Newspaper Editorials With Vocab 22/2/2016

#EVERYDAYQUIZ #THE HINDU #BUSINESS STANDARD #THE DAWN(PAK) #INDIAN STANDARD #NEWYORK TIMES 

THE HINDU: Unreasonable demands

The recurrence of violent protests led by relatively well-off communities demanding reservation, be it Patidars in Gujarat last year or Jats in Haryana this year, is perplexing.

The Jats are a relatively prosperous land-owning community in Haryana and are regarded as being high on the “social ladder” in the region. Their political and social might is even more evident in the influence they wield in rural areas and in the leadership of the dominant political parties in the State. The National Commission for Backward Classes had in the past come out with specific reasons against the inclusion of the Jats in Haryana in the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) list. This was overruled by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government at the Centre through a notification in March 2014, promising a special quota for Jats over and beyond the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs in jobs and higher education. It was left to the Supreme Court in March 2015 to reiterate the reality and to quash the decision of the UPA to include Jats in nine States among OBCs, stating that “caste” alone could not be the criterion for determining socio-economic backwardness. Clearly, even if the demands do not make any constitutional or legal sense, the bipartisan consensus over extending reservations has emboldened protestors among the Jat community. After all, the Bharatiya Janata Party in power too had voiced support for the implementation of the March 2014 notification.

Yet, the demands for reservations from these powerful communities is also a consequence of the success of the system of reservations that formed the most significant component of the Mandal Commission recommendations, implemented for the past 25 years, apart from the 65 years of reservations for Dalits and Adivasis. The larger goal went beyond the uplift of the underprivileged and the historically backward; the purpose was to reduce the gap between the “upper” and the “lower” strata in the social hierarchy. That communities which have identified themselves with the upper strata of society also seek “backward” status suggests that through public sector representation and expansion in access to higher education the “economic gap” has been narrowed, or is at least seen to be narrowing. Specifically in the case of Jats, despite higher economic and social standing, there has been a reduction in landholding owing to distribution over generations and a squeezing of rural incomes due to the persisting sluggishness in the agrarian economy. It is a combination of these structural issues over time, besides the relative success of the reservation programme, that has fuelled the unreasonable demands made by Jats. In the case of the more prosperous and diverse Patidars in Gujarat, the demands for reservation were a thin pretext to do away with the system of reservation itself. The agitations, in a way, point to the need to review the list of castes counted as OBCs and to deepen the definition of creamy layer. An opportunity for this was provided through the Socio-Economic and Caste Census, but it was missed.

well-off 

​rich

per·plex·ing

Completely baffling; very puzzling.

wield

Hold and use (a weapon or tool).

em·bold·en

Give (someone) the courage or confidence to do something or to behave in a certain way.

sluggishness

Lethargy: a state of comatose torpor (as found in sleeping sickness)

THE HINDU: Delivering on Make in India

In its last 18 months, the UPA government faced up to an economic reality: new investments had come to a halt and projects worth lakhs of crores of rupees caught in red tape were turning unviable, posing a threat to banks that had lent for them. The then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, heeded Finance Minister P. Chidambaram’s concern about the impact on public sector banks if these projects were not brought back on track through high-level intervention. When the NDA government assumed office, it found that the mechanism that Dr. Singh had approved to fix the problem — a project monitoring group in the Cabinet Secretariat to steer around roadblocks to big-ticket manufacturing and infrastructure projects — had helped clear projects worth Rs.6.5 lakh crore. In June 2014, the Prime Minister’s Office asked the group to ascertain if the projects it had helped had begun operations. The PMO wanted to know if more chimneys were billowing smoke, if production was going up and jobs were being created on the ground. Three months later, the government launched its Make in India programme to encourage the world to use the country as a global production hub. It promised reforms on norms for foreign direct investment — many of which it subsequently delivered — and a fix for problems that gave the country a poor reputation among foreigners, including unpredictable tax policies and a difficult regulatory environment.

Over the last week, about 1,000 CEOs and 4,000 delegates representing 2,000 overseas firms were in Mumbai at a glitzy event to showcase Make in India, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented as the biggest brand to emerge from the country. He said India was adding deregulation to its strengths of democracy, demography and demand, and promised to end retrospective taxation that had spooked investors during the UPA rule. The Industries Ministry has claimed that Rs.15.2-lakh crore worth of investments were committed at the event. These include some by foreign firms such as Oracle (Rs.2,749 crore) and Ascendas (Rs.4,571 crore), but the list is dominated by Indian players making announcements to coincide with the occasion, including a Rs.6,204-crore project by public sector undertaking Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers. Instead of doubting the numbers, it may be more pertinent to focus on two other developments of the week. Authorities served Vodafone a reminder for tax, which warned of asset seizure in case of failure to pay the dues, prompting a sharp reaction from the British firm. It also emerged that Foxconn was yet to follow through on a $5-billion investment it had announced in Maharashtra last August. To capitalise on the success of Make in India, the government must now show sustained improvement on the ease of doing business and create a transparent and stable tax environment to prove it is capable of delivering on its intent. It should use the same yardstick to measure Make in India’s success as it did for the earlier stalled projects: would products start rolling out of factory gates anytime soon?

halt

Bring or come to an abrupt stop.

un·vi·a·ble

Not capable of working successfully; not feasible.

spook

Frighten; unnerve.

co·in·cide

Occur at or during the same time.

stall

(of a motor vehicle or its engine) stop running, typically because of an overload on the engine.

BUSINESS STANDARD: Pro-manufacturing laws need of the hour

The 'Make in India' Week in Mumbai, which ended last Thursday, served as a welcome platform for states to make their cases for being business-friendly destinations to investors. Seventeen states had pavilions at the exposition centre in the Bandra-Kurla Complex, and several had special seminars. Chief ministers of states including Gujarat, Odisha, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were present. It is unfortunate perhaps that most of the chief ministers from states not ruled by parties in the National Democratic Alliance did not turn up - the leaders of Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, all large states seeking investment, were not present. However, most states that were present did indeed make many ambitious announcements - there was news of several new collaborations and plans for manufacturing projects. This spurt of activity should certainly help in reviving a sector that had slowed considerably. The states subsequently issued statements adding up the notional value of promised investments. The total investment promised, if these promises are taken seriously, would amount to Rs 15.2 lakh crore, with the host state of Maharashtra accounting for Rs 8 lakh crore out of that. However, the proportion of such promises that fructify depends crucially on whether investors believe that a genuinely business-friendly environment has been created. In the past, only a small fraction of such memoranda of understanding has turned into actual investments. Indeed, as this newspaper has reported, even as the number of industrial investment proposals made in 2015 went up by eight per cent over that in 2014, the value of such investment proposals has declined by 23 per cent in the same period.

It is unfortunate, therefore, that in spite of assurances given to investors at the 'Make in India' Week that a stable business-friendly environment has indeed been created, the tax office chose the precise time of this important exposition to send a threatening notice to Vodafone about a tax demand that is currently in arbitration. This action, coming as it did at a time when senior leaders of the government were assuring investors that "tax terrorism" was a thing of the past, should serve to remind all concerned that no amount of assurances can take away the need for genuine and deep-seated reforms to institutions and governance. The overall impact of the 'Make in India' Week will be positive going forward if it also provides a similar energy to the governments deregulation and reform efforts. Both states and Centre need to do more in this respect.

There is an entire gamut of manufacturing-friendly policies that states and Centre need to work on. The Centre has unfortunately put labour market reforms on the back burner, although some states have been freed to move forward. However, a patchwork of state-level laws is not the same for manufacturers as simplified national regulations. Other factor markets too need to be reformed. Land availability is in many places a genuine problem. The Centre has abandoned its amendment to the land acquisition law that was meant to make acquisition for public purpose easier. However, it should at least work - as should states - towards a functional free market for land perhaps through relaxations in land leasing laws. The focus on infrastructure is welcome, but should be accompanied by deregulation that allows infrastructure to be properly used. New highways are not that useful if outdated laws keep trucks waiting at inter-state border; new ports will not help if turnaround times remain slow thanks to excessive red tape. And, finally, as the Vodafone issue shows, reform of the tax department and making it less arbitrary and confrontational is long overdue.

spurt

Gush out in a sudden and forceful stream.

no·tion·al

Existing only in theory or as a suggestion or idea.

fruc·ti·fy

Make (something) fruitful or productive.

ar·bi·tra·tion

The use of an arbitrator to settle a dispute.

gam·ut

The complete range or scope of something.

a·ban·don

Give up completely (a course of action, a practice, or a way of thinking).

red tape

 ​official ​rules and ​processes that ​seem ​unnecessary and ​delay ​results

ar·bi·trar·y

Based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system.

con·fron·ta·tion·al

Tending to deal with situations in an aggressive way; hostile or argumentative.

o·ver·due

Not having arrived, happened, or been done by the expected time.

INDIAN EXPRESS: Pandora’s phone

The FBI wants Apple to make it easier to hack into the iPhone of Syed Farook, the organiser of December’s San Bernardino shooting, who has taken its passcode to the grave with him. Apple is right to challenge it, but the case has generated masses of speculation and disinformation, which must be pared away from the truth before one understands why. Security specialists are protesting that Apple has unlocked phones and extracted their contents for the government before, so why not now? Because Apple fortified the iPhone’s security in 2014. It now offers three barriers to hackers: It holds data encrypted, so all that Apple can extract from an unopened phone is gibberish, and besides, it repels brute force attacks to open the phone by introducing a delay between password inputs and by locking up after a number of failures.

But it appears that Apple has left a physical security hole: A phone can boot a new operating system or ROM without permission. Now, if Apple gives them a ROM with the code for security features commented out, the FBI can boot Farook’s phone, crack the password with a brute force attack by a supercomputer and decrypt its contents without the fear of being locked out. What’s the problem, if this helps to solve a terrorist incident? Security agencies have been protesting for years that computer firms want to sell electronic boxes which only the user can open. Farook’s iPhone is one such part of the thriving business of privacy.

The problem is that this is only revisiting the backdooring debate via a new route. Barack Obama has resisted demands for a law requiring manufacturers to build a back door into their electronic boxes which government agencies can amble in through to browse private data, but future presidents may buckle. India briefly engaged with this question when it sought access to Blackberry traffic in 2012. Since this is India, the end was quick and dirty. There is a difference between compromising security by a technical stratagem — a cheat which can be replicated endlessly — and seeking data from a specific device by court order. If Apple wrote an unsecured ROM for unlocking Farook’s phone, it could be used in future to unlock any phone. Worse, if it leaked into the wild or was stolen, the personal data of every iPhone user would be compromised. The consequences would be devastating.

Hack

to get into someone else's ​computer ​system without ​permission in ​order to ​find out ​information or do something ​illegal

pared

to ​reduce something, ​especially by a ​large ​amount

for·ti·fy

Strengthen (a place) with defensive works so as to protect it against attack

gib·ber·ish

Unintelligible or meaningless speech or writing; nonsense.

re·pel

Drive or force (an attack or attacker) back or away.

brute

A savagely violent person or animal.

thrive

(of a child, animal, or plant) grow or develop well or vigorously

am·ble

Walk or move at a slow, relaxed pace.

buck·le

A flat, typically rectangular frame with a hinged pin, used for joining the ends of a belt or strap.

strat·a·gem

A plan or scheme, especially one used to outwit an opponent or achieve an end.

con·se·quence

A result or effect of an action or condition.

dev·as·tat·ing

Highly destructive or damaging.

THE DAWN(PAK) Lifting of Iran sanctions

MORE than a month after most other countries in the world lifted sanctions against Iran, Pakistan has finally followed suit. It is a welcome step, even if it appears to have been reluctantly taken and has come rather late. As a contiguous neighbour, Pakistan ought to have moved faster and deeper down the road to restoring normal economic ties with Iran than most other countries. This is especially true given the natural complementarities between the economies of the two countries. Iran has a surplus of energy but is food deficient, while Pakistan is food secure but energy deficient. Nevertheless, the fact that our own raft of sanctions, mostly issued through the Foreign Office, has now been lifted has cleared the way for parties on both sides to start re-engaging with one another. And this is precisely the point where the road towards the resumption of normal economic ties comes into view before us.

That road, it is becoming increasingly clear, is longer than what most might envisage. Even the act of lifting our own sanctions against Iran proved slightly more complex than imagined. The step was undertaken on prodding from the Iranian side during the prime minister’s visit to Tehran last month, at the time the UN Security Council endorsed the nuclear deal through Resolution 2231. The language of the draft notification issued by the Foreign Office to lift Pakistan’s sanctions then had to be vetted by various stakeholders within the government, such as the ministries of defence and law and the State Bank. This process could have begun sooner, considering that the IAEA had confirmed Iran’s compliance with the terms of the nuclear deal as early as Dec 2, 2015.

Now that the lifting of the sanctions has been notified by the Foreign Office, the hard part of actually rebuilding economic ties can commence. No further legal obstacles stand in the way of private-sector parties to start engaging with the neighbouring economy, but significant logistical obstacles still remain. Banks need to build counterparty arrangements with Iranian banks so LCs can be processed, the road linkages need to be upgraded significantly to handle the clearing of containerised cargoes, and a clientele needs to be developed by traders on either side of the border. A visa regime needs to be developed that will facilitate a growing and thriving trade relationship through easier visa rules and by enhancing people-to-people contact. In time, air and rail links must be expeditiously built as well. The road to a $5bn trade relationship is still a long one, and much work remains to be done. The private sector can be counted on to step up to the opportunities that will come its way, but at the moment it is the government that must shed the impression that it is being dragged reluctantly to the finish line.

con·tig·u·ous

Sharing a common border; touching.

de·fi·cient

Not having enough of a specified quality or ingredient.

Raft

Many

re·sump·tion

The action of beginning something again after a pause or interruption.

en·vis·age

Contemplate or conceive of as a possibility or a desirable future event.

prodding 

to ​encourage someone to take ​action, ​especially when they are being ​slow or ​unwilling

vetted

 to ​examine something or someone ​carefully to make ​certainthat they are ​acceptable or ​suitable

com·pli·ance

The action or fact of complying with a wish or command.

com·mence

Begin; start.

expeditiously

Efficiently

drag

Pull (someone or something) along forcefully, roughly, or with difficulty.

reluctantly

With reluctance

THE NEWYORK TIMES: Slave Labor on the High Seas

Shocking revelations about the international fishing industry’s reliance on slave labor have caused many people to question the origin of the shrimp or tuna they eat. The disclosures have also led the United States to take some important new steps to clamp down on the use of indentured workers and discourage other unlawful activities on the high seas.

President Obama is expected to sign legislation that effectively bans American imports of fish caught by forced labor in Southeast Asia. The bill, passed by Congress this month, would close a loophole in the Tariff Act of 1930 that prohibits imports made by convicts or forced labor but exempts such goods if American domestic production could not meet demand. Now that is expected to end. The president recently signed an agreement allowing officials to deny port services to foreign vessels suspected of illegal fishing.

In another useful move, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration this month said it would improve how seafood is tracked from catch to market by imposing new reporting requirements on American importers, who purchase from overseas sources 90 percent of the seafood that humans and pets consume in the United States. These new requirements would affect 16 species, including cod, snapper and some tuna, and are intended to protect species that are overfished or at risk of being overfished by cracking down on illegally caught or mislabeled fish.

Meanwhile, two international trade unions have filed a complaint with the United Nations labor agency about seafood from Thailand processed by slave workers. The Thai government said it was installing satellite tracking devices on fishing ships and requiring additional reporting of which workers get on and off ships. These and even stronger reforms are urgently needed to respond to the dark side of a multibillion-dollar industry that employs more than 650,000 people in Thailand alone. Thailand has long been judged by the State Department to be one of the worst slave labor offenders.

A series in 2015 by The Times’s Ian Urbina provided searing details about forced labor on Thai boats and chronicled the lives of several dozen Cambodian migrants, most of them boys, who worked on the ships but are now free. As the series made clear, lawlessness on the high seas goes beyond slave labor and illegal catches. Murders are committed with impunity, ships dump huge quantities of oil and sludge, and gunrunning is frequent. These problems are interrelated and must be addressed in a comprehensive way.

The new American reforms can help correct some of these problems if they are rigorously enforced. The publicity the issue has been getting has led to pressure from consumers and activists on importers and wholesalers to be more diligent in identifying their suppliers, but there are questions about whether the government of the United States and those of other countries are fully committed to the task. The most potent advocates for change may be educated consumers.

dis·clo·sure

The action of making new or secret information known.

to clamp down

a ​sudden ​action taken by a ​government or ​people in ​authority to ​stop or ​limit a ​particular ​activity

indentured 

 ​relating to an ​official ​agreement that someone will ​work for someone else for a length of ​time, especially in ​order to learn a ​job

loop·hole

An ambiguity or inadequacy in the law or a set of rules.

 cracking down 

to ​start ​dealing with ​bad or ​illegal ​behaviour in a more ​severeway

on and off 

happening or ​existing only some of the ​time

im·pu·ni·ty

Exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action.

gunrunning

The smuggling of guns and ammunition into a country secretly and illegally

rig·or·ous

Extremely thorough, exhaustive, or accurate.

dil·i·gent

Having or showing care and conscientiousness in one's work or duties.

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