Business & Economy

• The Government authorized the creation of a strategic oil reserve project under the control of the federal Oil Industry Development Board (OIDB). The project is expected to cost the country Rs.110,267 million.

• The Supreme Court has agreed to hear several cases filed in High Courts against the controversial Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT). The Government introduced this tax last year in an attempt to expand its direct taxation base and to curb disguised benefits paid to employees such as vacations, club memberships, etc. Businesses argued that while some companies indulged in such unscrupulous methods to avoid taxation, most did not and that business travel was not a benefit but a necessity. They also contest the Government assertion that this is a tax on income since such costs were really expenses. 

• Although India attracted USD 5.5 billion last year and is expecting to net more than USD 6 billion this year in Foreign Direct Investment, state-level administrative barriers have reduced the flow to only 60% of the projected amount.  Delays in the grant of clearances is cited as the primary culprit. An industry body FICCI has advocated a stability in policy making, removal of administrative and implementation obstacles, enforcement of intellectual property rights, and introduction of value-added tax (VAT) by all states as means to attract more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and to achieve double digit growth.

Democracy, Politics & Judiciary

• In a major directive, the Appellate Authority under the Right to Information Act (RTIA) has ruled that the assets and liabilities document of Government servants were public documents available to all citizens.

• The Supreme Court has directed all the courts in India not accept litigation against retired bureaucrats without a prior sanction from the Government. This ruling follows a spate of vindictive lawsuits against retired bureaucrats who opposed corruption and stopped irregularities. Several cases from Bihar targeted innocent and honest bureaucrats because they opposed the corruption in the previous Lalu/Rabri regime.

Environment, Society & Health

• Dirty or scarce water, choking air, and toxic factory effluents are some of the common problems fouling China's environment and its neighbors. Pre-occupied with social and economic relationships, Chinese have traditionally discounted concerns about its shoddy environment record as bourgeois indulgence. However, the recent disaster when China took more than 10 days to alert the international community and its neighbors about an explosion in a petrochemical plant that sent 100 tons of benzene compounds down the Amur river has seriously dented China's ambition of being viewed as a responsible global power. Chinese leaders are yet to comprehend the impact of this incident that resulted in smog over western United States, acid rain in South Korea and Japan, and destruction of forests in Africa on international relations. While leaders have pledged to address the "grim" environment situation with a blueprint to bring down pollution levels, their often un-thought through measures have spelt disasters to its neighbors. For example, China brought in a ban on logging in the late 1990s after deforestation was identified as the main reason for large-scale flooding that affected one-fifth of its population. However, lack of follow-through such as afforestation and clean up continue to affect lower riparian states. Nearly half of the world's population depends on water that originate in areas controlled by China.

• Federal Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss stated that companies manufacturing Ayurvedic drugs must certify that their products do not contain heavy metals. He said that the Government would invest Rs.1200 million in a program called the "Golden Triangle" to scientifically validate the manufacturing process. It is not clear if this move is to support a Communist political ally who is involved in a controversial and unsubstantiated fight against a popular Yoga teacher.

• A study published in the British medical journal "The Lancet" says that 10 million fetuses may have been aborted in India over the past 20 years because of ultrasound sex screening. Canadian and Indian researchers analyzed data from a national survey that included 1.1 million households in 1998. They found that the certainty of a sex-based abortion increased if the preceding child was a girl. They surmise that based on natural sex ratios in other countries, around 13.6-13.8 million girls should have been born in India in 1997. However, the actual number was 13.1 million and the missing presumed aborted. An interesting finding was that the "girl deficit" was higher in educated mothers than illiterate women.