Newspaper Editorials With English Vocab 3/3/2016

#EVERYDAYQUIZ #THE HINDU #THE BUSINESS STANDARD #THE INDIAN EXPRESS #THE DAWN #THE GUARDIAN  #rEAD DAILY 

THE HINDU: Blow for reformists in Iran

Final results from Iran’s February 26 elections to Parliament and the clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, show that the moderates have clinched a resounding political victory. In the 290-seat Parliament, the reformist allies of President Hassan Rouhani won at least 85 seats, while the moderate conservatives secured 73 seats.

Together they will control the House. The hardliners, who were steadfastly opposed to Mr. Rouhani’s reform agenda, won only 68 seats. In the 88-member Assembly of Experts, the clerics backed by reformists and centrists claimed 52 seats. This is not the first time Iranian voters have spoken their mind against the hardliners. For the last many years they have consistently pushed reformist or less conservative candidates through Iran’s rigid electoral process. Still, last week’s twin elections were highly significant for Iran’s polity in general and Mr. Rouhani in particular for a number of reasons. This was the first election after Mr. Rouhani secured the historic nuclear deal with world powers last year, ending the country’s isolation in return for giving up its nuclear programme. The hardliners were opposed to the nuclear deal. Even the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had warned the political leadership several times against any rapprochement with the West. The hardliners had also opposed Mr. Rouhani’s plans to open up the country’s economy and reach business deals with overseas companies, including those from the West.

Had the moderates suffered an electoral setback, it would have been a major blow to Mr. Rouhani’s reform agenda. It would also have cast a shadow on his re-election prospects next year. Now it is evident where the popular support lies. And with his allies controlling Parliament, the President could push his legislative and economic agenda at ease. Second, the election of more moderate candidates into the Assembly of Experts than hardliners is a significant achievement for the reformist movement. The Assembly is an important clerical body in Iran’s Islamist establishment which can, technically, choose the next Supreme Leader. If the clerics elected to the body work in coordination with the moderate politicians, that could change the balance of power in Iran’s complex polity. However, to anticipate any dramatic change in the system would be overriding the mandate. Those who call for rapid improvement in the human rights situation in Iran and for the weakening of the role of the clergy in politics will continue to be disappointed. The system is too complicated, with direct checks on the powers of everyone but the Supreme Leader. As long as the Supreme Leader backs the hardliners, Mr. Rouhani is unlikely to take any radical initiatives. Nevertheless, the election results represent a clear step forward in Iran’s gradualist transformation from a rigid Islamist theocracy into a broader religious democracy. Mr. Rouhani’s challenge is to build on the electoral momentum and strengthen the moderate currents in Iran’s politics and society, and thereby expedite the pace of transformation.

re·form·ist

A person who advocates gradual reform rather than abolition or revolution.

clinch

Confirm or settle (a contract or bargain).

steadfastly

Firm: with resolute determination; "we firmly believed it"; "you must stand firm"

hard-lin·er

A member of a group, typically a political group, who adheres uncompromisingly to a set of ideas or policies.

twin

One of two children or animals born at the same birth.

o·ver·ride

Use one's authority to reject or cancel (a decision, view, etc.).

man·date

An official order or commission to do something.

the·oc·ra·cy

A system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god.

ex·pe·dite

Make (an action or process) happe

THE HINDU: Provident fund reform needs more clarity

The Central government finds itself in the thick of a controversy over the Budget proposal to tax a part of the accumulated corpus in the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) upon withdrawal. Gauging the popular mood, the Opposition is seeking to corner the government on this issue. The proposal is seen to hurt particularly the salaried middle class, considered a core constituency of the BJP. “Pension schemes offer financial protection to senior citizens,” Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said in the Budget speech. “I believe that the tax treatment should be uniform for defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans.’’ He proposed tax exemption for withdrawal of up to 40 per cent of the corpus at the time of retirement in the case of the National Pension Scheme (NPS). In the case of superannuation funds and recognised provident funds, including the EPF, the same norm of 40 per cent of the corpus being tax-free would apply to contributions made after April 1, 2016. From a larger social security perspective, Mr. Jaitley’s intention to lay the groundwork for a “pensionised society” is laudable. In an ideal environment, there is a justifiable case for prescribing a level-tax treatment for similarly positioned pension plans. However, in the pursuit of a principled taxation policy, the government should have imposed a similar provision for its own employees’ retirement savings in the General Provident Fund. But as things stand, they will continue to get a tax-free lump sum for their sunset years from the GPF apart from a pension, albeit on a defined contribution basis through the NPS for those who joined service after 2004.

The government should have also tried to distinguish between a regular pension scheme and a provident fund (that also provides a pension). Why should it force EPF subscribers to get two pension cheques, which once credited to their account would form part of their taxable income? The point is, the reform needs to be carefully calibrated. Besides the tax benefits it fetches, EPF is often seen as a reliable tool to force-save for the future. It has been, in a way, playing a critical role in inculcating the habit of saving in a country with a very limited social security net. In a sense, individual contributions to EPF could also be construed as a way of enabling a corpus to meet critical lifetime event expenditures. In any case, the contribution of employees to the provident fund is not tax exempt beyond the annual ceiling of Rs.1.5 lakh. Therefore, the tax on withdrawal will be tantamount to double taxation. For, one would have paid tax at the time of contribution as well. If the intention is to prod people to plan for pension, the government would do well to invigorate the Employee Pension Scheme, which exists today as a component of the EPF. The limited annuity product option also does not help the cause of force-driving people into a pension system. The government appears to have put the cart before the horse in this instance.

ac·cu·mu·late

Gather together or acquire an increasing number or quantity of.

cor·pus

A collection of written texts, especially the entire works of a particular author or a body of writing on a particular subject.

su·per·an·nu·a·tion

Regular payment made into a fund by an employee toward a future pension.

laud·a·ble

(of an action, idea, or goal) deserving praise and commendation.

 lump sum

        an ​amount of ​money that is ​paid in one ​large ​amount on one ​occasion

sunset 

 to ​begin a new, ​happy ​life at the end of a ​story

in·cul·cate

Instill (an attitude, idea, or habit) by persistent instruction.

con·strue

Interpret (a word or action) in a particular way.

in·vig·or·ate

Give strength or energy to

put the cart before the horse

to do things in the ​wrong ​order

BUSINESS STANDARD: Milking spectrum

The government has budgeted Rs 98,995 crore from "communication services" in the 2016-17 Budget. The entire amount will not come from the auction of spectrum. About Rs 22,000 crore is licence and spectrum fees levied by the Department of Telecommunications, or DoT, and Rs 21,000 crore would be arrears and deferred payments. So, the government has budgeted for around Rs 56,000 crore from spectrum auction. As companies are required to pay only 30 per cent of the money upfront, this would require the DoT to sell spectrum worth about Rs 1.90 lakh crore during the next round of auctions which it plans to hold in June or July. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, or Trai, has suggested a base price for spectrum in the 700 MHz band which can fetch the government up to Rs 5.36 lakh crore. What the government needs to sell in order to meet its revenue target is less than 40 per cent of this. In that sense, the government has been conservative in its budgeting.

However, telecom companies have been quick to react that in fact this is way beyond what they are capable of paying. They have argued that the combined debt of the industry is already Rs 3.50 lakh crore, and this will lead to more stress on their balance sheets. Their main ire seems to be over the base price of the 700 MHz band, which is being auctioned for the first time and is much sought after for data-heavy 4G-LTE services. The base price fixed by the Trai is Rs 11,485 crore per MHz. The industry feels the propagation qualities of this band are similar to those of 800 MHz band, and therefore the two should be priced similarly; in Trai's recommendations, 700 MHz is almost twice as expensive as 800 MHz. What has compounded the problem is that there is hardly any 800 MHz and 900 MHz spectrum available in the upcoming auction, so those who lose out on 700 MHz cannot buy adequate spectrum in these bands. There is spectrum available in 1800 MHz, but it is fragmented and needs to be harmonised before the auction. There is however abundant spectrum available in 2100 MHz. Successful auction of 700 MHz spectrum, therefore, is critical if the government wants to meet its revenue target. Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom operator, has already said that it will not bid for these airwaves because they are too expensive. Others too have spoken out against the price, though none has categorically stated that it will not participate in the auction.

The other issue that may have cast a doubt over the attainability of the telecom revenue numbers is the assumption that the government would collect arrears and deferred payments of Rs 21,000 crore next year. This includes the disputed one-time spectrum charge the DoT had claimed from operators in 2013 for using spectrum over 4.4 MHz. The one-time charge was approved by the Union Cabinet of the previous government to level the playing field between incumbents who had been allotted spectrum at low rates and newcomers who were required to buy spectrum through the auction. However, this was challenged by the incumbents in the courts where the matter is still pending. Relying on revenues from arrears that are stuck in court cases could prove risky for the government's telecom revenue plans.

milking

Draw milk from (a cow or other animal), either by hand or mechanically.

up·front

At the front; in front.

con·serv·a·tive

Holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.

ire

Anger.

har·mo·nize

Add notes to (a melody) to produce harmony.

attainability

Achievability: the state of being achievable

ar·rears

Money that is owed and should have been paid earlier.

de·fer

Put off (an action or event) to a later time; postpone.

get stuck in

to ​start doing something ​enthusiastically

INDIAN EXPRESS: Trump Hrrumph

The dust has settled after Super Tuesday, but the battle for nominations to the US presidential contest has just begun. Donald Trump has done well for himself, prompting a spike — reportedly of 1,150 per cent — in Google US searches on how to move to Canada. With seven states in the bag, Hillary Clinton is neck and neck with the real estate billionaire. But the spotlight is on the reality TV star who would bend reality itself to his will. The New York Times, which has built a sort of web computer with fiddly little sliders to figure out the contenders’ chances for nomination, predicts that Trump stands a very good chance if he continues to win, even if it is by unimpressive margins.

This factor would be decisive after March 15, when the rules of the game allow states to fix delegates on the principle of winner takes all. Some analysts have suggested that Trump could be nominated even with a third of the vote. However, the same logic would allow his Republican contenders to recoup their losses in the weeks ahead.

The likeliest outcome — Clinton versus Trump for the White House — is also the most wished for, if only because of its entertainment potential. How will the sophisticated and politically correct Clinton face off against her opposite number, a gold-plated bling-size redneck who would build great walls to keep out Muslims and immigrants, proposes to wrest back jobs from India and China, and does not deny the endorsement of the Ku Klux Klan? Opinion is divided on whether she will brush him off like a bloated bug, or just curl up in a foetal position. After witnessing Trump’s prowess in recent weeks, the two possibilities are equally real. While it is the perfect form of government, democracy is not without its terrors.

Hrrumph

to ​express ​anger and ​disapproval, often not by ​speaking but making a ​noise

prompt

(of an event or fact) cause or bring about (an action or feeling).

fid·dly

Complicated or detailed and awkward to do or use.

contenders

(contender) rival: the contestant you hope to defeat; "he had respect for his rivals"; "he wanted to know what the competition was doing"

re·coup

Regain (something lost or expended).

like·ly

Such as well might happen or be true; probable.

bling

Expensive, ostentatious clothing and jewelry, or the wearing of them.

wrest

Forcibly pull (something) from a person's grasp.

prow·ess

Skill or expertise in a particular activity or field.

 brush him off

to ​refuse to ​listen to what someone says, or to ​refuse to ​think about something ​seriously

 

THE DAWN: Indian allegations

IS Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar veering off script or reading from notes that his government has given him?

The question put to Mr Parrikar in parliament by a Shiv Sena member of the upper house, Sanjay Raut, was clearly meant to bait the government into giving a hard-hitting response.

A sensible response by Mr Parrikar would have been to state that investigations were ongoing. A more expansive response to Mr Raut’s question would have had the Indian defence minister acknowledging the role of non-state actors in the attack on the Pathankot air force base, but avoiding speculation about the link to the Pakistani state.

Instead, Mr Parrikar, who has earned a reputation for bellicose remarks off the cuff, went so far as to link all non-state actors, ie militants and terrorists, on Pakistani soil to the Pakistani state. “Any non-state actors there, they cannot function smoothly without full state support,” Mr Parrikar told the Rajya Sabha.

The Indian defence minister’s loose remarks underscore the challenges that bilateral dialogue has to contend with: when dialogue is stalled, hawkish elements in both countries can and do casually undermine the environment for talks and make it that much more difficult to resume them.

Pakistan clearly has a non-state actor problem — militants and terrorists still operate with impunity on Pakistani soil in unacceptably large numbers. The Pathankot attack may well have originated from Pakistani soil.

But from the very moment of the attack, the state here — both the political and military sides of it — has tried to respond to India’s concerns, vowed to investigate the attack, shared information with India and the public in both countries, and appears committed to bringing the architects of the Pathankot attack to justice.

Nothing the Pakistani state has done since Pathankot suggests the group to which the attackers apparently belonged has been allowed to operate smoothly. If anything, there has been an unprecedented crackdown on an anti-India group operating inside Pakistan.

Mr Parrikar and his fellow hawks in government must surely be aware of the steps Pakistan has taken, even if they remain suspicious of Pakistan.

Are the hawks then trying to convince their own government to reverse itself on its decision to resume dialogue with Pakistan? Or is Prime Minister Modi using his cabinet to put pressure on Pakistan without directly implicating himself?

The history of the Pakistan-India relationship is replete with examples of politicians on both sides saying one thing and meaning another.

Perhaps what is important for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government, and the military establishment in Pakistan is to recognise that a drawn-out investigation into Pathankot is not in the interests of bilateral dialogue.

Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz has yet again suggested that a Pakistani investigation team is set to visit India soon. Perhaps the two governments are close to setting a date for the foreign secretaries to meet too.

 veering off

to ​change ​direction

bait

Food used to entice fish or other animals as prey.

bel·li·cose

Demonstrating aggression and willingness to fight.

off the cuff

If you ​speak off the cuff, you say something without having ​prepared or ​thought about ​your words first

con·tend

Struggle to surmount (a difficulty or danger

stall

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

hawkish

Militant: disposed to warfare or hard-line policies; "militant nations"; "hawkish congressman"; "warlike policies"

im·pu·ni·ty

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

The Guardian view on the refugee crisis: little time left to find a solution

urope is approaching the point where the only way to control desperate migrants could soon be the regular use of physical force. Scenes of violence this week on the Greek-Macedonian border, where refugeesbreached a border fence with a homemade battering ram, and in Calais, where police fired teargas at people protesting against the demolition of their shelters, suggest we are close to a line that we absolutely must not cross.

Europe is already guilty of causing the deaths of many migrants by giving them, in effect, no alternative except to risk their lives at sea or on the tracks leading into the Channel tunnel. That is bad enough, and a stain on the record, but to actually battle with migrants in this way is worse. Who can doubt that, if it continues, there will be deaths and injuries? Another kind of violence, in the shape of attacks on those who have reached a supposedly safe haven and are inhostels and centres in Germany and elsewhere, compounds the offence.

Nothing has changed about Europe’s migration crisis, including the continued failure to find an answer to it, except that it is getting worse. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees reported on Tuesday that about 130,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean in the first two months of this year, more than the total in the first half of 2015. Winter and high seas have not stopped them, and when the weather gets better there are almost certainly going to be even more on the move.

The numbers involved are huge and the resistance in Europe to taking so many is serious and becoming more entrenched. The answer, on paper, is to share the burden fairly between European countries, on the one hand, and between Europeand the region from which most refugees come, on the other. The first difficulty is that the more generous countries, which also happen to be those that are the preferred migrant destinations, soon felt overwhelmed. They began to impose some controls.

Other countries had been ready to manage migrants when they were merely passing through, but, as soon as they grasped that the flow might stop, leaving them with large numbers to care for, collective panic set in. The increasingly large proportion of migrants who were not Syrians, but from Afghanistan, Iran and African countries, complicated the problem. Border closures followed, and now Europe is backed up like a railway after a bridge has gone down.

The second difficulty is that European countries, and other wealthy states, have been almost criminally lackadaisical in providing the help and money they solemnly promised to countries neighbouring Syria – countries that have taken far more refugees than Europe. They are trying to make up for that now, but it is very late in the day.

The next few weeks are crucial. Before a migration summit on 18 March, national leaders and EU officials face a major challenge. At an earlier summit with Turkey this coming Monday, they will continue to press Ankara to restrain the flow at its end, but it would be foolish to depend too much on that prospect. Yet they have to ease the migration bottlenecks fast. As Chancellor Angela Merkel has said, Greece must not be left alone to struggle with larger and larger numbers because states further north are shutting their doors.

Third, the EU has to at least begin to agree on some form of burden sharing. There are some ideas, like tradeable migrant quotas, that, although distasteful, are worth exploring.

Fourth, Chancellor Merkel has to survive the serious political test represented bycoming state elections. The chancellor did not create the refugee crisis, although some think she exacerbated it, but she does now own it. It is hard enough to see how Europe will cope with her still in command; harder still if she were further weakened. It is difficult to be optimistic, but perhaps there is some hope in the thought that sometimes the very gravity of a crisis compels its solution.

des·per·ate

Feeling, showing, or involving a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with.

guilt·y

Culpable of or responsible for a specified wrongdoing.

en·trench

Establish (an attitude, habit, or belief) so firmly that change is very difficult or unlikely.

re·strain

Prevent (someone or something) from doing something; keep under control or within limits.

ex·ac·er·bate

Make (a problem, bad situation, or negative feeling) worse.

com·pel

Force or oblige (someone) to do something