life in general & financial markets: (part 3) india's obsession with diesel cars

(part 1 dated 28 july 2010 of this series is here and part 2 dated 14 november 2010 is here)

I share below a latest statement from the Centre for Science and Environment on India's pathetic obsession with diesel cars.

Press Release

Finance Minister, it is time to take a decision to stop misuse of diesel subsidy by the rich diesel car owners. Any further delay will cost hugely to the nation and our health

New Delhi, February 18, 2011: India cannot afford to delay the decision to take away the current incentive for diesel cars given the public health and energy security implications -- the message that Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has for Pranab Mukherjee, as he gets set to present this year’s Budget.

CSE has drawn the attention of the Finance Minister to the recent trends that show that the car industry is on an overdrive to introduce more new diesel car models even in the small car segments that had not seen much diesel penetration earlier. The combination of cheap diesel and lure of lesser taxes on small cars will make the diesel car numbers explode now. Already, diesel cars constitute 36 per cent of new car sales – this is expected to be half soon. Since 2008, the price gap has increased from 28 per cent to 35 per cent in Delhi. It is deplorable that cars are not being made to pay the full costs when the oil companies are losing Rs 7-9 per litre of diesel.

Says Anumita Roychoudhury, head of CSE’s air pollution team: “CSE condemns this perverse subsidy. If the use of subsidised diesel continues to increase, the government will continue to incur a huge revenue loss as it earns much less from excise on a litre of diesel used by cars, as opposed to petrol.” The Union government earns more than three times higher excise revenue from every litre of petrol used by a petrol car compared to a litre of diesel used by a diesel car. Revenue losses will compound with increased share of diesel cars and SUVs. Only in Delhi, this revenue loss amounts to close to Rs 300 crore. This can be mammoth on a nation-wide basis. “The government cannot justify this,” adds Roychoudhury.

The car industry is spawning the myth that fuel-efficient diesel cars will help save fuels and lower climate impacts. On the contrary, the market trend clearly shows that diesel is aiding a steady shift towards bigger cars that guzzle more fuel. While 85 per cent of the petrol cars sold in India have less than 1,200 cc engines, 64 per cent of diesel cars are just under 1,500 cc; the rest are all above. Despite fuel efficiency, bigger engines will always use more fuel and cheaper diesel fuel will encourage customers to opt for bigger and more powerful cars and thus undermine energy security. Higher petrol prices have effectively kept its market predominantly in small car segment.

CSE cautioned that cheaper diesel fuel will always encourage bigger cars, more driving and more fuel guzzling in the rebound. The ongoing India assessment of the International Council on Clean Transportation shows that these trends can lead to a cumulative loss of 6.5 mtoe (million tonne of oil equivalent) of energy between 2010 and 2020. This equals the fuel use of all four-wheeled passenger vehicles in 2006 -- around 6.6 mtoe. This defeats the objective of improving India’s energy security.

Auto industry’s claim of greater fuel efficiency and lesser carbon emissions from diesel cars is unacceptable as diesel fuel has higher carbon content than petrol. If more diesel is burnt encouraged by its cheaper prices, more heat-trapping CO2 will escape. Also, black carbon emissions from diesel vehicles are several times more heat-trapping than CO2 and this nullifies fuel efficiency gains.

The car industry is pitching for tax concession for bigger cars and to stop increase in taxes on diesel cars in this budget when ‘clean’ diesel (diesel with less than 15 ppm of sulphur) is not available in the country.

CSE researchers demand that “the excise on big cars and SUVs must remain at 24 per cent and the special excise duty on bigger cars, MUVs and SUVs must be fully restored and increased in the forthcoming budget. This is a critical energy security measure.”

It is ironic that tax differential is being officially justified in the name of agriculture and freight, but rich car owners benefit more. Cars have already become the second biggest user of diesel and beneficiaries of the official tax policy. Cars use up 15 per cent of the total diesel in the country – compared to 12 per cent by buses and agriculture, 10 per cent by industry, and 6 per cent by the railways.

CSE has drawn attention of the Finance Minister to the global practices in which other governments have taken fiscal measures to discourage diesel in cars. In Brazil, diesel cars are actively discouraged because of the policy to keep taxes lower on diesel. In Denmark, diesel cars are taxed higher to offset the lower prices of diesel fuel. In China, taxes do not differentiate between petrol and diesel. The European Commission has calculated the difference in lifetime pollution costs of Euro IV compliant diesel car and petrol car. The total pollution cost of a Euro IV diesel car is 1,195 Euros vis-a-vis 846 Euros for a petrol car. This nullifies the marginal greenhouse gas reduction benefit of diesel car and costs higher to the society.

The Finance Minister can not afford to ignore the economic and environmental consequences of diesel pricing. Several committees including Kirit Parikh Committee have already recommended additional excise duty to eliminate the incentives arising from the lower diesel taxes.

Tax measures are absolutely necessary to discourage diesel cars until the time India introduced clean diesel (diesel fuel with 10 ppm sulphur used along with advanced emissions control systems) nation-wide. Otherwise, health risk associated with conventional diesel emissions is very serious. Some of the deadliest air toxics, also carcinogens, are related to diesel emissions. These are even blamed for killing unborn foetuses. According to WHO and other international regulatory and scientific agencies diesel particulates are carcinogens.

What CSE demands

• Additional, substantial and effective excide duty on diesel cars to prevent dieselization of car segment.
• Align small diesel car definition with that of petrol. Currently small petrol car is legally defined as one with length not exceeding 4,000 mm and with an engine capacity not exceeding 1,200 cc. For diesel small car this has been relaxed to 1,500 cc for diesel cars. Make it same as small petrol car for the purpose of tax measures.
• Fully restore 24 per cent excise and increase further the special duty on all big cars.
• Taxes must also begin to reflect the actual fuel use in cars to prevent shift towards bigger cars that use more fuel and threaten energy security.

For more details, please contact Anumita Roychoudhury at anumita@cseindia.org. To set up interviews with CSE researchers and experts, write to Papia Samajdar at papia@cseindia.org, or speak to her at 99108 64339.

life in general & financial markets: smell the industrial pollution

I do not travel much. But whenever I have, and have done so by rail or road, and from one state to another, I have passed by certain areas where I have had the unpleasant experience of smelling nauseous gases emitting from industries. This is more acute when traveling past these areas in the night when there would be no vigilance by state authorities. In my limited travel experience I can point out two such notorious places -- Baroda in Gujarat and a place in Uttaranchal Pradesh that comes on the way from Delhi to Dehra Dun by train.

Industrial pollution is not quite felt by urban India as the factories that spew out deadly gases in the air or release toxic liquid and solid waste on the ground. But it is felt by the villagers and small-town folk who live in or around these remote areas. In these areas, industrial pollution is on a rampage in our country and I am sure in many other countries as well.

It is so because influential people such as politicians, bureaucrats, conscious and articulate elite, and media editors reside in urban areas and do not acutely experience the consequences. Each state in our country has a pollution control board and a vast majority of them have a miserable track record of bringing accountability to the polluters, large or small. We do have strong environment laws passed by the central government and various state governments but they are largely on paper.

Among the heavy industrial pollutants that cause the most damage, when allowed to emit without control, are ones spewed out by sponge iron industry (used to make steel), petrochemicals industry, pesticide-manufacturing companies, coal-based power plants, basic chemicals industry and oil refineries.

It is not that industries and companies, at least a few of them, are not using technology or processes to curtain the toxic emissions, but the rate of growth of production by industrial India is far more than the rate of use of pollution-control mechanisms.

Even though the environment regulators at the state and central level may be sleeping, I believe we, the urban people, can make a difference. All industrial production goes into making various products and articles that we, urbanites, consume. We can curtail such production by moderating our consumption. Every effort counts.

life in journalism: egyptian government's violence extends to local & foreign media

The ongoing attempt by the people of Egypt to free themselves from the nasty regime of Hosni Mubarak has involved many counter-attempts by the Egyptian government authorities to intimidate the people through violence and other means. 

Now, due to last week's  coverage of the massive people-led demonstrations, even journalists, local and foreign, are being physically attacked in Egypt.

Here is a newsreport that throws light on the happenings there:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/02/04/egypt.journalist.attacks/

Why are reporters being attacked?
By Ashley Fantz, CNN
February 4, 2011 -- Updated 0547 GMT (1347 HKT)

Attacks against journalists send a message.

"It clearly conveys that the government is not in favor of democratic reforms because journalists represent free speech, and free speech is crucial to democracy," said Kelly McBride, a media ethics teacher at the Poynter Institute, a U.S.-based professional journalism training center and think tank.

"The point of silencing a journalist is to pull the curtain over what's happening," she said. "The other reason is to create fear, to intimidate other reporters."

Journalists from Egypt, Great Britain, the United States, India, Australia, Greece and other countries have reported being jumped, beaten, detained and interrogated this week while reporting on the uprising against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

At least one Swedish journalist was reportedly stabbed. One was marched back to her hotel at gunpoint. Many said their cameras and other equipment were smashed. A few are reportedly unaccounted for. First-hand accounts of the crackdown are lighting up Twitter. One of two correspondents from Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper tweeted a chilling timeline leading up to their apparent detainment.

In a one-day span, attacks on reporters included 30 detentions, 26 assaults and eight instances of equipment seized, and plainclothes and uniformed agents reportedly entered at least two hotels where international journalists were staying to confiscate media equipment, said the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based organization, on Thursday.

"Mubarak forces have attacked the very breadth of global journalism: Their targets have included Egyptians and other Arab journalists, Russian and U.S. reporters, Europeans and South Americans," CPJ said in a news release.

The Egyptian government has publicly criticized the violence and denied involvement, but on Thursday, Vice President Omar Suleiman said international TV reporters are part of the problem.

"I actually blame certain friendly nations who have television channels, they're not friendly at all, who have intensified the youth against the nation and the state," Suleiman said in a TV address.

"They have filled in the minds of the youth with wrongdoings, with allegations and this is unacceptable. ... They should have never done that. They should have never sent this enemy spirit."

The attacks and harassment of journalists seem to be part of an organized effort, said State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley. In a tweet early Thursday, he said: "There is a concerted campaign to intimidate international journalists in Cairo and interfere with their reporting. We condemn such actions."

State Department officials told CNN they have information that Egypt's Interior Ministry was behind the journalist detentions, citing reports from the U.S. Embassy in Egypt.

But in an interview with CNN, Crowley stopped short of naming the people behind the violence and harassment. "I can't tell you who is directing it but with the increasing number of instances of people roughing up journalist(s), cars attacked, offices broken into, journalists detained, these do not seem to be random events," he said.

Crowley suggested the attackers' endgame is intimidation, to make reporters afraid to file stories about an anticipated increase in anti-Mubarak protesters likely to take to the streets this weekend.

The violence toward journalists in Egypt seems more brazen and systematic than in any recent conflict, said Mohamed Abdel Dayem of the CPJ. Since 1981, it has tracked attacks and deaths of reporters targeted for doing their jobs. The only conflict in recent times that compares to the current situation, Dayem said, is the Algerian civil war in the 1990s.

The high number of attacks in Egypt might be, in part, because there were already a large number of reporters working in Cairo bureaus before the protests against Mubarak began, McBride said. News organizations, at least until recently, considered Cairo a convenient and friendly base from which to travel to more hostile areas in Africa and the Middle East.

Of course, that doesn't lessen outrage right now about the way reporters are being treated. But will it matter a week from now, a month from now? Will it affect the outcome of the movement to democratize Egypt?

"It's such a fast-moving story, it's impossible to know the answer now," said Barbara Cochran, a journalism professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She was a vice president for news for National Public Radio and an executive producer of NBC's "Meet the Press."

She's covered several violent uprisings throughout her career, including China's Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

"This is not like any other face-off between a regime that refuses to leave power and a people refusing to back down," she said.

"How it's covered, whether journalists will feel secure enough to cover it, will matter."

Newer technology -- the Web, Twitter, Facebook, smaller and cheaper recording devices such as Flip Cams -- has liberated reporting in many ways, Cochran said. But it also made journalists easier targets.

"When I was working, you could get into a country, do the reporting and get out without anyone sending a tweet out about your presence," she said. "And there wasn't a huge rush to report immediately, as there is now with news agencies competing to be the first to report online what's happening."

The story in Egypt is also unique because the Egyptian government managed to shut off access to the internet, blocking information that bloggers might have provided.

Consider that without Twitter or other social media tools, 2009's popular protests against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over contested election results would have been largely underreported, McBride and Cochran said.

Foreign journalists were blocked from entering the country. Ultimately, Ahmadinejad remained in power.

"I thought Iran would (be the country) in my mind that hit rock bottom (in how it treated reporters), but what Mubarak is doing is unspeakable," said Dayem.

In denying that the Egyptian government is behind the violence, Mubarak told ABC News on Thursday that the Muslim Brotherhood is to blame.

But there are other regions where sustained violence toward journalists has been raging for years, and little change has come of it. In Mexico, for instance, cartel violence continues despite the disappearance or death of more than 30 reporters since 2006, CPJ reported.

Egypt, perhaps, seems different to Western audiences, said McBride.

"Cairo resonates with us. It's an ally, tourism is big there. Most people considered it safe. I think part of why this story has captivated an audience is because they are saying, 'This is not the Egypt I thought I knew.' "

life in general & financial markets: (part 2) the farce that is india's environment ministry

(click here for part 1 blogpost dated 31 Jan 2011)

There is an insightful story in the latest issue (dated 7 Feb '11) of weekly Outlook magazine on India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh's failure to deliver on the ground. I share it below.

Here goes (pics below are from Outlook's story itself):

Sandipan Chatterjee

It won’t rain forever Vedanta bauxite refinery plant in the Niyamgiri hills, Orissa

The Green Turns Grey

The environment minister promised much, but his flip-flops of late raise concern

Anuradha Raman

Mr Compromised

• Vedanta In ’09, Jairam said no to mining. Now says yes to refinery expansion though water is scarce.
• Polavaram dam Gives forest clearance, then seeks explanation
• Posco Under litigation as the ministry says yes to forest clearance for iron ore/steel plant
• Lavasa township Ministry report says ecologically sensitive Ghats will be affected. Later, Jairam lets off promoters with a fine.
• National Green Tribunal Set up after dismantling the National Environment Tribunal. It allows any party (including violators) to appeal against decisions.

Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh is fast discovering that striking a balance between the environment, wildlife, coastal zones, forests and corporate lobbies can be quite a minefield. On one side, whispers abound on how the minister missed out on being elevated to cabinet rank because of his green-is-my-favourite-colour theme song while, on the other, environmentalists express disappointment that he has not lived up to all the promises made. While no one disputes that the minister has raised awareness (or that he is a huge improvement on his predecessors), a perception is gaining ground that the minister has not quite delivered.

Indeed, the U-turns done by the ministry under his stewardship has baffled many. Vedanta, Polavaram, the Lavasa township and the coastal regulatory laws are some of the big issues on which Jairam not only appears to have backtracked but also compromised. And we are not even talking of the smaller projects that have not got much media attention. Somewhere down the line, the minister appears to have lost the goodwill of the very people whose causes he wants to champion. He says (see interview) he’s got his share of brickbats and bouquets. But such admissions alone will not help. Says Himanshu Thakkar of South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), “One expected transparent, participatory, environment-friendly policies and practices from someone who claims he believes in these values. When you do not see that, one is disappointed.”

Himanshu adds here that Jairam is more accessible and responsive than his predecessor, A. Raja, and initial action taken on projects like Posco, Vedanta, Adarsh apartments, the Navi Mumbai airport, the Lavasa project and  Maheshwar, among others, are welcome in parts. But there have also been many reversals, which some activists describe as the result of “a forked-tongue approach”. There are many who argue the minister should have initiated systemic actions. “Systems on compliance, transparency, better EIAS (environment impact assessments), greater participation by the affected people, nailing the fraudulent officers in charge of projects are some of the things he should have done. The minister hasn’t, raising doubts on whose side he is batting for.”

The environmentalists say inaction has led to a lot of confusion on the approval of big projects. For example, Jairam’s public utterings showing his willingness to allow the Vedanta refinery to expand after saying no to mining has muddied matters. “Where is the water for the refinery going to come from? Vedanta has already exhausted the streams nearby,” says Shankar Balakrishnan of Campaign for Survival and Dignity. Adds Himanshu, “While the minister earned praise for saying no to mining, he is sending confusing signals by agreeing to the expansion of the refinery.”

Similarly on Posco, Shankar argues that the ministry has not taken into account the views of the local people. “The Forest Rights Act needs to be complied with. But how come the environment ministry keeps giving approvals and then puts conditions? It’s confusing,” he says. Posco’s iron-ore mine, steel plant and private port (India’s largest foreign investment of Rs 52,000 crore) was granted forest clearance in 2009 and then a condition was added that it was subject to clearance of the Forest Rights Act (FRA)! Later, under pressure, a committee was appointed by the ministry to look at the FRA clearance under the stewardship of an official, in whose tenure an environment clearance was given to the project way back in ’05.
In Andhra Pradesh, there’s the controversial Polavaram dam which threatens to displace close to two lakh people, another example of how Jairam’s ministry approves and then disapproves. His ministry gave a forest clearance on July 28, 2010, without looking into the rights of the people. Prior to Jairam taking over, an environment clearance had already been sought for the project in ’05. While Jairam wrote in October 2010 to the Andhra CM enquiring whether the concerns of the local community had been factored in, little has come of it so far.

The Polavaram project threatens to displace mostly people from the marginalised adivasi communities. The project requires approximately 3,700 hectares of forest land as well as the sanction of the majority of these communities (who are entitled under the Forest Rights Act). The ministry granted the final forest clearance for the project in December ’09, stating that the approval is based on the assurance of the Andhra government that there are no rights to be settled under the Forest Rights Act in the project area. This, when the ministry’s own circular requires that the gram sabhas—not the state government—have to certify to the proper implementation of the law and have to grant their consent.

The ministry’s conditional clearance to the Lavasa township, said to have the backing of Congress ally, the NCP, is also intriguing. As per the environment ministry report, the Rs 3,000-crore hill town near Pune threatens to impact the Western Ghats. But now the builders have been let off with just a rap on the knuckles—in this case just a penalty.

Levelled off Aerial view of the Lavasa cityscape, in the core of the Western Ghats. (Photograph by Apoorva Salkade)

Adding to the list of damp squibs is Jairam’s inability to put transparent systems in place. Right from when he took over, environment groups had advised that conflict of interest rules be spelt out clearly, especially when it came to appointments on the Environment Assessment Committee on river valley and hydroelectric projects. The committee’s objective is to evaluate the environmental and social impacts of large dams and also look at no-dam options, and decide if the impact of the proposals are acceptable or not and if the project is viable.

The ministry has done little to appoint people with the right credentials. The current chairperson is a man who has served on the National Committee of the International Commission on Large Dams (INCOLD), a rabidly pro-large dam organisation which essentially works as a lobbying mechanism!

Meanwhile, what is really troubling environmentalists is the undue haste the ministry is showing in approving projects. Says Ritwick Datta, a lawyer who sought information under the RTI Act, “The minister’s own response was that as many as 535 projects of the total 769 projects have been approved and six were rejected! The period for which information was sought was from August 1, 2009, till July 31, 2010.”

On his part, Jairam says he is no enviro-caliph. But it’s time he becomes one, say environment experts.

life in general: 'live from the egyptian revolution'

(pic immediately below taken from http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/51049000/jpg/_51049700_tahrir2_384.jpg)

For too long, over 30 years, Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak has been a dictator ruler of the country. 
 
And he has been shamelessly supported by US and European countries.  

The uprising that is currently shaping up in Egypt is a very positive thing and an indication that governments that manipulate and terrorise its people, openly or cunningly, can not do it indefinitely.

Here is a passionate newsreport by an Egyptian:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/30

Published on Sunday, January 30, 2011 by Democracy Now!

Live From the Egyptian Revolution

by Sharif Abdel Kouddous

CAIRO, Egypt -- I grew up in Egypt. I spent half my life here. But Saturday, when my plane from JFK airport touched down in Cairo, I arrived in a different country than the one I had known all my life. This is not Hosni Mubarak's Egypt anymore and, regardless of what happens, it will never be again.

In Tahrir Square, thousands of Egyptians-men and women, young and old, rich and poor-gathered today to celebrate their victory over the regime's hated police and state security forces and to call on Mubarak to step down and leave once and for all. They talked about the massive protest on Friday, the culmination of three days of demonstrations that began on January 25th to mark National Police Day. It was an act of popular revolt the likes of which many Egyptians never thought they would see during Mubarak's reign. "The regime has been convincing us very well that we cannot do it, but Tunisians gave us an idea and it took us only three days and we did it," said Ahmad El Esseily, a 35 year-old author and TV/radio talk show host who took park in the demonstrations. "We are a lot of people and we are strong."

In Cairo, tens of thousands of people--from all walks of life--faced off against riot police armed with shields, batons, and seemingly endless supplies of tear gas. People talked about Friday's protest like a war; a war they'd won. "Despite the tear gas and the beatings, we just kept coming, wave after wave of us," one protester said. "When some of us would tire, others would head in. We gave each other courage." After several hours, the police were forced into a full retreat. Then, as the army was sent in, they disappeared.

The military was greeted warmly on the streets of Cairo. Crowds roared with approval as one soldier was carried through Tahrir square today holding a flower in his hand. Dozens of people clambered onto tanks as they rode around the square. Throughout the day people chanted: "The people, the army: one hand."

While the police and state security forces are notorious in Egypt for torture, corruption and brutality, the army has not interacted with the civilian population for more than 30 years and is only proudly remembered for having delivered a victory in the 1973 war with Israel. A 4pm curfew set for today was casually ignored with people convinced the army would not harm them. The police were a different story. Their brutality the past few days--decades in fact--has been well documented.

Saturday, some of the police forces were holed up inside their headquarters in the Interior Ministry building near the end of a street connected to Tahrir Square. When protesters neared the building, the police began firing live ammunition at the crowd, forcing them to flee back to the square. Three bloodied people were carried out. "The police are killing us," one man yelled desperately while on the phone with al Jazeera from outside the building. When the firing stopped, defiant protesters began approaching the building again. In the background, the smoking, blackened shell of Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party headquarters served as an ominous reminder of their intentions.

At this point it seems clear the people are not leaving the streets. They own them now and they are refusing to go until Mubarak does. They chanted, "Mubarak, the plane is waiting for you at the airport," and "Wake up Mubarak, today is your last day."

At one point, a rumor spread through Tahrir Square that Mubarak had fled the country. A massive cheer rippled through the crowd. People began jumping up and down in joy. One man wept uncontrollably. When it turned out not to be true, the cheers quickly ended but it provided a brief glimpse of the sheer raw desire for Mubarak's ouster. Reports now indicate that Mubarak's two sons and his wife, Suzanne, have fled Egypt, as have some of his closest business cronies. Many people believe that is a sign that Hosni will not be far behind.

There is a great sense of pride that this is a leaderless movement organized by the people. A genuine popular revolt. It was not organized by opposition movements, though they have now joined the protesters in Tahrir. The Muslim Brotherhood was out in full force today. At one point they began chanting "Allah Akbar" only to be drowned out by much louder chants of "Muslim, Christian, we are all Egyptian."

As the sun set over Cairo, silence fell upon Tahrir square as thousands stopped to pray in the street while others stood atop tanks. After the sunset prayer, they held a 'ganaza'-a prayer for those killed in the demonstrations. Darkness fell and the protesters, thousands of them, have vowed to stay in the square, sleeping out in the open, until Mubarak is ousted.

Meanwhile, across Cairo there is not a policeman in sight and there are reports of looting and violence. People worry that Mubarak is intentionally trying to create chaos to somehow convince people that he is needed. The strategy is failing. Residents have taken matters into their own hands, helping to direct traffic and forming armed neighborhood watches, complete with checkpoints and shift changes, in districts across the city.

This is the Egypt I arrived in today. Fearless and determined. It cannot go back to what it was. It will never be the same.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous is a senior producer for the radio/TV show Democracy Now.

Follow him on Twitter at @sharifkouddous.

life in general & financial markets: (part 1) the farce that is india's environment ministry

(click here for part 2 blogpost dated 2 Feb '11)

(pic shown below is courtesy http://article.wn.com/view/2010/07/16/Orissa_farmers_reject_new_Posco_package/#5)

The Congress Party-ruled government of India is notorious for cunning, but ugly and corrupt, use of the vast power it wields as the ruling government of the country.

In appointing a reasonably honest person, Jairam Ramesh, as the environment, the Congress government was being cunning as it tended to give an illusion of seriousness with regard to shoddy implementation of environment laws of India.

But even Jairam Ramesh has not been able to hold out against the extremely powerful, but dirty, forces within the Congress Party and its allies in the ruling government.  

Today, the environment ministry has given approval to a large steel project of Korean steel company, Posco, in the eastern Indian state of Orissa. The conditions that have been applied to the project would have anyway applied to any major project. But the violations that Posco committed have attracted no hard action by the government. The only thing that Jairam Ramesh could do was put on hold the project for a few weeks. That is all.

I am confident that the Congress Party-ruled government, or any other future government of India, will pay heavily for their horrendous track record with regard to environmental and people's basic rights including that of livelihood and property.

Here is what a press release, issued today, from a Orissa-based group, comprising of people affected by the Posco steel project had to say on the matter:

POSCO PRATIRODH SANGRAM SAMITI

Dhinkia, Nuagaon, Gadkujang; Jagatsinghpur District, Orissa

PRESS RELEASE: 31 January 2011

Scandalous Decision of Jairam Ramesh to OK POSCO project

Environment Minister disregards findings of his own Review and Statutory Clearances Committees

The decision of Indian Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh to give a comprehensive OK to the POSCO India Steel-Power Production-Captive Port project, based on some additional conditions, is nothing short of a total sell out to the politics of power and international capital. In a climate where each and every Minister of the Union Government is tumbling over with scandals, Ramesh had stood tall taking one brave legally and ethically correct decision after another. An acid test for him to continue this streak of decision making in the wider public interest, keeping in view intergenerational interests as well, was about the POSCO project. By his decision today to clear the project Ramesh has failed not only his own legacy, but has attacked the very rule of law based decision making that he has so often been harping on to be the basis of his functioning.

It is well known that the POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samithi, a peaceful movement of affected communities, has been systematically raising the deep, inter-generational and irreversible impacts of allowing this massive project to come up in the ecologically sensitive Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa. This struggle began with the inking of a most controversial MOU between Orissa State and Korea's Pohang Steel (POSCO) in 2005, proposing to establish the largest industrial project ever conceived in human history: a 12 MTPA steel plant backed by captive power plant; a captive port (described as “small” but designed to receive the largest commercial ships ever built - of CAPESIZE variety); a large township to accommodate over 100000 people; a large captive mine in Kandadhar (600 MT for local processing and 400 MT for export over 30 years); fresh water intake from over 100 kms. away (while denying many towns and cities drinking water) and extensive road and rail infrastructure to support the project.

The 4000 acres of land chosen for the plant site comprise of pristine coastal and deltaic ecosystems, with active nesting sites for the critically endangered Olive Ridley Turtles and the Horse Shoe Crabs. Over a third of this land comprises of coastal forests. Over 22000 people will be directly displaced by the steel plant alone, a number that has been repeatedly disputed by Orissa Government based on its spurious claims. Absolutely no impact assessment of any academic rigour worth its salt or regulatory review of value considering the mega scale of this project, has at all been conducted to support the project is environmentally and socially useful. In fact, the so-called Rapid Environment Impact Assessment reports prepared by M/s Dastur for POSCO India, was only for 4 MTPA steel production and not for the entire project as is required by law. Clearly against statutory standards and norms, the project was still accorded environmental, forest and coastal regulation zone clearances in 2007. In addition, the Orissa Government engaged the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER) to cook up data claiming the benefits from the project as phenomenal, which when verified even cursorily proved to be junk statistics supporting desperate political games promoting the project.

Following what is widely regarded as a politically brave but legally correct decision of Jairam Ramesh to reject on grounds of fraud the clearance accorded to the infamous Vedanta Bauxite project in Orissa during 2010, the much larger POSCO issue came into focus. After all communities affected by POSCO had been engaged for over 5 years in the most outstanding example of peaceful resistance against such unprecedented unjust development. Bending to reason, Mr. Ramesh agreed to constitute a sub-Committee under the N. C. Saxena Committee reviewing Forest Rights Act implementation, to also enquire if the POSCO project's forest clearances were compliant with the Forests Rights Act enacted only in 2006. Producing their report the Committee put beyond any reasonable doubt that the forest clearances accorded were in comprehensive violation of the Forest Rights Act. A right step taken soon after by the Minister was to stay the forest clearance accorded - a decision taken that was taken at a time when brutal dislocation of forest dwelling communities was underway by the Orissa Government.

Subsequently, Ramesh ordered an independent enquiry into all aspects of the project's clearance coordinated by Ms. Meena Gupta, former MoEF Environment Secretary, with Mr. Devendra Pandey (IFS, Retd.), former Director of Forest Survey of India, Mr. V. Suresh, Advocate and PUCL activist and Dr. Urmila Pingle, expert on tribal affairs, as members. Following three months of deliberate and extensive consultations, and also detailed investigation into all aspects of the clearances accorded, and on the basis of detailed verification of compliance review files the Committee by a majority decision (3:1) comprehensively rejected all the clearances granted to the project. Ms. Meena Gupta who stood up for the POSCO project, dubiously recommended additional conditions to adjust against serious statutory violations and fraud in the decision making process – a line of thinking that Jairam Ramesh now scandalously subscribes to.

In the subsequent review by Statutory Appraisal Committees of the MoEF, the Committees reviewing the Forest and Coastal Clearances recommended withdrawal of clearances granted. The only Committee that proposed a go-ahead was the one reviewing the environmental impacts under the EIA Notification. It was for Ramesh to now decide on the right steps to be taken to correct this gross injustice and irregularities in environmental decision making. In the face of extensive burden of proof of fraud involved in securing clearances for the POSCO project, the matter should legally have been to withdraw clearances accorded – as in the Vedanta case. This was the time to test the honesty of a man to stand up and uphold Constitutional and Ethical values, regardless of any and all forms of pressures. Jairam Ramesh has miserably failed this test.

The report presented today by Jairam Ramesh is nothing but a capitulation to corrupt forces both within India and abroad. ........... 

For the single largest project FDI investment in India at 2005 prices (Rs. 51,000 crores or USD 12 billion capital cost), analysis reveal that this investment can be recovered in less than a decade given the pittance of a royalty that POSCO will pay for iron ore extracted. (Rs. 30/tonne at the official ore valuation of Rs. 300/tonne, compared with the commercial value of Rs. 7,000/tonne). It is to make such unprecedented profits from the plunder of India's natural resources that POSCO demanded a coastal location for its super large CAPESIZE ships to be berthed to cart away our precious iron ore. What India would be left with is the toxic residue of its dirty ore processing, while the refined ore (perhaps not even the finished steel) would be exported to Korea and elsewhere to add more value to POSCO's profits. This is not merely a flight of the nation's natural wealth but also a massive planned political exercise for erosion of financial resources with questionable legal sanction.....................

Abhay Sahoo

President

09556666552

Prashant Paikray

Spokesperson

09437571547

prashantpaikray@gmail.com

POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samithi

life in general & financial markets: criminal collusion between politicians & real estate companies

The newsreport in a weekly newsmagazine that I share below is a recent India-based example of the criminal collusion between politicians & real estate companies.

Here goes:

www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ne050211Forest_too.asp

Forest too lands in DLF kitty

Degraded land in Gurgaon was nurtured back to health over a decade. But instead of serving as a green lung, it has been sold to a private developer, reports BRIJESH PANDEY

Green charade A forest nurtured by the state government in Gurgaon is now private property PHOTO: TARUN SEHRAWAT

BENDING RULES to allot or sell land, that scarce resource, to favoured parties is a fine art state governments have mastered across the country. It has been done through discretionary quotas, by changing land use patterns and subverting housing society norms. In Haryana, it has been done by pretending that land regenerated by afforestation is not really forest land in the traditional sense. Thus enabling a private developer already sitting on huge land banks to grab one more.

The deal in question is 350 acres of prime land in Wazirabad village near Gurgaon, given to DLF for development of a recreation and leisure park for Rs. 1,700 crore. Environmental experts and land developers are shocked that the prime land was sold in callous disregard to environmental laws laid down by the Supreme Court regarding the Aravalli Plantation Scheme, in an attempt to restore the forests of the fragile hill range.

The scheme, aided by the European Union, successfully rehabilitated degraded community lands of 294 villages in southern Haryana. Nearly 38,000 hectares was rehabilitated through planting and natural regeneration in the Aravalli region. Satellite imagery reveals that forest cover of this region, which was around 10,000 hectares in 1990, increased to 42,000 hectares in 1997. The duration of the project was from 1990 to 1999, sufficient time to grow a forest.

The attempt to change land use and encash this green gold began in 2002-03 when a delegation led by the then Haryana chief minister Om Prakash Chautala made several visits to foreign lands. During those visits, several presentations were made before the delegation on developing business centres, leisure parks and related infrastructure.

A number of companies approached the state government for this and a core committee was set up by the government. Panchayat land in Wazirabad adjoining the DLF Golf and Country Club was identified as the spot for setting up the recreation and leisure project. About 350 acres was earmarked for this project and in 2008, the consultant to this project pegged its value at Rs. 1,683 crore.

In 2009, an international bidding process was conducted and only one bid was received — from DLF, with suggestions to make it more financially viable. The state government agreed to the developer’s suggestions and the project parameters were re-examined and modified. The most important change made by the government was that it would obtain statutory clearances for the project land. A fresh tender was floated and this time three companies bid for it. The project went to DLF with an important change in the tender: it was now incumbent upon the state to get statutory clearances for the land.

How important this change was can be gauged from the fact that out of the allocated 350 acres, approximately half (161 acres) came under the Aravalli Plantation Scheme and the other 92 acres was protected under Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1970.

To divert forest land for non-forestry purposes, the state needed approval from the Centre under the Forest Conservation Act. Therefore, the matter was put before the Cabinet Empowered Committee on Environment (CEC), which was appointed by the Supreme Court.

IN AN apparent bid to bypass the strictures of the Supreme Court in these matters, the Haryana government instead of approaching either the Central government or the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), filed an application in the apex court itself.

The shocker was to come next. The CEC submitted its recommendations to the Supreme Court on 21 September 2010 saying, “An area of 161 acres of the project area is covered under the Aravalli Plantation Scheme. This area does not fall in the category of forest and therefore does not require approval under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. Since in this area plantation has have been undertaken at the cost of the state government and the state of Haryana will get a substantial amount of Rs. 1,700 crore from the project, it will be appropriate that in the lieu of use of this area, it is ensured that an area of 80.52 acres agreed to be acquired by the state of Haryana in Badkal village.”

This recommendation made by the CEC has not only put its impartiality under doubt but also revealed how environmental clearance or protection is treated with disdain in Haryana.

According to environmental lawyer Raj Panjwani, this kind of legal manipulation is not acceptable. “This is part of the Aravalli Plantation project and the Supreme Court in its 2004 judgment has declared this as forest area. We have spent substantial sums of money for the preservation and protection of Aravalli and any move to undo it is not wise. Ecology once lost can never be retrieved.”

It was the same CEC that had recommended in 2003-04 to the Supreme Court that areas where plantation had been undertaken with the assistance provided by international donor agencies should be protected, and had stressed that destruction of plantation will only result in wastage of funds, effort and cause embarrassment to the country.

It led the Supreme Court to declare in October 2004 that “in these matters, neither the state nor the lease holders can be permitted to turn around and take a stand that the area covered under the Aravalli Project are not forest”. Six years later, this is precisely what has been allowed.

And this is not the only volte face by the CEC. When the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) had asked for the same 407 acres in the Badkal area for research purposes, the CEC had said, “The dense forest cover is of great ecological value and it should not be tampered with.” The same CEC has now recommended that the land in Badkal can be given to DLF for afforestation purposes.

A senior Haryana officer in the know of things said, “The whole deal runs into several thousand crores. The way clearances are being given, the fact that the company paid only Rs. 2 per square metre more than the reserve price and the Haryana government taking all the headache for clearance: can you get more lucky than this?”

Meanwhile, Opposition parties have become aware of the deal and are in no mood to let Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda off the hook. Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi, president of the Haryana Janhit Congress, has called it a major scam. “This is a Rs. 40,000 crore scam,” he says. “This is prime land and it is being sold for a song. The chief minister should be sacked.”

Despite several attempts, nobody from the Haryana government was ready to answer questions from TEHELKA. The DLF corporate communications department too did not want to offer comment or explanation on being contacted.

life in general: human rights: a facade of action

Human Rights Watch has just released a World Report (downloadable here) highlighting events in about 90 countries with every country covered in a separate chapter. Out of three thematic essays accompanying the report is one titled "A facade of action" that I found very insightful.

I want to connect what this essay says with what a three-judge bench of India's Supreme Court remarked earlier this month on 20 January. A newspaper reported, "The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday pulled up social activist Teesta Setelvad, who has been fighting for Gujarat riots victims, for approaching an international human rights body raising the issue of protection for witnesses. The court, which was seized of a law suit seeking transfer of cases from Gujarat to another state, expressed its displeasure on Setelvad’s move. “We do not appreciate that other organisations interfere in our functioning. We can take care of (them) ourselves and cannot get guided by others. It is a direct interference in our functioning. We do not appreciate it,” a bench of justices DK Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam said. Setelvad-run NGO, the Centre for Justice and Peace (CJP) had sent a letter to the Geneva-based office of the high commissioner for human rights, associated with United Nations, giving details of the proceedings in the Godhra riots cases. When Harish Salve, who is assisting the court in this case, drew the judge’s attention towards Teesta’s letter, an anguished bench told her counsel Kamini Jaiswal that CJP chief seems to have “more faith in foreign organisations than this court”. “It seems that witnesses would be protected by these organisations,” the bench remarked, adding if such letters are written then the court would pass the order without hearing the contentions of the CJP”. “If you send such letters then we would hear the amicus curie and pass the order (without hearing you),” the court warned. "All the cases are being monitored by us, we do not like any correspondence of her with foreign agencies’’, the court added. We do not appreciate letters sent to a foreign country. We do not approve of such a letter. Tomorrow, you will report these (SC) proceedings to them. This letter shows that you have more trust in them.”"

I think if Indian court judges are confident that they are doing their job properly then why have any apprehensions of any international human rights body being updated with any detail of any court case in India. This betrays arrogance on the part of Indian judiciary and is very unfortunate.

I connect with what the writer of the essay "A Facade of Action" in the Human Rights Watch's World Report, which I refer to above, says, "In last year's World Report, Human Rights Watch highlighted the intensifying attacks by abusive governments on human rights defenders, organizations, and institutions. This year we address the flip side of the problem-the failure of the expected champions of human rights to respond to the problem, defend those people and organizations struggling for human rights, and stand up firmly against abusive governments.
There is often a degree of rationality in a government's decision to violate human rights. The government might fear that permitting greater freedom would encourage people to join together in voicing discontent and thus jeopardize its grip on power. Or abusive leaders might worry that devoting resources to the impoverished would compromise their ability to enrich themselves and their cronies.
International pressure can change that calculus. Whether exposing or condemning abuses, conditioning access to military aid or budgetary support on ending them, imposing targeted sanctions on individual abusers, or even calling for prosecution and punishment of those responsible, public pressure raises the cost of violating human rights. It discourages further oppression, signaling that violations cannot continue cost-free.
All governments have a duty to exert such pressure. A commitment to human rights requires not only upholding them at home but also using available and appropriate tools to convince other governments to respect them as well.
No repressive government likes facing such pressure. Today many are fighting back, hoping to dissuade others from adopting or continuing such measures. That reaction is hardly surprising. What is disappointing is the number of governments that, in the face of that reaction, are abandoning public pressure. With disturbing frequency, governments that might have been counted on to generate such pressure for human rights are accepting the rationalizations and subterfuges of repressive governments and giving up. In place of a commitment to exerting public pressure for human rights, they profess a preference for softer approaches such as private "dialogue" and "cooperation.""

life in general: say no to plastic

We are living a plastic life. From what we eat or drink to what we wear we stand engulfed in a vast ocean of plastic material. And, most of it, particularly that used in our eating and drinking habits, is use-once-and-throw. No decent bit of recycling ever happens of of the plastic and thermocol cups, glasses and plates or tin cans we use and throw as if it was our birthright to do so.

In countries such as ours quite a bit of these even get burned as trash to avoid having to transport it to a garbage dump. Anyone bothered that these release highly toxic chemicals in the air? "We are not doing the burning!" is what one might hear from offended people who clearly have lost sight of their mindless consumption habits that have caused it.

Un-burnt plastic items that do find their way to the dump are piling up and even as natural mountains are becoming small due to mining and quarrying activity we see mountains of plastic and other materials to do not decompose for hundreds years.

It is astonishing that so many well-educated consumers, having access to every kind of information on their finger tips (internet, mobile phones, books etc), fail miserably to take steps, at least a few if not all, to bring down the use of plastic in their daily lives.

To give just one example: how much really would it take for high-heeled corporate world officers and professionals to keep a non-plastic glass and a cup on their desks which they use to drink water and tea or coffee? Why do they think they do no wrong in using a new plastic glass or cup every time they want to drink water or tea?

How much difficult is it really for us to re-use plastic bags in the next round of shopping, atleast 3-4 out of every 10 times? Every effort is required today to reduce the pain we are causing our Mother Earth every day of our life.

life in financial markets: 3-year analysis of food prices in india

In order to interpret a relatively longer term trend in food prices that the Indian government uses in its Food Articles Index (a part of Wholesale Price Index) I did a story (in the newspaper I work) early this month.

Here is what I wrote:

Price volatility in some, consistent rise in others

Analysis of 55 food items reveal lesser-known ones registering the highest price increase

Onions have the potential to make government ministers cry in fear if its price keeps shooting up but it is not onion that has led the price rise in food articles over a longer time frame. The Food Articles Index (FAI), which weighs 14.34 per cent in Wholesale Price Index-All Commodities (WPI), rose by 17.39 per cent from its average of weekly prices in 2009 to that in 2010.

With respect to individual food items, out of 55 food items (cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs-meat-fish, spices and tea-coffe) that form a part of the FAI, 25 rose more than FAI and onion was not in this list, as per a FCRB analysis. Taking yearly averages, onion's price went up by only 5.25 per cent from 2009 to 2010. But from 2008 to 2009, it was the sixth highest riser at 36.36 per cent. Interestingly, in the year-on-year (YoY) period prior to that, from 2007 to 2008, onion price had fallen by 17.85 per cent.

Such volatility was the norm for many food items -- up in one year, down in next, again up in the following year, or vice versa. For instance, among the five highest gainers and decliners in the last three YoY periods, potato fell by the third-largest quantum of14.32 per cent from 2007 to 2008, shot up by the highest quantum of 70.57 per cent from 2008 to 2009, and fell by the highest quantum of 32.07 per cent from 2009 to 2010 (see table).

Who led food price flare-up?
Even as some food items fluctuate up and down from one year to next, some such as
turmeric rise sharply continuously
Risen the most	Wt. in FAI*	'09 to '10		Fallen the most	Wt. in FAI*	'09 to '10
Turmeric	0.56	125.88		Potato	1.39	-32.07
Garlic	0.42	97.86		Corriander	0.14	-29.80
Cardamom	0.14	88.32		Tea	0.77	-17.55
Guava	0.56	77.31		Masur	0.42	-6.23
Litchi	0.28	74.53		Gram	2.30	-3.01
		'08 to '09				'08 to '09
Potato	1.39	70.57		Guava	0.56	-28.73
Turmeric	0.56	66.06		Corriander	0.14	-22.84
Tapioca	0.49	42.00		Lemon	0.49	-14.59
Moong	0.56	39.26		Brinjal	2.09	-9.21
Arhar	0.98	39.21		Coconut (Fresh)	1.67	-7.10
		'07 to '08				'07 to '08
Corriander	0.14	68.69		Garlic	0.42	-22.73
Ginger (Fresh)	0.35	67.65		Onion	1.26	-17.85
Mango	4.53	37.34		Potato	1.39	-14.32
Tea	0.77	30.15		Urad	0.70	-10.53
Masur	0.42	25.01		Sweet Potato	0.14	-6.37
Figures in per cent
Year-on-year changes are calculated based on yearly averages of weekly prices
* Weight in Food Articles Index
Source: Capitaline Neo, FCRB

But there were a few consistent price gainers among the 55 food items in the three YoY periods. These included such as turmeric, cardamom, litchi, fish, arhar, tapioca, milk, orange, papaya, mutton and okra. The only consistent declining food item was gram that declined in the last two YoY periods and went up by a marginal 0.15 per cent from 2007 to 2008.

But the food items that impacted the FAI the most adversely were the ones that weighed the most in the index and which were shooting up consistently. For instance, the five food items that weigh the most in FAI -- milk (22.59 per cent weightage in FAI), rice (12.48 per cent), wheat (7.81 per cent), fish-marine (5.02 per cent) and mango (4.53 per cent) have all gone up in all the last three YoY periods, barring one instance of mango falling by a small quantum from 2008 to 2009. Milk, for instance, has gone by 6.01 per cent (2007 to 2008), 14.32 per cent (2008 to 2009) and 24.49 per cent (2009 to 2010). In the same three periods, fish-marine has shot up by 9.08 per cent, 8.77 per cent and 40.81 per cent and rice by 12.81 per cent, 13.68 per cent and 7.03 per cent.