Political and Social Issues: 29th, 30th and 31st Oct, 2011

Tourists held hostage in Lakshadweep

Intervention by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi helped rescue some 135 tourists in Lakshadweep after they were held hostage by the local people
Tourists — including over 30 children and some government officials — came from various parts of the mainland. They were holidaying when they were “captured” by some local people in Kalpeni Island. The captors were using the tourists to highlight grievances against the local administration. About 35 tourists hailed from Gujarat.
Mr. Kumar, with the help of the local police and other officials, held negotiations with the captors. After the administration promised the locals that their problems would be solved, the hostages were released.

Mentally challenged man acquitted of rape charges

A 33-year-old mentally challenged man who would have allegedly raped an eight-year-old girl had it not been for the timely intervention of her mother has been acquitted of all charges and freed by a Karkardooma sessions court here on the basis of the testimony of his psychiatrists who termed his mental growth to be that of a seven-year-old.
His case falls under general exceptions provided under Section 82 of the IPC which says that nothing is an offence which is done by a child under seven years of age.
Dr. Vibha Sharma also diagnosed the accused to be a case of moderate mental retardation with an IQ score of 46 and mental age of seven. According to her, the accused was suffering from unsoundness of mind, incapable of understanding the nature of the alleged act done by him or understanding the offence or its implications. He has been cleared of charges under Section 376 (Punishment for rape) and Section 511 (Punishment for attempting to commit offences punishable with imprisonment for life or other imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code.

“Crux of education should lie in identifying innovators”

Often, we come across people with relentless curiosity, tenacity and who come with a degree of irreverence. They are there in schools, organisations and in board of directors in a company.
Identifying these three aspects as key traits of innovators
research on business schools in the US and the last four months in India has shown that the business schools were not certainly helping the students to think innovatively.
Research on successful companies like GE, HP and Tata has revealed that there were bursts of innovation at points of time which was one of the prime reasons for the success of the companies over a long period of time.
“Kids are full of innovation. In US, a 13-year old kid has developed a way of designing solar cells based on observation of leaves designed by nature to receive maximum lighting from the sun,”
With respect to the question of whether innovation can be taught, the Harvard professor said, “I don't think so. It can be triggered, provoked and stimulated. The larger the problem, the more innovation you need,”

Turmoil has taken a toll on psychological health of Kashmiris, says NGO report

The 20-year turmoil in Kashmir has led to an increase in psychological problems among the populace as traditional mechanisms of mental care have deteriorated due to the conflict
A sense of insecurity, exposure to sufferings, abuse, instigation to and participation in violence, a choked atmosphere that blocks avenues of expression and humiliation and torture, were some of the reasons
Among other causes include: death of those in proximity, rape, feeling for revenge, tragedies, the breakdown of the family structure, all of which were consequences of conflict situations
Also, the Mental Health Act of 1987 makes it obligatory for the State to create a mechanism for licensing and monitoring mental health care facilities
The State has created such authority, but it remains non-functional as there are no recognised mental health care facilities in private State sector.
consultation facility was only available at the Government Psychiatric Hospital, while no such facilities were available at primary or secondary health care institutions
There is a high incidence of psychiatric disorders among those who are in jails and other detention centres.
For this purpose, the study suggests creation of a mental health manual so that everyone involved in mental healthcare is familiar with his assignments and responsibilities

Bring electronic media under Press Council: Katju

Press Council Chairman Markandey Katju has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh suggesting that the electronic media be brought under its purview.
“I want powers to stop government advertisement. I want to suspend the licence of that media for a certain period if it behaves in a very obnoxious manner, impose fines.” However, he said that all these measures would be used only in extreme situations.
Asked whether these measures would not threaten the freedom of the media, he said, “Everybody is accountable in a democracy. No freedom is absolute. Every freedom is subject to reasonable restrictions. I am accountable, you are accountable, and we are accountable to the people.”
They are not working for the interest of the people and sometime they are positively working in an anti-people manner. It often diverts the attention of the people from the real problems which are basically economic.
Eighty per cent of people are living in horrible poverty, unemployment, facing price rise, health care (problems). You (media) divert the attention from those problems and instead you project film stars and fashion parades as if they are the problems of the people
“Cricket is an opium of the masses. Roman emperors used to say if you cannot give the people bread give them circuses. In India send them to cricket if you cannot give the people bread.”
The Council Chairman said, “Whenever bomb blasts take place in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, within a few hours almost every channel starts showing an e-mail has come or an sms has come that Indian Mujahideen has claimed responsibility or Jaish-e-Mohammed or Harkat-ul-Ansar or some Muslim name,” he said. “You see e-mail or sms...any mischievous person can send but by showing it on TV channels you are in a subtle way conveying the message that all Muslims are terrorists and bomb throwers and you are demonising the Muslims...99 per cent of people of all communities are good people,” Justice Katju said. “I think it is a deliberate action of the media to divide the people on religious lines and that is totally against the national interest,” he said.

The ‘fine' line between freedom and chains

Even after having served their prison term, more than 125 prisoners, including 25 women, are serving an extended term in Bangalore Central Prison on account of their inability to pay fines levied on them.
After the completion of her term, she spent another 18 months in the Parappana Agrahara prison as she could not pay up the penalty of Rs. 93,000.
“As many as 25 women in the prison have to pay fines cumulatively amounting to Rs. 6 lakh, while more than 100 male prisoners need to pay fines totalling Rs. 1 crore,”
Most prisoners try to earn money by working in prison, but with just Rs. 50 being paid for a whole day's work, and most of it given to their families outside, inmates save little to pay the penalty amount.
NGOs are hesitant to come forward and pay the amount. Even those that offer to pay, cannot meet the entire penalty amount
NGOs are selective when paying for the fine. They select people who they think committed the crime due to circumstances.

IPS officers undergo strategic training at Cambridge

Eighty senior IPS officers in the ranks of Deputy Inspector- General and Inspector-General on Saturday completed their eight-week course in strategic management at the Cambridge University,
The issues covered in these presentations included corruption investigation, counter-terrorism, and interrogation methods.
The IPS officers showed an impressive interest in advancing the science of policing by conducting pioneering new experiments in crime prevention on the rigorous model of medical clinical trials.
With the completion of training for the third batch, 300 senior IPS officers of the rank DIG and IG have been trained so far under the mid-career training programme.

The risks arising from Asia's water stress

Water, the most vital of all resources, has emerged as a key issue that would determine if Asia is headed toward cooperation or competition. After all, the driest continent in the world is not Africa but Asia, where availability of freshwater is not even half the global annual average of 6,380 cubic metres per inhabitant.
Water, the most vital of all resources, has emerged as a key issue that would determine if Asia is headed toward cooperation or competition. After all, the driest continent in the world is not Africa but Asia
When the estimated reserves of rivers, lakes, and aquifers are added up, Asia has less than one-tenth of the waters of South America, Australia and New Zealand, not even one-fourth of North America, almost one-third of Europe, and moderately less than Africa per inhabitant.
Today, the fastest-growing Asian economies are all at or near water-stressed conditions, including China, India, South Korea, Vietnam, and Indonesia. But just three or four decades ago, these economies were relatively free of water stress.
It is no exaggeration to say that the water crisis threatens Asia's economic and political rise and its environmental sustainability.
These developments raise the question whether the risks of water conflict are higher in Asia than elsewhere in the world.
In fact, water wars — in a political, diplomatic, or economic sense — are already being waged between riparian neighbours in several Asian regions, fuelling a cycle of bitter recrimination and fostering mistrust that impedes broader regional cooperation and integration.
The resources of transnational rivers, aquifers, and lakes have become the target of rival appropriation plans.
China's Great Western Route to divert river waters from the Tibetan Plateau to its parched north and South Korea's politically divisive four-rivers project, to India's now-stalled proposal to link up its important rivers and Jordan's plan to save the dying Dead Sea by bringing water from the Red Sea through a 178-kilometre-long canal, which is also to serve as a source for desalinated drinking water.
How the swift economic rise of Asia has brought water resources under increasing pressure can be seen from the fact that most Asian economies now are water-stressed. The exceptions are few: Bhutan, Burma, Papua New Guinea, Laos, Cambodia, Brunei, and Malaysia.
Another factor is consumption growth, as a consequence of rising prosperity. The plain fact is that the average Asian is consuming more resources, including water, food, oil, and energy. The consumption growth is best illustrated by the changing diets, especially the greater intake of meat, whose production is notoriously water-intensive.
About 70 per cent of the world's 301 million hectares of land equipped for irrigation is in Asia alone, making it the global irrigation hub. Just three sub-regions of Asia—South Asia, China, and Southeast Asia — by themselves account for about 50 per cent of the world's total irrigated land.
the fastest increase in water demand in Asia is now coming not from agriculture but from the industrial sector and urban households, in keeping with the fact that this continent has become the seat of the world's fastest industrialisation and urbanisation.
A final factor linked to Asia's water stress is the large-scale impoundment of water resources through dams, barrages, reservoirs, and other human-made structures without factoring in long-term environmental considerations.
Dams can also alter fluvial ecosystems, damage biodiversity, and promote coastal erosion and saltwater intrusion.
Asia is not just the global irrigation hub; it is also the world's most dam-dotted continent. China, the world's biggest dam builder, alone has slightly more than half of the approximately 50,000 large dams on the planet. Most of the best dam sites in Asia already have been taken.
The countries likely to bear the brunt of upstream diversion of waters are those located farthest downstream on rivers like the Brahmaputra, Mekong, and Tigris-Euphrates: Bangladesh, whose very future is threatened by climate and environmental change; Vietnam, a rice bowl of Asia; and Iraq, still internally torn. Cross-border water appropriations from the Illy River threaten to turn Kazakhstan's Lake Balkhash into another Aral Sea, which is dying.
The harsh truth is that only four of the 57 transnational river basins in Asia have a treaty covering water sharing or other institutionalised cooperation. These are the Mekong, Ganges, Indus and Jordan river basins. The absence of a cooperative arrangement in most Asian transnational basins is making inter-country water competition a major security risk, increasing the likelihood of geopolitical tensions and instabilities.
With its multitude of inter-country basins, Asia cannot continue to prosper without building political and technological partnerships to help stabilise inter-riparian relations, encourage greater water efficiency, promote environmental sustainability, take on practicable conservation strategies, and invest in clean-water technologies.
If Asian states are to address their water challenges, they will need to embrace good practices on the strategic planning and management of water resources.