Good news, but some worries
February data:
WPI inflation - 4.48 %
CPI inflation - 8.10 %
Welcome as the February inflation data are, they may not be sufficient to influence the Reserve Bank of India’s next credit policy announcement, due on April 1. This is because for policy purposes the RBI has shifted its focus from WPI to CPI inflation which, despite the recent decline, is still high. The changed emphasis is also in line with the recommendations of a high-level RBI panel which in January suggested consumer inflation to be the main monetary policy anchor. It also suggested moving to a retail inflation target of 4 per cent in three years with a 2 per cent band on either side. That, in turn, suggests that the RBI might at best hold the interest rates in its forthcoming review.
Gyaan : for detailed recommendations of the Urijit Patel committee click here
Healing the wounds of a bitter war
During the week of March 24, the U.N. Human Rights Council countries will be asked to show where they stand on a resolution on Sri Lanka. That resolution seeks to support the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights’ call to establish an international mechanism to investigate alleged violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian law by both sides during Sri Lanka’s war. The resolution is also expected to ask the government of Sri Lanka to address human rights concerns, make progress towards a political settlement and support reconciliation for all Sri Lankan people.
Author gives reason why resolution should be passed:
1. First, it will be highly difficult for Sri Lanka to establish long-term peace without accountability. Seeking the truth and justice helps to put countries on the right track toward reconciliation.
2. Second, the Sri Lankan government has failed to take action itself despite two previous resolutions calling for an independent, credible domestic investigation and offers of technical support from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Sri Lanka’s own domestic Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission established in 2010 fails to adequately address this matter.
3. Third, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is calling for the international community to act and establish an international mechanism. She is supported by multiple, independent voices including the powerful peace advocate, Archbishop Desmond Tutu as well as groups in Sri Lankan society and the main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance.
4. Fourth, there is no doubt that tackling impunity for violations and crimes committed during the war will strengthen the rule of law in Sri Lanka. The international community must send a strong message that everyone has a right to feel safe and secure, and that no one should be above the law.
Those arguing against the resolution say
1. Sri Lanka’s domestic processes need time,
2. that a solution is best found within Sri Lanka,
3. that we should constructively engage Sri Lanka and not criticise, and
4. that the Sri Lankan government has every right to take steps to stop the return of Tamil Tiger (LTTE) terrorism.
Malaysian PM dials Manmohan for help
Malaysia’s Premier Najib Razak on Sunday spoke to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, seeking India’s help in the massive in searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 even as India put on hold search operations for the missing airliner, saying it was awaiting instructions from Malaysia.
On Sunday, Crimea voted to split away from Ukraine and return to the Russian fold. For a vast majority of Crimea’s Russian-speaking population this is an act of redressing a monumental injustice that happened in 1991 when Crimea, which geographically, ethnically and historically is more Russian than many regions of Russia itself, became part of a foreign state as the Soviet Union broke up along arbitrarily drawn administrative borders.
However, reuniting a divided people may not have been the prime motive that forced President Vladimir Putin’s hand in Crimea. The Ukraine crisis is viewed in Moscow as a continuation of the Western plan to encircle Russia militarily and torpedo its reintegration efforts in the former Soviet Union.
The new leaders in Kiev installed with the West’s support are the same people who staged the “orange revolution” in Ukraine in 2004 and set Ukraine on the path of NATO membership.
Strategic catastrophe
Ukraine’s induction into NATO would be a strategic catastrophe for Russia. NATO would come within 425 kilometres of Moscow, cut off Russia from the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, and squeeze it out of the Caucasus.
Ukraine, the second most powerful economy in the former Soviet Union, is a linchpin to Mr. Putin’s plan to build the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), a Moscow-led version of the European Union. The U.S. denounced the plan as a disguised attempt to re-create the Soviet Union and vowed to disrupt it.
An “effective way” to wreck Mr. Putin’s project was found when the European Union offered Ukraine an “either-or” choice between closer ties with Europe or membership in Mr. Putin’s EEU.
Apart from geopolitical compulsions, Moscow’s support for Crimea’s breakaway bid was driven by important domestic considerations. The protests in Ukraine, manipulated as they were by the West, reflected the rise of grass-root civic activity against corruption and authoritarianism — the same problems that bedevil Russia and that brought thousands of anti-government protesters onto the streets of Moscow two years ago. By intervening in Ukraine, Mr. Putin sought to stop the surging pro-democracy wave from spilling over to Russia.
However, overall, Russians support Mr. Putin’s policy on Crimea’s reunification. A March survey showed that Mr. Putin’s approval ratings rose by 10 per cent in one month and were at the highest level in years.
Serious risks
Mr. Putin’s intervention in Ukraine has brought Russia strategic gains but is fraught with serious risks.
Crimea’s reunification with Russia solves the problem of the Black Sea Fleet, which Ukraine’s new leaders vowed to shut down and for which there is no other basing location that does not freeze in winter. Russia retains strategic grip on the region and ability to project its naval power to the Mediterranean and beyond.
The Ukraine and Western powers said they would not recognise Crimea’s split from Ukraine, but Russia argued that Kosovo’s self-proclaimed independence from Serbia provided legitimate precedent. Moscow recalled the 2010 ruling by the U.N. International Court of Justice, which said that unilateral declaration of independence by a part of a country did not violate international law.
The example of Crimea has inspired other Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine to demand greater powers from the centre. If Ukraine switches from a unitary state to a federation, the pro-Russia regions will get the right to block any sharp swing of the country towards the West.
At the same time there is a risk of Ukraine sinking into chaos. Mr. Yanukovych’s downfall left Ukraine in shatters. The country is bankrupt and heading for default.
The rise of far right and neo-Nazi groups, who spearheaded deadly clashes in Kiev last month, widened the chasm between Ukraine’s pro-Russia southeast and nationalist west. If Ukraine breaks up along the east-west divide, its western part will join NATO. This would be a dubious victory for Russia.
Economic sanctions the U.S. and Europe threaten to impose against Russia will push it further towards China, experts said. India may also benefit from Russia’s pivot to the East, winning greater access to Russian energy resources and speeding up talks for a free trade agreement.
It is symbolic that the new round of East-West confrontation centred on Crimea, home to the 1945 Yalta Conference, at which the Soviet Union made its World War Two allies recognise its security interests far beyond its borders.
Gyaan
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter intimidation and direct electoral fraud. Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, was the focal point of the movement's campaign of civil resistance, with thousands of protesters demonstrating daily. Nationwide, the democratic revolution was highlighted by a series of acts of civil disobedience, sit-ins, and general strikes organised by the opposition movement.
from ie 18/03/.2014
ReplyDeleteMiddle East drought continues, Experts fear global food crisis
Ie 16/04/2014
-The Middle East’s driest winter in several decades could pose a threat to global food prices, with local crops depleted and farmers’ livelihoods blighted, UN experts and climatologists
-Varying degrees of drought are hitting almost two-thirds of the limited arable land across Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Iraq. “
-The dry season has already hurt prospects for the cereal harvest. Several of the countries under pressure are already significant buyers of grain from international markets.
-The Standard Precipitation Index (SPI) shows the region has not had such low rainfall since at least 1970. As per survey by undp,fao etc
-Water and agriculture authorities, alongside specialist UN agencies, have begun preparing plans to officially declare a state of drought that spreads beyond the Eastern Middle East to Morocco(rabat) and as far south as Yemen(sana)
Drought is becoming more severe in parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and Iraq, while Syria, having seen several droughts in recent decades, is again being hit hard,
-In Lebanon(Beirut), where climate change has stripped its mountains of the snow needed to recharge groundwater basins, rain is “below average. the stress on water resources was exacerbated by the presence of nearly a million refugees since the Syrian(Damascus) civil war began in 2011.
- IN Jordan(amman) precipitation levels were the lowest since records began 60 years ago.
-Only Israel will not face acute problems, helped by its long-term investment in desalination plants and pioneering water management techniques.
-In Iraq, which once boasted the largest tracts of fertile land in the region, it is only three years since the last cycle of drought ended, which covered more than 73 per cent of the country.
-Turkey, where much of Iraq and Syria’s water resources originate, has cut the volume of water flowing into the Euphrates and Tigris rivers by dam construction to meet their own growing domestic needs.
A poor rain season in Syria has already hit its 2014 wheat outlook in the main rain-fed areas in the north-eastern parts,
The drought and war could slash total wheat output to less than a third of its pre-crisis harvest of around 3.5 million tonnes.
-Drought that peaked in severity during 2008 and 2009 but persisted into 2010 was blamed by some experts in Syria for the soaring food prices that aggravated social tensions and in turn triggered the 2011 uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
-Middle-Eastern experts predict more frequent drought cycles in coming years, accompanied by delayed winter rainy seasons that damage fruits by promoting premature flowering and prevent cereal crops growing to full maturity
-The climate change cycles are now shorter, which means … we will eventually have less rain and more frequent droughts.
hindu 17/03/2014
ReplyDelete.Arbitration laws in India
Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), is a technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons (the "arbitrators", "arbiters" or "arbitral tribunal"), by whose decision (the "award") they agree to be bound. It is a resolution technique in which a third party reviews the evidence in the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding for both sides and enforceable.
Other forms of ADR include mediation (a form of settlement negotiation facilitated by a neutral third party) and non-binding resolution by experts.
Arbitration is often used for the resolution of commercial disputes, particularly in the context of international commercial transactions. The use of arbitration is also frequently employed in consumer and employment matters, where arbitration may be mandated by the terms of employment or commercial contracts.
Justice A.P. Shah, Chairman, Law Commission of India
-the Commission would come out with suggestions to reform the existing laws
-there is lack of professionalism among judges and lawyers who deal with arbitration laws across the country,
-despite a move towards modern approach to the law of arbitration around the world, the system in India continued to be plagued by several ills.
-most of the arbitrations are ad-hoc as the institutional arbitration has unfortunately not flourished.
- Even the conduct of the proceedings by some arbitrators and also by the members of the Bar leaves a lot of to be desired in our country
-Commission was about to finalise a report on the proposed reforms and would propose to set time limit for the decision of arbitration proceedings.
-it would be proposed that the courts in India could exercise power to grant interim measures even when the seat of arbitration was outside the country.
- A ‘new regime for costs’ would be mooted to arbitrations so as to discourage frivolous proceedings,
-there should not be employees or past employees appointed as arbitrators either by private company or government bod
-Commission would suggest to the government to constitute an Arbitration Commission headed by Union Law Minister for laying down norms and accrediting institutional arbitrations.