PIRACY : TERROR FUNDING

The silicon terrorism
How piracy is funding the global terrorism?

The Hurt Locker, a story on Iraq war and winner of six Academy Awards, may be just another movie in the line of terrorism, but it took war on piracy to an interesting turn. One of the scenes in the movie, where Christopher Sayegh (as Beckham) sells pirated DVDs and various electronic items outside the Jeremy Renner's military base, may not be the climax, but has a significant role in the theme of the film. The pirated DVDs, which are sold for about $1 each, are not only a major source of terror funding in the Middle-East, but are sources of minting money for global terror groups.

On May 2010, Voltage Pictures, the production company of The Hurt Locker, sued thousands of computer users who downloaded pirated copies of the film and filed complaints against 5,000 unidentified BitTorrent users with the US District Court (largest lawsuit of its kind). In addition, it demanded $1,500 from each defendant to release them from the suit. This case, however, may be one-of-its-kind, but it would surely go a long way in influencing production companies to take such steps to reduce piracy. According to a report, counterfeiting and piracy cost around $250 billion annually from the movie industry. Terrorists and organised criminal groups are exploiting this huge market in order to fund their evil plans — for instance, the highly active D-Company that spearheads the major syndicate involved with film piracy in India and sub-continent for the past 25 years. In 2004, an Interpol report revealed that intellectual property crimes (illegal CDs manufacturing) are a growing resource for terrorist groups from Northern Ireland to the Arab world, including Al-Qaida and Hezbollah. This mode of terror funding is not only present and practised in Asia and the UK, but also found in Latin American countries like Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. According to a report by Rand Corporation, Hezbollah receives $20 million annually from proceeds of pirated films in the tri-border area. Moreover, restrictions on release of international movies in countries like China (allows only 20 foreign movies per year) have cost its industry a whopping $2.5 billion in 2005 (the last available data), due to influx of pirated DVDs. Studies say that developing a pirated DVD in South Asian countries costs less than 70 cents and these can be sold in developed countries for around $10 each. Not only is developing a pirated DVD relatively safer and cheaper, the transfer is equally easy. For example, in France, transacting counterfeit products, including pirated DVDs, is punishable by a fine up to $0.19 million and imprisonment up to two years (whereas selling drugs is punishable with 10 years imprisonment along with a fine up to $9.5 million). However, the pirating gets more lucrative not just because of the returns it offers, but also because of the low risk factor. The rate of conviction for piracy is lower compared to that of smuggling drugs. In 2002-03, merely 134 criminals were convicted of piracy while smuggling of drugs pushed around 1.5 million criminals behind the bars in the US alone.

It is just not about saving millions of dollars that finds its way into the terror industry, but actually about several innocent human lives that are eventually hit. While anti-piracy laws will take its own time to stop piracy, a move like Voltage Picture's will certainly deter internet users from downloading pirated movies.

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM : EXPERTISE NEEDED

Rope in more Technocrats
We need to make space for technocrats in our administrative league.

A year back, a survey and a report by Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) stated India’s bureaucracy was “suffocating” and further concluded that “working with the country's civil servants was a slow and painful process.” The report also mentioned that the powers-that-be are quite reluctant in bringing in structural reforms and changes in the system. This report should not come as a surprise to any Indian, especially those who have had a first hand experience interacting with the civil servants – aka babus.

The leverage that these babus have is primarily because of the communication link they are able to monopolise between India Inc. and politicians/government. Not only does such a bureaucracy help in smooth 'execution' of corrupt activities but also helps in diverting funds (meant for development schemes) to their and politicians’ own treasures. The whole aura of ineffective bureaucracy has actually intensified during the last couple of decades – while the influx of well experienced technocrats fell to a large extent.

Entry of technocrats from various professions to handle administrative jobs (or ministries as secretaries) would reduce the inefficiency that is rampant across all departments to a large extent. This will not only allow ministries to function as Strategic Business Units but will also make the entire hierarchy more efficient and productive. Take for instance the DMRC project. Had this project been headed by some legacy bureaucrat, the project wouldn't have been such a success. It was all thanks to a technocrat– E Sreedharan, a former professor and engineer – that DMRC could meet the deadlines. On similar lines, the UID project is running on fast track largely because a technocrat, Nandan Nilekani, chairs the initiative.

It goes without saying that when a novice heads a ministry that calls for technical knowledge and years of experience, the result will be what this nation is facing with almost all development projects – from cost overrun to time overrun. Yes, there’re exemplary exceptions like Maruti (even the current Chairman, RC Bhargava, is the 1965 IAS topper). But in general, these exceptions remain, well, exceptions, with a growing demand that technocrats be put at leadership positions in our defence, railways, agriculture and other ministries.

In most of the developed countries, the head of the government comes to power along with his team of experts (derived from think-tanks, experts, economists and so on) who have had impressive career records. For example, most of the members of the Obama Senate Transition Team are exemplars in their areas of work. Similarly, China adopted a technocratic economic model since its reforms period. The same goes for UK where Political and Economic Planning, a think-tank, assists the government. Similar are the cases with Germany a nd Russia. Presently, even European countries (especially the eastern ones) are experiencing a massive technocracy movement. Just pumping in money for development projects won't suffice, unless these are headed by people who know how to deliver efficiency. The conclusion to be drawn from these examples is that the existing politico-bureaucracy nexus needs to be broken and a conscription started where the nation’s top executives, management graduates are compulsorily made to work for a few years in government companies and ministries.