TESTR

NEWS
NOIDA/DELHI
12 THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015
FROM PAGE ONE
Tackling of tiger poaching
has paid off, says official
Meena Menon
NEW DELHI: The tiger population
had increased in Karnataka,
Uttarakhand, Madhya
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and
Kerala, Additional Director
and head of the National Tiger
Conservation Authority
Rajesh Gopal told journalists
on Tuesday.
Y.V. Jhala, one of the principal
investigators of the report,
said this was only a
summary and a detailed report
would be ready by
March-end. Assessment was
in progress in the Simlipal
and Satpuda tiger reserves.
The population had increased
at the rate of six per
cent per annum in India
from 2006 while the world
Pak. denies move to ban JuD
Suhasini Haidar
NEW DELHI: Pakistani Interior
Ministry sources have denied
any move to ban the
Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD),
headed by Hafiz Saeed, and
other terror organisations,
but said the groups were on
the “watch list.”
Media reports had said
Pakistan had assured the
U.S. of a crackdown on the
banned organisation as
President Barack Obama is
visiting India.
The reports, which were
officially denied by Pakistan’s
Ambassador to the U.S.
Jalil Abbas Jilani on Tuesday,
said the U.S. had
warned Pakistan against
any terror activity during
Mr. Obama’s visit to India,
and Secretary of State John
Kerry had received assurances
on a crackdown on all
terror groups, including the
JuD.
lost 97 per cent tigers in the
last 50 years in 13 countries,
Dr. Jhala said. The main reasons
for this increase were
effective tackling of poaching,
and the positive attitude
of the wildlife services.
“We were in for a huge
surprise as we didn’t expect
the numbers to be above
1,800 or 1,900,” said Dr. Jhala.
While 1,540 tigers were
actually photographed, the
rest were estimated based on
this. However, for long term
survival, the movement of tigers
was essential and corridors
between forests would
be the next conservation
goal, he added. The priority
should now change to landscape
scale management, he
added.
Indian government
sources told The Hindu they
had not been informed by
the Pakistani government of
any move to ban the JuD,
and expected that the extremist
group, which had gone
silent after the Peshawar
school massacre, would be
“back in business.” “The
JuD was slightly on the defensive
post-Peshawar,” said
an official. “The cartoons issue
has provided them an opportunity
[to resurface].”
Saeed has called for a series
of protests across Pakistan
for Friday that will
culminate in the “million
march” in Karachi on January
25. The “million march”,
JuD organisers say, will
bring in a crowd bigger than
the JuD’s Lahore rally on
December 4 of more than a
lakh. India criticised the Lahore
rally, calling it “mainstreaming
of terror.”
In an interview to The
Hindu last week, U.N. Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon
had called upon the Pakistan
government to “take necessary
and corrective measures
in accordance with the
UNSC’s designated terrorist
counter-terrorism policies.”
Mr. Ban was referring to
Saeed’s public appearances
as he and the JuD are on the
U.N. global terrorist lists,
banned as affiliates of al-
Qaeda, as well as designated
Foreign Terrorist Entities
by the U.S.
In the past week, the U.S.
State Department “welcomed”
reports that Pakistan
planned to ban the JuD
and 11 other groups, including
the Haqqani network.
Urbanisation reducing
inequality: World Bank report
Puja Mehra
NEW DELHI: A World Bank report
has found that between
2004-05 and 2009-10, 15 per
cent of India’s population, or
40 per cent of the poor,
moved above the poverty
line. In the same period, a
sizeable portion of the poor
and the vulnerable — over 9
per cent of the total population
or about 11 per cent of
the poor and vulnerable —
moved into the middle class.
However, over 9 per cent
of the total population, or
about 14 per cent of the nonpoor
group, slipped back into
poverty, revealing the greater
risks faced by the vulnerable
and even the middle
class than in other countries,
the report, “Addressing inequality
in South Asia,” said.
The third finding of the report
that challenges the conventional
understanding of
inequality in India, said Onno
Ruhl, World Bank Country
Director in India, is that
urbanisation is reducing inequality,
not increasing it.
Mr. Ruhl said the policy
takeaways from the report
for Prime Minister Narendra
Modi included “strive for
universal health and sanitation;
leverage the opportunity
for urbanisation; and
create jobs for all and build
skills not just through technical
training but also with
servicing the population
with primary and secondary
education and nutrition.”
Registration of Odia migrant
workers begins in Telengana
Staff Reporter
BERHAMPUR: The registration of
migrant construction workers
working outside Odisha has
been initiated by Odisha Building
& Other Construction
Workers’ Board (OBOCWB) in
Telangana.
It may be noted Odisha is the
only State in the country to
have decided to provide welfare
benefits to Odia migrant
construction labourers working
in other States at par with
the workers in Odisha. The
process of registration of Odia
migrant workers through
OBOCWB camps in other
States started in January.
A team of OBOCWB led by
its chairman Subash Singh had
held camps in Telangana from
January 2 to 16 to register Odia
migrant labourers working
there. They visited Rangareddy,
Karimnagar and Nalgonda
districts of Telangana and registered
1,531 Odia migrant construction
workers.
Speaking to newsmen on
Tuesday, Mr. Singh said they
have decided to hold similar
camps in other States like Andhra
Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi, Kerala
to register Odia migrant
construction workers. “From
the next financial year, we will
start registering these migrant
workers when they travel outside
the State,” he added.
WORLD ECONOMIC OUTLOOK REPORT
India to beat China in growth in 2016: IMF
“India will grow at 6.3% in 2015, up from 5.8% in 2014”
Puja Mehra
NEW DELHI: Before the launch of
a key World Bank report on inequality
in South Asia, Martin
Rama, the World Bank’s Chief
Economist for South Asia region,
spoke exclusively to The
Hindu.
The report finds that
substantial levels of social
mobility exist in India. Just
as there is the popular
notion of the American
dream, is there an Indian
dream too?
We were impressed by the
comparison between India and
Bangladesh, two countries
where we could conduct this
survey, and the United States
and Vietnam, which we chose
as two countries that are seen
in some ways as lands of opportunity.
In that respect, the levels
of social mobility in India
are very encouraging.
But there are also nuances;
while the rates of moving out of
poverty across the four countries
are strictly comparable, in
Not yet decided on joining
BJP, says Dinesh Trivedi
Suvojit Bagchi
KOLKATA: If one goes by what a
politician says, then perhaps it
is a matter of time before Lok
Sabha MP Dinesh Trivedi leaves
the Trinamool Congress
(TMC) to take up “a role to
serve the country” assigned by
the Prime Minister.
“Why me, I think every one
should serve the country… it is
not opportunism, but one
should not lose the opportunity
to serve one’s country,” Mr
Trivedi said and added that the
TMC is “creating roadblocks”
for the developmental programmes
of the BJP-led government.
He also admitted that
he is “in touch” with the BJP,
which is now the main rival of
the TMC in West Bengal.
On being asked whether he
would leave the TMC to join
the BJP, Mr Trivedi said that
NEW DELHI: The International
Monetary Fund (IMF) has
projected India to grow at
6.5 per cent in 2016, overtaking
China whose growth
was forecast to slow down to
6.3 per cent.
In its World Economic
Outlook report released on
Tuesday, the IMF forecast
that India would grow at 6.3
per cent in 2015, up from 5.8
per cent in 2014. China’s
2014 growth rate was 7.4 per
cent.
In another forecast released
on Tuesday, the United
Nations World Economic
Situation and Prospects
(U.N. WESP) report predicted
a smart recovery for India
in 2015. It pegged its 2015
India growth forecast lower
than the IMF’s — at 5.9 per
cent. At 6.3 per cent, the UN
WESP’s 2016 India growth
forecast is, however, closer
to that of the IMF.
The IMF said global
growth would receive a
boost from lower oil prices.
But this boost was projected
to be more than offset by
negative factors such as investment
weakness, as adjustment
to diminished
expectations about mediumterm
growth continues in
many advanced and emerging
market economies.
It cut its global growth
projection for 2015 to 3.5 per
terms of moving into the middle
class, the United States and
Vietnam still do better, and the
risk of falling into poverty is also
substantially higher in South
Asia. That raises the question —
what kinds of jobs will increase
this resilience.
Additionally, the report finds
he had “not decided” yet.
“Whatever I do, (I) will do
with dignity,” said the TMC
MP. However, he also described
the usual speculation
of media as “myopic”.
“Let us not be myopic...nothing
may happen. I only say that
the time has come to unleash
the potential of the country under
Mr Modi,” said the key
founding member of the TMC.
Speculation is escalating in
Bengal’s media since Mr Trivedi’s
comment in north-western
Gujarat’s Kutch district,
while sharing the stage with
Prime Minister’s older brother,
Somabhai Modi. Praising
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
for “good work”, Mr Trivedi
said that TMC is “unnecessarily
engaging” itself in confrontation
with the BJP as Bengal is
losing opportunities to grow.
Reportedly, the rift between
cent and for 2016 to 3.7 per
cent, to show a downward
revision of 0.3 per cent relative
to its October 2014 forecast.
The revision reflects a
reassessment of prospects in
China, Russia, the Euro area
and Japan as well as weaker
activity in some major oil exporters
because of the sharp
drop in oil prices, it said in
the World Economic Outlook.
The U.S. is the only major
economy whose growth
projections have been
raised.
In India, the growth forecast
is broadly unchanged as
weaker external demand is
offset by the boost from lower
oil prices and a pick-up in
industrial and investment
that social mobility was
greater for backward castes
When we look at the role of
caste and tribe, first is in terms
of opportunity — whether being
from a backward caste or tribe
matters for your access to education
and health. The answer
is yes, but it’s not the only
factor.
Then when we look at the
mobility part, the news is mixed
but generally positive. For older
generations, people from
lower castes and tribes tended
to have lower occupational mobility
than other groups; in recent
years they have slightly
more mobility than other
groups, and that is encouraging
news. This is not to say that jobs
fully trump caste, but it is one of
the few things that can really
offset disadvantages.
You have talked of the
problems with redistributive
measures, especially
subsidies. Given that India is
re-evaluating its food,
fertilizer and fuel subsidies,
what is your message on
Mr Trivedi and TMC’s top
management is increasing by
the day and the former Railway
Minister pulled no punches in
criticising “the negative politics”
of the TMC in West Bengal.
On Tuesday, he went
further. “It is time for mature
politics in Bengal. But what are
we doing (in Bengal),” he asked
and added, “We are engaged in
politics of violence and even in
colleges, bombs are hurled during
elections.”
“The State is creating roadblocks
to all developmental activities.
Narendra Modi is
doing very good work and tremendous
positive energy has
been generated. It is time to
engage (with the Prime Minister)
and grow together through
some mature politics, but we
are missing the opportunity,”
the TMC M.P. from Barrackpore
told The Hindu.
activity after policy reforms
by the Narendra Modi government,
the IMF said.
“India could overtake China,
but it must be taken note
of that China has grown at
high growth rates of 9 per
cent to 10 per cent over decades
and it is a much larger
economy and India will have
to work to sustain high
growth rates over a period of
time to be an engine of global
growth,” said Nagesh Kumar,
the head of UN WESP,
South and South-West Asia
Office. He said there was no
way other than the Centre to
increase its public spending
on infrastructure to take India
on to a sustainable high
growth path.
“Jobs can offset the disadvantages of caste”
Rukmini S
NEW DELHI: Global Positioning
System
(GPS) tracking devices
and satellite images
would be used by
intelligence and security
agencies to keep a
constant watch on the
movements of U.S.
President Barack Obama’s
convoy during his visit.
It is learnt that a dedicated
joint control room consisting
of senior Indian and U.S. security
officials has been set up to
monitor the security arrangements
for Mr. Obama. A part of
ITC Maurya, where the U.S.
President will stay, has been
converted into a control room.
As a precautionary measure,
agencies may block public access
to online GPS maps of
about a dozen places in Delhi,
Martin Rama, Chief
Economist of World
Bank for South Asia
region, interacts with
The Hindu in New Delhi
on Tuesday. — PHOTO:
PRASHANT NAKWE
what works?
On the big picture, there is an
approach to inequality that one
could summarise as tax and redistribution.
When you look at
developing countries, that approach
has many difficulties to
be implemented. One of the
things that characterises South
Asia is low tax revenue and
that’s not because taxes are
structured differently — it’s because
there is a lot of evasion, a
lot of avoidance.
And then, a lot of the tax revenue
goes into subsidies. South
Asia has remarkable social protection
programmes — one
should not throw the baby out
with the bath water. But the issue
is that in the name of inequality
or poverty alleviation,
some subsidies are regressive
by design. This doesn’t mean
that subsidies should be abolished
— they should be well-targeted,
they should be
structured with Aadhaar cards
or other mechanisms that can
minimise leakage.
(For full interview ,visit
http://thne.ws/1AHRZin)
GPS tracking devices to monitor Obama convoy
Devesh K. Pandey
which Mr. Obama is scheduled
to visit. GPS maps of all venues
have been designed
to keep track of his
movement. However,
no drones will be
deployed for aerial
surveillance.
U.S. sleuths have
brought along antisabotage
scanners
to sanitise the venues in coordination
with their Indian
counterparts.
Cyber security experts have
been engaged for surveillance
of suspicious online activity.
Mr. Obama will use his own
vehicle ‘The Beast.’ “His will be
a larger cavalcade with over
two dozen vehicles,” said an official.
Following several rounds of
meetings, it has been decided
that on Republic Day, Mr. Obama
will not accompany President
Pranab Mukherjee to the
parade venue, but will arrive in
his 18-foot long Presidential
car with Mr. Mukherjee’s cavalcade.
“In 2007, as the chief guest
at the Republic Day parade, the
then Russian President Vladimir
Putin had also used his
own vehicle,” said the official.
The entire city will be turned
into a no-fly zone, allowing only
the flypast of Indian Air
Force aircraft.
‘The Beast’ is an explosionproof
heavily armoured vehicle
fitted with a night vision
system. It is a virtual shield capable
of withstanding biochemical
attacks and has its
own oxygen supply mechanism.
The seven-seater vehicle
functions as a control room for
the U.S. President to remain in
touch with the Pentagon and
senior U.S. government functionaries
through video-conferencing
or encrypted
satellite phone communications.
It is fitted with emergency
medical equipment and has
a bank of his blood type. The
vehicle’s fuel tank, with a special
foam coating, is armourplated
and its doors have eightinch-thick
armour plating. The
car’s five-inch-thick windows
are bulletproof. Its driver undergoes
special week-long
training at a secret service
academy.
For security reasons, the
government may close the Yamuna
Expressway connecting
Delhi to Agra to facilitate Mr.
Obama’s visit to the Taj Mahal.
“We are yet to take a final decision
in this regard. However,
for VVIP movements, there always
has to be an arrangement
for alternative routes,” the official
added.
Atrocities can’t stop BJP,
Amit Shah tells Trinamool
Soumya Das
BARDHAMAN: Accusing the Trinamool
Congress (TMC) of
committing atrocities against
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
workers, party president
Amit Shah cautioned Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee
on Tuesday that if Trinamool
wanted confrontation, BJP
workers were ready for it.
This comes in the backdrop
of the increasing number
of clashes between
workers of the two parties in
West Bengal.
Addressing party workers
at Bara Nilpur in Bardhaman
district, Mr. Shah urged BJP
workers not to get intimidated
by TMC’s atrocities, but to
work with the masses. Pointing
out the BJP’s recent electoral
success in Haryana,
Maharashtra and Jammu and
Strategy to convert
ordinances into law
Smita Gupta
NEW DELHI: As the countdown
to Parliament’s budget
session, likely to start
in the third week of February,
begins, senior Central
Ministers met here on
Tuesday to strategise on
ensuring that the slew of
ordinances issued by the
government are converted
into law.
This comes a day after
President Pranab Mukherjee
cautioned the Modi
government on its excessive
use of ordinances, in
the wake of strident Opposition
criticism that this
was an attempt to bypass
Parliament and, even some
voices of dissent from
within the Union Cabinet.
A top government
source told The Hindu:
“The focus of today’s meeting
was: since the Opposition
is pursuing the
ordinance issue so aggressively,
let’s not be caught
out on procedural issues.”
If the government is
conscious of the need to
deal with the negative publicity
its eight ordinances
have received, it is equally
concerned that if some of
the key ordinances do not
become law within the
mandatory six weeks from
the start of the budget session,
the situation could
‘Pakistan court ignored
evidence given by India’
Rashmi Rajput
MUMBAI: The Mumbai Police
have conveyed to the Ministry
of External Affairs that
the Pakistani court which
granted bail to Zaki-ur-Rehman
Lakhvi — the alleged 26/
11 mastermind and top Lashkar-e-Taiba
commander — in
the ongoing Mumbai attacks
trial in Pakistan, has apparently
not taken into consideration
the evidence they
BJP president Amit Shah at a rally in Bardhaman
in West Bengal on Tuesday. — PHOTO: PTI
Kashmir, he said, “The BJP
will form the next government
in Bengal.”
Referring to the alleged
assault on a woman, said to
be a relative of a BJP worker,
by officials of Birbhum district
police, Mr. Shah said,
pose a problem. This is because
no ordinance can be
re-promulgated in the
middle of a session and a
budget session typically
runs for roughly two-anda-half
months with a
break.
The ordinances that received
the maximum attention
at the meeting
were the Coal Mines Ordinance
and the Insurance
Ordinance, in that order.
But Coal Secretary Anil
Swarup — present at the
meeting along with his
counterparts from other
Ministries — is reported to
have assured the government
that his department
would be able to complete
a substantial part of the
work for which the ordinance
was issued.
The Coal Ministry, for
instance, is confident that
it will be able to have some
alternative in place by
March 23 for the 42 functioning
coal blocks where
mining was cancelled by
the Supreme Court, so that
the flow of coal does not
stop. (These were part of
the 204 blocks in which
mining was cancelled by
the apex court — mining
has not begun in the others).
In addition, the Ministry
will have the time to
auction another 32 blocks
not in the SC list.
submitted, The Hindu has
learnt.
Responding to a letter
from the MEA on the Pakistan
court’s bail order, the police
have said they can make
only a prima facie determination
on the merits of the
court’s action as they are not
privy to the Indian court report
on the cross examination
of four Indian
witnesses by the Pakistani
Judicial Commission which
visited Mumbai twice.
“The Indian court had submitted
its report in a sealed
envelope and we therefore
are not privy to what the
court had opined. However,
we have studied the order by
the Pakistani court at length
and it nowhere makes a mention
of the evidence sent by
the Indian court,” a senior
police officer told The Hindu.
In March 2012, the eightmember
Pakistani Commission
visited India and examined
four Indian witnesses to
collect evidence in connection
with Lakhvi and others
facing trial in Pakistan. However,
the report submitted by
the panel was rejected by
their court as the Commission
members were not allowed
to cross-examine the
witnesses.
Eventually, the two countries
arrived on a consensus
to allow the Indian witnesses
to be cross-examined by the
Judicial Commission. In September
2013, the Indian witnesses
deposed before the
Pakistani Commission during
its second visit. The hearing
took place at the
Mumbai’s Esplanade court
and the evidence was recorded
by Additional Chief Metropolitan
Magistrate P.Y.
Ladekar who later sent the
same in a sealed envelope to
the Pakistani court.
The MEA in its letter had
asked the Mumbai police to
study the bail order of Lakhvi
issued by an anti-terrorism
court of Pakistan. Lakhvi and
seven others, including Abdul
Wajid, Mazhar Iqbal, Sadiq,
Shahid Jameel Riaz,
Jamil Ahmed and Younas
Anjum, were arrested in
2009 for planning, financing
and executing the Mumbai
attack. In December 2014,
Lakhvi was released on bail.
“Mamata Banerjee, you cannot
stop BJP’s winning
streak by committing
atrocities.”
He accused Ms. Banerjee
of shielding her party leaders
who were allegedly involved
in the Saradha scam.
Periyar Tiger Reserve wins NTCA award
Meena Menon
NEW DELHI: The Periyar Tiger
Reserve, spread over 925
sq.km. in Kerala, bagged the
National Tiger Conservation
Authority (NTCA)
biennial award on Tuesday
for encouraging local public
participation in managing
the reserve.
CM
YK
There are 75 communities
living around the reserve,
including tribal
people who are dependent
on eco-development programmes,
said field director
of the reserve Amit Mallick
on Tuesday.
The community-based
eco-tourism activities
helped visitors and there
were night scouting programmes
with the help of
expert trackers as well.
Tourism was supplemented
by pepper growing and marketing
which was a value addition.
Now, self-help
groups were involved in
honey processing and other
income-generating activities,
Dr. Mallick said.
‘Hurdles to foreign investment will be cleared’
Parvathi Menon
LONDON: Inviting British industry
to invest in “happening”
India, Commerce and
Industry Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman pledged her government’s
commitment to
easing conditions for foreign
companies in India.
Speaking to U.K. and Indian
businesspeople gathered
at the 10th Joint Economic
and Trade Committee meeting
here on Monday, Ms.
Sitharaman said that India
with its 5 per cent growth
rate remained a far more
attractive investment destination
than parts of Europe
— including Germany — for
British businesses, particularly
given the Indian government’s
recent drive to
reform business rules.
She pointed to the over 40
changes to the rules of the
Companies Act 2013 (effective
since April 2014) that
her Ministry had brought in.
To ensure measures were
speedily implemented she
said the government had
used — and would continue
to use — the ordinance
route.
ND-ND