Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Change of Reign in Egypt: Mohammed Morsi Becomes Country’s First Democratically Elected President


Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) leader Mohammed Morsi has won the presidential election runoff, defeating the independent candidate Ahmed Shafik, the last prime minister to the deposed dictator Hosni Mubarak, with 13.2 million votes out of 26 million, a share of 51.2 per cent on a turnout of just over 50 per cent.

However, the outcome of the election does not settle the standoff between the Brotherhood and the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which did not even wait for the result before taking a series of steps which some Egyptians have called a constitutional obscenity. One crucial move was made by the constitutional court, made up of judges from the time of Mubarak, which unilaterally dissolved the national parliament. That body – elected between November 2011 and March 2012 in Egypt’s first-ever free polls – was to write a constitution for the new state.

Armed Forces’ Tradition Broken
Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi will not enjoy the extent of modern, pharaonic powers exercised by Mubarak: those have been curtailed by a military establishment which will decide just how much he will be able to do in government.

Still, the US-trained engineer's victory in the country's first free presidential election breaks a tradition of domination by men from the armed forces, which have provided every Egyptian leader since overthrow of the monarchy 60 years ago, and installs in office a group that drew on 84 years of grassroots activism to catapult Morsi into presidency.

First Civilian Head of State
An engineer turned politician, Mohammed Morsi has come a long way to become the first freely elected President of Egypt that saw its strongman Hosni Mubarak being ousted in what is now famously called Arab Spring. Although, not their first choice as a presidential candidate, the powerful Muslim Brotherhood threw its weight behind Morsi, 60, the chairman of its FJP. A champion of Brotherhood's famous slogan - "Islam is the solution" - Morsi describes its policies as having "a moderate Islamic reference". A more quietly-spoken man, Morsi got the support of Brotherhood's grassroots network and what is often referred to as an highly organized campaign team.

Morsi’s win in an election widely seen as free and fair suggests that the 84-year-old Islamist group — which began as a secret outfit, often resorted to violence and was continually suppressed and driven underground — remains Egypt’s most influential party, drawing its support from all corners of society.

On the one hand he has been directly chosen by the people, but on the other there are fears that his regime may sooner than later push the country to a hard line form of Islamic rule. Since it is too early to speculate with any amount of certainty, it is better to simply use the material at hand and peep into the possibilities ahead.

To begin with, Morsi is Egypt’s first democratically elected President — and that fact needs to be heartily endorsed. He is also his country’s first civilian president, and thus his election presents a strong break from the past where men in uniform imposed themselves on the nation as its rulers. This again should not be a cause of concern for New Delhi because it will now have to deal with elected representatives rather than military generals. Of course, India never seemed to have had much of a problem with the earlier Hosni Mubarak Government, but that regime is now history and the former has to now do business with a new set of people that has a popular mandate at least.

New Prez’s Manifesto
Morsi has promised a moderate, modern Islamist agenda to steer Egypt into a new democratic era where autocracy will be replaced by transparent government that respects human rights and revives the fortunes of a powerful Arab state long in decline. He is promising an "Egyptian renaissance with an Islamic foundation."

Yet the stocky, bespectacled 60-year old, appears something of an accidental president: he was only flung into the race at the last moment by the disqualification on a technicality of Khairat al-Shater, by far the group's preferred choice.

With a stiff and formal style, Morsi, who has a doctorate from the University of Southern California, cast himself as a reluctant late comer to the race, who cited religious fear of judgment day as one of his reasons for running. He struggled to shake off his label as the Brotherhood's "spare tire."

However, questions remain over the extent to which Morsi will operate independently of other Brotherhood leaders once in office: his manifesto was drawn up by the group's policymakers. The role Shater might play has been one focus of debate in Egypt.

Undoubtedly, the historic nature of the win can hardly be underestimated. Given Egypt’s size, historical importance and cultural and political preeminence in the Arabic-speaking world, it is not unlikely that an Islamist democracy advocated by the FJP, the Brotherhood’s political wing that Morsi led to a signal victory, can potentially become a model for West Asia and North Africa.

Future Equation
The FJP has been issuing statements that it proposes to offer a liberal regime and honor past accords and agreements. Morsi is also reported to have emphasized over and over again that he would ensure that international commitments agreed on are not dismantled. This is good news, but the challenge for the new president will be to implement his promise in the face of pressures that he is certainly going to face from hard line factions within his party and others as well to chart a new and probably more confrontationist course of action.

The victory of the Islamists, whose offshoot HAMAS rules in Gaza Strip (also having got there through an election), cannot but be bad news for Israel, which has operated a peace agreement with Egypt’s military rulers since the days of Anwar Sadat, and whose political position has defined the conflict in the region for 60 years.

For the millions of Egyptians who endured savage repression for decades and then brutal violence when they rose against the erstwhile dictatorship in 2011, the democratic election of a president is a major step forward.

Indications of the past days are that Morsi will use moderate Islam as a reference in framing his policies. He can do otherwise only at the cost of alienating Egypt’s existing and potential allies across the world and destabilizing the uneasy peace that exists between the Arab world and Israel.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Raja Pervez Ashraf Becomes New Pakistani Prime Minister: Political Instability in Country Continues


Water and Power Minister Raja Parvez Ashraf has taken over as the new Pakistani prime minister. Filled with little difficulty with the country’s National Assembly (parliament) electing Ashraf as a replacement for Yousuf Raza Gilani, disqualified by the Supreme Court.

The 61-year-old loyalist of the Bhutto family was pitchforked into the hot seat after the original choice Makhdoom Shahabuddin faced an arrest warrant. But the new leader himself is dogged by corruption charges relating to his tenure as power minister.

The 342-member National Assembly chose Ashraf as the country's 25th prime minister with 211 votes, against Opposition PML-N nominee Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan Abbasi who got 89 votes.

Undoubtedly, Ashraf is lucky to have been elevated to the highest executive post, as the first choice of President Asif Ali Zardari, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, missed the bus because of an arrest warrant issued against him by a Sindh court in an ephedrine scam case.

Since the issue was contempt of the highest court in the land the verdict was not unexpected, though the scale of punishment is. While all Supreme Court verdicts must always be honored even if they do not appear to be sound, it may not be possible to avoid a prolonged discussion on the present judgment. There are quite a few issues that will need to be clarified.

To his admirers, Pakistan's Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry is a hero whose relentless pursuit of a money-laundering case against the president is teaching a generation of the country's leaders a long-overdue lesson in respect for the law.

To his critics, he is a runaway judge in the grip of a messiah complex whose turbo-charged brand of activism threatens to upend the power balance underpinning Pakistan's precarious embrace of democracy.

Recently, Chaudhry made his boldest move yet by disqualifying Prime Minister Gilani as punishment for his repeated refusal to obey court orders to re-activate a corruption case against President Zardari.

Gilani's downfall marked a watershed in a long-running showdown between the judiciary and the government that has laid bare the institutional tensions plaguing a country that has test fired ballistic nuclear missiles, but has yet to agree on how it should be run.

"In practical terms, democracy is finished because the balance of power between the parliament, the executive and the judiciary has been ruined," said a senior member of Zardari's ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP).

Judicial Coup
The military, which has ruled Pakistan for about half of its 65 years as an independent nation, has also not hidden its disdain of the Zardari government, but has made it clear it does not wish to seize power. And it has its own problems with Chaudhry's activism.

The present crisis has its roots in Gilani’s refusal to follow the Supreme Court’s 2009 order to request Swiss authorities to reopen cases of graft against President Zardari. On his part, Gilani has pointed out that the President enjoyed immunity from such charges. But the apex court had disagreed — having only recently overturned a 2007 presidential amnesty to politicians accused of corruption, from which Zardari and his late wife Benazir Bhutto benefited the most. Since then, an epic battle has ensued, with both institutions attempting to protect their own turf. Ultimately, in January the Supreme Court ordered legal proceedings against Gilani, and in April, the then Prime Minister was convicted for contempt of court. At the time, he was given only a token sentence with the apex court leaving it to the Speaker of the National Assembly to decide if Gilani could continue as prime minister.

The drama has been spiced by allegations of bribe-taking brought against Chaudhry's son by a billionaire property developer, who has himself been accused of land-grabbing and fraud. The controversy briefly put the stern-faced judge on the defensive before he regained the initiative by disqualifying Gilani.

The next chapter in the saga started when the Supreme Court holds its latest hearing in more than two years of legal wrangling aimed at forcing the government to re-open proceedings against Zardari.

Pakistan's political class is now transfixed by the question of whether Chaudhry will opt to pause in the wake of his victory over Gilani, or press home his advantage by demanding that Raja Pervez Ashraf, the new prime minister, reactivate the case.

Charges Against Gilani
Earlier on June 19, the Pakistani Supreme Court declared that Gilani stood disqualified as the prime minister since April 26, 2012 and ceased to be the premier since that date. The court punished with 30-second imprisonment. It also asked President Zardari to take steps for continuity of the democratic process, an apparent reference to the election of a new prime minister. Gilani was elected Prime Minister in March 2008 and has remained in that office longer than any other elected leader in the country’s history.

Capping approximately 30 months of bitter feud between the judiciary and the government, a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Chaudhry held that Gilani, “ceased” to be the prime minister from April 26, 2012.

Gilani was then convicted and sentenced for not obeying court orders to reopen graft charges in Switzerland against President Zardari.

Contrary to expectations that the PPP will back him to the hilt, the ruling party said it would abide by the verdict and set in motion the process of selecting Gilani’s successor.

The Election Commission also issued a formal notice disqualifying Gilani as a Member of Parliament, hours after the Supreme Court ordered it to do so. A session of the National Assembly or lower house of Parliament is likely to be convened for the formal election of the new prime minister.

The present verdict came in response to several petitions that had challenged National Assembly Speaker Fehmida Mirza’s decision not to disqualify Gilani following his conviction.

However, the timing of the judgment is definitely suspect as it comes only days after a business tycoon accused the Chief Justice’s son of accepting millions in bribes to swing cases. Also, the legal validity of the judgment has come under a cloud. References in the judgment, for instance, to two Indian court cases are largely misplaced.

New Cabinet
A total of 27 Federal Ministers and 11 Ministers of state were given portfolios. Hina Rabbani Khar and Naveed Qamar retained their portfolios of foreign and defense, respectively, in the new Cabinet, announced by Prime Minister Ashraf, which has some new faces. Most of the Ministers in Ashraf's Cabinet have been drawn from the previous dispensation of Gilani.

Hina retained the Foreign Ministry while Qamar Zaman Kaira, who had also filed his nomination for prime ministerial contest as a covering candidate, retained the Information Ministry. Qamar was again assigned the Defense Ministry.

Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, whose PML-Q party is a key ally in the Pakistan People's Party-led coalition, was again inducted as a senior minister and given the Defence Production and Industry portfolios.

Farzana Raja, a loyalist of PPP chief and President Asif Ali Zaradri, was among the new faces inducted into the Cabinet. She was given charge of the Benazir Income Support Programme, a scheme to help the poor.

The other members of the Cabinet include Makhdoom Amin Fahim (commerce), Arbab Alamgir Khan (communication), Nazar Muhammad Gondal (capital administration and development), Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan (climate change), Abdul Hafeez Shaikh (finance), Mir Hazar Khan Bajrani (inter-provincial coordination), Manzoor Wattoo (Kashmir affairs), Farooq Naek (law and justice).

Brief Profile
A strong loyalist of the Bhutto family, Ashraf hails from a family of agriculturists and remained in his occupation until he joined PPP of Rawalpindi in Punjab. Before joining active politics, 61-year-old Ashraf was an agriculturist and businessman by profession. He obtained his undergraduate degree from University of Sindh and did his diploma from UK in Industrial Management.

Ashraf, who was PPP cochairman Zardari’s second choice for the post of premier, became the main candidate after an arrest warrant was issued against party nominee Makhdoom Shahbuddin for alleged irregularities during his tenure as Health Minister.

Interestingly, Ashraf is facing a probe by the National Accountability Bureau for alleged corruption in rental power projects during his tenure as Water and Power Minister.

He was secretary-general of the PPP (Parliamentarians), a party formed in 2002 by the PPP for the purpose of complying with electoral rules governing Pakistani parties. The party contested the 2002 elections while former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was living in self-imposed exile.
Ashraf, who was elected to the National Assembly from Gujar Khan constituency in Rawalpindi district — both in 2002 and 2008 — served twice in the cabinet of Yousuf Raza Gilani, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court.

Ashraf resigned from Gilani’s cabinet in February 2011 after allegations of corruption in power projects. He returned to the cabinet in April 2012 when he was appointed minister for Information Technology. His candidature was backed by PML-Q, a major ally of the PPP with more than 50 seats in the National Assembly.

Tough Time Ahead
The new Pakistani prime minister not only faces corruption cases against him but is also considered an “insensitive” minister. He is accused of being solely responsible for Pakistan’s energy crisis. Instead of trying to find a workable solution to the worsening power supply problem, he has been making promises which he could never fulfill. It is surprising what made Mr Zardari choose him for heading the government as people have been protesting at different places over unending load-shedding, criticizing Ashraf for mishandling the situation.

Moreover, the new prime minister is also likely to face demands for reopening graft cases against Zardari from the Supreme Court.

Ashraf, who belongs to a royal family of Rawalpindi in Punjab, was elected in a two-way contest during a special session of Parliament after three other candidates – Shahabuddin and Qamar Zaman Kaira of the PPP and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman – withdrew from the race.

Zardari, a consummate political survivor, has already sacrificed Gilani in his determination to ensure the money-laundering case, which falls under Swiss jurisdiction and dates back the 1990s, remains closed.

While many Pakistanis are happy to see his unpopular government on the ropes, the pugnacious chief justice is facing a growing backlash from those who fear his court-room victories are being bought at the price of Pakistan's stability.

India will have to watch his moves as he has declared that he will try to do all he can to improve Pakistan’s ties with New Delhi. But will he have time for such moves when he has so much to concentrate on the domestic front.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

3 Years of UPA2 Government: Crucial Political, Economic Policies Remain in State of Drift


The Congress-led UPA2 (United Progressive Alliance) Government completed three inglorious years in office in May 2012. Given the fact that it has all but abandoned the governance of the country, constantly harangued by allies and put on the mat by the Opposition, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s regime must consider it a miracle that it is still in power. The past three years of the government have been marked by a complete paralysis in decision-making and an erosion of stature of the prime minister. Crucial political and economic policies have remained in a state of drift because there is no leadership at the top. As Prime Minister, Singh should have been directing the battle to revive the government, but he is found nowhere in the front. That is because he now leads the government only in name, and his Ministers and allies know it well.

The prime minister is in charge of neither the political agenda of the country nor its economic agenda. In other words, he is a lame-duck prime minister biding his time before he is ousted by the electorate or replaced by his party’s high command led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Meanwhile, everyone in the UPA Government and outside is having fun at his cost. But the headless government’s continuance is not a matter of amusement for the country, which is paying a heavy price for Singh’s pusillanimity and inaction.

Political Front
On the political front, allies are regularly issuing threats and arm-twisting the government because the Congress as a party and Singh as the prime minister have failed to reach out to their partners or allay their apprehensions on several contentious issues. The growing lack of trust between the Congress and its partners in the UPA Government — not to mention the widening divide between the government and the Opposition — has led to key decisions being either kept on hold or rolled back. Many of these decisions which have become victims of the government’s incompetence relate to the economic well-being of the people and their security. 

No amount of chest-thumping by the UPA and its acolytes over its imagined achievements is going to change the reality that the Congress-led government has failed in every way that a government possibly can. Most importantly, the government has lost the people’s trust, which is clearly evident in the results of the recently held election to five States. UPA2 is on life-support — alive but not living.

Unattended Issues

However, as Congressmen across the board will tell you, there is no real sustained debate — or at any rate, any formal putting of heads together in party fora — on how to achieve all this. The big issues, freedom of expression versus community sentiments, market versus control, etc are never thrashed out to evolve a party view.
A senior party functionary pointed out that even the A.K. Antony Report, which analyzed the Congress' performance in recent Assembly elections to five States, including U.P., will be seen only by the Core Group (whose members include Singh, Sonia Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, P. Chidambaram, and A.K. Antony, and Sonia Gandhi's Political Secretary, Ahmed Patel) that meets once a week.
As for the Congress Working Committee (CWC), a more representative body, it seldom meets. It is little wonder then that the Congress is now a party where senior functionaries and ministers themselves scramble for information, where intrigue replaced any world view as ideology a long time ago, and ginger groups are a thing of the hoary past.

Optimism and Reality 

It was an acknowledgment that Dr. Singh had played a stellar role in the party's spectacular victory, drawing in support not just from middle class metropolitan living rooms but rural India as well: across Uttar Pradesh, I recall voters — cutting across caste and religious lines — saying they hoped the UPA, under Singh, would return to power and steer the country through the global economic meltdown.

But three years later, as the UPA readies itself to celebrate its eighth anniversary in power, the government and its Prime Minister have lost their sheen, swamped by a slew of financial scandals, the ham-handed response to the Anna Hazare campaign and rising prices. Congressmen, not Opposition leaders, are beginning to ask whether the Sonia Gandhi-Manmohan Singh partnership has run out of steam, and whether this unique power-sharing arrangement has led to ambivalence on policy issues, crippling effective decision-making. Finally, they are even asking whether the government needs a new face to lead it to the general elections scheduled just two years away, in 2014.

Pranab Factor 

That face could have been Rahul Gandhi, the Congress yuvraj, but his own lack of enthusiasm for taking on the job at this stage, compounded by the party's disastrous showing in the recent Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh has ensured that he will not be taking over the reins, anytime soon. It could have been Sonia Gandhi, but she made it clear in 2004, when the position was hers, that she was not going to take it. It could also have been the party's troubleshooter, its one man brains trust, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. But most senior functionaries and ministers rule out that possibility even though a majority agrees that of those available and no Gandhi willing, he would be the popular choice in the party for Prime Minister.

Of course, the finance minister's name is currently in circulation for another job — that of the next President, and he is certainly emerging as the Opposition's popular choice for a consensus First Citizen.

NCERT Textbook Issue 

Neither is there any system in the party that can respond to the challenges of the times. The recent NCERT textbook controversy, a cabinet minister stresses, should have evoked a considered response from the party: “Textbooks,” he said, “play a key role in a democracy. The response to the objections to the Ambedkar cartoon should not have been left to the HRD ministry.” If there is no serious internal debate, the minister said, people in the party are unlikely to own decisions: the problem with allowing Foreign Direct Investment in retail, he said, is not the opposition of allies or other parties: “We ourselves haven't made up our minds, so we talk of evolving a consensus.”

Eliminating Terrorism
The Congress-led government should not demonstrate softness in approach toward terror attacks. Unfortunately, that is what the UPA has been showing all these years. Its leaders speak in different voices on the growing terrorism menace.

How long will the current state of affairs continue? After every major terrorist incident, the instinctive response of the government is to constitute a committee or form a new investigative body on top of the existing, inefficient anti-terror set-up. In the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, the government realized the need for a central investigating agency to combat terrorism. As a result, with the unanimous support of all political parties the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was created. However, this agency has proved ineffective in preventing terror attacks and tracking down terrorists in the country. The 2011 serial blasts in Mumbai followed by the Delhi High Court blasts and the German Bakery bombing in Pune the previous year could neither be prevented and nor were they properly investigated. The NIA was also accused of allegedly offering bribes to name RSS members in the Ajmer blasts case.

The UPA Government wants to create another anti-terror organization called the National Counter-Terrorism Centre. It is time the government realized that bad policing cannot be supplemented with more policing. The need of the hour is to improve coordination between investigative agencies and state governments, create a more comprehensive database of suspected terrorists and streamline the anti-terror operations, rather than encroach upon the powers of the States.

The current state of affairs makes it amply clear that these extremists have no concern for development and they intend to usurp power by first dominating the countryside and then moving toward the cities. And, hence, the soft approach being taken by the government makes India an even easier target. We cannot afford being the soft state that we are. Merely pumping funds into development is not the solution to the Maoist menace. Similarly, removing or diluting the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir would severely hamper the capabilities and morale of the Army.

The country is in dire need of a more nuanced approach to dealing with issues of national security. Mere half-baked policies will not succeed. Our security will continue to be compromised so long as this UPA Government tries to politicize and pressure the stakeholders in the crucial decision-making process.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Foreign Trade Policy for 2012-13: 7-Point Strategy To Boost Exports


Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has unveiled the Foreign Trade Policy for 2012-13 on June 5. He announced a seven-point strategy to boost exports which include extension of interest subsidy scheme by one year until March 31, 2013. The policy is based on a seven-point strategy which includes thrust to employment intensive industry, encourage domestic manufacturing for inputs to export industry and reduce the dependence on imports, promote technological upgradation of exports, persist with a strong market diversification strategy, encourage exports from the northeastern region, incentives for manufacturing of green goods and reduce transaction costs.

The policy continued with most of the export tax sops and increased the ambit of some others to help exporters rack up $360 billion in exports in the current fiscal. It is indeed a difficult task to present a policy which aims for rapid growth in exports in the face of weak global demand and the unabated persistence of the global economic crisis which erupted four years ago.

Market Diversification
The seven-pillars to boost exports, Sharma said, would also include efforts to increase exports from the north-east region and provide incentive for manufacturing of green goods.

In addition, there would "endeavor to reduce transaction cost through procedural simplification and reduction of human interface. Efforts would be made to promote technological upgradation of exports to retain a competitive edge in global markets and encourage domestic manufacturing for inputs to export industry, thus reducing dependence on imports. The zero-duty Export Promotion Credit Guarantee (EPCG) scheme would be extended by an year to March 31, 2013.

On market diversification, market-linked focus product scheme has been extended until the end of the current fiscal 2012-13 for exports to the United States and European Union (EU), in respect of apparel sector.

Special Economic Zones
As regards the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), he said, "we will come out with new guidelines to make the operation of the SEZ policy more buoyant." In addition, the minister said the government would revamp the 100 per cent Export Oriented Unit (EOU) scheme in the next few months.

The benefits under the scheme, he said, would also be available to those units which had taken benefits under the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS).

The EPCG scheme will also be available for those who had surrendered their benefits under the Status Holder Incentive Scrip (SHIS) scheme.

The government will come out with new guidelines to revive export hubs, SEZs which have lost their sheen after the imposition of the minimum alternate tax and a proposal to take away tax incentives. The government accepted the key demand of industry to extend the two per cent interest subsidy until March 2013.

India’s Exports
India’s exports grew by 21 per cent in 2011-12 to touch $303 billion. The country’s exports inched up 3.23 percent to $24.5 billion in April from a year earlier after falling in March, a far cry from the more than 20 percent growth recorded in recent years. India has been hit by falling demand from its traditional export markets in the United States and Europe.

The export figures compounded an already gloomy economic picture — Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data showed the economy grew at its slowest pace in nine years in the first three months of 2012.

Salient Features
* Foreign Trade Policy document made more user friendly
* Incentives for exports from north-eastern states
* The government to come out with new guidelines to promote SEZs
* The government aiming 20 per cent export growth in 2012-13
* Two per cent interest subsidy scheme extended until March 2013
* Seven new markets added to Focus Market Scheme
* Single revolving bank guarantee for different export deals
* Focus on market diversification to continue
* Steps announced to reduce transaction cost of exports
* Market linked focus product scheme extended until March 2013 for apparel export to the United States and EU
* Ahmedabad, Kolhapur, and Shaharanpur new Towns of Export Excellence
* Zero per cent duty EPCG scheme for technology upgradation extended until March 2013
* Shipments from Delhi, Mumbai through post, courier or e-commerce to get export benefits

Monday, June 4, 2012

New National Telecom Policy 2012: Roaming To Become Free


The Union Cabinet has approved the National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2012, which has been released after a delay of over a year. The policy aims to ultimately abolish roaming charges, allow users to retain their numbers even if they move from one zone to another, in addition to boosting transparency and growth in the scandal-hit sector. 

The draft of the new policy was released by Minister for Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal in October 2011. The target is one nation-one mobile number portability and working toward one nation free roaming.

Advantage
Under the new policy, roaming charges would be done away with thus allowing subscribers to use same number across country without having to pay extra money. Also, it would allow a subscriber to retain his/her original number while shifting base from one city or state to another.

However, consumers will have to wait for some time for this, as the Department of Telecom will first work out modalities of the new scheme before it is brought into force. No timeframe has yet been fixed for the implementation of the policy. The new policy seeks to provide a predictable and stable policy regime for a period of nearly 10 years.

The NTP 2012 envisages increasing penetration of telecom services in rural area from current level of around 39 to 70 per cent by 2017 and 100 per cent by the year 2020. Incidentally, the draft NTP had suggested a 60 per cent rural penetration by 2017.

Under the new policy, broadband speed has been increased to minimum of 2 megabit per second (mbps). This change will come into force with immediate effect.

Delinking of Licenses
Moreover, the NTP-2012 will also separate telecom licenses and spectrum, against the current practice of bundling them, and will charge a market-derived price for the airwaves; the same will apply in the case of broadcasters. Also, rules for Internet telephony would be relaxed under the new policy as it envisages increasing penetration of telecom services in rural areas from the current approximately 39 per cent to 70 per cent by 2017, and 100 per cent by 2020.
However, post the Supreme Court judgment of February 2, 2012, which mandates spectrum auctions, the separation of license and spectrum has already become an undeniable reality. Regardless of the NTP 2012, the DoT would have to separate licenses from spectrum just as it did through an executive order following a Group of Ministers (GoM) direction to auction 3G and BWA spectrum in 2010.

The policy also seeks liberalization of spectrum even though the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), in its latest recommendations, while setting up the reserve price, has already cleared service and technology neutrality with regard to future spectrum auctions. Critical of this move, industry body AUSPI says the proposal to liberalize spectrum in the 1800 MHz band is one of the policy's biggest flaws.

Provisions Under Draft Policy
Originally intended to be NTP 2011, the draft policy was released for public comments only in October 2011, forcing it to be rechristened NTP 2012. The actual timelines for implementation of individual announcements within the new telecom policy are yet to be made known.

With the new policy in place, consumers who use national roaming can now expect to pay local call charges though it is unclear when ‘free roaming' will be initiated. At present, consumers pay local call charges and a premium when traveling outside their service area. The policy also allows national number portability, but again, with no visible timelines.

Other forward-looking propositions like resale of services could become critical in the backdrop of the Supreme Court's cancellation of 122 licenses, which will cease to exist as of August 1, 2012. A sharp reduction in the competition level from 14 operators currently to 7-8 operators could be made up by allowing mobile companies to set up resellers. Services resale is universally recognized as a way to increase competition without duplicating infrastructure or fragmenting the spectrum.

Additionally, it mentions cloud computing, next generation networks, IPV6 and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) as thrust areas — all of which are forward-looking and embrace future technologies. It remains to be seen whether average Internet users will be allowed to use VoIP, especially since this move has been opposed vehemently over the last 5 years by cellular mobile operators.

There is very little in the policy that will help end the impasse faced by the telecom sector. Spectrum pricing, reserve price for the upcoming 2G auctions, historical pricing of spectrum for operators who have received spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz and the more recent contentious issues of reframing, etc, will have to be dealt with through executive decisions, most of which fall outside the purview of the NTP 2012 announcement.

It is also unlikely that the policy by itself will see any major reestablishment of investor confidence, which has been on the decline since late 2010. Both Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and domestic investments faced a sharp decline during 2010-11 vis-à-vis previous years, according to a recent PWC report. The trend has continued downwards even for the fiscal year ending 2012.

Global Hub of Domestic Manufacturing
The policy aspires to make India a global hub of domestic manufacturing, though not much detail on how this mammoth objective will be achieved is available. The draft policy had mentioned preferential market access for Indian vendors as one of the tactics to ensure a boost to telecom manufacturing in India. This drew severe criticism from the Commerce Ministry on grounds that it violated India's commitments at WTO and GATT. The DoT was forced to give an explicit commitment that WTO and GATT's concerns would be kept in view while issuing guidelines on operationalization of the policy.

The NTP 2012 expects to take India's rural teledensity from 39 to 70 percent in the next 5 years with the target that every single Indian will have a phone by 2020. The policy also gets a formal approval of the new unified licensing regime which allows companies to provide ISP, fixed line, international long distance, national long distance, and a few other services through a single license, whose cost has been proposed by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) at Rs. 10 crore. So far, very few companies, if any, have shown a desire to acquire the new unified license.

Earlier policies

The policy will be seen as driving small incremental changes with very little ability to solve the existing sector crises, unlike the NTP 1994, which spurred not just private sector investment in mobile and fixed line services but also initiated 49 percent FDI for the first time — ushering in telecom liberalization.

Earlier in 1999, a second policy — which lasted nearly 13 years — slashed costs across the board for the operators and by extension the consumers by moving from a license fee regime to a revenue share structure.

It also opened up the sector to future competition, breaking the duopoly contractual arrangements which had existed in mobile and fixed line telephony until 2000.
Later, starting 2002, additional competition was introduced in the national and international long distance sectors, which led to the slashing of tariffs, in some cases, by more than 90 percent.
Assessment

The new telecom policy is very welcome as, among other things, it brings in transparency and takes away powers of vital decision-making from the telecom minister of the day and vests it with a ministerial panel. Perhaps there should be a time frame set for the panel so that decisions are not in limbo waiting for the panel to meet.

The other laudable provision is to make India a manufacturing hub for telecom equipment. This is a challenge as manufacturers will have to compete with China in terms of price and volume.

New Benefits
Roaming Fun: With national roaming set to become free, the subscribers need not worry about charges being levied on them while traveling to a different city or state.
Broadband Boost: Speed increased to minimum of 2 mbps. This will come into force with immediate effect
More Transparency: Licenses to be de-linked from spectrum. The policy will allow operators to provide services based on any technology by using airwaves and will not restrict them to use it for particular service using any specific frequency band.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Viswanathan Anand Retains World Chess Champion: Rediscovers India’s Crowning Glory


World champion Viswanathan Anand of India has been the face of Indian chess for more than two decades. The 42-year-old Indian clinched his fifth title on May 30 defeating Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand 2.5-1.5 in a tense tie-breaker at the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow after being tied 6-6 in the 12 classical games. In the event, it was hardly surprising that he stretched the 12-game series to the rapid tie-break games, something Anand had not faced in his two previous title-matches. Anand was prepared for the grind and, as he did in the 2010 match against Topalov, won the title after wiping out a one-point deficit.

After a 6-6 deadlock in the 12 Classical games, the rapid finale ended 2.5-1.5 in Anand’s favor. The victory also meant that the ‘King of Chess’ will keep the crown until the 2014 World Championship.

Undoubtedly, the hallmark of Anand’s success was his speed. Often, Gelfand was seen down to his last few seconds when Anand still had a few minutes left.

Gelfand played white in first and got nothing out of the opening. In fact, an inaccuracy by the Israel gave Anand a huge advantage as the game progressed out of a Semi-Slav defense but it was Anand’s chance to go wrong if the battle had to unfold the way it did.

Positive Start
The first play-off game was a violent affair where both players attacked their opponent's kings without concern for lost pawns. With both players down to less than three minutes on the clock, most of the attacking pieces were neutralized and a draw was agreed after 32 moves.

The second rapid playoff game was an epic battle which Anand won only on the 77th move, the longest game of the match. Anand surprised Gelfand in the opening phase and gained plenty of time on the clock but the Israeli challenger sacrificed a pawn and soon acquired powerful counter-play.

Gelfand succeeded in doubling his rooks on the seventh rank on the 31st move, normally a crushing maneuver, but by then he had only 42 seconds left on his clock to avoid a time forfeit and he was relying on the 10 second increment per move to keep him in the game. Anand defended stoutly and, after a mistaken series of exchanges by Gelfand, reached an endgame which was a technical draw, despite Anand's extra pawn.

Best Rapid Player of Generation
Forty-two-year-old Anand displayed how he is the best rapid player of his generation. That the victory was well deserved can be seen from the outpouring of commendations for the Indian grandmaster, who has a string of impressive victories to his credit.

Anand has left his mark on the game ever since he won the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship in 1983. Just 14, Anand, who had been taught the game by his mother, scored a perfect nine to win the championship. Of course, he has notched up many successes since then and is considered by many as the greatest Indian sportsperson. No wonder, even cricketing legends salute this grandmaster of chess.

In fact, Anand was the first Indian to become a grandmaster. His success has spurred more interest in the game, and today the nation boasts of 27 grandmasters, including the 15-year-old Vaibhav Suri, who won the title just a month ago. The number of international chess masters has also risen dramatically and India is among the top 10 nations in chess. Women have also made a mark in the game, especially world number four, Koneru Humpy, who is one of the eight Indians who figure in the top 100. In this list, there are five women and three men. These individuals and the almost 25,000 Indians, who have a world rating, prove that Indians have the knack for the game, and show how family support can hone talent.

Former world champion Garry Kasparov had said in a recent statement that the Indian grandmaster had peaked and that many of the latter’s games in recent times showed a lack of ‘newness.’ But that is not true, because in the recently concluded championship, Anand did employ novel variations. In any case, there is no point for a player to use ‘creativity’ in a world championship if he is convinced that such a move is unessential.

Phenomenal Record
Anand has stayed in the world's top 10 since 1991 and he is one among seven players ever to hold the topmost ranking in 40 years. Considering that every Anand maneuver over the board has been clinically analyzed by the best chess brains, mostly from the erstwhile Soviet Union and Europe, for 25 years, it is truly commendable how he has managed to stay a step ahead. His longevity as a performing champion is the result of his uncompromising nature when it comes to discipline and training.

In a country where celebrities flaunt their status and expect and demand preferential treatment, the unassuming Anand is a whiff of fresh air. If there is an icon that India can truly be proud of, it is Anand.
Anand’s Other World Crowns
* Won for the first time winning in knockout format. Starting with 128 players, Anand marched his way ahead in New Delhi to set up the finale with Alexey Shirov of Spain in Teheran in 2000. It was a six-game final that lasted only till the fourth. Anand won three and drew one at Tehran in Iran to be crowned the world champion.

* Pitted against the best in the world in a match tournament spread over 14-games between eight players, Anand was in his element and won this event in style in Mexico City (Mexico) in 2007. This also gave him the right to play the next world championship in a match format against the seemingly invincible Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

* The World championship was back to a match format, something which the chess world had been craving for a long time. Anand started as the underdog against Kramnik but the entire world saw a grand transformation in the Indian in Bonn (Germany) in 2008. It was a 12-games match that ended after 11. Anand won three, lost one and drew the remaining seven to reach 6.5 points.

* It was eruption of an Icelandic volcano that disrupted all flights across Europe. Anand had to undertake a 30-hours journey by road to reach Sofia (Bulgaria) in 2010. He asked for three days extension but was granted only one day.
He was playing against all odds against the lion — Veselin Topalov — in his own den. Anand started with a first round loss but won the title winning the last game with black pieces. The loss was shattering for Topalov. He slipped from being the top player then to number 12 now.