World Environment Day this year highlights the importance of careful consumption that minimises waste

The man who plants a tree is one who is giving a lasting gift to humanity, says the Rig Veda. The Father of our Nation Mahatma Gandhi says ““Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.”  Again, as an African proverb reminds us “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.

World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated every year on 5 June to raise global awareness about environmental action for protecting nature and the Earth. It is primarily an initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). It also serves as the ‘people’s day’ for doing something positive for the environment, galvanizing individual actions into a collective power that generates an exponential positive impact on the planet.

The day is being celebrated all over the world and it has enjoyed relative success in achieving carbon neutrality, focusing on the forest management, reducing greenhouse effects, promoting bio-fuels production by planting on degraded lands, use of hydro-power to enhance electricity production, encourage common public to use solar water heaters, energy production through solar sources, developing new drainage systems, promoting coral reefs and mangroves restoration in order to get prevented from flooding and erosion including other ways of environmental preservation.

Seven Billion Dreams

Many of the Earth’s ecosystems are nearing critical tipping points of depletion or irreversible change, pushed by high population growth and economic development. By 2050, if current consumption and production patterns remain the same and with a rising population expected to reach 9.6 billion, we will need three planets to sustain our ways of living and consumption.

Against this back ground the WED theme for this year is "Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care."

In simple words this means living sustainably. Just changing your routine so that the use of your car can be reduced and become part of a car pool; or better still, use public transport as far as possible! Carry a cloth bag with you in your brief case so that the use of plastic bags when shopping can be minimised as far as possible. Walk to the nearby shopping complex, the milk booth or the local library! All these are small activities that any contentious citizen can add to their own life styles!

Living within planetary boundaries is the most promising strategy for ensuring a healthy future. Human prosperity need not cost the earth. Living sustainably is about doing more and better with less. It is all about becoming increasingly aware that rising rates of natural resource use and the environmental impacts that such usage invariably beget are not the invariably necessary by-product of economic growth. The well-being of humanity, the environment, and the functioning of the economy, ultimately depend upon the responsible management of the planet’s natural resources. And yet, evidence is building that people are consuming far more natural resources than what the planet can sustainably provide.

A personal anecdote

Saraswathi Ammal, of Sulur, near Coimbatotre, Tamilnadu, is a person who personifies the ethos of this year’s WED theme. Every day begins for her with the watering of a small cluster of thulsi (basil) plants that adorn her small but colourful garden, filled with various flowering plants as well as fresh vegetables.

Vegetables for her daily consumption are usually got from this garden. She also has developed the quaint, but charming, habit of presenting neighbours with a bunch of fresh flowers and vegetables on their birth days, marriage anniversaries etc!

Every Action Counts

WED is the opportunity for everyone to realize the responsibility to care for the Earth and to become agents of change. As U N Secretary General Mr Ban Ki Moon exhorted, "Although individual decisions may seem small in the face of global threats and trends, when billions of people join forces in common purpose, we can make a tremendous difference."

Through decades of WED celebrations, hundreds of thousands of people from countries all over the world and from all sectors of society have participated in individual and organized environmental action. WED 2014 received a total of 6,437 pledges and over 3,000 activities were registered online, resulting in a total of about 9,700 which is triple to the previous two years.

The DFP

The Directorate of Field Publicity Units of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting are conducting rural programmes on WED on a nationwide level. These activities are largely based on rural schools and colleges. Quiz programmes, exhibition of short films on nature preservation, seminars and lectures with power point presentations on environmental friendly living habits etc will form the focal theme of the awareness programmes.

Every year June 5 is being observed as World Environment Day.

GST: Good for business, snag for federalism?

The GST is a tax reform that has been on the cards for more than a decade. In principle, it is the same as the Value-added Tax (VAT) — already adopted by all Indian States — but with a wider base. While the VAT — which replaced the sales tax — was imposed only on goods, the GST will be a VAT on goods and services.

In the current tax regime, States tax sale of goods but not services. The Centre taxes manufacturing and services but not wholesale/retail trade. The GST is expected to usher in a uniform tax regime across India through an expansion of the base of each into the other’s territory. This is why a constitutional amendment was necessary — to give concurrent powers to both the States and the Centre to make laws on the taxation of goods as well as services.

Not surprisingly, the economic arguments trotted out in favour of the GST are basically the same as were given two decades ago for the introduction of VAT. These are twofold.

First, the GST, by subsuming an array of indirect taxes under one rubric, will simplify tax administration, improve compliance, and eliminate economic distortions in production, trade, and consumption. Second, by giving credit for taxes paid on inputs at every stage of the supply chain and taxing only the final consumer, it avoids the ‘cascading’ of taxes, thereby cutting production costs, and making exports more competitive. According to the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, thanks to these efficiencies, the GST will add 2 per cent to the national GDP.

Only time will tell whether the GST will have a positive impact on the GDP. But there is one thing the GST will not have a positive impact on: the States’ fiscal, and therefore, political autonomy.

A losing proposition for the States?

Things don’t look all that dire on paper. As per what’s being referred to as the GST Bill – which is actually the Constitution (122 amendment) Bill, 2014 — passed in the Lok Sabha last month, India will have not a single federal GST but a dual GST, levied and managed by different administrations. The Centre will administer the central GST (CGST) and the States, the SGST. The monitoring of compliance will also be done independently at the two levels.

However, as Kavita Rao, professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and member of one of the Working Groups constituted on GST by the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers, points out, when you move to a GST regime in a federal set-up, some curtailment of the State’s freedom is inevitable. “All goods and services will be divided into certain categories. The rates will be fixed by category, and if I am a state, I cannot shift a commodity from a lower to a higher rate, or put it in the exempt category.”

This is not the only limitation. The rates for both, the CGST and the SGST, will be fixed by the GST Council, whose members will be State finance/revenue ministers and chairman will be the Union finance minister. Once the rates are set by the GST Council, individual States will lose their right to tax whichever commodities they want at the rates they want.

This development needs to be viewed in the context of a steady erosion in the states’ freedom to decide on taxes and tax rates. The economist Prabhat Patnaik points out, “According to the Constitution, the States have complete autonomy over levy of sales taxes, which, on average, accounted for 80 per cent of their revenue. An attempt was made to curtail this autonomy with the introduction of VAT. But it did not totally succeed because the VAT still had four different rates that states could play with. But with the GST, which mandates a uniform rate, even this limited autonomy would be gone.”

In other words, while the loss in revenue of the States may well be compensated by the Centre (as provided for in the GST Bill), how does one make good a State’s loss of the political right to fix its own tax rates?

Ms. Rao believes this is not necessarily a bad thing. “Individual States are always catering to some interest group or another. By placing limits on what they can do, we are effectively empowering them to resist interest group politics, where someone or other is always lobbying for concessions or exemptions.”

But this is a problematic argument. “The underlying assumption here,” says Mr. Patnaik, “is that political representative bodies are irresponsible. So give them less power, less discretion. This is a fundamentally anti-democratic vision of development.”

Moreover, the restrictions imposed by a uniform tax regime could adversely impact States that may be more committed to welfare expenditures. “The AIADMK or the Left Front or Mamata Banerjee may have their own development philosophies,” says Mr. Patnaik. “In order to express these philosophies, you have to be able to control your tax revenue. Why should I give up this right which I already have — and be sitting in some Council where I will be outvoted by other states or the Centre telling me what I can or cannot do?”

Perhaps it is to allay this concern that the draft GST bill speaks of the GST Council fixing not just rates but “rates including floor rates with bands”. A band would, at least on paper, give some room for states to vary their rates depending on their need.

A floor-rate-with-band model (as opposed to a uniform rate) of GST is also what Ms. Rao is rooting for. “To my mind, it is the procedures, definitions, and credit rules that should be uniform for a harmonised tax regime. We should let the States figure out what rates they want.”

However, a GST regime where each State has a different tax rate for different goods and services doesn’t sit well with the industry demand for a single national market with a uniform tax regime. Besides, if rates will be different, the taxes will be dual, and the dual taxes will be administered independently by the States and the Centre, why not just streamline the existing tax architecture instead of erecting a new one?

The social dimension

The answer to this question leads us to the other aspect of the GST, to do with why it started to get widely adopted (as VAT) from the 1970s, paralleling the rise to global dominance of neo-liberal economic thought.

The GST, even in the diluted version proposed in the GST Bill, would still accomplish one thing: widen the tax base and make it identical for both the Centre and the States. That is because, unlike, say, an excise duty (whose base consists of manufacturers) the GST is paid only by the final consumer. The seller of the good or service remits this GST to the State after deducting the taxes already paid by him earlier in the supply chain.

In other words, while the GST, like all indirect taxes, is a tax on consumption, in seeking to institute a uniform rate on all forms of consumption, it tightens the tax net — currently riddled with numerous holes in the form of multiple rates and exemptions and classifications — in addition to widening it.

Many countries that have embraced the GST have also exempted essential commodities from it, or kept lower rates for select goods. But the very logic of GST is such that it works best when the exemptions are zero or minimal. New Zealand comes closest to the GST purist’s dream — with very few exemptions. Once implemented — in however compromised a form — this is the direction GST regimes gravitate toward: fewer exemptions, higher rates. New Zealand introduced GST at 10 per cent — today it is 15 per cent. In the countries where the GST rate was reduced over time, it was made possible by a broadening of the base by minimising exemptions.

This brings us finally to the question that has monopolised the GST debate of late: what should be the taxation rate? The report of the 13th Finance Commission’s Task Force on GST recommended 12 per cent (7 per cent for SGST and 5 per cent for CGST). That was in 2010. In 2014, a panel of State government representatives mooted a revenue-neutral rate or RNR (rate at which tax revenues for states and the Centre will remain the same as before GST) of 27 per cent ( 12.77 per cent and 13.91 for CGST and SGST respectively.

Both these rates might be unrealistic. A 12 per cent GST will most definitely mean substantial revenue losses for states, as the general VAT rate for many states hovers around the 13-14 per cent mark. And from this week, the service tax (levied by the Centre) has gone up from 12.36 per cent to 14 per cent, a move, ironically enough, intended to smoothen the transition to a GST regime.

A GST rate of 27 per cent, on the other hand, would impose an enormous tax burden on the wage-earning classes, and could prove fatal for any elected government. Understandably, Mr. Jaitley has been quick to clarify that the GST rate would be much lower than 27 per cent.

In fact, the ideal way to bring down the GST rate without incurring revenue losses is to widen the base by including as many goods and services under its purview as possible. But this could mean that some essential goods currently taxed at a lower rate could end up being taxed at a higher rate under a GST, but it would hit the lower income groups harder.

This might explain why in some developed countries, including Canada and Australia, the introduction of the GST was opposed fiercely by the local working classes, especially the trade unions. The resistance to it was so strong in Canada that the then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had to invoke an obsolete, colonial era provision of the Constitution — drawing on special powers of the Queen — to get the law passed in the Senate.

At any rate (pun unintended), the GST can only be implemented, believes Ms. Rao, by “a leap of faith”. She elaborates, “You can’t do a calculation to the last penny and say only at this revenue-neutral rate will I implement GST. It has to be acceptable to the masses, because at the end of the day, it is the average citizen who has to cough up the money.”

The shift towards indirect taxation

Around the world, governments, faced with declining tax revenues, and too fearful that higher corporate taxes will lead to capital flight (or capital slumber), have been turning their attention to indirect taxes, which have a wider base than direct taxes, are more difficult to evade, easier to administer, and not income-dependant beyond a point.

It’s because the poor and the working classes spend a greater proportion of their income on essential consumption compared to the classes that are better off, that indirect taxes are considered regressive compared to direct taxes, which are typically proportional to the ability-to-pay. India isn’t immune to this global shift in favour of indirect taxation, accompanied by lower taxes on capital and reduced social spending.

The National Democratic Alliance government has already ticked two of those boxes. The 2015-16 budget, which fixed a roll-out date for GST (April 1, 2016), also abolished the wealth tax, and announced a lowering of corporate tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over a four-year period. According to Mr. Patnaik, the same budget also grants direct tax concessions to the tune of Rs. 8,315 crore, while planning to raise Rs. 23,38 crores through indirect taxes.

This is despite that fact that India’s direct taxes contribute only 37.7 per cent of total tax revenue, according to a 2013 study by the Center for Budget and Governance Accountability — which makes India’s taxation regime already more regressive than that of other emerging markets such as South Africa (57.5 per cent from direct taxes) or Indonesia (55.85 per cent). When the third box, the GST, is ticked, it could become even more so., it could become even more so.

GST: The Arguments

 

The business argument

--> Simplifies tax administration 
--> Makes compliance easier 
--> Prevents 'cascading' effect 
--> Could add to GDP

---

The political argument 

-->Reduces States' fiscal and political autonomy 
--> States can't exempt some goods and services 
--> Lowers States' source ability to raise money for welfare 
--> Indirect taxes burden lower income groups more 

---

What's a right GST Rate? 

--> In 2010, the 13th Finance Commission recommended 12 per cent GST. This will mean revenue loss for States, as VAT is already 13-14 per cent 
--> In 2014, State government representatives mooted a revenue neutral rate of 27 per cent. This will be an enormous tax burden on wage earners 

Under-armed and underprepared

Last week, the government announced the appointment of S. Christopher as the new head of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). His predecessor, missile scientist Avinash Chander, was unceremoniously dumped on January 13 this year, with 16 months still left of his tenure. It took the government over four months to find his replacement. Reportedly, most of the other senior Director Generals of the DRDO are also on extension, unsure of when the axe may fall.

The DRDO was set up in 1958 as the fulcrum of India’s indigenous defence production. However, its performance, or the lack of it, must count as one of the biggest uninvestigated scandals of independent India. Among its notable failures is the production of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), which was commissioned over a decade ago but ran years behind schedule with a cost overrun of over Rs.5,000 crore. The aircraft’s Kaveri engine was commissioned over two decades ago; it ran over 15 years behind schedule with similarly high cost overruns. Other projects allocated to the DRDO, such as the Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) System, the naval version of the LCA, the Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM), and the Advanced Lightweight Torpedo (ALWT) have all missed deadlines by several years.

Nothing to cheer about

The performance of our public sector units handling defence has been equally scandalous. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) could not rectify simple design faults in the HPT-32 basic trainer aircraft, forcing the Indian Air Force (IAF) to import propeller driven trainers. The Intermediate Jet Trainer (IJT) prototype is nowhere close to flying, and the Light Combat Helicopter and the multi-purpose civilian aircraft, Saras, have forever been in the pipeline. Our ordnance factories are similarly languishing. The Nalanda ordnance factory, in collaboration with an Israeli company, is reportedly only a fourth complete. The commitment to indigenously supply 1,000 T-90S main battle tanks to the Indian Army could not be met because the project failed. Indian-made 125 mm smooth bore barrels for the T-72 tanks also reportedly failed because the barrels blew up during field trials.

The DRDO had set itself the aim of producing 70 per cent of our defence needs by the year 2005. Today, a decade later, its production is still lackadaisically hovering around 30 per cent — and much of what emerges from its factories is put together with “screwdriver” technology. In 2008, the Rama Rao Committee had recommended that the DRDO should only focus on 8 to 10 critical projects of strategic importance. Such recommendations have been thrown to the winds, and the country’s premier defence production company continues to focus its energies on esoteric products like dental implants and mosquito repellents!

As arms importer

To see a nation with global aspirations blundering so egregiously when it comes to meeting critical defence requirements is nothing short of treason. As a result of our woefully inadequate defence production, India has become the world’s largest importer of arms. In contrast, China, with a much bigger arsenal, has dropped to fourth place because its internal defence production has been efficiently upgraded. Apart from the exorbitant burden arms imports place on our exchequer, an overdependence on imports has grave security implications. In his book on the Kargil war, General V.P. Malik, who was then the Army chief, mentions that two years before the Pakistani invasion, the Army had finalised imports of AN/TPQ-37 Firefinder radars from the United States. “Prices were negotiated and just before purchase, DRDO offered to manufacture them at half the price and within two years. The government shot down the army’s plans to buy those radars. In 1999, during the Kargil war, the radars were desperately needed. Neither had the DRDO manufactured them nor could they be purchased from the US (post the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests there was an arms embargo). Several lives were lost in Pakistan shelling (as a result).”

A decade and more later, nothing had changed. Another Army chief, General V.K. Singh (who is now a Union Minister of State in the government) was compelled to write in March 2012 a letter directly to the then Prime Minister in which he bluntly stated that the war-waging capability of the Army had been “seriously degraded” because of delays in critical procurements. According to him, reserves of vitally needed anti-tank ammunition had fallen below critical levels because the Israeli firm supplying them had been blacklisted because of alleged kickbacks; artillery equipments were stalled for a similar reason, and emergency replacements sought to be obtained from the U.S. Army were still awaiting approval from the Ministry of Defence’s bureaucracy. At that time, the nation was facing a peculiar double jeopardy: we could not produce what we needed internally, and we could not import — in time and efficiently — what we needed to buy from abroad because of a “morality paralysis” that sought to ban every major foreign supplier on the basis of uninvestigated allegations. Obviously, defence purchases must be corruption-free but, equally, defence ministers must have the guts not only to be concerned about their own personal integrity but also about the crucial security interests of the nation.

Comparison with China

Our lack of offensive and defensive weaponry becomes even more glaring when compared with that of our potential enemies. For instance, China’s arsenal of Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM), battle tanks, latest tactical aircraft and armoured infantry fighting vehicles far outnumber ours, as does its border infrastructure. The importance for us to keep this gap within sustainable limits is self-evident, especially since we cannot rule out a war in the future in which China and Pakistan work in tandem. Opponents of adequate investments in armaments argue that a country with such a huge number of the poor should be spending more on development than on defence. It is the old guns versus butter argument. The obvious riposte to this is that India needs to pursue both development and defence efficiently and it cannot be one or the other. A country’s security is imperilled if its economy is suboptimal and the deprivations of the poor are not attended to. Equally, development cannot exclude security imperatives because we are in one of the most hostile nuclear weapon regions of the world. We have 4,057 kilometres of a disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China; a 778-kilometre-long disputed Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan; a total of 15,106 kilometres of international borders with seven countries, and a 7,516-kilometre long vulnerable coastline. It would be suicidal for any nation to ignore security concerns in such a situation.

The fact of the matter is that we neither pursue development nor security efficiently. China spends more than twice what India does on its armed forces, yet its defence expenditure, as a percentage of its GDP, is lower than that of India (1.3 against 1.89, as per revealed figures). The Chinese economy has grown at a faster pace, and its defence budget, although larger, is more efficiently used. Arms imports have come down dramatically. Russia and Ukraine are the only outside suppliers of China’s weaponry, most of which is now produced at lesser cost at home. If India had pursued its indigenous arms production effectively, we could have had by now one of the world’s largest military-industrial complexes, and could be exporting arms and using that income for development.

Not much impact

The new Bharatiya Janata Party-National Democratic Alliance (BJP-NDA) government came with a muscular resolve to strengthen India’s defence abilities. This resolve was particularly evident in its strident critique of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime. However, for five months after the new government assumed power last year, the country did not even have a full-time Raksha Mantri, with Mr. Arun Jaitley inexplicably holding the dual charge of both finance and defence. The government did announce an increase from 26 per cent to 49 per cent for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the defence production sector but this may not be very attractive to investors who will seek majority control. Moreover, the Defence Technology Commission, set up as a commercial arm of the DRDO to attract investments, is yet to take shape. The “Make in India” slogan for defence production means little unless it is part of a credible policy framework. It is also not known whether the national technology council to be chaired by the Defence Minister with representation by private companies engaged in the production of arms and defence equipment, as was recommended by the Naresh Chandra Task Force, is going to see the light of day. According to estimates, some Rs.30,000 crore is required only to end the perennial shortage of artillery and ammunition. Where is this money to come from if the government’s priorities are to spend double this amount on bullet trains? Important steps also need to be taken to create a more effective procurement policy. The Rafale fighter aircraft deal is, I believe, an outright purchase and does not involve the transfer of technology. And, finally, it is time that specialists from the armed forces have a much greater say in the entire defence production process, but there is no sign that this is happening. The short point is that, whatever the rhetoric, India lacks a strategic mindset to tackle its defence preparedness and this government has been, thus far, not any different, and certainly much too slow in changing past approache

Achievements of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

Achievements of the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation

India is endowed with a rich and vast diversity of natural resources, water being one of them. Integrated Water management is vital for poverty reduction, environmental sustenance and sustainable economic development. The Ministry is working for sustainable development, maintenance of quality and efficient use of water resources to match with the growing demands on this precious natural resource of the country.

WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

The Ministry has identified Inter-Linking of Rivers (ILRs) as a priority. National Perspective Plan envisaging inter-basin transfer of water from surplus basins to deficit basins is being actively pursued.

• Implementation of Ken-Betwa project on fast track.

• Detailed Project Report (DPR) of Damanganga –Pinjal completed. DPR of Par-Tapi-Narmada link project being finalised.

• Mahanadi-Godavari flood moderation project being pursued.

• Intra-State link Projects: DPR of Burhi Gandak - Noor - Baya - Ganga link Project (Bihar) and Kosi - Mechi Link Project (Bihar) completed. Special Committee on Interlinking of Rivers set up - for time bound implementation of ILR projects. High level task force constituted for addressing the technical issues in interlinking of rivers.

• Agreement with Nepal for speedy implementation of Pancheshwar Multi-purpose project proposal on river Sarda. Pancheshwar Development Authority set up for expeditious implementation of the project.

• Polavaram project being implemented asa National Projection river Godavari, to create an annual irrigation potential of 4.36 lakh hect. in East Godavari, Vishakhapatnam, West Godavari and Krishna districts in Andhra Pradesh.

• Work initiated on 9600 MW Middle Siang Project for flood moderation in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

• Dam safety Project taken up with World Bank assistance at an estimated cost of Rs. 2100 crore, 233 dams in four States identified for rehabilitation.

• Brahmaputra Board being restructured for focussed attention on North-Western Region of Ganga Basin.

• Flood protection - Flood forecasting network strengthened - 4772 flood/inflow forecast were issued during the flood season 2014.

• Regional office of Ganga Flood Control Commission opened at Lucknow in March, 2015, for greater focus on North Western Region of the Ganga Basin.

• New flood forecasting website launched as part of the E-governance initiative, for timely dissemination of flood warnings.

• During 2014-15 a total of 47 (20 major and 27 medium) projects under general monitoring and 143 (77 major, 49 Medium and 17 ERM) on-going projects under Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) were taken up for monitoring.

WATER CONSERVATION

PER DROP MORE CROP

• "Hamara Jal – Hamara Jeevan" organised in 485 districts to engage scientists, engineers, water communities, Panchayati Raj Institutions, NGO's and other stake holders to address issues of water resources planning at village level to generate awareness for water conservation.

• National Aquifer Management project undertaken for optimal utilisation of groundwater with community participation. 5.89 lakh sq. km area mapped - partly through innovative heliborne surveys.

• Web based application system for issuing NOC for ground water extraction launched.

• Master Plan on Water harvesting and conservation prepared and circulated to all States.

Simplification of guidelines for centrally sponsored schemes, viz. AIBP and Flood Management Programme (FMP) on the basis of consultations in 'Jal Manthan' - resulting in faster release of funds – from Rs. 800 crore. in the first six months of the year to Rs. 4800 crore in the next six months.

National Hydrology Project launched at a cost of Rs. 3600 crore. This project will establish and upgrade Hydro-met network in all the river basins and bring the entire hydro-meteorological data on a standardized central database for easy storage, validation and dissemination for development of Decision Support Systems for flood forecasting, reservoir operations, water resources planning and management, conjunctive use, etc. following a river basin approach. The project will also enhance the capacity of the States in these issues.

WATER POLLUTION ABATEMENT

Namami Gange • "Namami Gange" - Integrated Ganga Conservation Programme approved at the cost of Rs. 20000 crore to be implemented by year 2020.

• Two meetings of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) held - one under the chairmanship of Hon'ble Prime Minister.

• 76 Projects approved at the cost of Rs. 4974.79 crore for creating treatment capacity of 678.23 MLD and Sewer network of 2546 KMs.

• Clean Ganga Fund established - contribution of around Rs. 51 crore received.

• Programme to conserve aqua life and bio-diversity in collaboration with Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.

Moving Forward with New Initiatives

• Special Purpose Vehicle to be set up for implementation of priority ILR projects.

• Strengthening of Participatory Irrigation Management and involving public participation in Ground Water management and rain water harvesting

• Rejuvenation of Yamuna River.

• Expeditious implementation of Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project and middle Siang project.

• Launching of 'JAL KRANTI ABHIYAAN'

• National Bureau of Water Use Efficiency is proposed to be set up to control and regulate efficient use of water.

• All efforts for timely completion of Polavaram Project

• Efforts are underway to upgrade all the three Research Stations namely Central Soil and Material Research Station, Central Water and Power Research Station and National Institute of Hydrology into “Centers of Excellence”.

• National Water Informatics Center to be set up for institutionalizing India Water Resources Information System.

• Modernization and expansion of Flood Forecasting Network of Central Water Commission.

• Development of inundation based flood forecast system.

• Installation of telemetry system for dissemination of hydro-meteorological data on real time basis.

• Setting up of North East Brahmaputra River Rejuvenation Authority by restructuring Brahmaputra Board

Maggi row: In a first, Centre moves Consumer Forum

Section 12-1-D of the Consumer Protection Act deals with the manner in which a complaint can be made before NCDRC.

In further troubles for Nestle over Maggi issue, the government has filed a complaint on its own with the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) — using a provision for the first time from the nearly three-decade-old Consumer Protection Act.

Describing the alleged lapses related to food safety standards in Maggi noodles as a “serious issue”, Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan also said that the NCDRC will investigate the matter and take appropriate action.

“We cannot say at this point of time, what exact action NCDRC will take,” he added.

Mr. Paswan also said that rising fast food consumption may have health risk.

“In cities like Mumbai, 25 per cent of people do not eat at home. With rise in consumption of fast food items, there is also risk of health. Maggi is eaten maximum by children (sic),” he added.

Usually, NCDRC comes into play following complaints filed by a consumer, but a section of this Act of 1986 also provides for the government to register a complaint.

“For the first time, we are taking action under Section 12-1-D of the Consumer Protection Act, under which both Centre and states have powers to file complaints,” Mr. Paswan said.

This particular section deals with the manner in which a complaint can be made before NCDRC.

It states that “a complaint in relation to any goods sold or delivered or agreed to be sold or delivered or any service provided or agreed to be provided may be filed by ... the Central Government or the State Government, as the case may be, either in its individual capacity or as a representative of interests of the consumers in general.”

While the government has already asked central food safety regulator FSSAI to look into the matter, it had earlier said that NCDRC would look into this issue if a complaint is filed.

“Since there would be delay in getting FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) reports and since it is concerned about consumers, we decided to file a written complaint before NCDRC in the interest of consumers,” Mr. Paswan told reporters in New Delhi.

FSSAI, which comes under the Health Ministry, has taken samples of Maggi noodles from all states for testing.

The Minister said the FSSAI Act provides for a fine of up to Rs. 5 lakh and imprisonment of up to 6 years in case of grievous injury to the consumer, while the imprisonment could be of minimum 7 years and fine of not less than Rs. 10 lakh in case of death.

“I don’t know what will be the outcome of the (FSSAI) reports. If FSSAI reports are found to be positive, it is a very serious issue,” the minister said.

Asked if his Ministry will ask states to ban Maggi, he said: “I cannot ask states to ban. It is a state issue. If states are banning, what can I do?”

On action against brand ambassadors, he said, “It is not about individual. It is about unfair trade practice that is selling substandard products and making false claims in advertisements and misleading consumers.”

»	In April, the food regulator of Uttar Pradesh, UP FDA had ordered recall of a batch of about 2 lakh packs of the Maggi instant noodles due to higher than permitted levels of lead and food additives.
»	After Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra governments too have sent samples of Maggi to the laboratory for food safety tests.
»	On May 29, taking a “serious” note of quality issues related to global giant Nestle’s famous noodle brand Maggi, the government asked the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India to look into the matter. The FSSAI has collected more samples of Maggi from different states for testing.
»	Meanwhile, Hindi actors Madhuri Dixit, Amitabh Bachchan and Preity Zinta, who endorse Maggi were served legal notice on the claims made in the advertisement. A complaint was filed in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Barabanki, on May 30, by lawyer Santosh Kumar Singh, saying that by endorsing Maggi the film stars have misled people. The Consumer Affairs Ministry Additional Secretary G Gurucharan says "brand ambassadors would be liable for action if advertisements are found to be misleading.”
»	On May 30, Madhuri Dixit tweeted that she met officials of Nestle and the company has reassured that "they adhere to stringent testing for quality and safety and are working with the authorities closely.”
»	The same day, the Food Safety and Drug Administration of the U.P. government filed a case against the manufacturing company, Nestle India Ltd., and five others, including the Barabanki store from where samples with excess lead were seized.
»	The Uttarakhand Food Safety Department too collected samples of the noodle brand from the company’s plant at Pantnagar in the State.
»	Nestle India said it has got tested samples of the noodle brand in an external laboratory as well as in-house and the product has been found “safe to eat” with lead levels within the permissible levels for consumption. The company was, however, silent on presence of the taste enhancer monosodium glutamate (MSG).
»	Nestle India's stocks slumped over 10 per cent on Wednesday amid growing concerns about safety standards of its popular Maggi noodles. In a BSE filing, the company said it has not received any order from the central or any state FDA authority for recall of its Maggi noodles.
»	State-owned retail outlets in Kerala and Delhi have banned the sale of Maggi. Leading retail chain Big Bazaar has also reportedly taken them off from its shelves.
»	Army has issued advisory to its personnel asking them not to eat Maggi noodles and directed its canteens not to sell them till further orders.

issue of Oil Market Stability

 The theme of this session is very relevant. The issue of Oil Market Stability has recently become a household name in global energy discussions.

After three years of relative stability of oil prices averaging around US$ 100 per barrel, oil prices declined sharply. There are various explanations given for the fall in oil price. Some see this as a result of sudden increase in global supply of oil due to US shale revolution; some attribute geo-political reasons to this and some argue that this was inevitable since oil prices were artificially high in the past several years.

However, there is no denying the fact that the World Energy map has changed and World energy mix has also changed. New prominent supply sources have emerged in various continents in the map whereas major demand centres and buyers are all concentrated in Asia. Similarly, there have been attempts by all the buyers to go for a better mix in the energy basket by including gas, coal, renewables etc.

I must confess that the recent fall in oil prices has come as a timely relief for Indian economy and consumers. This has resulted in lower levels of inflation and we stand to benefit from higher disposable income which results in higher consumption, decrease in the cost of production of final goods particularly for energy intensive industries and an improved external trade balance.

Today, India is the fourth largest petroleum consumer in the world inspite of having very low consumption per capita. According to the International Energy AgencyÕs World Energy Outlook 2014, IndiaÕs oil demand growth between 2013 & 2040 would be the highest in the worldÑwith a CAGR of 3.5 %. Just to give an example of the magnitude of this growth, IndiaÕs projected growth rate is almost double the next highest growth rate. Even during the last decade, our oil growth was 2 times higher than the world average. Most of this huge consumption is imported. For the Financial Year 2014-15, petroleum imports as % of India's gross imports were 30.3%. In India, hydrocarbons is likely to remain the most important source of energy for decades to come despite consuming other forms of energy like Coal / renewable energy etc. However, I must mention that we have set a target to generate 1,75,000 Megawatt for renewable energy by 2022. This would comprise 1,00,000 MW of solar power, 60,000 MW of wind power, 10,000 MW of energy from biomass and 5,000 MW from small hydroelectric projects. Currently, India's clean energy capacity is 33,000 MW.

There is a new Government in India led by HonÕble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi who has been elected with a mandate to pursue pro-growth, pro-development, pro-poor agenda. The Prime Minister has 15 years of experience of running an oil and gas economy since he was Chief Minister of a oil and gas rich province of India. One of the main commitment of this Government is to provide affordable and reliable energy to all segments of the economy and society including the most common man of India.

We understand that energy is the most important catalyst for achieving sustained growth. In the modern world, access to energy should be a fundamental right of each human being. This is particularly true for a rapidly developing economy like India where aspirations of a growing middle-class combine with the urgency to provide basic services to the large mass of poor. We are committed to provide energy, in a time bound manner, to a large proportion of our population who still does not have access to energy.

Secure energy supply is a vital ingredient in the process of developing the economics of the developing nations of the world. Security of supply must, in turn, be matched by security of demand.

The mission of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is to coordinate and unify the petroleum policies of its Member Countries and ensure the stabilization of oil markets in order to secure an efficient, economic and regular supply of petroleum to consumers. In its commitment to ensure sufficient supply to meet consumerÕs needs, OPEC generally takes lead in international market supply decisions and co-operation with non-OPEC producers.

OPEC & India share a very long and special relationship. About 85% of our crude import and 94% of our  natural gas import comes from OPEC countries. In return, India provides timely payments and duly honours both short-term and long-term contracts. However, I will fail my duty if I do not reflect upon the sentiment of people of India regarding OPEC. I am sharing this impression  so that OPEC can address them for  the better relationship with India as well as other consumer nations in Asia :

(a) There is a strong feeling that Asian counties like India should receive Asian dividend rather than paying Asian Premium while making bulk purchase of crude. I will not hesitate to say that Asian Premium was historically never justified and more so not justifiable in the changed market scenario where Asian countries are the major buyers. Any measure that erodes the advantage of geography for Asian countries and promotes a policy of subsidising oil traffic to distant destinations is not, and cannot be, in the interests of sustainable development. This calls for ungent rectification.  I will urge upon the OPEC members to understand this genuine concern.

(b) There is also a need of revisiting policies related to demand of the letter of credit from regular and bulk buyers and need to consider extending the credit time for crude import.

(c) OPEC members need to factor in the reality that countries like India have developed most cost effective yet modern and complex refining capacity. Average Nelson Complexity factor of Indian Public Sector refineries is 10 and of Private refinery is about 14 which are higher that European average of 6.5 & US average of 9.5. There is big strength of India in this sector. Hence, it is in everyoneÕs interest to refine crude in India in the most cost effective manner. If we receive crude at a fair price without paying Asian Premium, our gross refining margins will improve and it will result in competitively priced petroleum products.

(d) Consumption of petroleum products in India is price sensitive as there is a genuine issue of affordability for a sizable population in India. Hence, while deciding the pricing aspect of crude oil, it should be factored in that demand of crude for domestic consumption in India  will negatively respond to price rise of crude.

(e) Our government believes in the policy of maintaining proper balance between creation of wealth and providing welfare to the people. We believe that oil prices should be  at reasonable levels that are acceptable to both producers and consumers. Prices must be high enough to ensure a fair return for producers and other investors in the sector, as well as to attract sufficient investment in future production capacity. But, if prices are too high, they will drive people away from oil to other fuels.

The new Government in India believes in integrated approach to energy security. While our crude purchase is going to grow subtantially, we want to graduate from a traditional buyer-seller relationship to a long-term energy partnership. Indian Public Sector Companies alone have overseas presence in across 24 countries  on E & P activities with investment of over USD$30 billion. Our private sector companies also have presence in all continents of the World. Indian public and private companies are aggressive to participate in E&P bids anywhere across the globe. As I have earlier mentioned, we are second to none in refining capacity and technology. Indian companies - both Public and Private Ð have been leaders in providing various services in the global cutting edge technology spread across all streams of hydrocarbon industry. All these firms are already implementing high-value projects like building platforms, sub-sea system, floating system, oil & gas terminals, pipeline construction etc in various parts of the world and also can offer most of the services at a much cost-effective manner with high end solution.

Similarly, India wants foreign investment and participation in Indian hydrocarbon sector. We are bringing in transparent and investor friendly regime. Government has also identified hydrocarbon sector as one of the 25 priority areas for promotion of manufacturing under the ÒMake in IndiaÓ campaign. I am inviting all the countries to come forward to invest in investment friendly environment in India in all streams of oil and gas sector.  We are also developing Strategic Petroleum Reserve, new LNG terminals, refining and petro-chemical complexes  where foreign investment or partnership will be most welcome. We are committed to reforms and other bold measures for ease of doing business for domestic as well as foreign entrepreneur in all sectors. India is presently ranked among the worldÕs fastest growing economies and it will remain so for years to come.

According to the International Energy Agency estimates, India will need investments worth nearly US$600 billion during the years 2011Ð2030, across various segments of its hydrocarbon chain, to increase its energy supply and improve the infrastructure to enable this. This provides ample opportunities for companies across the hydrocarbon value chain.

I see these four areas (i) Sourcing more crude in fair terms user-friendly policies (ii) investment from and in India in E & P activities (iii) investment from and in India in Downstream activities and (iv)           Service contracts to Indian companies -  as a comprehensive & integrated package for developing the international energy partnership.

Coming to the present context, there is a need for greater dialogue and cooperation between Buyer-Seller nations to ensure sustainable development. Global partnership between Buyer & Seller nations would ensure stability, security & sustainability through mutual inter-dependence

Modi Firm on use of Green Technology Solar Power, Bio-Diesel To Get Big Boost

A little highlighted fact during the recent visit of the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi to China is the intensified cooperation in non-fossil-fuel sources that New Delhi sought from the Middle Kingdom and succeeded in securing. Academic scholars contend that 2014 was the second year in a row in which China added more generating capacity from non-fossil-fuel sources than from fossil-fuel ones. China augmented its ability to generate electricity from fossil fuels by 45 gigawatts to reach a total of 916 gigawatts. At the same time, it also enhanced its capacity to produce electricity from non-fossil-fuel sources by 56 gigawatts, achieving a total of 444 gigawatts in which wind, water, and solar power plants added 51 gigawatts of generating capacity.

As a result wind, water and solar power today accounts for 31 per cent of China’s total electricity generation capacity, up from 21 per cent in 2007, while nuclear power accounts for another two per cent. What is astonishing is that these goals exceed the target established by China’s 12th Five Year Plan, which projected that power generating capacity based on non-fuel sources would account for approximately 30 per cent of the country’s electricity system by 2015, according to the scholars Mr.Hao Tan, New Castle Business School, University of Newcastle, Australia and Mr. John A. Mathews, Macquarie Graduate School of Management in Sydney.

Considering the fact that China has been accused of emitting the greenhouse gas(GHC) to render atmospheric pollution appalling in cities like Beijing over the years, the slow but steady gear shift in official thinking to do mid-course correction to drive development at the new normal pace of seven per cent growth per annum is but understandable. For India, which is not in the same league of China, in terms of its incredible achievements on the advancement ladder with the attendant reckless disregard for human consumption or health hazards, the lessons are obvious to get imbibed even before it accelerates its development speed to catch up with the best or the rest who had overtaken it long ago. 

That is the reason why the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi while unveiling manufacturing mantra as a route to India’s high growth path for development coined a bewitching phrase that India intends to  glide on the high growth trajectory with “zero defect” and with “zero effect” on environment. There is a universal concern growing that the world is belching out noxious and polluting greenhouse gases (GHGs) that threaten to put at peril the very survival of humanity, if drastic moderating action is not put in place to stem the smokes, both literally and figuratively.

In fact, Mr. Modi in his address in the UN General Assembly in September last also responded to concerns being expressed by many advanced countries that all countries must bear due responsibility in this common task by recalling that “the world has agreed on a beautiful balance of collective action—common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR)”. 

Mr. Modi duly asserted that India’s stand in the ongoing negotiations for a global climate change agreement to be cobbled together in Paris before the end of this year has been guided by the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities.  India has been contending that the climate change agreement of 2015 should weigh “a whole gamut of issues including adaptation, finance, technology development and transfer, capacity building, transparency of action and support in a balanced manner and loss of damage in addition to mitigation.”

Be that as it may, this has not detracted or distracted India from doing its mite to plump for green technology as the need for doing so has become overwhelming, given the high-level of atmospheric pollution in cities and the associated health hazards this poses to a large swathe of the population. The latest scientific findings reveal that out of the global carbon budget (carbon dioxide emission) of 2,900 Giga tones (Gt), only 1000 Gt remains to be used between now and 2100 in order to limit the global temperature to two degree Celsius. Most of the extant and cumulative carbon budget has been used by the developed countries in the past for the prosperity they relish now in terms of high living standards and relatively better quality air ambience. As such it is also germane to keep in view the World Resources Institute estimates that if emissions continue unchecked, the lingering budget will last just for 30 more years only.

Hence, the key point for designing emission reduction commitment is how the balance of carbon budget is to be apportioned with a fair burden-sharing mechanism so that countries in the lower ladder of material advancement do not get their well-laid development plans derailed.  Prime Minister Mr. Modi’s call for such a fair burden-sharing body needs to be viewed against this ground-level and well-grounded perspective. Moreover, India’s contribution to cumulative global CO2 (1850-2011) was a measly three per cent as against 21 percent by the United States 18 per cent by the European Union. 

It needs to be noted that the government of India has an ambitious but achievable target of 100 giga watts (GW) of solar energy against the current 2.5 GW and 50 GW of wind (current 26 GW) power by 2022, in the wake of crash in crude oil prices that rendered the renewable energy competitive, given the right spurs and fillips.  The country has also drawn up a National Adaptation Fund with an initial corpus of Rs. 100 crores last year to countenance adaptations actions to combat the challenges of climate change in significant sectors like agriculture, water and forestry. It can be recalled that India launched its National Action Plan on Climate Change way back in 2008 and is in the process of revisiting National Missions in the light of new scientific evidence and technological advances.

India’s total renewable power installed as on 31st December 2014 has reached 33.8 GW. Wind energy continues to dominate this share accounting for 66 per cent of installed capacity followed by biomass, small hydro power and solar power. Under India’s National Solar Mission in the next five years proposals are likely to generate business opportunities of the order of 160 billion US Dollars in the renewable energy sector.   Some of the country’s major immediate plans on renewable energy encompass scaling up cumulative installed capacity to 170 GW and setting up a National University for Renewable Energy.

India has also put in place the clean energy cess on coal in 2010 which very few nations in the world have done. This has been doubled to Rs 100 per tonne last year which has been further doubled to Rs 200 per tonne in the latest Union Budget. The aggregate collection so far under the National Clean Energy Fund(NCEF) has crossed Rs 17,000 crore and till end-September 2014, as many as 46 clean energy projects at a cost of Rs 16,511 crores had been put up for funding out of this corpus.

The government has rolled up a plethora of plans to introduce clean fuels such as biodiesel, bio-ethanol and electricity for public transport vehicles and for school buses in big cities to minimize air pollution. Both public and private automobile makers have plans up their sleeves to make these unconventional fuels viable through minimum engine modifications and providing efficient storage to tackle transport problems.

The global community particularly the rich countries which had the prime-mover advantage in advancement should come forward to share the cost of emerging economies and developing ones to move up fast on the green growth ladder by transferring funds and cost-effective technology in a holistic manner to maintain the ecological equilibrium without any adverse fallout to flora, fauna and humans.