Daily News Compilation (HINDU) for 14th May

Correcting a historical injustice

Article tells the story of why Right to Education was not included in the list of justifiable Fundamental Rights at the time of Constitution making. I don't think the story is relevant but mentioning a few points that may be useful from prelims point of view:

• non-justiciable fundamental rights — later termed as “Directive Principles of State Policy.
• Constituent Assembly was set up under Cabinet Mission Plan of May 16, 1946 and it proposed a “weak Centre-powerful autonomous states”
•  Mountbatten Plan for two nations, India and Pakistan changed this to one in which the Centre was strong, with residuary powers.

Sargent Plan

The Sargent Scheme, formally known as the Report of the Sargent Commission on Post-War Education Development in India, was a 1944 memorandum prepared at the behest of the British-run Government of India that outlined the future development of racy and education in India.

• A central goal of the Sargent Scheme was the educational reconstruction of India. 
• It recommended the introduction of free and compulsory education for all Indian children in the 6-11 years age group. 
• The plan aimed to bring about universal literacy in India within 40 years of its introduction, i.e. by 1984. Although the 40 year time-frame was derided at the time by leaders of the Indian independence movement as being too long a period to achieve universal literacy.

Mizoram: bamboozled by land use policy

Mizoram, the first Indian State to enact legislation to promote organic farming, is now pushing hard to eradicate jhum under its New Land Use Policy (NLUP).

•  The State’s NLUP deploys over Rs.2,800 crore over a five-year period “to put an end to wasteful shifting cultivation” and replaces it with “permanent and stable trades.” 
• Under this policy, the State provides Rs.1,00,000 in a year directly to households, aiming to shift beneficiaries into alternative occupations like horticulture, livestock-rearing, or settled cultivation. 

Still, NLUP’s primary objective — to eradicate “wasteful” shifting cultivation — appears misdirected.

What is jhum or 'lo' cultivation?

It is a type of shifting agriculture.

Jhum uses natural cycles of forest regeneration to grow diverse crops without using chemical pesticides or fertilizers. Early in the year, farmers cut demarcated patches of bamboo forests and let the vegetation sun-dry for weeks. They then burn the slash in contained fires in March to clear the fields, nourish the soil with ashes, and cultivate through the monsoon. In fields that are one to three hectares in area, each farmer plants and sequentially harvests between 15 to 25 crops. After cultivation, they rest their fields and shift to new areas each year. The rested fields rapidly regenerate into forests, including over 10,000 bamboo culms per hectare in five years. After dense forests reappear on the original site, farmers return for cultivation, usually after six to ten years, which forms the jhum cycle.

Author puts the following points to strengthen his argument against Mizoram govt's NLUP which wants to eradicate jhum cultivation:

• policy makers and industry now promote “settled” cultivation and plantations, such as pineapple and oil palm, claiming they are better land use than jhum. However, oil palm, rubber and horticultural plantations are monocultures that cause permanent deforestation, a fact that the India State of Forest Report 2011 (ISFR) notes to explain declines in Mizoram’s forest cover.
• Regenerating fields and forests in the jhum landscape provide resources for many years. The farmer obtains firewood, charcoal, wild vegetables and fruits, wood and bamboo for house construction and other home needs. The diversity of food and cash crops cultivated and ancillary resources provided by jhum fields complicate comparisons with terrace or monocrop agricultural systems.
• Detractors of jhum often concede that jhum was viable in the past, but claim population growth has forced jhum cycles to under five years, allowing insufficient time for forest regrowth, thereby making jhum unsustainable. Reduction of jhum cycle is serious, but evidence linking it to population pressure is scarce. In reality, jhum cycles often decline because of external pressures, relocation and grouping of villages, or reduced land availability.

Following steps must be taken by according to author instead of replacing or eradicating Jhum cultivation:

• to work with cultivators and agroecologists to refine jhum where needed. The State can involve and incentivise communities to foster practices that lengthen cropping and fallow periods,
• develop village infrastructure and access paths to distant fields, and 
• provide market and price support, and other benefits including organic labelling to jhum cultivators. 

Antarctic ice sheet collapse has begun, scientists warn

The collapse of the western Antarctic ice sheet is inevitable and is already underway, scientists said on May 12.

The melt will cause up to four metres (13 feet) of additional sea-level rise over the coming centuries, devastating low-lying and coastal areas around the world — from Bangladesh to New Jersey — that are already expected to be swamped by only a few feet of sea-level rise.

But the researchers said the sea-level rise, while unstoppable, was still several centuries off, potentially up to 1,000 years away.

In the University of Washington study, which will be published in the journal Science , researchers used detailed topography maps, airborne radar and computer modelling to reach greater certainty about the projected timeline of the ice sheet collapse.

The study honed in on the Thwaites glacier — a broad glacier that is part of the Amundsen Sea. Scientists have known for years that the Thwaites glacier is the soft underbelly of the Antarctic ice sheet, and first documented that it was unstable decades ago.

The University of Washington researchers said that the fast-moving Thwaites glacier could be lost in a matter of centuries. The loss of that glacier alone would raise global sea level by nearly 2ft.

But Thwaites also acts as a dam that holds back the rest of the ice sheet. Once Thwaites goes, researchers said the remaining ice could cause another 10 to 13ft (3-4m) of global sea-level rise.

China, U.S. trade barbs

United States Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday described China’s moves to deploy an oil rig in waters disputed by Vietnam as “provocative,” prompting an angry rebuttal from Beijing.

The Chinese government accused the U.S. of making “erroneous” remarks that had “emboldened some countries’ provocations.”

In recent days, Chinese and Vietnamese vessels have been in a tense stand-off, sparked by China’s deployment of an oil rig in the waters of the South China Sea off the Paracel Islands, which are claimed by Beijing.

Vietnam dispatched ships in response, arguing that the waters were within its exclusive economic zone, located around 200 nautical miles from its coastline.

RBI panel for diluting govt stake in public sector banks to below 50 %

PJ Nayak panel report on governance of banks' board:

Problem :  governance at the 26 public sector banks (PSBs) suffered due to several ‘externally imposed constraints’ like dual regulation by the RBI and the Finance Ministry, and external vigilance by agencies such as the CVC and CAG, among others.

Recommendation:

• government should transfer all its shareholding in public sector banks to a banking investment company and then if they reduce that stake to less than 51 percent, the domination of the government on the bank boards will continue. Therefore, it will be able to be the dominant shareholder and yet not have to find the capital to recapitalize PSU banks.
• The panel says the government should distance itself from several governance functions and repeal the Bank Nationalisation Acts of 1970 and 1980, together with the SBI Act and the SBI (Subsidiary Banks) Act.
• All banks should be incorporated under the Companies Act

Problem:  Bank boards are disempowered, and selection process for directors is compromised.

Recommendation:

• slew of recommendations to professionalise bank boards, so that younger and more skilled people come in. Compensation of bank board members, their qualifications and responsibilities are all sought to be overhauled considerably.

Some other recommendations:

• There is a need for bank licencing regime to move to a uniform mode for all broad-based banks, irrespective of their ownership 
• for private sector banks, at the moment no single entity can hold more than 5 percent and with RBI's permission 10 percent. The Nayak committee seeks to change that and says that minimum shareholding of the promoter entity can be extended to 25 percent. 
• expanding single investor shareholding caps to beyond the current practice of vetting every stake buy proposal of 5 per cent and above by the RBI, by making a new category of investors, called ‘authorised bank investors’ (ABI).

BS-IV auto fuels to reach more cities

Supply of the eco-friendly, primarily low sulphur, and also relatively costlier Bharat Stage-IV petrol and diesel is to be extended to 24 more cities by March next.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas says this is being done as it wants to go beyond the Auto Fuel Policy 2003 recommendations. As mandated by the policy, BS-IV fuels were launched in the National Capital Region and 13 cities since April 2010.

Based on the report of a committee it constituted to identity 50 more cities, the Ministry took the higher grade fuels to 26 more cities, starting with seven in 2011-12. The criteria were most polluted cities, State capitals and cities with a population of over a million. The same parameters remain for the rest of 24 cities.

Gyaan

BS-IV Petrol and Diesel are cleaner fuels as they have low sulphur content vis-à-vis BS-III fuels.

Key amendment for voter protection hangs fire

A key Law Ministry recommendation for an amendment in the Conduct of Election Rules to protect the identity of voters has been pending for nearly four years.

The existing Rules permit tallying of votes by individual Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at the polling station, rendering the voters of the area vulnerable to backlash by supporters of candidates.

The Ministry’s Legislative Department had, in a background paper on ‘electoral reforms’ prepared in collaboration with the Election Commission in December 2010, listed the recommendation as one of the key measures to ensure that voters could exercise their franchise without fear or favour.

Inclusion of Nellore in southern corridor questioned

The inclusion of Nellore and Krishnapatnam Port in the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor (CBIC) has been questioned by the Tamil Nadu government and representatives of Chennai, Kamarajar (Ennore) and L&T Kattupalli ports as it is not in the proposed alignment. The latter also fear that this will result in diversion of cargo.

L&T Kattupalli port is developed by Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, while Kamarajar Port is on the verge of constructing mega container terminal and multi-cargo terminal. Advisor to Prime Minister T. K. A. Nair told The Hindu on Monday that he had received some objections from the stakeholders but it was not an appropriate forum to discuss the issue. The inclusion of Krishnapatnam Port would bring in more regions under development and it was also part of the Andhra Pradesh expansion plan that was developing a major port at Durgarajapatnam.