Friday, July 20, 2012

HEADLINES

• Rahul Gandhi says he will undertake a greater role in the Congress or the Govt soon
• Russia and China use veto to block fresh sanctions against Syria; India votes for the sanctions
• India seeks more data from US on the HSBC case

NATIONAL NEWS

• On arms trade treaty, India keeps its feet on the ground
  • Sandwiched between the outlying positions taken by Pakistan, at one extreme, and the European Union (EU), at the other, India is attempting to chart a middle course on a path-breaking treaty on arms trade which will enter the home stretch of negotiations at the United Nations next week;
  • While Pakistan wants only light weapons covered by the treaty, the EU is pressing for what are known as the seven-plus-one criteria, meaning light weapons-plus seven categories of heavy military hardware such as tanks, attack helicopters, missiles and combat aircraft. India — whose position is quite similar to that taken by the 10-member ASEAN, the U.S. and Russia and even China to a large extent — wants a practical treaty whose primary purpose should be ensuring national implementation because some of the criteria such as poverty, human suffering and impact on social stability are very subjective;
  • India hopes for a treaty that will address three criteria — the outcome should be consensus-based for a realistic treaty, it should reduce or eliminate illicit trafficking in and diversion of arms to terrorists and non-state armed groups and, last, strike a balance between the obligations of exporters and importers. The treaty aims to fill the void of an international framework to govern arms transfers but for a voluntary U.N. register on conventional arms on the transparency side;
  • While there was not much movement during the Bush Administration, the idea gained traction during Barak Obama’s Presidency. In 2010, it was decided to hold an open-ended conference culminating in July 2012. But due to the complexity of issues, the last preparatory conference in New York in February this year could not arrive at a broad consensus. Since dates for the meet to decide on the treaty were set — from July 2 to 22 — all countries have nevertheless gone for the final meeting;
  • India is buoyed by the U.N. General Assembly’s decision to adopt the text of the treaty by consensus because it believes that all major stakeholders will be on board. The treaty would then carry weight unlike the Ottawa (Anti-personnel Mine Ban Convention) and Oslo (Convention on Cluster Munitions) pacts that have seen little progress mainly because 20 major countries stayed away.
• Ratan Tata comes out in defence of Manmohan Singh
  • Hitting out at critics who “have mercilessly spoken and written disparagingly” over the past few months about “the architect of the ’91 reforms that brought about economic prosperity and international recognition to our country”, Tata group Chairman Ratan Tata sought to goad Prime Minister Manmohan Singh into action to restore the credibility of the government and place the country on the growth path once again by implementing promised reforms;
  • Even while conceding that India “lost its growth momentum over the past 12 months, that investment confidence has declined, that inflation has soared and that the government action has been too little too late,” he said it was “sad and unfortunate” that the Opposition, the media, some private citizens and “even some members of the ruling party” have singled out and blamed the Prime Minister for these economic woes and this, he felt, was “gross misdirected”;
  • Reminding the critics that they “have also chosen to overlook the fact that this warm-hearted Prime Minister has led our country with great personal dignity and integrity”, Mr. Tata asserted that Dr. Singh now deserved the support of people at this critical time and hoped he would succeed in this venture. “All eyes are on him [Prime Minister] here and overseas in what could be his ‘finest hour’ in leading the country to economic prosperity once again. He will need to act boldly – to be courageous and to do ‘the right thing.’ For the sake of the country we all hope he will!”;
  • Mr. Tata went on to point out that instead of criticising the Prime Minister, people should also recognise the “enormous damage done by political infighting; the single-minded goal of the Opposition to topple the government; the allegations, accusations of corruption and illegal acts which have brought almost all government actions to a standstill. We should be concerned about unconfirmed sensationalised stories in the media to sell publications, the manipulation of policy by power brokers and powerful vested interest groups to meet their self-serving desire to continue protection.”

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• Iceberg breaks away from Greenland – indication of global warming
  • A massive iceberg — twice the size of Manhattan — has broken off of a glacier in Greenland, according to NASA satellite imagery, in what could be the latest indication of global warming;
  • The images released on Wednesday show the massive chunk of ice breaking off of the Petermann Glacier on the north-western coast of Greenland. The glacier produced a similar ice island twice as large in 2010;
  • NASA said the crack in the glacier had been visible since 2001, and that its polar-orbiting Aqua satellite had observed the break on July 16-17;
  • Oceanographer Andreas Muenchow said while the icebergs seem large, most of the glacial melting takes place 1,800 feet below the surface, where the glacier meets bedrock and the ocean water is much warmer than at the surface. “The dominant mass loss is via ocean melting from below. This dominant process is not visible, it is not possible to capture it with eye-catching images.”
• Syria’s leaders have vowed to retaliate with force against perpetrators of Wednesday’s triple assassination of the defence minister, his deputy and a former minister and delivered a blow to the Kofi Annan plan that seeks to restore calm in the embattled state

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article about India-Central Asia relations
• If you have time, read this article on the role of the judiciary in a democracy. Important for political science students
• If you have time, read this article about the SS Gairsoppa which was sunk in 1941 when carrying silver bullion from India to England