Of Chinese N-reactors to Pakistan

The Chinese have got away with two new nuclear reactors for Pakistan by the Nuclear Suppliers Group. At the June 23-24 meeting of the 46-nation nuclear cartel in Noordwik, Netherlands, China was questioned about the two new reactors, Chashma 3 and 4, that it announced it would build in Pakistan.But China insisted the deal was “grandfathered”, that is, they said it had been reached before it joined the NSG in 2004. Indian officials said the Chinese statement was enough for the rest of the NSG - even the US - to accept China at its word. “There was no pushback by NSG members,” the officials said. On March 18, Robert Blake, assistant secretary in the state department, said in Beijing, “We expect China to abide by the commitments that it made when it joined the NSG in 2004, and in particular we think the construction of new nuclear reactors such as the Chashma 3 and 4 would be inconsistent with those commitments.” However, in Europe, China got a thumbs up from Germany, the biggest power in Europe. Days before the NSG plenary, the German government, reportedly said, “China can export nuclear goods for construction of nuclear power plants Chashma 3 and 4 to Pakistan without violating NSG guidelines.” Germany also argued that “China has explained its position on existing export agreements when it joined the NSG”. Pakistan’s nuclear sector is managed almost completely by the army.It does not have to separate its civilian and military nuclear programmes. China had signed the Chashma deal with Pakistan in 1991, under which it gave a 300-MW reactor to Pakistan and agreed for a second one of 325 MW, also at Chashma. According to nuke experts, the 1991 agreement with Pakistan was a “general” one, which did not specify how many reactors would be given to Pakistan. When China joined NSG in 2004, they did not mention new reactors under the agreement.

Of direct transfer of subsidies

The Nandan Nilekani headed task force set up to work out modalities for direct transfer of subsidy has suggested a cap on consumption of subsidized LPG cylinders for all customers. Indications are that consumers will be charged subsidized rate for eight cylinders a year, though a final decision on the exact number is yet to be taken. The usage pattern of cylinders indicate about 60% of LPG households consuming eight cylinders a year. The government presently provides a subsidy of over Rs 291 on each cylinder of cooking gas. The report suggests identification of beneficiaries using the Unique ID. The final report will be ready by December 2011 after incorporating the experience of trial projects that are to be launched in seven states over the next six months. In the three-phase implementation of the direct transfer of subsidies, beneficiaries will be identified and direct cash transfers will be made in their bank accounts. The task force will supervise the pilot projects and will come out with an “implementable solution” for direct transfer of subsidies in its final report by December. Regarding LPG, the task force discussed three phases. In the first phase, there will be a cap on subsidized cylinders with a robust authentication framework in place. The government will decide later on the number of subsidized LPG cylinders made available to a household. In the second phase of LPG subsidy transfer, which does not depend upon Phase I, direct transfer to customers’ bank account has been recommended. In the third phase, segmentation and targeting of customers and direct transfer to these customers has been recommended. Regarding fertilizer, the task force in the first phase seeks complete identification of the supply chain up to the retailer to bring in transparency. In the second phase, direct transfer of subsidy is recommended to the retailer’s bank account while in the third phase, direct transfer of subsidy is recommend to the farmer’s account. For kerosene, the task force recognizes that wider consultation with state governments is required. Direct transfer of subsidy for kerosene will depend to a large extent on PDS reforms which are being implemented by the states. The task force recommends direct transfer of subsidy through state governments in first phase and direct transfer to the beneficiary’s account in second phase. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had constituted the task force in February 2011 under the chairmanship of Nandan Nilekani, chairman, UIDAI. The task force was mandated to submit its interim report by June 2011. Mukherjee said the direct transfer of subsidies on LPG, fertilizer and kerosene will help in curbing pilferage and leakages. A transparency portal will be developed containing details of each customer and their consumption pattern. This will provide the government data on movement of stocks and its usage. The portal will also work as grievance management system where customers can complain and will be equipped to detect fraud and diversion. Beneficiaries will be provided a choice of banks to opt for, along with an interoperable network of business correspondents for convenient access to subsidy funds. The rollout of the government’s financial inclusion plan across India, along with the rollout of Aadhaar, will provide a foundation for the implementation of direct transfer of subsidies.

Government macro data is not reliable : RBI

The Reserve bank of India (RBI) has said it cannot make policy decisions relying on the data provided by the government. RBI governor D Subbarao said the central bank has been facing severe headwinds on multiple fronts because of the erroneous data published by the government—from advance estimates of GDP to revisions in industrial production (IIP) numbers to the preference of WPI over CPI as the measure for inflation. “We are handicapped by the reliability of some of the basic data that we need to use in policy calculations,” Subbarao said while speaking at RBI’s Statistics Day, and warned that poor quality data could potentially mislead policy calculations. “We make policies in real time and if the provisional data that these are based on are inaccurate, the resultant policies can turn out to be sub-optimal choices,” he said. For example, in the post-Lehman era when RBI is in a high alert mode, there have been frequent revisions to data related to GDP, one of the most watched numbers for policy makers, investors and economists, not only within India, but also globally. Like in February 2010, the advance estimate for GDP growth for 2009-10 was pegged at 6.8%. Three months later, this was revised to 7.7% while in February 2011, the quick estimates pegged it at 9.1%—a change of over 40% within a year. “Therefore, policy that per force had to use information on advance estimate of GDP was fraught with the risk of underestimating the growth momentum,” Subbarao said. Economists outside of RBI also pointed out the problems they have been facing with the erroneous data published by the government. Given the recent track record of such data, these are seen with suspicion. But in the absence of any other alternative, they have to work with unreliable numbers. A recent report by Siddhartha Sanyal of Barclays Capital pointed out a huge discrepancy between the rise in India’s petroleum import bill and the rise in the crude oil prices. The report showed that there was a “surprising stagnation” in India’s oil import bill since December 2010. “The average rise in the oil import bill was a mere 6% year-on-year during December 2010-April 2011, despite the fact that global crude oil prices rose more than 30% during that time,” Sanyal said. “This raises doubts about the trajectory of India’s oil import bill in the coming months,” he added. Economists also pointed out some other recent incidents of serious lapses relating to publications of important economic data.

Mumbai - Pune Expressway snippets

Expansion of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway will make civil engineering history in the country with plans to blast two 6-km road tunnels, one of the longest in India, through the rock on the ghat section near Lonavala. The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) has drawn up plans for the project, which will cost Rs 3,500 to 4,000 crore, on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) method. “The 2.5 km Jawahar Tunnel in Jammu is the longest road tunnel so far. A road tunnel planned on the Rohtang pass in Kashmir will be 8.8 km long, but that has still to take shape,’’ MSRDC engineers said. “The exact length of the tunnels, which might stretch to 8 km in length, will be decided by civil engineering consultants after studying the terrain. The consultants are expected to be appointed shortly,’’ said a senior MSRDC official. The expressway will be expanded from six lane to eight lane, while the old Pune Highway, NH4 will be changed from four lane to six lane. Firms vying for the consultancy for this project are Stup Consultants, UICDhruv-Nod, (joint initiative), Secon Geo Consultants, Spectrum Techno-Iyesa-Feedback Ventures and Multi Media Associates. The 93-km long Mumbai-Pune Expressway was completed in 2000 and starts from Kalamboli, near Panvel, and ends at Dehu road near Pune. It has five interchanges Kon (Shedung), Chowk, Khalapur, Kusgaon and Talegaon.

Capital's showpiece

The Delhi government’s showpiece project promises to capture both eyeballs and footfalls. At a height of 154m, the main pylon of the much-delayed Signature Bridge at Wazirabad will be twice the height of the Qutub Minar and could be one of the city’s biggest tourist attractions when it is completed almost two-and half-years down the line. All this, thanks to China, whose firms stepped up to the challenge, when Indian companies expressed their inability to construct the main pylon of the bridge. A Chinese company, Jiangsu Zhongtai Steel Structure Co Ltd, a sub-contractor of Bridge Contractor Gammon-Constutora-Tensacciai JV, has been given the task of fabricating the 15,000 tonne steel pylon and deck girders. The pylon will be brought to India in pieces and the firm will also be responsible for assembling and erecting the pylon and deck at site. Special grade steel, also sourced from China, will be used to construct the pylon. The Delhi Tourism and Transportation Development Corporation (DTTDC) says fabrication and erection of the pylon and deck girders will be completed within the next 18 months. The main pylon of the bridge boasts a unique bowshaped, inclined design that is sure to leave a lasting impression on tourists. The Signature Bridge will connect NH-1 on the western bank of the Yamuna to Wazirabad Road on its eastern bank. It will have two subways, footpaths and cycle tracks, besides the bridge. There will be space for a dual, four-lane carriageway (14m each) with a 1.2-metre-wide central verge; space for anchoring cables, maintenance walkway and crash barriers on either side of the central verge. The main span will be 251m and the approach span on either side will be of 36m. There is also provision for cloverleaves to cater to increased traffic volumes in the future. Not surprisingly, getting the requisite clearances for this project was a mammoth task. DTTDC officials said that they first got conceptual approval from the DDA technical committee and then got a green signal from DUAC. DTTDC has also roped in M/S Lloyds, a third-party company from UK, to check the quality of the fabrication work that is being carried out in China. A gigantic crawler crane, sourced from abroad and capable of lifting upto 1200 tonnes, will be pressed into service. The idea of a new bridge to go across the River Yamuna at Wazirabad has been a subject of discussion for several years. The inauguration of the Signature Bridge was initially planned to coincide with the Commonwealth Games but the project became mired in controversy and clearance delays leaving the government no option but to delink the project from CWG. The main aim of the Signature Bridge is to replace the existing two lane barrage cum bridge at Wazirabad and to improve connectivity to North East areas in trans-Yamuna Delhi while also acting as interstate corridor between the Northern states and Uttar Pradesh. The total project cost is Rs 1,131 crores.

SC on Noida land acquisition

Slamming the Noida land takeover, the Supreme Court strongly felt that the UP state government had indulged in a mala fide use of its powers for “urgent” land acquisition to benefit developers than serving any public purpose. The SC dismissed the appeals filed by developers and the Greater Noida Authority and said there was no error in the Allahabad high court order cancelling the takeover of agricultural land in Shahberi village, a majority of whose residents had opposed the acquisition. The HC had said it was a colourable exercise of executive power unsustainable under the Land Acquisition Act. The housing projects that will be affected include those by Amrapali, Ajnara, Supertech, Mahagun, Panchsheel, SJP Infracon and Gulshan Builders, who together were allotted 4 lakh sq mts of land. What really hurt the Greater Noida Authority’s case was the transfer of the land to builders even before the Uttar Pradesh government had approved the proposal to change its use from industrial to residential. The government had acquired the land for industrial purposes for the planned development of Greater Noida. Taking into account the collector’s report that 185 farmers, who are the original land owners, would be rendered homeless by the acquisition, the bench repeatedly told the Greater Noida Authority to have a heart and feel the pain of the farmers. What also irked the bench was the transfer of the land in brazen violation of law.

SC verdict on Salwa Judum

The Centre will soon hold discussions with CMs of various states to figure out the repercussions of the Supreme Court verdict striking down the recruitment of Special Police Officers as unconstitutional. Union home minister P Chidambaram said that the Centre and states need to figure out the fallout of the SC verdict for the law enforcement operations. “Some areas of the judgment which are to be read carefully, reflected upon carefully and I would have to discuss it with the CMs concerned to see what impact it will have on the anti-Maoist operations.” While the SC’s order came on a plea challenging the use of SPOs by the Chhattisgarh government in the anti-Naxal fight, it can have repercussions for other state governments which engage auxiliaries to fight terrorists and extremists and for other law and order challenges. The recruitment of Chhattisgarh SPOs is partly funded by the Centre. “There are a number so took exception to of directions issued to the Chhattisgarh government and the judges have asked for a compliance report from the Union government and the Chhattisgarh government within six weeks,” Chidambaram said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Chhattisgarh government to disband and disarm 6,500 special police officers (SPOs) engaged in anti-Maoist operations, putting the state, which has borne the brunt of ultra-Left violence, in a fix on how to deal with the threat. Blaming the Maoist violence on the iniquitous policies of the state and striking down the centrallyfunded scheme to arm tribal youth as a counterweight to extremists, a bench ordered the Union government “to cease and desist, forthwith, from using any of its funds in supporting, directly or indirectly the recruitment of SPOs for the purposes of engaging in any form of counter-insurgency activities against Maoist/Naxalite groups”. Chhattisgarh has recruited the SPOs from among the ranks of the Salwa Judum, a campaign by anti-Maoist tribals who enjoy the support of the state and the political class. Sources in Chhattisgarh described the verdict as a setback to the fight against Maoists, and said the Raman Singh government may consider seeking a review. In its 80-page order, the bench said, “The appointment of tribal youths as SPOs, who are barely literate, for temporary periods, and armed with firearms, had endangered and will necessarily endanger the human rights of others in society.” The bench said that while it would not condone the acts of violence against the state by Naxals, the genesis of the problem lay in the flawed socio-economic policies of the governments. “The policy of privatization has also meant that the state has incapacitated itself from devoting adequate financial resources in building the capacity to control the social unrest that has been unleashed,” the bench said. The judgment could deal a body blow to anti-Naxal operations in six states where the Centre has financed the recruitment of SPOs to help under-staffed constabulary deal with the Maoist challenge. However, Chhattisgarh will be worst hit. Strapped for manpower in a terrain where the extremists have effectively used numerical edge, familiarity with terrain and guerilla tactics to kill hundreds of security forces, the state has relied on SPOs drawn from among local tribals as a complement.