Daily News Compilation (HINDU) for 13th May

Political recipe for environmental disaster

About Polavaram Irrigation Project




The multipurpose IndiraSagar (Polavaram) project is expected to irrigate 2.91 lakh hectares, generate 960 mw of power and supply 23.4 tmc drinking water to Visakhapatnam city and also to Vizag steel plant. It will also facilitate an inter-basin transfer of 80 tmcft annually to the Krishna river basin.

Issue: it’s not the quantity of water-sharing between the riparian States that is the bone of contention but the height of the dam and submergence of areas in Odisha.

About PPA
The Union Cabinet on May 1 cleared the proposal for constituting the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) for the execution of the Polavaram irrigation project.
The constitution of the Centrally-funded PPA and its governing body was in accordance with the section 90 of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.

The Authority will clear apprehensions about the project and instill confidence in both the successor States of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as also other riparian States of Odisha, Chhattisgarh and carry out the project in a transparent and equitable manner, according to informed sources.

Now the article:

Author criticizes its formation as:

• both Chhattisgarh and Odisha had objected to the project in the Supreme Court and the court has yet not given its verdict - Legal issues
• non-compliance of environmental assessment, proper surveys, lack of abidance with existing laws and large-scale displacement and submergence of forest and inhabitants. Without protective embankments, four villages and 648.05 hectares of land will be submerged in Odisha, and eight villages and 795.59 hectares of land will be submerged in Chhattisgarh (as per the Andhra Pradesh government’s submission on February 2014).

Some Gyaan in the article:

To resolve any inter-State water dispute, the government can resort to conflict resolution through the Interstate River Water Disputes Act, 1956, apart from regular dialogue and negotiation. The PPA is not a constitutional body unless approved by Parliament.

Supreme Court appointed an inspection panel in 2011 to find out if the construction of the project was being carried out according to the terms of the Godavari Water Disputes Tribunal (GWDT) Award, 1980. The panel concluded that the project had not violated the GWDT. In principle, while the viability of the project is clear, ministries have not given their clearances, and the Supreme Court’s verdict is awaited.

India-Sri Lanka fishermen’s talks deadlocked

The talks between fishermen of India and Sri Lanka, aimed at evolving a sustainable solution to the Palk Bay conflict, reached a deadlock here on Monday. Northern Sri Lankan fishermen urged their Indian counterparts to immediately stop using bottom trawlers, but the Indian fishermen said they needed at least three years to completely phase out trawling. The Sri Lankan side was not convinced by the Indian fishermen's offer to bring down the number of days they engage in trawling from 120 to 90, either.

IIT Delhi and Bombay in QS Asian University top 50

Only two Indian institutes —Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and IIT Bombay — have made it to the Top 50 in the QS Asian University rankings that were released here on Friday.

Delhi University has been placed at a disappointing rank of 81, one fall down from its 2013 ranking of 80. IIT Madras, which was at 49 in 2013, has now slipped to 53. Although this year 17 Indian universities have made it to the rankings compared to last year’s 11, India is far behind China, Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea.

China gets thinly veiled rebuke from Asean

Southeast Asian leaders have expressed “serious concern” over worsening territorial disputes in the South China Sea, presenting a rare united front against an increasingly assertive Beijing.

Vietnam and the Philippines led a successful push for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to deliver a thinly veiled rebuke to China over the standoff in waters home to key shipping lanes and thought to contain huge energy reserves.

Electronic signatures may make e-commerce transactions invalid

A digital signature, as the standard electronic signature, takes the concept of traditional paper-based signing and turns it into an electronic “fingerprint”. This “fingerprint”, or coded message, is unique to both the document and the person signing it and binds them together. Digital signature ensures authenticity and gives protection against signature forgery and information tampering.

World’s first electric aircraft E-Fan takes its maiden flight

The world’s first airplane completely powered by electricity has successfully taken to the skies for its maiden flight, and could bring down air travel cost by more than a third, its developer Airbus said.

The small experimental aircraft called ‘E-Fan’ carried its first flight at an airport near Bordeaux in southwestern France, and could prove to be a key step towards greener, quieter and cheaper air travel.

South China Sea ‘not a concern,’ China tells India

China on Monday said India “did not have to worry” about recent tensions in the South China Sea sparked by a stand-off between Chinese and Vietnamese vessels.

Beijing's comments were in response to last week's statement by New Delhi that it viewed the recent developments with “concern”. The tensions last week were triggered by the deployment of an oil rig by China in waters disputed by Vietnam.