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THE HINDU: Looking beyond economic
quick-fixes
In an all-too-familiar replay, finance ministers and central bank
governors of theGroup of 20 countries meeting in Shanghai drove home the complexities of
formulating a collective response to the persisting global slowdown in growth,
even as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reiterated
its call for coordinated
action at the multilateral level to contain risks to the real economies from
market turbulence. The Fund’s prescription ahead of the gathering, as in the
recent past, lays particular stress on fiscal stimulus measures to boost
demand, as against over-reliance on monetary policies. But the reaction from
national capitals was along expected lines. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew
pressed hard a long-standing concern of Washington that China ought to increase
domestic consumption and Germany adopt fiscal stimulus. His counterpart in
Berlin, Wolfgang Schaeuble, was equally categorical as he ruled out his country’s support for a fiscal
stimulus and instead continued to insist on structural reforms as the remedy.
Mr. Lew even suggested, ahead of the Shanghai meet, that it may be a case of
financial markets misreading the situation on the state of the real economy.
Despite the strong divergence of perceptions that have long
underpinned the group’s overall approach, their promise in Shanghai to refrain from
a competitive devaluation of
currencies to promote exports could go some way to soothe investor sentiment. Such
an assurance is significant in the light of the 4 per cent depreciation in the
value of the renminbi last year that set off turmoil in global stock markets
and a flight of capital from the country. Currency volatilities could continue
to pose concerns as emerging economies experienced a slowdown in 2015 — most
notably Brazil, and China, which earlier this decade overtook the U.S. as the
world’s largest trading nation. The economic
recession in Brazil, the worst in over a century, and the combined effects
of the collapse of Chinese
imports into Latin America, could well have had a significant impact on
world trade, which contracted to its lowest since the global financial crisis,
according to the World Trade Monitor of the Netherlands Bureau for Economic
Policy Analysis. Yet, there is good evidence of the G-20’s capacity for
concerted action. In 2014, it pledged to take steps to raise the group’s gross
domestic product by an additional 2 per cent by 2018. The measures implemented
so far would cause an increase of just 0.8 per cent by that deadline. The
current situation should lend greater urgency not merely to achieve the goal,
but to extend the measures into other areas that have been identified for
common action. The political engagement from the G-20 in the wake of the 2008
global meltdown was immense. That resulted in the fiscal stimulus, the
stabilisation of the banking sector and the injection of capital into
international financial institutions. The rich and emerging economies should
summon the resolve and the will to promote a more equitable international
order.
per·sist
Continue firmly or obstinately in an opinion or a course of action
in spite of difficulty, opposition, or failure.
tur·bu·lence
Violent or unsteady movement of air or water, or of some other
fluid.
stim·u·lus
A thing or event that evokes a specific functional reaction in an
organ or tissue.
coun·ter·part
A person or thing holding a position or performing a function that
corresponds to that of another person or thing in another place.
ruled
out
to prevent something from happening
This recent wave of terrorism has ruled out any chance of peacetalks.
un·der·pin
Support (a building or other structure) from below by laying a
solid foundation below ground level or by substituting stronger for weaker
materials.
dead·line
The latest time or date by which something should be completed.
melt·down
A disastrous event, especially a rapid fall in share prices.
im·mense
Extremely large or great, especially in scale or degree.
sum·mon
Authoritatively or urgently call on (someone) to be present,
especially as a defendant or witness in a law court.
THE HINDU: The health net should cover all
The announcement in the Union Budget of an insurance scheme against
catastrophic health expenditure for
the weaker sections should become part of a calibrated
plan to provide universal health coverage. When it comes to public health
expenditure, India brings up the rear among even many developing countries. Budget 2016-17 takes the incremental step of
introducing some insurance protection against high out-of-pocket expenditure
that pushes families into poverty. In this context, the plan to provide access
to dialysis for kidney failure at district hospitals through a dedicated
national programme is an intervention that is overdue. Some States, such as
Tamil Nadu, have insurance to pay for hospitalisation through a
government-backed plan. As a scaled-up national programme, there is much to
learn from the experience of countries such as Thailand and Japan. What stands
out about them, as evident from a study conducted by the World Bank and the
Japanese government, is the use of general revenues to augment payroll taxes in
Thailand, and the firm capping of care costs through standardised benefits and
standardised payments. Both aspects — viable funding to universalise access and
tightly regulated costs to guard against profiteering — combined with a
guarantee of quality care are important to India, where the health sector has
grown amorphously in the absence of strong regulatory oversight. These
learnings are critical to also avoid the moral hazard of unethical institutions
gaining access to the Rs.1 lakh government-funded health insurance through
unnecessary hospitalisation.
A nominal increase in the annual health budget, pegged at 9.5 per
cent over 2015-16, and a growing role for profit- oriented care systems and
private insurance can only retard India’s progress towards universal health
coverage (UHC). There is evidence that a significant number of young Indians
aged 23 to 35 are not buying health insurance since they find it expensive.
This trend skews the risk pool towards older citizens who are more likely to
seek care, leading to the familiar cycle of higher premiums and more claims.
The answer clearly lies in moving towards UHC under a time-bound programme that
covers everyone, using a combination of subscriber payments and tax funds, and
strong controls over cost of care. There is a challenge also to scale up dialysis access.
Besides equipping district hospitals with the necessary machines, training of
medical professionals to closely monitor patients availing the service is
vital. The national roster of nephrologists is only about 1,100 strong, while
the incidence of renal failure is of the order of 2.2 lakh patients a year, as
pointed out in the Budget speech. Creating the human resources needed has to be
accorded top priority. The dialysis programme, laudable as it is, underscores
the importance of preventing end-stage renal disease, and regular monitoring of
kidney health at the population level. On the broader agenda, political parties
and social movements can no longer ignore the imperative of providing quality
health care to all.
brings up the rear
to be at the back of a group that is going somewhere
You two go ahead - Sam and I'll bring up the rear.
o·ver·due
Not having arrived, happened, or been done by the expected time.
aug·ment
Make (something) greater by adding to it; increase.
pay·roll
A list of a company's employees and the amount of money they are to
be paid.
amorphously
(amorphous) having no definite form or distinct shape;
"amorphous clouds of insects"; "an aggregate of formless
particles"; "a shapeless mass of protoplasm
re·tard
Delay or hold back in terms of progress, development, or
accomplishment.
skew
An oblique angle; a slant.
› to cause something to be not straight or exact; to twist or distort
nephrologists
(nephrology) the branch of medicine concerned with the kidney - its
development and anatomy and physiology and disorders
laud·a·ble
(of an action, idea, or goal) deserving praise and commendation.
BUSINESS STANDARD: EPF
tax: It's a healthy proposal
The outcry over Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s
Budget proposal to tax 60 per cent of the withdrawal from the Employees
Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) underlines the exclusionary self-interest of
the middle class, the biggest beneficiary of this long-term small savings
scheme with a corpus of Rs 6.5 lakh crore. It is difficult to argue with the
principle behind the proposal, although there has been some avoidable confusion
over whether the tax will apply to the interest or the principal or both. The
fact that calculations suggest that the differential is likely to be a little
more than a percentage point suggests that reactions are grossly overblown. The
combination of high interest rates (8.8 per cent for 2015-16, for instance),
imposed by an EPFO board dominated by officers of Left-leaning parties, plus
its tax-free status, has ensured that working Indians enjoyed a windfall
benefit vis-Ã -vis other fixed investment.
Since Independence, the richest Indians have been disproportionate gainers of government subsidies and tax breaks on cooking and automobile fuel, higher education and housing, as well as the opportunities of economic liberalisation. Now, with incomes rising steadily and income-tax rates among the world’s lowest, they are in a position to be weaned off such hand-outs at a time when the government has urgent competing demands on the Budget. Set against the larger reality of the need for the government to control expenditure, this proposal is not as unfair as the barrage of indignant social media tweets suggests. Mr Jaitley explained that the idea behind the proposal was to bring EPFO on a par with the National Pension System (NPS), the defined-contribution pension system that the government launched in 2004, which has been languishing because of the differential tax treatment. But it is also true that this was one of the key proposals of the draft Direct Taxes Code, ignored till now, to subject such investments to the exempt-exempt-tax, or EET, principle, under which investments and corpus are tax-free but withdrawals are not.
The middle class’ sense of ill-usage may have been heightened because the EPFO raised the age for withdrawal from 55 to 58 years a few days before the Budget. It has also been argued that making the EPFO partially taxable is unjust when India lacks a social safety net and most employees do not get pensions. Post-war world history has starkly demonstrated the limits to welfare economics of this nature – the long-running bankruptcy of Greece remains a cautionary tale. There, as in several southern European countries, social security pay-outs for an ageing population bankrupted the government. Youthful India, on the other hand, is enjoying a demographic dividend that has seen its dependency ratio improve from 71.5 per cent in 1990 to 53.1 per cent in 2014, a trend that will continue for at least 30 years. In any case, the incidence of additional taxation as a result of the proposal is relatively small. This, thus, remains an opportune time to get wage-earners used to the minor rigours of taxation in stages – just as luxury car owners learnt to live with higher diesel prices. In that sense, the overall message to the middle class from this proposal is a healthy one: that the days of freebies are over.
Since Independence, the richest Indians have been disproportionate gainers of government subsidies and tax breaks on cooking and automobile fuel, higher education and housing, as well as the opportunities of economic liberalisation. Now, with incomes rising steadily and income-tax rates among the world’s lowest, they are in a position to be weaned off such hand-outs at a time when the government has urgent competing demands on the Budget. Set against the larger reality of the need for the government to control expenditure, this proposal is not as unfair as the barrage of indignant social media tweets suggests. Mr Jaitley explained that the idea behind the proposal was to bring EPFO on a par with the National Pension System (NPS), the defined-contribution pension system that the government launched in 2004, which has been languishing because of the differential tax treatment. But it is also true that this was one of the key proposals of the draft Direct Taxes Code, ignored till now, to subject such investments to the exempt-exempt-tax, or EET, principle, under which investments and corpus are tax-free but withdrawals are not.
The middle class’ sense of ill-usage may have been heightened because the EPFO raised the age for withdrawal from 55 to 58 years a few days before the Budget. It has also been argued that making the EPFO partially taxable is unjust when India lacks a social safety net and most employees do not get pensions. Post-war world history has starkly demonstrated the limits to welfare economics of this nature – the long-running bankruptcy of Greece remains a cautionary tale. There, as in several southern European countries, social security pay-outs for an ageing population bankrupted the government. Youthful India, on the other hand, is enjoying a demographic dividend that has seen its dependency ratio improve from 71.5 per cent in 1990 to 53.1 per cent in 2014, a trend that will continue for at least 30 years. In any case, the incidence of additional taxation as a result of the proposal is relatively small. This, thus, remains an opportune time to get wage-earners used to the minor rigours of taxation in stages – just as luxury car owners learnt to live with higher diesel prices. In that sense, the overall message to the middle class from this proposal is a healthy one: that the days of freebies are over.
outcry
a strong expression of anger and disapproval about something, made by a group of people or by the public
The release from prison of two of the terrorists has provoked apublic outcry.
exclusionary
Acting to exclude something
cor·pus
A collection of written texts, especially the entire works of a
particular author or a body of writing on a particular subject.
grossly
In a gross manner
im·pose
Force (something unwelcome or unfamiliar) to be accepted or put in
place
weaned off
to make someone gradually stop using something that is
badfor them
It's difficult to wean addicts off cocaine once they're hooked.
bar·rage
A concentrated artillery bombardment over a wide area.
in·dig·nant
Feeling or showing anger or annoyance at what is perceived as
unfair treatment.
lan·guish
(of a person or other living thing) lose or lack vitality; grow
weak or feeble.
Stark
› empty, simple, or obvious, especially without decoration or anything that is not necessary
:It was a stark room with a bed and chair as the only furniture.
rig·or
The quality of being extremely thorough, exhaustive, or accurate.
free·bie
A thing given free of charge.
INDIAN EXPRESS: Naked force
In Muzaffarpur, the army apparently trusts no one except its own.
In the interest of efficiency, over 1,150 candidates in search of a job in
uniform were ordered to strip down to the bare essentials to save the
authorities the bother of having to frisk them before a written examination.
They were also seated in an open field, far enough apart to prevent
surreptitious communications and policed by men in full uniform. Perhaps the
authorities recalled that Bihar was once the land of education mafias, which
ran colleges disbursing degrees for cash, sometimes from makeshift counters in
markets. Perhaps they remembered last year’s outrage, when pictures of an
examination centre in Muzaffarpur circulated, showing people hanging from the
windows of an examination centre, passing notes to the candidates within.
But that was a civilian examination. The test in Muzaffarpur was
for recruitment to the armed forces. Successful candidates will guard our
borders and face insurgents, or manage support services for active personnel.
All are destined for positions of trust, and can expect to serve with dignity.
However, their worldview may have changed following their first contact with
army life. Full contact, experienced in almost every part of the economically
clothed body. But let them count their blessings, for there were no cavity
searches for secreted notes.
Has the army taken the government’s goal of transparency too
literally? The forces are generally not transparent. For example, they prefer
to deal with their criminals in their own courts martial, out of sight of
civilians. And some of their finances aren’t open to scrutiny in the manner
that civilian monies are. Perhaps this was only in the interest of efficiency.
Because the idea of having to manually examine over a thousand men for
concealed documents and devices isn’t an inviting prospect
ap·par·ent·ly
As far as one knows or can see.
dis·burse
Pay out (money from a fund).
con·cealed
Kept secret; hidden.
DNA: Fallacies of the ‘Fourth
Pillar’
Of the ‘nine
pillars’ Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke of when presenting the Union
Budget 2016, the fourth was ‘Education, skill development and job creation. The
United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2015, previously
raised concerns about India ranking 130 in the Human Development Index—the
lowest among the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries and well below
South Africa (116) and China (90). In keeping with the reactions elicited by
the economic survey, one would expect greater resource allocation to education.
But, the union budget largely failed to strengthen the ‘fourth pillar’.
School Level
The minister
expressed concern about the quality of school education, but except for the
setting up of 62 new Navodaya schools, there’s not much to impact school
education. This means a majority of Indian schools will continue to offer the
same poor quality of education and next year’s surveys will continue to
highlight the sorry state of affairs.
The finance minister’s
speech seems to suggest that india has achieved universalisation of primary
education. The ground reality is different. There was no mention of the ‘Right
to Education’ this year. Does it mean that it is off the government radar?
Higher Education
The Finance Minister
allocated `1,000 crore as
starting capital for a Higher Education Funding Agency. In a country like
India, with 330 state universities and 35,829 colleges, this meagre amount has
limited potential.
Unlike previous
budgets, which announced the launch of new IITs, IIMs and AIIMs, there was no
declaration of any new higher educational institutes. However, 10 public and 10
private educational institutes will be aided to achieve ‘world class’ status.
Concerns regarding the quality of higher education have been raised
consistently in the last few years and symbolic announcements are unlikely to
change the scenario.
The escalating cost
of higher education has not been addressed. As a result, education in the
private sector will remain expensive. Without a significant increase in the
capacity of government institutes, access to higher education will remain
restricted. Cuts in student scholarships have caused significant unrest in
several university campuses—another unaddressed issue.
Teachers
The Union Budget has
also failed to tackle the shortfall in trained teachers highlighted by the
economic survey. However, the budget has made provision for hikes in the
salaries and allowances for government employees in the 7th Pay Commission.
This will increase the pay packages of teachers in the government sector and
attract talent. But lakhs of teachers in the private sector get meager salaries
and have poor service conditions. The government does fund higher education in
the private education sector but these grants do not always reach the teachers.
In the absence of corrective measures, the quality of teaching is likely to be
adversely affected.
Private colleges
throughout India receive government grants in the form of reimbursement of
tuition fees of SC/ST and OBC students. This year’s budget continues these
grants. Colleges are duty bound to pay salaries of teaching and non-teaching
staff from these grants. However, without proper legislative and administrative
framework this money is siphoned off. Steps need to be taken to ensure delivery
of grants to the target group.
Digital India
The Digital Literacy
Scheme, expected to cover 6 crore additional rural households, has the
potential to narrow the digital divide between urban and rural India, if
implemented effectively. The digital repository system for school leaving
certificates and diplomas will bring in transparency and efficiency; it could
also minimize malpractices in awarding certificates.
Skill Development
`1,700 crores has
been allotted to set up 1,500 multi-skill development centres with the
objective of skilling 1 crore youth in the next 3 years under the PM Kaushal
Vikas Yojna. This ambitious goal cannot be achieved without integrating skill
development into the existing education framework. The National Skill
Development Mission has so far imparted training to 76 lakh youths. However, a
quality audit is essential to gauge the impact of these skill development
programmes.
Entrepreneurship
Training
Our policy-makers
are taking steps to instill entrepreneurship skills in students, but this needs
investments in education infrastructure. The launch of massive online courses
to impart these skills, underlines the increasing importance of open
universities and distance education. The allotment of `500 crore to promote entrepreneurship
amongst SC/STs is another step in the right direction. But realising these
schemes requires creativity and granting adequate autonomy to educational
institutes.
Job Creation
The creation of 100
model career centres and the integration of state employment exchange data with
national data will help students secure proper placements. The finance minister
has declared that 8.7 per cent EPF contribution for fresh recruits will be done
by the government for the first three years of employment (for those earning up
to `15,000 per month). This might
encourage companies to offer jobs to freshers.
Discover in India
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ slogan may be a success. But the real challenge
before the government is to deliver on the promises. Without this, the dream of
India emerging as the manufacturing hub will never be realized. India needs to
invest heavily in upcoming areas such as Nanotechnology and
Biotechnology—advancements in economic development are achieved only with
breakthroughs in science and technology. It’s high time India moves towards the
‘Discover in India’ phase.
The present budget
is disappointing because nowhere does it present a vision of India investing in
its manpower. Our investment in education has remained 3 per cent of the GDP
for several years and the new budget has kept alive that tradition. Don’t be
surprised if India’s ranking in the Human Development Index is amongst the
nations at the bottom next year as well.
fal·la·cy
A mistaken belief, especially one based on unsound argument.
e·lic·it
Evoke or draw out (a response, answer, or fact) from someone in
reaction to one's own actions or questions.
mea·ger
(of something provided or available) lacking in quantity or
quality.
es·ca·late
Increase rapidly.
tack·le
The equipment required for a task or sport
siphoned off.
to dishonestly take money from an organization or other supply, and use it for
a purpose for which it was not intended:
He lost his job when it was discovered that he had
been siphoningoff money from the company for his own
use.
re·pos·i·to·ry
A place, building, or receptacle where things are or may be stored.
gauge
An instrument or device for measuring the magnitude, amount, or
contents of something, typically with a visual display of such information.
in·still
Gradually but firmly establish (an idea or attitude, especially a
desirable one) in a person's mind.
break·through
A sudden, dramatic, and important discovery or development.
THE NEWYORK TIMES : India's
Water Wars
NEW DELHI — Army trucks rumbled along dusty village roads, soldiers
opened fire, crowds panicked and eventually the Indian Army took control of
Munak canal, the conduit that supplies three-fifths of New Delhi’s fresh water.
This happened late last month in Haryana, the state that borders
New Delhi on three sides. Demonstrators from the Jat caste blocked roads and
railway lines, torched buses, shops and homes, and switched off the water
supply to the capital’s 18 million residents. They were demanding inclusion
in India’s caste-based affirmative action program, seeking access to
government jobs.
A local newspaper quoted one Jat protester as saying, “If we remain
hungry, you, too, will die of thirst.” The authorities responded by sending
thousands of troops into the state. At least 18 people were killed, and 200
people were injured.
The Jats occupy an ambiguous position in India’s social hierarchy.
Some consider them low caste, but they dominate political life in Haryana. For
decades, they acquired significant wealth by tilling, and more recently by
selling, farmland adjoining Delhi. But as farms have fragmented with every
passing generation, profits from agriculture have shrunk and the local property
market has tanked.
The problem of Haryana, like that of the rest of the country, is
that corporate India has enriched itself without creating meaningful, well-paid
employment for the 10 million young Indians who come of working age each year.
And since Indian politicians are beholden to their corporate donors, arguments
about economic inequality, redistribution of wealth and unemployment are best
couched in other terms, namely the language of social injustice.
The Jats know from long historical experience that the best way to
garner attention in order to make such a point is to paralyze the daily
workings of the state, but stopping just short of outright revolt. In cutting
off Delhi’s water supply, the Jat community has deployed a form of protest
refined over centuries of negotiation between the countryside and the imperial
city of Delhi.
Arid Delhi has been obsessed with access to water since its
inception. In the 13th and 14th centuries, a complex arrangement of reservoirs
and channels kept the city supplied: A well-run hydraulic system was the sign
of a well-run empire. When local order crumbled, the supply of water failed and
urban settlements came under threat, the historian M. Athar Ali notes in a
compendium of essays on Mughal India.
In the 1260s, Mr. Ali writes, the city’s beloved reservoir dried up
“because the channels feeding it were damned up by ‘dishonest men.”’ Could
these “dishonest men” of courtly record be the forebears of the Jats, who would
soon come to occupy the farmlands through which these canals were laid? Mr. Ali
doesn’t say, but at the close of the 16th century the Jats had settled all
around the capital. And by the 18th century, with the Mughal Empire in decline,
Jat bandits routinely blocked the arterial roads leading into Delhi, leaving
hundreds of travelers stranded and at their mercy.
In the colonial period, the Jats initially suffered under the
rapacious rent regime of the British, but they bounced back after the mutiny of
1857. By the end of the 19th century, they had consolidated their land
holdings, often by buying up and settling entire villages. A government report
from the time, quoted by Kai Friese in “Peasant Communities and Agrarian
Capitalism,” describes a transaction in Meerut, about 40 miles from Delhi: “The
purchase was effected not only through clear proposals but also by force, arson
and even murder.”
Today, Jats remain active in the land and water market surrounding
Delhi. The metropolitan city area sucks up 900 million gallons of fresh water
each day from across northern India, 60 percent of which must first flow
through the Jat lands of Haryana. One quarter of Delhi’s households live
without a water connection, according to 2013 government figures, the most
recent and most reliable data available. Many people are forced to turn to
private, and predominantly Jat, water-tanker suppliers, who are demonized in
the press as a local “water mafia.” And when the state angers the Jats — as it
did in 2014 when it asked the Jat leader Ajit Singh to vacate his official
residence long after he had ceased to be a minister — they march off to the
nearest canal.
The roots of the current violence date back to the 1990s, when the
Jats were excluded from a significant expansion of India’s affirmative action
program, which set aside a percentage of government jobs and university seats
for less privileged groups. Both the Congress Party and the Bharatiya Janata
Party, which came to power in 2014, have at different times moved to include
Jats in the quota system. But the Supreme Court has refused, claiming the group
isn’t “backward” enough.
The recent protest erupted when a seemingly peaceful march of Jat
demonstrators suddenly turned violent and quickly spread across Haryana. The
violence has since subsided, after the army was deployed and the government
offered to establish a high-level committee to look into Jat demands.
Newspaper editorials have condemned the destruction of property,
and describing the unrest as “quota blackmail” have warned the government
against setting a bad precedent for other politically dominant communities who
are demanding reservations, like Patidars, also known as Patels, in Gujarat.
Granting job reservations to powerful castes takes away opportunities from
genuinely oppressed groups like dalits, who are routinely discriminated against
by most caste groups, including Jats.
These are good arguments, but they miss a core point, which is that
the Jats’ move to articulate their economic grievances in terms of caste is
strategic.
India’s poor wind up paying more than the middle class for water
and electricity because they are often forced to give bribes for essential
services, and they are disproportionately affected by direct taxes on
consumption. While India’s state-owned banks have written off millions of
dollars worth of unpaid corporate loans, indebted farmers are driven to
suicide.
Electoral politics, rather than fundamentally transforming this
system, simply puts a democratic gloss on routinized appropriation. Workers who
organize to demand better pay are called Maoists, villagers who oppose land
acquisition are accused of working at the behest of foreign-funded NGOs,
students who criticize the government’s social and economic policies are
labeled seditionists
But if you organize yourself and agitate as a caste of dominant
landowners, like the Jats, no one will question your patriotism.
Haryana is one of India’s wealthier states. It is close to Delhi,
land prices are relatively high, and after several hundred years of investment
in irrigation it has a network of canals that allows farmers to grow
remunerative crops like rice and wheat. The state also boasts of a robust
manufacturing base, particularly for automobiles.
If despite all this, young Haryanvi are willing to face the might
of the Indian Army for a better chance at a government job, something must be
rotten at the heart of India’s economy. By cutting off Delhi’s water and
invoking social equality, what the Jats are really saying is this: There are no
jobs, and we, in the countryside, are seething.
rum·ble
Make a continuous deep, resonant sound.
pan·ic
Feel or cause to feel panic.
torch
Set fire to.
till
Prepare and cultivate (land) for crops.
en·rich
Improve or enhance the quality or value of.
couch
Express (something) in language of a specified styl
im·pe·ri·al
Of or relating to an empire.
crum·ble
Break or fall apart into small fragments, especially over a period
of time as part of a process of deterioration.
com·pen·di·um
A collection of concise but detailed information about a particular
subject, especially in a book or other publication.
fore·bear
An ancestor.
strand·ed
(of a boat, sailor, or sea creature) left aground on a shore.
ra·pa·cious
Aggressively greedy or grasping.
con·demn
Express complete disapproval of, typically in public; censure.
be·hest
A person's orders or command.
Seething
to feel very angry but to be unable or unwilling to express it clearly
The rest of the class positively seethed with indignation when Julia won the award.
The Guardian view on surveillance: keep a vigilant
eye on the snoopers
sprawling surveillance system – with unprecedented reach into
private lives, even private thoughts – is being summoned up from computers and
smartphones. It is almost three years since Edward Snowden gave the world the
facts. As the tale has turned and twisted since, the pry-masters have insisted
that the innocent have nothing to fear, and that everything is done with
rigorous checks. But if one moral has run right through the story, it is that
soothing whispers of sweet reason should be received with deep scepticism.
The investigatory powers bill, published
on Tuesday, illustrates why. It is, in its way, a triumph for Snowden: it
involves the British security state coming clean about the extraordinary
existing facility to snoop that he exposed, spelling the powers out in statute
for the first time. Ahead of its publication the reassuring talk was of the
exceptional parliamentary scrutiny that it had gone through, and the 122 tweaks
and safeguards that three separate committees had put forward, all carefully
considered as the draft law was refined. Yes, there were concessions, such as
bowing the knee to reality on what it is feasible
to ask of tech companiesin relation to encryption. But at the same time, and
without any advertisement, some tentacles of surveillance are being licensed to
creep further than before.
Communication providers, who were already set to be tasked with keeping exhaustive data on
phone calls, social messages and unlawful sites, will now be expected to keep
automatically a year of internet connection records – which could include a
deeply private browse of, say, the Marie Stopes or Gamblers Anonymous site.
Alert citizens may have grown uneasily used to the idea that GCHQ can get its
hands on such information, and the police will have the facility too. Knowledge
is power, and the number of fallible human beings who possess it – and perhaps
misuse or mislay it – could soar. Measures initially advanced to deal with
serious criminals will be turned on migrants, with new powers for officials
pursuing immigration and nationality offences, and immigrant detention
facilities subject to domestic interception.
The stampede to the
statute book is claimed necessary because the emergency legislation that
licenses much data collection is due to lapse next year. The government
dismisses the obvious logical possibility of legislating for a narrow and
improved replacement for the Data
Retention and Investigatory Powers Actwhile taking longer to consult and
reflect on everything else. An opposition worthy of its name, which Labour
sometimes struggles to be, would move beyond the indulgence Andy Burnham showed the
home secretary in the autumn, and push hard on this particular point. As it
was, he was still insisting on Tuesday that he would not rush to judgment.
For as cars, watches
and even white goods acquire connectivity, it will become possible to build up
exhaustive logbooks on the lives of others. Bluntly described powers to
switch on cameras and microphones on people’s own phones starkly reveal
how the tide of technology is washing away all need for the old art of
installing bugs, as well as the old practical and procedural limits on their
use. In purely technical terms, the depth of the monitoring that the smartphone
can enable goes way beyond anything afforded by the electronic tag.
This context – in
which one year’s surveillance fiction can become next year’s surveillance fact
– is what makes eternal vigilance necessary. The current standoff in the US
between Apple and the FBI is increasingly underlining the point. The FBI’s
original case was that it was targeting only one terrorist’s phone, but in the
days since it has itself revealed far more ambition. Right around the
world, technology is steepening the slide from the rare and particular to the
routine. Seemingly pinpointed actions can prefigure a smothering blanket.
vig·i·lant
Keeping careful watch for possible danger or difficulties.
snoopers
(snooper) snoop: a spy who makes uninvited inquiries into the
private affairs of others
sprawl
Sit, lie, or fall with one's arms and legs spread out in an
ungainly or awkward way.
un·prec·e·dent·ed
Never done or known before.
skep·ti·cism
A skeptical attitude; doubt as to the truth of something.
scru·ti·ny
Critical observation or examination.
tentacles
one of the long, thin parts like arms of some sea animals, used for feeling and holding things, catching food, or moving
to creep
to move slowly, quietly, and carefully, usually in order to avoid being noticed:
She turned off the light and crept through the door.
fal·li·ble
Capable of making mistakes or being erroneous.
stam·pede
A sudden panicked rush of a number of horses, cattle, or other
animals.
stand·off
A stalemate or deadlock between two equally matched opponents in a
dispute or conflict.
steep·en
Become or cause to become steeper.
smoth·er
Kill (someone) by covering their nose and mouth so that they
suffocate.
THE Dawn: THE fight against
extremism needs to be stepped up — not soon, but now.
In an acknowledgement of that urgency, the
interior ministry has announced a host of measures to be taken against
extremists, many of the steps being designed to prevent terror suspects from
organising, communicating, travelling and funding potential terror acts.
While the specific steps mooted may have an impact on the margins
and may prevent some individuals from drifting back into the embrace of
extremism, the new measures have left some fundamental questions unanswered.
Why, for example, is the state, and the interior ministry in
particular, always so eager to boast about any step it dreams up in the fight
against militancy, but is always reluctant to identify the specific individuals
against whom the measures have been or will be applied?
Often times, the difference between mere public relations and
actual, valuable counter-terrorism and counter-extremism measures taken up by
the state is difficult to establish.
Both before NAP was mooted and since, the state does not appear
interested in genuine transparency. Numbers are frequently offered up, but most
are scarcely credible.
The unprecedented crackdown that the state claims it has conducted
on extremists countrywide is allegedly reflected in the tens of thousands of
individuals who have been detained by the state.
Yet, those mass detentions do not appear to have spurred mass
action in the courts by relatives of the alleged extremists.
Are they ghost numbers that the government frequently reports? Or
if the individuals are real, do they belong to extremist networks where it is a
settled part of the cat-and-mouse game with the state that occasional arrests
and short-term detentions are the price for long-term freedom?
It is perhaps the greatest present-day mystery: an alleged massive,
unprecedented crackdown on extremists of every hue nationally has resulted in
scarcely a peep from the extremists and their backers.
What is always missing is a basic map of extremism in the country.
Which are the groups involved? How are they organised? How are they funded? Who
are the leaders? How do the organisational structures cut across provinces and
perhaps even the borders of the country?
Nothing has been established publicly, not even a simple,
up-to-date list of proscribed groups and the individuals who comprise it. Even
where specific measures are announced — such as those by Nisar Ali Khan on
Monday — there are questions.
Barring individuals affiliated with proscribed groups from having a
driving licence or acquiring a SIM is unlikely to prevent those individuals
from driving or using mobile phones.
Perhaps the sum of the measures announced previously and on Monday
may have some impact on the margins, but extremism is a problem that is beyond
the capability of a single ministry — or even a single government, at the
centre or in the provinces — to address.
The country may have NAP, but it still lacks national action in a
meaningful sense
Crackdown
a situation in which someone starts to deal with bad or illegalbehaviour in a more severe way
ex·trem·ism
The holding of extreme political or religious views; fanaticism.
stepped up
to take action when there is a need or
opportunity for it:
Investors have
to step up and assume more responsibility for theirassets.
moot
Raise (a question or topic) for discussion; suggest (an idea or
possibility).
drift
Be carried slowly by a current of air or water.
em·brace
Hold (someone) closely in one's arms, especially as a sign of
affection
boast
Talk with excessive pride and self-satisfaction about one's
achievements, possessions, or abilities.
scarce·ly
Only just; almost not.
spur
Urge (a horse) forward by digging one's spurs into its sides.
bar
Fasten (something, especially a door or window) with a bar or bars.
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