Democracy

• The National Election Commission has asked all recognized national political parties for their opinion on state-funding of elections. The current proposal is not to provide cash but facilities such as free telephone, private cable and media time, and subsidized petrol/diesel for campaigns.

• The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has sought to create an ordinance to quash a High Court order that essentially rubbished a controversial Central law that granted the public-supported Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) a minority status. The Court also rejected as unconstitutional another Central Government order that granted reservation to Muslims in post-graduate courses. Reservation in India is focused on positively discriminating for groups who were victims of caste discrimination. The Constitution however explicitly disallows reservation for religious minorities because they do not claim to discriminate based on a person's caste. It also disallows an educational institution from getting state assistance if it benefits only one community. Legal experts expect the ordinance to be dead on arrival as the Supreme Court has repeatedly rejected similar previous efforts based on political considerations.

• Responding to a writ from Research Foundation for Science & Technology, the Supreme Court of India has asked the Federal Government to examine increasing cases of foreign companies patenting “ancient knowledge” as its own invention. The Supreme Court regretted that India was losing ground in fighting similar patents such as for Basmati rice, turmeric, and neem. The Foundation cited a case where the US corporate giant Monsanto acquired a patent for a “strain” of Indian wheat with clear documented history. Terming the patent as “intellectual piracy,” the Foundation says this practice is an invasion of the Indian farmers’ livelihood. The foundation asked for amendments in the Indian Patent Law seeking a ban on gene patenting, stricter corporate liability enforcement, and a system where to document, preserve, and protect the country’s rich biodiversity.

Environment

• The Chief Conservator of Forests in India has announced a new technology-driven study to take a census of the Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans. Bengal tigers are facing extinction because of rampant poaching (for their famed skin and bones required for Chinese medicine) and habitat loss due to human encroachment. The population has dropped to 3500 from 40,000 at the time of Indian Independence in 1947. According to Federal Government statistics, 114 tigers have vanished between 1999 and 2003; Of the 173 tigers found dead, only 59 were natural; poaching was most prevalent in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. In the meanwhile, the Supreme Court asked the Federal Government to decide within a week whether the probe into the causes for dwindling tiger population be entrusted to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

• Presenting at the 93rd Science Congress, many eminent scientists said that India could use existing technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions 417 million tones by 2012; this is a 33% reduction from current CO2 emissions. They pointed out that reducing dependence on coal for its energy requirements, not allowing environmentally-unsound glass buildings, reducing the number of old, inefficient vehicles are some ways to get to this target. As the fifth largest consumer of energy in the world, India derives 50% of this energy from coal.

Terrorism

• In an interview with the CNN, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf offered to join the fight against terror in Jammu & Kashmir. His proposal however, required the Indian Army out of Srinagar, Baramullah, and Kupwara. In a self-congratulatory manner, he complained about the lack of ideas from India and rubbished reports in the Pakistani media that said that elements within the Pakistani Army establishment were working against him in the fight against terror. He even alleged an Indian role in the opposition movement in the Baroach province of Pakistan but declined to provide any proof to substantiate these allegations. Predictably, the Indian Government dismissed these proposals and allegations arguing that Pakistani support for terrorism in Kashmir was well documented and that these ideas had no relevance to reality in the Indian state. India has asked Pakistan to honor its commitment of January 2004 to permanently end support for cross-border terrorism unconditionally. It also pointed out while the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed a democratically elected Government and autonomy under the federal structure of the Indian Constitution, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir has no such autonomy and Gilgit and Baltistan has never had democracy. 

• Evidence is emerging that lack of intelligence co-ordination, bureaucratic delays, and lack of seriousness may have resulted in the Dec 23 terrorist incident at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Mohammad Ashraf Paddar, a school teacher from Jammu & Kashmir, was found outside an military base and detained by military authorities on September 5. Per protocol, the military queried the Bangalore police on the antecedents of the individual. However, the Bangalore police queried its counterpart in J&K only on December 29. While Paddar has claimed innocence in the crime, investigators say that he has given many contradictory statements and is a prime suspect.

Neighbors

• Suspected suicide bombers of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) attacked an Israeli built Fast Attack Craft of the Sri Lankan navy killing at least 15 personnel. Analysts say that the tenuous Norwegenian-brokered peace between the Sri Lankan Government and the LTTE is on the verge of breakdown. The country is gradually drifting towards going back to the civil war that seriously damaged Sri Lankan economy and peace for the last 25 years. 26 security personnel and 50 civilians have died since December last year. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister praised India for its “proactive role” and support for Sri Lankan territorial integrity. 

• Militants of Pakistan's Northern Waristan region, neighboring Afghanistan, attacked a Pakistani paramilitary outpost killing at least 7 soldiers. The 'Tochi Scouts' were on an expedition to track and fight al Qaeda terrorists.

• After abruptly canceling its meeting with EU interlocutors (England, France, and Germany), Iran started a dialogue with Russia. Iran is under pressure from the EU-3, the United States, and Russia to abandon its plan to enrich nuclear fuel and instead accept Russia as a reliable supplier. As a Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) signatory, Iran has rights to generate nuclear power. However, increasing evidence is surfacing of clandestine efforts by Iran to procure technology that would enable it make nuclear bombs. The now out-caste A. Q. Khan network of Pakistan is now stated to have illegally sold this technology to Iran, North Korea, Libya, and another Western Asian country (suspected to be Saudi Arabia).

• Myanmar has hinted that it will be moving its capital from Yangon to a logging town 320 kilometers north called Pyinmanar. While the exact reasons are not known for this sudden move, rumors are rife ranging from a fear of an anticipated US invasion to astrological prediction to a feared unrest in Yangon. Myanmar has faced increasing criticism for its failure to respect human rights, bring democracy, and administrative reform. It brutally crushed a democratic uprising in 1998, rejected results of a national elections two years later, and incarcerated democratic icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

World

• A study by Nobel prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz from Columbia University, and Harvard University budget expert Linda Blimes says that the war in Iraq will cost the United States more than USD2 trillion. According to the authors, by not including medical, disability, healthcare, and ancillary effects on the US economy, the Government is grossly under-estimating the actual costs to the United States. The study says that the actual cost is more than 10 times the governmental estimates.

• Intermittent crimes by US naval personnel in Japan are increasingly alienating their welcome in that country. Recently, an unnamed sailor killed a 56 year old woman in a blotched attempt to steal her handbag. Last month, three Japanese school boys were injured by a hit-and-run accident by a sailor. In 1995, three sailors had raped a 12 year old girl in Okinawa.

• The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization has warned that millions of people in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti are on a brink of starvation. Crop failure and livestock depletion due to acute rain shortage has destroyed food supplies. Noted British medical journal Lancet has also highlighted that every month 38,000 people die in the Congo from easily treatable diseases. Congo, reeling from incessant civil war, is trying to reestablish authority with the help of 15,000 UN peacekeepers in preparation for nationwide elections later this year.

• As the rotating leader of the G-8 group of nations, Russia opposed the expansion of the body to include countries like China and India as they feared that they may bring an “element of conflict.” Russia pointed out to border issues between China and India and “crucial issues” between China and Japan (which is already a G-8 member).