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Kerala floods: The prescriptions for the Western Ghats

2011 -Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel – Gadgil report 2012- High-Level Working Group on Western Ghats under Kasturirangan to “examine” the Gadgil Committee report Recommendations of Gadgil committee

• Entire area be designated as ecologically sensitive area (ESA)

• Within this area, smaller regions were to be identified as ecologically sensitive zones (ESZ) I, II or III

• 75% AREA under ESZ

• Ban on cultivation of genetically modified in entire area

• Plastic bags to be phased out in three years

• No new special economic zones or hill stations to be allowed

• Ban on conversion of public lands to private lands, and on diversion of forest land for non-forest purposes in ESZ I and II

• No new mining licences in ESZ I and II area

• No new dams in ESZ I

• No new thermal power plants or large scale wind power projects in ESZ I

• No new polluting industries in ESZ I and ESZ II areas

• No new railway lines or major roads in ESZ I and II areas

• Strict regulation of tourism

• Cumulative impact assessment for all new projects like dams, mines, tourism, housing

• Phase-out of all chemical pesticides within five to eight years in ESZ I and ESZ II Kasturirangan recommendations

• Broadened the definition of Western Ghats = cultural landscape and natural landscape.

• It said nearly 60% of the Western Ghats was cultural landscape, where human settlements, agriculture and plantations existed.

• Ban on mining, quarrying and sand Need to learn lessons from past tragedies – increase the resilience of disasterstruck areas through sustainable and long-term development that would involve minimal intervention in natural processes. Even in the Uttarakhand disaster, uncontrolled construction, large hydropower plants and deforestation were assessed to have aided the scale of destruction.

No Proof Required: GDP Report

– misreading the facts The Central Statistics Office (CSO) changed the base year for GDP calculation from 2004-2005 to 2011-2012. Base-year has been changed in 1970-71, 1980-81, 1993-94, 1998- 1999, 2004-5 and 2011-12

Aadhaar In The Dock

• 24 /08/17 – Supreme Court’s re-affirmation of the status of the right to privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution.

• Unanimous decision of a nine-judge bench, came in the context of the cases challenging the constitutionality of the Aadhaar project.

• July 2018 – Srikrishna report and a draft bill on personal data protection.

• For processing sensitive personal data with consent, the draft bill lays down that such consent must be free, clear, explicit, informed, specific and capable of being withdrawn.

• It is not valid consent when people are mad

The churn after Ghazni

• The recent Taliban offensive against Ghazni with alleged support from the Pakistan army

• Difficulties of finding a negotiated settlement in a nation torn by four decades of conflict.

• As Taliban gets bolder in its attacks and the intensity of its violence spikes to unprecedented levels, Trump is under some pressure to take a fresh look

• Ashraf Ghani – ceasefire offer to Taliban

• Repeated offers for talks are being viewed by the Taliban as a reflection of Kabul’s fragile position – slippery slope towards political surrender.

• NO big battlefield victories – but breaking the morale of the opposition and engineering defections.

• Trump had taken a hard-line against Pakistan’s support to terror groups in Afghanistan.

• Since then, the US has certainly put some pressure on Pakistan: cutting bilateral economic and military assistance, putting it in the dock for financing terror groups and threatening to block the IMF’s bailout

• It is the nature of the negotiation between US and Pakistan — the most important external players in the Afghan conflict that will decide the future

The real rural crisis

• Rural India cannot be viewed solely through prism of farming.

• Crisis in rural areas today is actually one of too much agriculture.

• Just over 43 per cent of income on an average comes from cultivation and livestock rearing

• Required – more manufacturing units, including those that process and add value to agricultural produce.

• If more rural jobs are created outside of agriculture and people are weaned off the land, the ones remaining will be induced to invest in its productivity.

• Farming will, then, cease to be a default occupation and the agriculture sector would gain from the processes of specialisation and division of labour