look upon as a moral or constructive civil liability comes to be defined as ‘criminal misconduct’ under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which was enacted to lend more deterrence(obstacle,अवरोध) to what was being considered for long as a weak and toothless — the 1947 law against public servant corruption.

Element of ‘abuse of office’

Several judgments over the years had exposed the lacunae(lack,खामिया) in the 1947 Act, which enabled the corrupt to get off scot-free on being given a benefit of the doubt. Significant was the Supreme Court observation inM. Narayanan Nambiar v. State of Kerala, that under Section 5(1) (d) of the 1947 Act, an element of abuse of office was a necessary ingredient while trying to establish that a public servant used corrupt or illegal means to obtain pecuniary(financial,धन संबंधी) benefits. And ‘abuse of office’ was too vague(unclear,अस्पस्थ) an expression that let many corrupt officers off the hook. In several other judgments on the subject, courts had narrowed down the circumstances under which a public servant could be prosecuted for corruption. This is the background to the promulgation of the 1988 Act, which, under Section 13(1) (d), laid down five forms of criminal misconduct by a public servant. Finding that some officers were giving in too easily to corrupt demands from above — and did not do anything to resist such demands under the belief that as long as they were not beneficiaries, no criminal liability was liable to be attached to them — the government decided that such kind of abetment(incite,उकसाना) of graft in high places had to be penalised. This accounts specifically for Section 13(1) (d) (iii), according to which, a public servant commits the offence of criminal misconduct if he, “while holding office as a public servant, obtains for any person any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage without any public interest”.

The tirade of the IAS and several senior servants belonging to other superior services against Section 13(1) (d) (iii) is on the ground that the burden of proof in criminal cases, which normally rests with the prosecution, shifts here to the public servant arraigned by law, and the latter had to prove to the satisfaction of the court that he did not at all benefit from the transaction under probe. This incidentally is germane(relevant,सार्थक) to the defence of H.C. Gupta. This criticism is not true, although on a superficial(external,सतही) reading it appears as if the prosecution had no responsibility at all to establish the guilt of an accused.

Several decisions related to the 1947 Act and expert views on the 1988 Act clarify that court presumption of any accused’s guilt contemplated here is not automatic. Such presumption follows only after the prosecution had done its duty of presenting evidence that the accused had “obtained or (has) agreed to obtain for himself or for any other person gratification (other than legal remuneration)”. Also, Section 20 of the 1988 Act, which deals with the circumstances under which a court can raise a presumption against an accused is specific to habitual offenders and not to others. Besides, the presumption is one of law and not facts. These interpretations alone should allay(reduce,कम) the misgivings and fears of an honest civil servant that he would be hauled up for transparent decisions which stand the risk of going wrong and causing loss to the exchequer.

Amendment before Parliament

An amendment to the PC Act of 1988 is before a select committee in Parliament. It deals with Section 13(1) (d). It is just possible that this subsection may be eventually substantially diluted or wholly deleted. If this happens, the logical question would be one of how to introduce deterrence against a civil servant who, though honest, would like to just drift and permit himself to cave in against a dishonest Minister. This is a serious issue that negates(invalidate,नकारना) the basic concept of civil service accountability. This would actually promote the tendency of the executive to choose weak civil servants who may be personally honest but are known to be extremely timid(afraid,डरा हुआ), and from whom no resistance at all to dishonest decisions could be expected. The malady(illness,रोग) is particularly prevalent(popular,प्रचलित) in some States where dishonesty is the order of the day.

The popular impression now is that in our country there is no fear of the anti-corruption law on the part of government officials. When this is the hard reality on the ground, concerned citizens would do well to collectively protest against any dilution of anti-corruption safeguards as the proposed amendment seeks to do.

A final word. What is the IAS Officers Association doing to promote integrity among its members? I would like to ask the same question of those holding positions in other associations, such as those for the IPS and IFS. Such groups cannot be mere trade unions fighting for rights. Their obligations include a stout(strong,मजबूत) advocacy of adherence by their members to ethics while serving the public. Whatever I hear on the subject may not however be music to the ears of those who currently stand for probity.

 courtesy:the hindu

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