GST panel proposes mechanism to compensate State governments
The Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on Goods & Services Tax (GST) has recommended that an independent mechanism also be created for the purpose of compensations to States that will lose out on revenue due to the introduction of proposed levy. Additionally, the committee also recommended that the mechanism be finalised immediately and be made part of the Bill being drafted for amending the Constitution to introduce the GST.
The States have demanded that the Centre settle the Central Sales Tax compensation claims immediately. Though the Union budget for 2013-14 provided Rs.9000 crore for settling of the CST compensation claims relating to 2010-2011, the Centre is yet to disburse it.
The committee has recommended substantial changes to the Constitutional Amendment Bill proposed by the UPA government. In its report to the Union Finance Ministry on the Bill, the committee headed by Jammu & Kashmir Finance Minister A. R. Rather has unanimously rejected the Centre’s proposal to enter GST into the Union and State Lists in the Constitution, saying it is unnecessary as the clause 246A in the Bill already provides the States and the Centre the powers to levy the GST. “The States have some apprehensions about this,” Mr. Rather said.
The committee has rejected the Centre’s proposal to include alcohol and petroleum in the GST. It also rejected the UPA government’s proposal on powers to the Centre to notify “declared goods.” “A provision on declared goods would have empowered the Centre to lower GST rates on any item without consulting states,” Mr. Rather said.
The States have also rejected the Centre's move to exclude petroleum and alcohol from the list of products exempt from the GST.
The committee recommended that the special status enjoyed by J&K under Article 370 of the Constitution be maintained even in the case of GST so the proposed Constitutional Amendment should not be applied to it. “In the case of J&K Article 368 of the Constitution prescribes how Constitutional Amendments are to be made and for the GST that is what will have to be followed,” Mr. Rather said. “It could be taken up after the GST Amendment is cleared.”
In Warsaw, the choice now is a low ambition deal or collapse of talks
Environment ministers and officials at the United Nations climate change talk straining through 24 hours of non-stop negotiations in Warsaw stared at the limited choices before them – either a complete collapse of the negotiations or the passage of such a weak set of decisions that no country would lose or gain much.
In either case, with the talks dragging into Saturday evening, a day more than they were scheduled for and an end yet not in sight, Warsaw promised to deliver little to fight climate change.
The climate negotiations this year were meant to come through on some key elements of the global climate change control regime. The talks had to set up a mechanism to provide for those who suffer loss and damage from climate change. They had to provide a time line against which the developed countries were to ratchet up their contributions to reach the promised $ 100 billion annual fund by 2020 for the poor countries to fight climate change.
Then, the negotiations were to draw up a plan for how the developed countries would increase their emission reduction cuts between now and 2020 and provide funds to the poor countries for adaptation as well as taking greater emission reduction burden upon themselves. At the last, the negotiators from 193 countries were supposed to draw out the rough sketch and elements of a new global climate change compact to be signed in 2015 and to become operational in 2020.
Bangladesh asks India to ratify land agreement
Bangladesh has called on India to ratify the Indo-Bangladesh Land Agreement to pave the way for accelerating regional economic development.
The call was made by Gowher Rizvi, International Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, at the second South Asian Diaspora Convention on Friday which was also attended by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
Prof. Rizvi joined Mr. Gogoi in addressing the session on South Asia-ASEAN Land Connectivity at the two-day convention, organised by the Institute of South Asian Studies, a think tank of the National University of Singapore.
“I hope that when it comes to Parliament, you shall not let us down,” he said, adding that all other issues between the two countries have been resolved.
“Our border disputes have been resolved and signed, awaiting ratification,” said Prof. Rizvi, stressing that South Asia should no longer be seen as a region of conflicts but a region which focuses on economic cooperation and development.
While Bangladesh has full duty free access to the Indian market, he assured Mr. Gogoi, “I will say you are no longer land-locked. Our roads, railways, rivers and seaports are all at your disposal.”
“In the last four and a half years all the outstanding issues that stand between the two countries have been set aside and we have resolved them,” said Prof. Rizvi.
He highlighted the land route access through Bangladesh to India’s Northeast States and Nepal.
Prof. Rizvi said Bangladesh would participate in the massive hydroelectric projects in the Northeast region and would provide power evacuation route as power supplies would meet the surging demand in his country as well as the rest of the region.
The power development has been on the hold for the past 50-60 years due to evacuation route problems, he noted. But that was no longer the case with the development of good neighbourly relations between India and Bangladesh in recent years.
He also invited international and Indian businessmen to invest in Bangladesh industrial zones and export their products back to the massive 1.3 billion Indian markets. — PTI
Roads, railways, rivers and seaports are at Assam’s disposal: Rizvi
Bangladesh to participate in hydroelectric projects in the Northeast States
INS Vikrant to be commissioned by 2017
India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, being built at the Cochin Shipyard Limited and formally launched in August this year, will be commissioned by 2017, the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral D.K. Joshi, said today.
“With the commissioning of INS Vikrant, India will join the elite club of nations with the capability of designing and building aircraft carrier indigenously,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the passing-out parade at the Indian Naval Academy here.
Asked about the delay in the project to build Scorpene-class submarines in Mumbai, Admiral Joshi said India would construct the first Scorpene-class submarine with French collaboration. These submarines should be in service by 2015. “The delay has been resolved and construction has been fast-tracked.” — PTI
C.N.R. Rao laments lack of industry contribution to science
Science in India gets no contribution from the industry, C.N.R. Rao, head of the scientific advisory council to the Prime Minister, has said. “Industry magnates such as Mukesh Ambani and Ratan Tata should loosen their purse strings,” he said here on Saturday.
They after all “reap the fruits of science,” Prof. Rao said during a question-and-answer session organised by Bangalore Press Club.
Over 50 per cent of research funding in the United States, Japan and South Korea, comes from industry, he said. Prof. Rao reiterated that the government investment in science should be increased from 0.9 per cent to 2 per cent of the gross domestic product.
“Only countries that have advanced in science actually have made significant progress,” Prof. Rao said, adding that India was “lagging behind in innovation.”
He said the quality of science in India wasn’t good, and it was reflected in the fact that “of the top 1 per cent of global research, India’s contribution is less than 1 per cent… the USA’s contribution is 63 per cent.” However, Prof. Rao pointed out that India fared rather well in terms of salaries for scientists.
“India is number 3 in the world for salaries to scientists.”
While he said around 150 PhD students work under him, in the last 15 years, “none of them are from Bangalore”. “Most of my students [at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research] are from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.”
Young people appear to choose banking, business and Information Technology over science, he said, adding that while he was “not against IT”, he believed that “other sectors should not be denied bright talent.” While everyone still knows Bangalore as ‘IT city’… they should begin seeing it ‘science city’.
Nutrition levels among vegetarians better: study
When compared to non-vegetarians, vegetarians consume less amounts of salt and fat but on the whole, vegetarians were consuming a better mix of nutrients than non-vegetarians, a study conducted by the Delhi-based South Asia Network for Chronic Diseases (SANCD) concluded.
Vegetarian foods are also less in Vitamin B12, Zinc and Iron but have high amounts of Vitamin C and Folic Acid, the study said.
Presenting the findings at a two-day national conference held by Nutrition Society of India (NSI) here, SANCD representative Kritiga Sridhar said that vegetarians “fared well” when compared to their non-vegetarian counterparts.
The study was conducted in four factories – one each in Delhi, Nagpur, Hyderabad, and Bangalore – to find the dietary habits of migrant and non-migrant labour in these four cities. “The study found vegetarian families of the migrant workers doing better than their non-vegetarian peers,” she explained.
China sets up air defence zone over disputed East China Sea
Beijing will establish other zones around frontier areas ‘after completing Preparations,’ officials say
ISLES OF CONTENTION:The map released by the Chinese Defence Ministry of the proposed zone includes this chain of disputed islands, called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese, which are also claimed by Japan.— Photo: AP
China on Saturday said it had set up an air defence zone covering the international airspace over parts of the disputed East China Sea, requiring all non-commercial aircraft to notify its authorities of their flight plans to avoid triggering a response from air defence forces.
Japan lodged “a serious protest” in response to the move, describing it as “an extremely dangerous” step that could result in “unpredictable events.”
The Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea may be followed by the establishment of similar zones covering China’s other frontiers, the Defence Ministry said, with zones to be set up to boost China’s territorial defences “at an appropriate time after completing preparations.”
The ADIZ is a predefined area over international airspace within which the Chinese military will monitor and track aircraft. Many countries, from India to the U.S. and Japan, monitor similar zones beyond their immediate territorial airspaces to track aircraft for security purposes.
While the Chinese government said international flights will not be affected, any other non-commercial flights that have not notified authorities of their flight plans will likely face interception, and could also be brought down.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force said it conducted a first air patrol over the ADIZ shortly after the Saturday morning announcement. The zone extends into international airspace east of China’s territorial airspace into the East China Sea, and up to 130 km from Japan’s territorial airspace.
The Chinese ADIZ overlaps with the ADIZ that Japan has already established in the region, with both zones covering the disputed Diaoyu or Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
While Chinese officials explained the move as aimed at defending China’s airspace and boosting early warning systems, the Japanese government said it was “extremely dangerous as it may lead to miscalculation in the area.”
The move is likely to fuel tensions with Japan, coming at a time when both countries have sparred over the disputed Senkaku or Diaoyu islands in the East China Sea. In recent months, both countries have dispatched patrol boats to enforce their claims, while Japan has also scrambled fighter jets after Chinese Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) entered the airspace above the islands and threatened recently to shoot them down.
Japan lodges protest
The Japanese government said in a statement it lodged a “serious protest,” with Junichi Ihara, head of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanic Affairs Bureau, conveying the government’s protest over the telephone with Han Zhiqiang, Minister at the Chinese Embassy in Japan.
Over 35 lakh cases settled at one go
In a red-letter day for judiciary, Lok Adalats spring into action
SPEEDY JUSTICE:District Judge Ch. Kanaka Durga Rao at the mega Lok Adalat at the district courts complex in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, on Saturday.— Photo: K. Ravikumar
: It was a historic day for the judiciary as for the first time 35,10,390 cases pending in various courts were decided on one day in the National Lok Adalat held in the Supreme Court, all High Courts, and district and taluk courts across the country on Saturday.
The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), which organised the Lok Adalat, said “a world record in disposal of cases amicably has apparently been created today in the national Lok Adalat.” It said virtually over 35 lakh cases were wiped out on one day and further figures would be collected in the next two days and it was likely the total disposal would be much more.
Lok Adalat aims at reducing pendency, while at the same time drawing attention of the public to the efficacious alternative dispute resolution method. The cases that were disposed of related to criminal compoundable cases, cheque bounce and bank recovery cases, civil suits, motor accident claims, labour, family and matrimonial disputes. In many States, revenue matters, land acquisition references, and consumer, service matters were also taken up.
In the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam inaugurated the programme and 107 cases were taken up, including 24 matrimonial/family disputes and 60 motor accident compensation claims, of which 51 were settled. The CJI presided over a Bench and other Benches were presided by Justice A.K. Patnaik and Ms. Ranjana Desai.
No further appeal
The inaugural programme was watched all over the country through videoconferencing and webcasting facilitated by the e-committee of the Supreme Court and the National Informatics Centre. There will be no further appeal for cases disposed of at the Lok Adalat.
The CJI said: “The Lok Adalat system provides an approachable forum to the poor, weaker and ignorant people who are often intimidated and confused by the greasy substantive and procedural laws. It is the first time since the inception of NALSA that such a National Lok Adalat is organised. Approximately, 39 lakhs cases are to be taken up in this National Lok Adalat.”
He said, “(In Madhya Pradesh 7,97,484 cases will be taken up on November 30 in view of the Assembly polls) in Maharashtra 5,66,102 cases will be taken up, whereas in Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal around 4,00,000 and above cases are referred to Lok Adalats in each State. In Delhi 3,00,000 cases have been referred for the Lok Adalat of which 2,73,000 are challan cases alone.”
The CJI said that to sustain the faith in the system, it was obligatory for every presiding member of the Lok Adalat to make sincere efforts in bringing about a conciliated settlement in every case put before it without causing any kind of coercion, threat, undue influence, allurement or misrepresentation either directly or indirectly. They should ensure that the Lok Adalats were not used by unscrupulous parties to commit fraud, forgery etc.
Justice G. S. Singvi, the NALSA Executive Chairman, said when he first mooted the idea of a national Lok Adalat he did not realise so many cases could be taken up within a short time. “Lok Adalat and mediation are the most powerful instruments for delivery of speedy justice.”
Justice A.K. Patnaik, Chairman of the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee; R.S. Gujral, Secretary, Department of Expenditure; Ravindra Maithani, Secretary General, Supreme Court; and Asha Menon, Member-Secretary, NALSA, were among those who also spoke.
Distress alarm device launched
Electronics Corporation of Limited (ECIL) has launched a global positioning system (GPS) based tele-distress alarm device “Nirbhaya” to send information to near and dear ones and police in case of severe distress or fear of attack.
It is developed by Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and commercialised by ECIL. The compact electronic device is used in conjunction with a cell phone to send the distress signal, an ECIL release here said after the device was released at a function in Mumbai by Atomic Energy Commission chairman Ratan Kumar Sinha.
Iran talks inching towards deal
The lengthy see-saw negotiations between Iran and the six global powers may be inching towards a successful culmination — the guarded optimism of a likely breakthrough anchored by the arrival in Geneva of the Foreign Ministers of the sextet, and statements by Iranians that a deal was now within grasp.
Opportunity
Arriving on Friday in Geneva — the venue of Iran’s nuclear talks with the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov sounded upbeat when he said that “for the first time in many years the six world powers and Iran have a real opportunity to reach an agreement.”
The Iranian side reciprocated the sense of optimism of some of its interlocutors. “Reaching an agreement is close,” said Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister during an interaction with the media in Geneva on Saturday.
But, he noted that there are two or three issues where differences continue to persist.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif revealed that negotiators were focussed on writing the possible agreement, addressing the points of differences specifically.
Analysts say Iran and the global powers have, during negotiations, homed in on certain specifics: Iran’s right to carry out uranium enrichment in principle; a freeze in production of uranium enriched to 20 per cent purity, and rendering as unusable the existing stockpile.
Turning into powder
This can be done by turning the enriched material into fuel assemblies or uranium oxide powder, which cannot be reconverted, ensuring that the stockpile, if enriched further, is kept out of a possible weapons route.
The negotiators may also be trying to arrive at a formulation that would allow Iran to enrich uranium to the 3. 5 per cent level, required as fuel for atomic power plants, so long as the existing stockpile of this material remains unchanged.
This is possible if the freshly produced enriched uranium is either turned into fuel or diluted, so that overall 3.5 per cent stockpile with Iran does not expand.
In case an interim deal materialises, Iran is likely to get limited sanctions relief, amounting to less than $ 5 billion, to be released in phases over six months.
Reciprocity
It is estimated that sanctions have prevented Iran from accessing more than $20 billion of its foreign exchange reserves of $80 billion, with the rest being either frozen in European banks or accumulated with China, India , Japan, South Korea or Turkey — who are the principal buyers of Iranian crude.
The agreement, if realised, would have a six month life span — sufficient to work out a final and comprehensive deal, resting on the foundation of reciprocity.
U.S. officials accompanying Mr. Kerry in Geneva said the American delegation would continue “to help narrow the differences and move closer to an agreement.”
The U.S. top diplomat later closeted with Mr. Zarif and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
Prior to this meeting, Mr. Kerry and Mr. Lavrov had also talked for 30 minutes.
‘90 firms caused two thirds of climate emissions’
The climate crisis of the 21st century has been caused largely by just 90 companies, which among them produced nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions generated since the dawning of the industrial age, new research suggests.
The companies range from investor-owned firms — household names such as Chevron, Exxon and BP — to state-owned and government-run firms.
The research, which was welcomed by the former Vice-President, Al Gore, as a “crucial step forward,” found that the vast majority of the firms were in the business of producing oil, gas or coal, according to the analysis, which has been accepted for publication in the journal Climactic Change .
“There are thousands of oil, gas and coal producers in the world,” climate researcher and author Richard Heede at the Climate Accountability Institute in Colorado said. “But the decision makers, the CEOs, or the ministers of coal and oil if you narrow it down to just one person, they could all fit on a Greyhound bus or two.”
Half of the estimated emissions were produced just in the past 25 years — well past the date when governments and corporations became aware that rising greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of coal and oil were causing dangerous climate change.
Fossil fuel
Many of the same companies are also sitting on substantial reserves of fossil fuel which — if they are burned — puts the world at even greater risk of dangerous climate change. Climate change experts said the data set was the most ambitious effort so far to hold individual carbon producers, rather than governments, to account.
The United Nations climate change panel, the IPCC, warned in September that at current rates the world stood within 30 years of exhausting its “carbon budget” — the amount of carbon dioxide it could emit without going into the danger zone above two degree Celsius warming. Mr. Gore said the new carbon accounting could re-set the debate about allocating blame for the climate crisis.
Among them, the 90 companies on the list of top emitters produced 63 per cent of the cumulative global emissions of industrial carbon dioxide and methane between 1751 to 2010, amounting to about 914 gigatonne CO2 emissions, according to the research. All but seven of the 90 were energy companies producing oil, gas and coal. The remaining seven were cement manufacturers.
The list of 90 companies included 50 investor-owned firms — mainly oil companies with widely recognised names such as Chevron, Exxon, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell and coal producers such as British Coal Corp, Peabody Energy and BHP Billiton.
Some 31 of the companies that made the list were state-owned companies such as Saudi Arabia’s Saudi Aramco, Russia’s Gazprom and Norway’s Statoil.
Nine were government-run industries, producing mainly coal in countries such as China, the former Soviet Union, North Korea and Poland, the host of this week’s talks.
Experts familiar with Mr. Heede’s research and the politics of climate change said they hoped the analysis could help break the deadlock in international climate talks.
“It seemed like maybe this could break the logjam,” said Naomi Oreskes, professor of the history of science at Harvard. “There are all kinds of countries that have produced a tremendous amount of historical emissions that we do not normally talk about. We do not normally talk about Mexico or Poland or Venezuela.
So then it’s not just rich vs. poor, it is also producers vs. consumers, and resource rich vs. resource poor.”
Michael Mann, climate scientist, said he hoped the list would bring greater scrutiny to oil and coal companies’ deployment of their remaining reserves.
Others were less optimistic that a more comprehensive accounting of the sources of greenhouse gas emissions would make it easier to achieve the emissions reductions needed to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Climate denial
Meanwhile, Ms. Oreskes, who has written extensively about corporate-funded climate denial, noted that several of the top companies on the list had funded the climate denial movement.
The data represent eight years of exhaustive research into carbon emissions over time, as well as the ownership history of the major emitters.
The companies’ operations spanned the globe, with company headquarters in 43 different countries.
The largest of the investor-owned companies were responsible for an outsized share of emissions. Nearly 30 per cent of emissions were produced just by the top 20 companies, the research found.
By Mr. Heede’s calculation, government-run oil and coal companies in the former Soviet Union produced more greenhouse gas emissions than any other entity — just under 8.9 per cent of the total produced over time. China came a close second with its government-run entities accounting for 8.6 per cent of total global emissions.
The historic emissions record was constructed using public records and data from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Centre, and took account of emissions all along the supply chain.
The centre put global industrial emissions since 1751 at 1,450 gigatonnes. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2013
