SELECTED ARTICLES FROM VARIOUS NEWSPAPERS & JOURNALS
(August 2014)
Britain considering ban on Muslim Brotherhood : report
Britain’s government is considering banning the Egyptian
Muslim Brotherhood over concerns the group is behind terrorist attacks in Egypt.
Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsy was ousted as Egypt’s first democratically
elected President last year by the military and the group has since been blamed
by Cairo for a wave of attacks. The Brotherhood insists it is a peaceful
organization with no links to violence. Egyptian authorities have launched a
crackdown on Islamists since July, during which hundreds were killed and
thousands injured.
A court in southern Egypt handed down death sentences to 529
alleged backers of Morsy over rioting and killing a police officer in August,
drawing strong condemnations from human rights organizations. Since being banned
in Egypt, the Brotherhood has moved some of its operations to Britain. The
British review is being handled by the country’s top diplomat in Saudi Arabia.
Riyadh, historically hostile to organized political Islamic movements, this year
declared the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist organization and the monarchy
has supported Egypt’s military rulers.
Meanwhile, al—Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — the networks’s Yemen—based
branch — released a new video in which they mocked the Saudi government as being
a pawn of the United States.
AQAP condemned the ban on the Brotherhood and said it was a sign the Saudi
government would never tolerate Islamist groups.
AQAP has hundreds of Saudi and other foreign fighters in its ranks and is
considered one of the most dangerous branches of al—Qaeda.
No sign of troop pullback : NATO
Even as NATO saw no sign of tangible Russian force pullback
from the Ukrainian border, Russia has hiked the price of natural gas for
Ukraine. The Russian gas monopoly Gazprom has withdrawn the 30 per cent
discount, thereby increasing the price of gas for Ukraine from $268.5 to $385.5
per 1,000 cubic metres. The discount was part of a financial bailout package
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin extended to Ukraine’s President Viktor
Yanukovych in December following his refusal to sign a free trade pact with the
European Union. At the same time Russia has not acted on its threat to cancel
another gas price discount Ukraine received in 2010 under an agreement to extend
the Russian lease of a naval base in Crimea. Had it done so, the price would
have soared to $480 per 1,000 cubic metres of gas. The International Monetary
Fund has agreed a $14-18 billion standby credit for Ukraine, in exchange for
painful economic reforms that are expected to be launched after the presidential
elections scheduled for May 25. In Ukraine, the authorities have moved to crack
down on far right militants who helped them topple the Yanukovych government.
The Ukrainian Parliament directed the security services to
disarm the illegal self-defence groups that sprang up during the protests
against the previous government. The move came a day after a shooting in the
capital Kiev involving activists of the extreme nationalist Right Sector group
in which three people were wounded, including a deputy Mayor of Kiev.
Russia has accused Ukrainian nationalists of intimidating ethnic Russians
living in Ukraine. Russian immigration authorities said on Monday that hundreds
of Russians have fled Ukraine for Russia in recent weeks.
Japan allows evacuees back to no-go zone around Fukushima plant
For the first time since Japan’s nuclear disaster three years
ago, authorities are allowing residents to return to live in their homes within
a tiny part of a 20-kilometre (12-mile) no-go zone around the Fukushima plant.
The decision, which took effect, applies to 357 people in 117 households from a
corner of Tamura city after the government determined that radiation levels are
low enough for habitation. But many of those evacuees are still undecided about
going back because of fears about radiation, especially its effect on children.
Visits inside the zone had previously been allowed, and about 90 people already
live in the area with special permission, according to Tamura city hall.
The March 11, 2011 nuclear disaster, when a huge earthquake
and ensuing tsunami led to meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, displaced
more than 100,000 people. Many of them are still living in temporary housing or
with relatives, and some have moved away to start life over elsewhere. Areas
within the evacuation zone have become ghost towns, overgrown with weeds.
Evacuees now receive government compensation of about 100,000 yen ($1,000) each
a month. Those who move back get a one-time 900,000 yen ($9,000) as an
incentive. The monthly compensation will end within a year for residents from
areas where the government decides it is safe enough to go back and live. New
stores and public schools are planned to accommodate those who move back.
The radioactive plume from the Fukushima plant did not spread
evenly in a circle and so some areas outside the 20-kilometre zone are still too
unsafe to live. Decontamination on an unprecedented scale is ongoing in
Fukushima. Some places may not be safe to live for decades.
India poses barriers to American trade : USTR
Indian policies pose barriers to American trade and the US
will keep pressing India to remove obstacles to smoothen business relation, says
a USTR report. Noting that it is holding talks with India both at bilateral and
the World Trade Organisation level, the 2014 report of the UN Trade
Representative (USTR) on “Technical Barriers to Trade” listed out some of the
issues obstructing trade relations.
Indian policies on wholesale foods labelling, security
regulations on telecom equipment, safety testing requirements for electronics
and IT equipment and proposed amendment to the hazardous waste act as trade
barriers, the report said. US electronics and IT goods manufacturers have raised
concerns about the Indian Department of Electronics and Information Technology’s
(DEITY) September 2012 order that mandates compulsory registration for 15
categories of imported electronic and IT goods, it said. The policy, originally
set to take effect from April 2013, mandates exporters to register their
products with laboratories affiliated or certified by the Bureau of Indian
Standards (BIS).
“Although US industry would ultimately like to see the entire
policy repealed, an important first step is to seek an exemption for Highly
Specialised Equipment (HSE), including servers, storage, printing machines, and
IT products that are installed, operated, and maintained by professionals who
are trained to manage the product’s inherent safety risks,” the report said.
USTR said the United States will continue to seek clarification on the scope and
application of the revised Preferential Market Access (PMA) policy for
domestically manufactured telecommunications equipment and closely monitor its
implementation in 2014.
The United States, it said, has detailed concerns about
‘onerous’ India-specific labelling issues in previous TBT Reports since the FSSR
were published in India’s Gazette in 2011. India’s responses have failed to
provide additional or reliable information with regard to how the elements of
this measure advances safety or efficacy or quality of the products in question
or meets the specific needs of India, the report said.
UN asks Sri Lanka to cooperate with UNHRC
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has asked Sri Lanka to engage
“constructively” and cooperate with its human rights body to implement a
resolution calling for an international inquiry into alleged war crimes
committed during the final stages of the country’s civil war. Mr. Ban has
“consistently underlined the importance of an accountability process for
addressing violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Sri
Lanka,” the UN Secretary General’s Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters.
The Council had on March 27 voted to open an international inquiry into alleged
war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the final stages of a decades-long conflict that ended in
2009.
India had abstained from voting on the resolution which was
adopted by a vote of 23 in favour to 12 against. The Geneva-based Council
requested the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to
undertake a “comprehensive investigation” into alleged serious violations and
abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties, and to establish the
facts and circumstances of such alleged violations “with a view to avoiding
impunity and ensuring accountability.”
Mr. Haq said Mr. Ban recalled the commitments made to him on
accountability by the President of Sri Lanka in their joint statement of 2009.
The United Nations will remain engaged with Sri Lanka to support Sri Lanka’s
efforts to make progress in accountability, reconciliation and a lasting
political solution,” Mr. Haq added. The resolution had also called on the Sri
Lankan government to release publicly the results of its investigations into
alleged violations by security forces, including the attack on unarmed
protesters in Weliweriya in August 2013, and the report of 2013, by the court of
inquiry of the Sri Lanka Army. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay
had stressed the need to ensure justice and accountability, including through
the establishment of an independent and credible investigation, saying: “This is
essential to advance the right to truth for all in Sri Lanka and create further
opportunities for justice, accountability and redress.”
RBI adopts new CPI as key measure of inflation
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Rajan said
that the central bank had adopted the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) (combined)
as the key measure of inflation. Earlier, RBI had given more weightage to
Wholesale Price Index (WPI) than CPI as the key measure of inflation for all
policy purposes. “Some recommendations of Urjit R. Patel Committee report have
been implemented, including adoption of the new CPI (combined) as the key
measure of inflation,” said Dr. Rajan, while addressing a press conference here
to announce the first bi-monthly monetary policy for 2014-15. This also includes
explicit recognition of the glide path for disinflation, transition to a
bi-monthly monetary policy cycle, progressive reduction in access to overnight
liquidity at the fixed repo rate, and a corresponding increase in access to
liquidity through term repos, and introduction of longer-tenor term repos as
well as, going forward, term reverse repos.
Following on the recommendations of the high-level advisory
committee chaired by Bimal Jalan, and after consulting the Election Commission,
the RBI will announce in-principle approval for new bank licences. In order to
expand the market for corporate bonds, banks would be allowed to offer partial
credit enhancements to them. He also said that the feasibility of limited re-repo/re-hypothecation
of “repoed” government securities was being explored.
The RBI, he said, would continue to work to ease entry costs
for foreign investors. It would also strive to reduce risk for investors and the
volatility of flows. Towards this end, the RBI Governor said that modalities for
allowing foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) to hedge their currency risks
through exchange-traded currency futures were being worked out in consultation
with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Further, he said that
FPIs would be allowed to hedge their coupon receipts falling due during the next
12 months. To encourage longer-term flows and reduce volatility, FPI investments
in G-Secs would, henceforth, be permitted only in dated securities of maturity
of one-year and above, and existing investment in T-bills would be allowed to
taper off on maturity/sale. Any investment limits vacated at the shorter end
would be available at longer maturities, “so that overall FPI limits will not be
diminished.”
The RBI Governor further said that banks should not levy
penal charges for non-maintenance of minimum balance in ordinary savings bank
account and inoperative accounts, “but instead curtail the services accorded to
those accounts until the balance is restored.”
India needs multi-pronged approach to eradicate poverty: Report
A multi-pronged approach with focus on inclusive economic
growth would help eradicate poverty, which is increasingly getting concentrated
in a few geographical areas, says a research report. The observations are part
of the India Public Policy Report (IPPR) 2014 jointly published by O P Jindal
Global University and Oxford University Press. “Overcoming poverty requires a
context specific multi-pronged strategy that includes: a basic needs approach, a
human rights entitlement approach, a natural resource management approach and a
focus on inclusive economic growth,” the report released said. Poverty in India
is getting increasingly concentrated in a few geographical areas, among specific
social groups and is increasing in urban areas, it said. It also noted that
access to a diverse food basket alone may not help in effectively overcoming
malnutrition.
The report’s Policy Effectiveness Index (PEI) showed that at
all India level there is a gradual, but only a marginal, improvement in the
policy effectiveness index over the three decades - period from 1981 to 2011.
The index is based on four factors - livelihood opportunity, social opportunity,
rule of law and physical infrastructure development.
Russia for federalism in Ukraine
Russia’s Foreign Minister has called on reluctant Western
nations to push Ukraine towards a “genuine, not cosmetic” constitutional reform
to grant autonomy to its Russian-speaking regions. “It is necessary to pursue
genuine, rather than cosmetic constitutional reform and to stop meddling in
Ukraine’s internal affairs,” said Sergei Lavrov. “Otherwise it looks like the
West has taken up the role of arbiter of Ukraine’s fate, while its current
authorities lack any significant independence.” Mr. Lavrov stated that the
Ukrainian new leadership shows no intention of transforming the country’s
unitary state into a federation. Kiev has arrested activists in the
Russian-speaking regions who demanded local referendums on greater autonomy from
the centre. The Russian Parliament accused the Ukrainian authorities of
committing “political reprisals” and resorting to “physical violence” against
“hundreds” of detained pro-autonomy activists.
The Russian Foreign Ministry earlier this week denounced
Ukraine’s reported plans to hire foreign private militaries to suppress protest
movements in eastern and southern regions. It cited reports that Kiev planned to
recruit the notorious Greystone Ltd to police Russian-speaking regions. Some
reports said Greystone mercenaries had been deployed in Donetsk to control
pro-Russian demonstrators last month. Greystone Ltd were contracted by the
Pentagon for security duties in Iraq and were accused of committing atrocities.
IRNSS-1B orbit raised
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully
boosted the apogee and the perigee of its navigation satellite, the Indian
Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1B), by firing the propulsion system
on board the satellite for seven minutes and a half. Mission controllers at the
ISRO’s Master Control Facility (MCF) in Hassan, Karnataka, gave the command for
the propulsion system, called the Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM), aboard the IRNSS-1B
to kick-start it. At the end of 450 seconds of firing, the satellite’s apogee
was boosted from 20,630 km to 24,760 km and the perigee went up from 283 km to
299 km, said M. Nageswara Rao, Project Director, IRNSS. The IRNSS-1B is India’s
second navigation satellite and it was put into its initial orbit of 20,630 km x
283 km by the ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C24) on April 4
evening. A PSLV had put the first navigation satellite called the IRNSS-1A into
orbit on July 1, 2013. A total of seven satellites will form the IRNSS
constellation. The ISRO will put into orbit two more IRNSS satellites before the
end of 2014 and another three by the end of 2015, thus completing the
constellation.
ISRO scientists said India had become a member of the club of
the U.S., Russia, Europe, Japan and China by building these satellites. While
the U.S’ GPS, the Russian GLONASS and the European Galileo are global navigation
satellites which can be used by anybody anywhere in the world with the help of a
receiver, the IRNSS-1B forms part of the regional navigation system which will
provide positional information to users only in India and the region extending
1,500 km from its borders. In aerial navigation, aircraft will use the IRNSS
satellites when they are cruising, approaching an airport to land or during
landing. During these phases, the aircraft will know their position and flight
direction accurately. The satellites will help the aircraft land on runway with
an accuracy of 20 metres. The IRNSS constellation will help ships navigate
towards their destination through safe and short routes and in guiding them to
enter harbours. In land navigation, drivers of cars and trucks, with a receiver
in their mobile phone, can reach their destination through the shortest route In
defence, the IRNSS will help missiles in accurately reaching their targets — be
it a town or installation. They help missiles in “way-pointing” towards their
target. If there are hills on a missile’s flight path, it will help the missiles
circumvent the hills with the information received from the IRNSS. Air-launched
missiles will use these satellites to know where they are and head towards their
targets.
Long-billed vultures sighted in the Nilgiris
Wildlife officials and volunteers of Arulagam, a Coimbatore-based
NGO involved in vulture conservation, sighted five long-billed vultures in the
north-eastern slopes of the Nilgiris. Sharing the experience, S. Bharathidasan
of Arulagam said his team received specific information about the presence of
long-billed vultures in the area. It took more than two hours for the team to
reach a cliff from where, using a binocular, it recorded the presence of the
vultures on another cliff. Long-billed vultures are found only in the
north-eastern slopes of the Nilgiris. White-backed, King and Egyptian vultures
are the other three species found in the Nilgiris and the Moyar valley, its
adjoining area, Mr. Bharathidasan said. Huge cattle population is found in the
Nilgiris and its surrounding areas. This could be one of the reasons the
vultures thrive here. Diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug used for both
animals and humans, poses a major threat to the survival of vultures. Diclofenac-based
drugs should be banned in the region, Mr. Bharathidasan said.
Iran, six powers push for nuclear deal by July
Senior envoys from Iran and six world powers met for a new
round of negotiations, in an effort to reach a broad agreement on scaling back
Iran’s nuclear programme and lifting sanctions by July. Iran’s President Hassan
Rowhani is under pressure to see the crippling sanctions against his country
lifted, while US Republicans gearing up for Congressional mid—term elections in
November are pushing President Barack Obama to take a tough stance on the issue.
Adding more urgency is the expected end—of—year departure of EU foreign policy
chief Catherine Ashton, the chief negotiator for Britain, China, France, Russia,
the United States and Germany. However, Iran and the six powers have yet to
agree on the limits that Tehran will have to accept on its enrichment programme,
and on the future of the plutonium—producing Arak reactor, Iranian and Western
diplomats have said.
The six powers are concerned that Iran could use enriched
uranium or plutonium to make nuclear weapons. Iranian leaders insist they are
only interested in nuclear energy and scientific applications. Western officials
have said one option would be to convert Arak into a type of reactor that does
not produce plutonium as a side product. Iranian officials have proposed instead
that countries such as Germany, France, Japan, Brazil or Argentina join the Arak
research reactor project, to guarantee that it serves peaceful purposes. Iran
and the six powers have been implementing a preliminary agreement since January,
under which Tehran has slowed down its drive to enrich uranium and halted
construction at Arak, while some Western sanctions have been suspended.
A significant capability
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) mared its 25th
consecutive successful mission by lofting he second spacecraft required for the
Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS). The IRNSS will function
much like America’s widely-used Global Positioning System (GPS), albeit on a
regional scale. The GPS is based on a constellation of 24 satellites that
transmit signals, which suitably equipped receivers pick up and utilise to
establish their position with a great level of accuracy. Originally intended for
the U.S. armed forces, the use of unencrypted GPS signals have spawned a wide
range of civilian applications. Vehicles, aircraft and ships increasingly rely
on equipment with satellite navigation capability. Smartphones and other mobile
devices providing map and location-based services too take the aid of GPS
signals. Russia has a similar satellite system in place, called GLONASS. Europe
is in the process of establishing a navigation satellite system of its own,
named Galileo. China’s BeiDou Navigation Satellite System began offering
regional services in December 2012 and is expected to achieve global coverage by
around 2020. Japan wants to create a satellite system to improve GPS coverage
over that country.
