Daily News Compilation (HINDU) June 23

EDITORIALS

Guard against hasty revision

Editorial argues against diluting provisions of the Land Acquisition Act which was enacted last september after a long delay. There are demands from the industry to amend the Consent and Compensation principles enshrined in the act. 

Four pillars of the Act:

1) Consent: 80% of the project affected families must agree.

2) Fair Compensation to be decided as per the market rates or circle rates.

3) Social Impact Assessment 

4) Compulsory R&R

There are certain exceptions in case of public purpose and national security emergencies.

This act replaced the archaic Land Acquisition Act 1894. Since 1998, attempts were made to change the Act, but nothing much had come of them. Even the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development had in three instances reviewed the proposals for revising the Act and consulted various stakeholders. 

Author argues that attempts to reduce transparency, deny stakeholder participation and impose unjust compensation cannot pass for efforts to reduce anomalies and improve the efficiency of the acquisition process. The government should focus on working with the new Act which was legislated after a long delay and debate, and not amend it in haste. The government can review the legislation after it has been in force for a reasonable period, and after studying its impact carefully.

An NSA for hard times

The author tries to define the outlook of the new NSA Ajit Doval. His thoughts are not much important for Civils but each point can be a separate question for Mains.

1) India’s Internal vulnerabilities are much higher than its external vulnerabilities. He therefore sees the most dangerous foreign threats as being those that target India’s domestic weaknesses. 

• He argues for a strong and properly staffed police force (minimum of 200 policemen per lakh population)
• He consider infiltration of Bangladeshis the biggest internal security problem. Bangladesh supports the demographic invasion of India.

2) Disdain for front organisations supporting the cause of anti-national forces, masquerading as human right groups. Mr. Doval also argued that a millennia-old Indian national identity was under threat. He bemoaned the tendency to emphasise Indian diversity, rather than unity. Most remarkably of all, he claimed that the core of national security was not physical security but cultural identity. This suggests a crucial — and controversial — cultural dimension to internal security.

3) To add muscle to Indian intelligence to carry out covert action. He argues for covert action for disrupting terrorist logistics and communications, rather than just leaders. Indian intelligence had become fixated on foreign terrorists rather than those within India, and argued that the States’ district and local level intelligence units had to step up. Argues for a stronger NCTC.

4) Afghanistan’s stability as western forces draw down. He argues for  a “substantial and rapid” growth of India’s role in building up Afghan security forces.

5) Distrust of United States. He is convinced that:

• In Afghanistan, US will outsource its counter-terrorism operations to Pakistan
• Indo-US Civil Nuclear Cooperation will stunt India's emergence as a genuine Nuclear Weapon state and reduce strategic deterrence.

India more open to n-inspections

India has decided to enhance transparency of its nuclear infrastructure by ratifying an Additional Protocol with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) — a step that in a single stroke can be leveraged to boost energy security and lift international confidence.

This will clear the decks for large imports of nuclear technology, boosting power generation and other civilian purposes. “The move is clearly tied to the new government’s push for enhancing energy security, which is slated to have a significant nuclear component. It will not be surprising if countries such as Japan, France and the United States now enhance the level of their civilian nuclear trade with India."

The Additional Protocol will cover only those facilities which are monitored by the IAEA, and will have no bearing on the non-safeguarded facilities which are used for building weapons.

Mysore site may be covertly used to produce n-material: U.S. think tank

Satellite imagery may have blown the shroud of secrecy surrounding India’s efforts to extend a Mysore nuclear centrifuge plant constructed in 1992 for the covert production of uranium hexafluoride, which may in turn be channelled towards the manufacture of hydrogen bombs (Thermonuclear Bomb).

Mysore’s Indian Rare Metals Plant could help expand India’s uranium enrichment “substantially,” for its nuclear submarine fleet and it would be “most likely to facilitate the construction of an increased number of naval reactors. It could also be used to support the development of thermonuclear weapons.

HYDROGEN BOMB? and why does it requires Uranium?

A thermonuclear weapon is a nuclear weapon design that uses the heat generated by a fission reaction to compress and ignite a nuclear fusion stage. This results in a greatly increased explosive power. It is colloquially referred to as a hydrogen bomb or H-bomb because it employs hydrogen fusion, though in most applications the majority of its destructive energy comes from uranium fission, not hydrogen fusion alone. 

Swiss list of Indians a major breakthrough: SIT chief

Slaughter of whale sharks on the rise

The whale shark is the biggest fish (largest living non-mammalian vertebrate) in the world. Blue whale is a mammal. 

It is protected as Schedule-I species on a par with tiger under the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. IUCN status vulnerable.

It is a target fishery in many parts of the world but not in the Godavari Region. It gets tangled into the nets accidentally. The fishermen are sure that they will any way lose their nets in the event of the mammoth caught in them. That is why they are resorting to kill it. Most of them are unaware of the provisions put in place by the government for protecting sharks. 

In Gujarat fishermen are rewarded with a cash prize of Rs. 25,000 if they release the giant fish from the net whenever caught in the net.

Pressure on profitability to continue

Aluminium Industry

India’s demand for aluminium has generally remained stable due to its dependence on the power sector, which has always experienced steady growth in the past. Nearly 40 per cent of domestic demand for the metal comes from the power sector, which, along with automobiles and construction, accounts for 75-80 per cent of domestic aluminium consumption. Current capacity is 1.9 Million Tonnes.

Due to negative growth in Automobile industry and low demand of power cables and equipment. This is supposed to continue in future.

Lack of raw material linkages including Coal. Captive mines will lead to lower production costs and optimum capacity utilisation.

OTHER ARTICLES

Biting the bullet

A forgotten victory 

Russian Arctic, a new promised land for oil giants