Today's Hot Stories - April 12, 2014
10 Headlines for Today(1) EC bans Amit Shah, Azam Khan rallies
(2) SC declines plea to reconstitute SIT on Gujarat riots
(3) Iraq deputy PM escapes assassination attempt
(4) With Shibulal set to exit early, Infosys starts new CEO search
(5) Gamesa aims at taller, more efficient turbines
(6) Greek bond issue raises 3 billion euros
(7) Manavjit shoots past Olympic champ Diamond to win gold
(8) Srikanth enters semis; Sindhu bows out of Singapore Open
(9) IPL-7: Sunrisers looking to shine brighter
(10) Tobacco use accounts for 40 per cent of all cancers in India, says report
5 Stories for Today
(1) From reforms to share in political pie
(2) Another quake shakes Nicaragua, nation on alert
(3) Recovery hopes amid second year of fall in car sales
(4) China takes on big risks in its push for shale gas
(5) 'PM Manmohan Singh had limitations to push reforms in sector'
(1) From reforms to share in political pie
Competing for a common legacy, Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu are also contestants for high stakes on the national electoral scene
In the realm of both culture and politics, icons and values are often reinvented by invoking the ‘back-to-the-roots mantra’.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s just-in-time manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, bringing back contentious issues like building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and having a uniform civil code, however couched in cautious language, have instantly provided a springboard for the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in Tamil Nadu to revisit its
‘Dravidian roots’.
“By brazenly declaring ‘we will build a Ram temple in Ayodhya’ in its election manifesto, the BJP is only reinforcing its brand of Hindu nationalism that will polarise society on communal lines,” countered the DMK’s treasurer and leader-in-waiting, M.K. Stalin, campaigning for its central Chennai candidate, Dayanidhi Maran, where Christians and Muslims form a good chunk of the voters.
At one go, the BJP’s manifesto partly de-emphasised the obsession with Narendra Modi, its prime ministerial candidate. This is ‘manna from heaven’ for the DMK to revisit its core ideology that has defined the ‘Dravidian Movement’, whose roots go back to the ‘Non-Brahmin Movement’ of the Justice Party in the erstwhile Madras Presidency since the second decade of 1900s’. Vadakku Valargirathu, Therukku Theygirathu (North India prospers, the South languishes) has been a slogan much popularised by the DMK and its immediate historical predecessor, the ‘Dravida Kazhagam (DK)’, which explained the rationale of DMK’s vociferous opposition to Hindi imposition and the ‘North Indian Braminical hegemony’ both economically and culturally.
The DMK’s founder-leader C.N. Annadurai’s famous maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha in the early 1960s that he took “pride” in belonging to the “Dravidian stock” which had something unique to contribute to India’s history, culture and diversity, only underscored the ethnic tinge to the shorthand word, ‘Tamil pride’.
That speech is still like the Bible for DMK leaders. The party patriarch, M. Karunanidhi, in his campaign rallies, echoed that, “neither let Hindi nor Narendra Modi into Tamil Nadu.” But, obviously, its rhetorical force is considerably less now. No wonder, actor Kushboo, campaigning for the DMK, was in full flow in Hindi on a whistle-stop tour of Coimbatore that has a considerable Hindi-speaking electorate, more Gujaratis at that!
And this brings us to the central question of the contradictions emerging over the decades in the ‘Dravidian Movement’, whose main political face has been the DMK in post-Independent India. Notable offshoots of the DMK, namely, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) founded by the charismatic actor-turned-leader M.G. Ramachandran and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) led by Vaiko, lay equal claim to this movement’s legacy. It still keeps the fierce ‘intra-Dravidian Movement competition’ alive.
While the mainstreaming of these regional parties over time has been a feature of the coalition era, it is the Congress that has substantially lost ground, more so after it lost power here in 1967. In more recent years, the BJP as a ‘nationalist alternative’ has tried plugging this gap, but in vain.
The Dravidian parties believe both in the politics of assertion on core issues like upholding caste reservation levels and in co-option and accommodation on larger national issues. The DMK gave up its separate ‘Dravida Naadu’ demand even in the early 1960s. “Despite defeating the Congress in the State in 1967, the DMK supported Indira Gandhi’s progressive measures like bank nationalisation and privy purses abolition in Parliament,” said Mr. Karunanidhi once, to drive home this give-and-take policy. But there have been confrontationist phases too, as seen in the Cauvery and Sri Lankan Tamils issues.
The dominant regional parties, DMK and AIADMK, continue to call the shots, even though the logic of ‘alliance politics’ has made them ally with both Congress and the BJP. The 2014 Lok Sabha polls marks a watershed in the sense as both DMK and AIADMK are going it alone, sans any alliance with any national party this time, including the Left parties, CPI and CPI(M).
BJP alliance
After very hard bargaining, the BJP on the other hand, in a bid to maximise the encashment value of the ‘Modi factor’ ,has managed to cobble up a ‘grand alliance’ with a slew of parties like the OBC Vanniyar-based Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), and slightly broad-based outfits like actor Vijayakant-led Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) and the MDMK.
Though the BJP will now be contesting only seven seats with the DMDK, taking the lion’s share of 14 seats in the alliance, in some pockets the saffron party might well eat into the AIADMK’s vote-share, which is seen more as a ‘natural ally’ of the BJP than the DMK. But both the Dravidian majors hope to build on their respective solid bases. “You still can’t rule out a post-poll support for the BJP by the DMK,” warns senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram.
While both the DMK and AIADMK have upped their stake in national politics, more so in the economic liberalisation era since the early 1990s, their priorities differ. Sensing that the BJP will not cross the ‘272 plus’ mark on its own, the AIADMK supremo, Jayalalithaa, has pitched for winning all the 40 seats at stake in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, to help lead a coalition of regional parties at the Centre with outside support of others.
As a serious player in Delhi, Ms. Jayalalithaa may have to recast her domineering functioning style. But the imperturbable Mr. Stalin’s priority is to protect his regional turf from any erosion by DMK’s enfant terrible and his elder brother M K Alagiri. Mr. Stalin looks to the wider canvas of the 2016 Assembly elections in the State, as much as Vijayakant does. .
A.R. Venkatachalapathy, noted historian and Professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies says the leadership transition in the DMK will be smooth. But one substantial difference will be that the party when Mr. Stalin takes over “will be ideologically vacuous”. And that difference will be felt. He does not see any difference in the AIADMK leader's style of functioning in the last ten years. “Ms. Jayalalithaa has always played for high stakes; as always she feels besieged and persecuted.”
Source: The Hindu
(2) Another quake shakes Nicaragua, nation on alert
A magnitude-6.6 earthquake shook Nicaragua on Friday afternoon, sending people running frightened into the streets less than 24 hours after a magnitude-6.1 quake rattled the Central American country.
There were no immediate reports of new casualties or serious damage, but the US Geological Survey said the quake was felt in El Salvador and neighboring Costa Rica.
The new tremor, centered 34 miles (56 kilometers) south of the capital city of Managua, surprised people at restaurants and supermarkets, where the shelves swayed strongly, throwing many products to the ground.
It also disrupted the water service in many towns around the capital, where people continued to feel aftershocks as the government deployed soldiers and police officers to oversee emergency response.
Firefighters paid visits to villages south of Managua and reported seeing cracking in the walls of houses and other buildings.
"There are a lot of homes that will have to be demolished completely," said Rosario Murillo, government spokeswoman and Nicaragua's first lady.
Earlier, the government raised the number of people injured in the Thursday evening quake from 23 to 200. It also said that a 23-year-old woman had died of an apparent heart attack after the quake. No deaths had been reported as a result of Friday's shake.
Although the magnitude of Friday's earthquake was higher, it struck much deeper, making it less likely to cause damage.
In the capital city of Managua, 300 homes were damaged and at least 20 were destroyed by Thursday's quake, said one of the mayor's deputies, Fidel Moreno.
Authorities ordered the demolition of two old buildings that had withstood the earthquake of 1972 that killed 10,000 people. Hospitals began discharging patients with minor illnesses so they could have beds available in the event of injuries from an aftershock or new quake.
President Daniel Ortega said that he raised the country's alert level to red, meaning government officials were evacuating everyone at risk of harm from aftershocks or new quake.
The alert also meant schools and businesses closed in the capital and in the northwestern city of Leon. There was much less traffic in the streets.
Despite the warnings, hundreds had gathered at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Managua for a religious act in preparation for Holy Week when the stronger earthquake hit.
"We were feeling better even though there were some aftershocks but this last quake was very strong. We are worried again," said Miguel Ugarte.
On Thursday night, officials took 155 people out of neighborhoods northeast of the capital city due to risk of landslides. One of the shelters was still housing 22 families on Friday.
The government said roughly 800 homes were damaged in the town of Nagarote and surrounding areas, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of the capital.
Friday's quake struck at 3:29 pm local time (20:29 GMT), and was centered about 6 miles (11 kilometers) east-southeast of the town of Nandaime. It had a depth of 85 miles (138 kilometers).
The USGS said Thursday's quake struck at 5:27 pm local time (23:27 GMT), and was centered about 11 miles (18 kilometers) southeast of the city of Larreynaga. It had a depth of 6.2 miles (10 kilometers).
Source: The Times of India
(3) Recovery hopes amid second year of fall in car sales
Not fancy growth but some moderate improvement likely, says SIAM President
Even as car sales declined for the second year in a row by nearly 5 per cent in 2013-14, industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Friday said it was hopeful of slight recovery in the current fiscal in line with the expectation of an overall economic recovery and also some tax reliefs from the new government.
Domestic car sales in 2013-14 stood at 17.87 lakh units or 4.65 per cent lower than the previous year, according to the data released by SIAM. In 2012-13, car sales had dropped for the first time in a decade, by 6.69 per cent.
For overall passenger vehicles segment (which included cars, utility vehicles and vans), data show a decline for the first time in a decade dropping by 6.1 per cent during the year as a result of continued economic slowdown, weak consumer sentiments, rising fuel prices and high interest rates.
“Not fancy (car sales) growth but hopefully some moderate growth because there has been marginal improvement in GDP numbers in recent months,” SIAM President Vikram Kirloskar said when asked about his outlook for the current fiscal. He, however, declined to project any growth numbers. He was speaking to reporters here after the release of the data.
Asked about the expectations of the industry from the new government, he said, “Any new government that comes in will try to improve economic situation…we hope that a lot of knots that have come in the system are untied…we hope the excise duty cut will remain. There is room for further reduction in taxes as auto industry is one of the most taxed sectors.”
Mr. Kirloskar explained that the budget’s cut in excise duty on vehicles had not spurred sales growth as vehicles carrying the lower excise duty have just about begun entering dealer inventories and showrooms. So far, stocks were those from before the duty cut was announced in February. Other factors keeping potential car buyers away are high interest rates on car loans and the sentiment of poor job security owing to the economic slowdown, he added.
Consultancy firm PriceWaterhouse said it expected the passenger vehicle segment to bounce back latest by the first quarter of 2015. “While there may not be a strong growth, it could witness a growth of 3-5 per cent for the current fiscal year, that is, 2014-15. Medium to long term growth prospects of the industry, that is, 2016-20 continues to be bright,” PriceWaterhouse auto expert and partner Abdul Majeed said. Rakesh Batra, Partner & National Leader-Automotive Practice, EY, said, “FY14 turned out to be a difficult year for the Indian automotive industry.”
Mr. Kirloskar added that the slowdown in the sector had also led to job losses in the industry.
SIAM had not calculated the quantum of job losses, he said, adding, “I personally feel that across the entire value chain in the auto industry, from raw materials to dealerships, there could be around 1-1.5 lakh job losses”.
Additionally, Mr. Batra said auto manufacturers’ bottom lines were under “severe pressure” on two accounts: low capacity utilisation due to production cuts in the face of low demand and heavy expenditure on marketing. “So even government’s efforts to provide some respite to the sector by reduction in the excise duty in February this year has failed to attract many buyers in a market that is waiting to stabilise post the on-going polls,” he said. To beat slowdown, companies launched about 35 new cars in the market during the year besides introducing about 51 variant models. Introduction of new models normally entails heavy marketing costs. As per the data, commercial vehicles continued to reel under a prolonged slump, posting a decline of 20.23 per cent at 6.34 lakh units against 7.93 lakh units in the earlier fiscal. “Apart from the economic slowdown, commercial vehicle (CV) demand has been negatively affected by a slowdown in industrial output, a gradual rise in diesel prices, a slowdown in new infrastructural projects, and a ban on mining in certain states,” Mr. Batra said.
Two-wheelers, however, posted good growth of 7.31 per cent, helped by demand in rural areas, pushing total vehicle sales across categories during the year into the positive territory, lifting total vehicle sales by 3.53 per cent in 2013-14 to 1.84 crore units.
Source: The Economic Times
(4) China takes on big risks in its push for shale gas
Residents of this isolated mountain valley of terraced cornfields were just going to sleep last April when they were jolted by an enormous roar, followed by a tower of flames. A shock wave rolled across the valley, rattling windows in farmhouses and village shops, and a mysterious, pungent gas swiftly pervaded homes.
"It was so scary - everyone who had a car fled the village and the rest of us without cars just stayed and waited to die," said Zhang Mengsu, a hardware store owner.
All too quickly, residents realized the source of the midnight fireball: a shale gas drilling rig in their tiny rural hamlet.
This verdant valley represents the latest frontier in the worldwide hunt for shale gas retrievable by the technology of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. It is a drilling boom that has upended the energy industry and spurred billions of dollars of investment.
Like the United States and Europe, China wants to wean itself from its dependence on energy imports - and in Jiaoshizhen, the Chinese energy giant Sinopec says it has made the country's first commercially viable shale gas discovery. Its efforts could also help address another urgent issue, as Beijing looks to curb an overwhelming reliance on coal that has blackened skies and made China the largest contributor to global warming.
But the path to energy independence and a cleaner fossil fuel is fraught with potential pitfalls. Threats to workplace safety, public health and the environment all loom large in the shale gas debate - and the question is whether those short-term risks threaten to undermine China's long-term goal.
The energy industry around the world has faced criticism about the economic viability of vast shale projects and the environmental impact of the fracking process. But interviews with residents of six hamlets here where drilling is being done, as well as with executives and experts in Beijing, the United States and Europe, suggest that China's search poses even greater challenges.
In China, companies must drill two to three times as deep as in the United States, making the process significantly more expensive, noisier and potentially more dangerous. Chinese energy giants also operate in strict secrecy; they rarely engage with local communities, and accidents claim a high death toll.
The still-disputed incident in Jiaoshizhen has raised serious concerns among its residents.
Villagers said that employees at the time told them that eight workers died when the rig exploded that night. Sinopec officials and village leaders then ordered residents not to discuss the event, according to the villagers. Now villagers complain of fouled streams and polluted fields.
"There was a huge ball of fire," said Liu Jiazhen, a mustard greens farmer with three children who lives a five-minute walk from the site. "The managers here all raced for their lives up the hill."
Liu said that the flames rose higher than the pines on a nearby ridge, covering the steel frame of the rig, which is nearly 100 feet high. The flames burned for hours, she said.
Sinopec describes the incident as a controlled flaring of gas and denies that anybody died. While the company would not speak in detail about its shale projects, Sinopec said it ran its operations safely and without harm to the environment.
Li Chunguang, the president of Sinopec, said in an interview in late March that nothing had gone wrong in Jiaoshizhen. "There is no basis for this," he said.
The bustling activity in Jiaoshizhen indicates a significant find for Sinopec.
Feeder pipes connect some of the dozen or so drilling sites, and 100 more wells are planned. Bright blue, boxy equipment for gas compression is being installed on large, flat lots next to at least two of the drilling rigs. A two-lane road has been paved across a mountain pass from Fuling, the nearest city, to help carry the 1,100 truckloads of steel, cement and other supplies needed for each well.
The valley has been so isolated for centuries that residents of its 16 hamlets still speak a dialect that is distinct even from Fuling, 13 miles away. Jiaoshizhen had only two-story concrete buildings and single-story mud brick farmhouses last August; Sinopec workers lived in trailers while managers rented the upstairs of concrete homes. On a visit six months later, at least 20 tower cranes were erecting high-rises.
The gas field in Jiaoshizhen "is the closest we have in China to a breakthrough project," said Gavin Thompson, the head of Asia and Pacific gas and power research at Wood Mackenzie, one of the largest energy consulting companies. He noted, however, that Sinopec was providing few details and that he, like most Western experts, had not been able to visit the valley.
Chris Faulkner, the chief executive and president of Breitling Energy, a Dallas company that has advised Sinopec on its drilling in western China for four years, said that the energy giants' reluctance to have open discussions about health, safety and environmental issues might prompt communities to fear the worst.
"If they think that they're going to go out and drill 1,000 wells, and no one is going to Google 'fracking,' they're fools," he said, adding that even in China, "the days of 'shut up and be quiet' are gone."
The Chinese energy giants have plenty of money to fund their efforts. Sinopec has one million employees and is the world's fourth-largest company by revenue after Royal Dutch Shell, Walmart and Exxon Mobil; the fifth-largest is China National Petroleum. With their deep pockets, the companies have been investing heavily in North American shale businesses; Sinopec paid $2.2 billion in 2012 for a 30 percent stake in Devon Energy's shale gas and oil operations in the United States.
In China, workplace safety is a significant concern. Thousands die each year in coal mines, according to government statistics that have prompted a successful national crackdown over the last decade.
Scant information is publicly available about the safety and environmental records of the politically powerful, mostly state-owned oil and gas industry. But Sinopec has acknowledged two deadly accidents in the last year, albeit not related to fracking. An oil pipeline explosion in Qingdao killed 62 and injured 136, and a cooking gas explosion in Dongguan killed one.
In Jiaoshizhen, after the blast, worries linger about the impact on the residents' health and their fields.
Villagers said in interviews in August and February that the fast-spreading gas they encountered last year had been foul-smelling. Sinopec said that it had done air tests and not found any toxic pollution, although it declined to identify the gas.
The gas evoked particular fear here because drilling by China National Petroleum in 2003 about 120 miles to the northeast released toxic gases that killed 243 people and sickened thousands. That accident involved conventional gas exploration, however, not fracking.
Residents here also worry about diesel runoff from the drilling sites, tainting local streams and at least one shallow well. The drilling "makes so much noise and the water that comes down the mountain has become so much dirtier to drink; now it smells of diesel," said Tian Shiao Yung, a farmer.
Sinopec said that it temporarily provided drinking water to residents after drilling foam surfaced in a nearby cave last spring, and it changed its drilling practice. The company said that subsequent tests had shown the local water to be "drinkable."
Despite her complaints, Tian, like every other resident interviewed, welcomed the drilling for one reason: money.
Sinopec rents land from farmers for 9,000 renminbi, or $1,475, per acre each year. Farmers earn that much money from growing crops only in the best years, and then after hundreds of hours of labor.
"Farmers don't mind; now they can buy their rice instead of having to grow it," Tian said, adding: "I'm still drinking the water."
Source: Hindustan Times
(5) 'PM Manmohan Singh had limitations to push reforms in sector'
Former coal secretary PC Parakh has said that when he complained to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 about the rude behaviour of Members of Parliament (MPs) and threatened to resign, the latter told him he, too, was faced with similar incidents.
“The Prime Minister expressed anguish and stated that he faced similar problems every day. But it would not be in the national interest if he was to offer his resignation on every such issue,” he said.
Parakh has been named in an FIR by the Central Bureau of Investigation for allotment of a coal block to Aditya Birla Group company, Hindalco, during his tenure as coal secretary. In his forthcoming book, ‘Crusader or Conspirator? Coalgate and other truths’, to be released on Monday, Parakh has denied all the charges and also reiterated that Singh did not put any pressure on him or other officers to change rules to favour any party.
But at the same time in events like where MPs blocked reforms in the sector, Singh offered no solution but asked him to continue. “It became clear to me there was little chance of lasting reform in the coal sector with the limitations within which the Prime Minister functioned,” he added.
He also said that while Singh planned several initiatives for the coal sector, he was unable to override ministers like Shibu Soren. A chairman and managing director of Coal India, whom the Prime Minister favoured, was appointed to the post only after Soren resigned from the coal ministry. “I doubt if this would have been possible if Soren was minister.”
About the CBI charges, Parakh denies them strongly but provides no new evidence about them. He claims that the agency’s director Ranjit Sinha has allegedly abused office to “accuse” Kumar Mangalam Birla and Parakh. “I can say ... that the CBI is either outright incompetent or playing a deeper game, which I do not understand,” he said.
Parakh was coal secretary from April 2004 to December 2005. Recalling his interactions with the agency before the registration of a FIR against him and Birla last year, he said inspector-level officers were deputed to argue with him why his recommendation for Talabira-II coal block differed from that of the inter-ministerial screening committee.
He said that he stood by his decision to do so “just as allocation of other blocks benefited hundreds of other private firms”.
Alleging that the CBI has based its case against him on questionable premises, Parakh, in his book, posed few queries for Sinha asking how his agency conclude that Talabira II was reserved for public sector companies. If it was so, then how did Hindalco apply for it and the then screening committee considered it.
“Did the CBI publicise this false information merely to malign my image?” he asked.
Source: The Indian Express
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