RESOURCE WAR : RARE EARTH ELEMENTS

A New 'RARE’ War
Rare Earth elements can fuel the next war among nations

There seems to be a new entry in the catalogue of war for resources. After oil, gold and water, the latest addition are the rare earth elements. Rare earth element is a collection of seventeen chemical elements like scandium, yttrium and the fifteen lanthanides. They are the key minerals used in green technology and precision weapons production — from iPads to electric cars, precision weapons to electronic goods.

China gained monopoly after mines of rare earth elements across the world were closed down owing to low cost exports of the same by China. When China instituted an export ban on rare earth elements to Japan on Sept 22, 2010, it intensified concerns on worldwide production of major electronic products and defense equipments. China today controls 36 million tons of the world's 88 million ton rare-earth element deposits, more than the combined deposits of the US and Russia. It also supplies over 97 per cent of rare earth elements to the world. According to surveys, over 1,24,000 metric tons of rare earth elements were produced in 2009 while the global demand was more than 1,34,000 metric tons. This demand-supply gap is encouraging black marketing and illegal trading; more so, as the worldwide demand is expected to rise to 1,80,000 metric tons by 2012. The global trade in rare earths is estimated to reach $3 billion by 2014.

These elements are so diversely spread that mining alone would fetch no economic benefit. Even the US for the last 15 years, is completely relying on imports. In spite of other countries crafting policies to make their rare earth elements mines more economical, the monopoly will be there with China — at least for next few decades. Since rare-earth mining produces radioactive waste and discharge of such waste calls for strict guidelines in developed countries, China seems to be the best option. The country has allotted billions into basic and applied research on rare earth elements; China also has two state laboratories exclusively for R&D on rare-earth elements and own two journals dedicated to rare earth metals. Japan has come out with an innovative alternative that can alter the rules of trade in this sector but unfortunately is expensive and calls for huge investment as of now. This Japanese alternative will extract rare earth elements through recycling. It is estimated that around 3,00,000 tons of rare earths stored in unused electronics can be tapped after recycling.

China since July 2010 has reduced export quotas of rare earth elements by 72 per cent, thus inflating prices by six-folds which will make a major dent on global availability and pricing and eventually jeopardize defense and electronic goods production. What is worse is that mines across the world would take a minimum of 10-15 years before they become operational. Hence it makes more sense for countries to go the Japanese way as it can guarantee both economic and environmental benefit.

‘Dalit’ is unconstitutional!

‘Dalit’ is unconstitutional! Go ahead, sue us!

The term ‘Dalit’ is unconstitutional as per Article 341. But the usage can still be seen across the country. Legal/political intervention is a must!

Words, depending on their context, have the power to capture the imagination of millions and precede paradigms that can be make civilizations proud, or put them to shame. There have been words that have caused massive rebellions and friction between communities. Be it the way Whites used the term Negro, Nigger, Black, and apartheid or the way Hitler and Mussolini used Nazism and fascism respectively, some words have stayed on to simmer deep rooted suspicion between civilizations. These words have in some cases, brought with them a feeling of discrimination and subjugation of the entire community.

To place the term ‘Dalit’ along with the examples quoted above might seem extreme – well, nobody in India seems to be having a problem currently – but the reality is that its’ about time the society is educated on and understands how pejorative this particular term could be. And history has seen too many such previously accepted terms being socially ostracised in one swift move – from ‘mentally retarded’ to ‘socially challenged’, from ‘deaf and dumb’ to ‘physically disabled’, from ‘beggars, mendicants and slum dwellers’ to ‘economically disadvantaged’, from ‘queer, faggot, gay and homo’ to ‘LGBT and MSM’, the examples are innumerable.

On the same benchmarks, if the usage of the term Dalit doesn’t get your goatee, and you’re mighty surprised on this proposition of ours being presented, then allow us to affirm, that you in all definiteness are yourself not a Dalit.

For the uninitiated, the Dalit term was originally used as a simile for ‘lower caste people’ considered to be ‘untouchables’ by the so-called ‘higher caste people’ in India. Somewhere down the line, social intellectuals, media sources and political commentators forgot the untouchability metaphor and adopted the usage of the term, disregarding the utter destituteness of the usage. But the discontent amongst the addressed classes had never vanished and in fact had grown, despite not getting an organised collective forum.

To a point in 2008 in Chhattisgarh, when finally the state government ordered the district collectors and its departments to immediately stop the usage of the Dalit term in their documents. This was done after an elongated series of requests made by the National Commission for Backward Classes. The reference point for this request is irrefutable and even shocking. The Commission proved that the usage of the term Dalit was unconstitutional. The Constitution defines this specific class (of Dalits, if we may) under the well documented Scheduled Caste (SC) category; this is as per Article 341 of the Constitution. Only the President of India, as per Constitution, can include any new term to address the SC category. In short, the term Dalit does not exist in the Constitution; and for specific reasons we have mentioned.

Post Chhattisgarh government’s move, the Dakshina Kannada district police officials in Mangalore also decided to avoid the usage of such a clearly pejorative term. Mangalore, which had been particularly infamous for its discrimination, showed this rare understanding that went against the convention.

Now, a similar course is being experienced by the term ‘Harijan’. As recently as in August 2010, the Parliamentary Committee asked the government to stop the use of the Harijan term – which has been alternatively used for Dalits; and in fact was introduced by Mahatma Gandhi himself. The committee argued that the term is deprecating the status of the underprivileged sections of society. As per the committee, the ministry had previously issued a circular in 1982 asking the state governments and Union Territory administrations to issue instructions to the concerned authorities not to use the word Harijan in scheduled caste certificates. 

However, given current blatant usage of both the terms – Dalit and Harijan – across India, these examples are aberrations at best. American constitutional laws, re-modelled during the reconstruction period after the Civil War, had provisions to protect freed black American slaves. The US government has also previously banned the Negro term, and made the usage of the term a punishable offence (of course, till the time Obama identified himself comfortably as being a Negro).

Recently, the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) declared discrimination based on the caste system as a human-rights abuse. But surprisingly, the Indian government is trying to get the word ‘caste’ removed from this UN draft. To the contrary, the UNHRC is now even considering ratifying a draft recognizing the persecution of Dalits worldwide.

In this scenario where political will is found wanting, the legal will needs to be strengthened. The Supreme Court should declare the usage of the term Dalit a nationwide offence. Closing this dark chapter of history is critically important; and it has already been delayed by a long and painful 63 years since Independence. 

Traffic jams across the globe need innovative solutions

The global As(h)tray
Traffic jams across the globe need innovative solutions

When it comes to owning superlative terms, China seems to be on the forefront. It has always attempted to build the biggest, tallest, longest or mightiest records across categories. But the recent inclusion of having the worst traffic jam is surely the most unwanted entry in the record books. And the honour for this goes to the traffic jam that occurred recently on the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Highway, which would comfortably put any similar traffic congestion in history to shame.

In all fairness, traffic congestions are not confined to over populated countries like China or India but can be traced across the world. The problem is not just about infrastructural or traffic management failure, but goes beyond. A recent study by the Pew Research Center shows that more than 33 per cent of the US roadways are in “substandard condition” and are most of the time incapable of handling traffic. This traffic gridlock dents the economy and affects the productivity of the nation. Going by the rate at which vehicle ownership is increasing, the number of cars and light trucks worldwide is set to double over the next 20 years, which today is more than 900 million. And mind you, the concentration of vehicles is much intense in cities than in rural or sub-urban areas. A new report from the Texas Transportation Institute reveals that congestion cost the economy $87 billion and eats away 4 billion hours of time. Congestion in Los Angeles averages at 72 hours a year while a driver has to face 62 hours average congestion in Washington DC annually. Traffic congestion in Dhaka eats up Tk 19,555 crore a year and about 3.2 million business hours are lost every day, which is about one hour per working person. A World Bank study revealed that the health impacts and costs attributed to air pollution due to traffic congestion in the Philippines were estimated at US$392 million for 2001 while the World Health Organization reveals that in developing countries as many as 300 million people are dying due to vehicle emissions.

Increasing roads, flyover and expressways is not the only solution, studies show that traffic congestion is more because of driver’s behaviour while driving. A few experts have suggested the introduction of adaptive cruise control (ACC) that would automatically keep a car at a set distance from the one in front through combinations of navigators, satellites and radars. Furthering this thought, a study by Technische Universität Dresden, Germany found that a 1 per cent increase in the number of ACC-using vehicles would free up 0.3 per cent of road capacity.

Other policy measures that can be put to use are parking restrictions, road pricing (charging money to access roads), certificate of entitlement (exorbitant purchase prices for the licenses) scheme, congestion entry tax (as is there in London), road space rationing (restricting certain types of vehicles in certain areas), number plate restrictions (based on days of the week, as was used in Korea during Olympics, 1988) and many other discretely practiced methods can come as a rescue too. Of course, public transport is the general solution that exists too. Still, the time is not too far when we'll have gridlocks that last for days, if not weeks. That's the danger for now.

AVIATION: SAFETY

Drunk pilots should be jailed!

It’s unbelievable that DGCA still does not cancel the flying license of a pilot flying drunk; the IIPM Think Tank does a critical analysis of the lopsided DGCA regulations

Last month, the DGCA announced that a pilot who gets caught drunk twice ‘might be’ sent for ‘rehabilitation’; and if caught thrice, the same ‘might’ lead to their job termination. Within two days of the announcement, DGCA upped the punishment post haste and announced that a pilot caught drunk once will have his or her license suspended for three months. A second time would lead to permanent suspension. 

While the DGCA is self-applauding itself on its apparently stringent resolve to reduce drunk flying, one is flabbergasted at how lenient such a resolve is in reality, given the fact that pilots are responsible for the lives of more than a hundred passengers per flight. The DGCA should learn a lesson or two from the Delhi Traffic Police, which now has a zero-tolerance policy for drunk driving, where any driver caught driving drunk even once will have his/her license cancelled immediately (1378 licenses were cancelled by the Delhi Police in the last eleven months under this clause). Clearly, the DGCA feels that it’s all right to allow drunk pilots to keep flying.

Further, till now, the DGCA has been checking pilots through breath analysers before the flight starts, without keeping a check on whether the pilot drinks during the flight. Pilots know and realise this easiest method of avoiding getting caught. One is told that the DGCA, after so many decades of existence, has started advising such checks post the flight too.

We say that the DGCA diktat should have focussed on cancelling the licence of the pilot and jailing him. The Motor Vehicles Act already has this stringent provision of jailing for drunk drivers, with the term ranging from three months (for first time offenders) to six months (for repeat offenders). It’s unbelievably strange that the DGCA doesn’t believe in that.

So are pilots really flying drunk? As per a 2009 Rajya Sabha report by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, during the past one year, “Eight pilots of Kingfisher Airlines, six each of Indigo and SpiceJet and three each of Jetlite, Jet Airways and Paramount were detected alcohol-positive during a pre-flight medical examination.” A brief trend analysis reveals that in 2009, more than 40 pilots were found drunk on duty and only 8 of them were sacked. According to a Right to Information Act report in 2009, 28 pilots found drunk are still flying.

Imagine the consequences. The Jayaprakash Narayan International airport in Patna, for instance, allows pilots to use only 6,300 ft of the 7,500 ft (against the international norm of 9000 ft) long runway. This forces pilots to take-off at high speeds and calls for planes to fly light. But in most cases, these planes are full till the brim. Runways in Patna (6300 ft), Jammu (6700 ft), Mangalore (table top runway of 8038 ft), Aizawal (3131 ft), Kullu (3690 ft), Port Blair (6000 ft), Agartala (7500 ft) and so on and so forth, are other notable instances of international norms not being met on runway length, leading to a necessity that the pilot landing the plane or taking off be sober.

And in India, in spite of alcohol tests being mandatory, airlines take a lenient stance in order to keep the schedules of flights intact. DGCA’s current policy is a problem looking for a solution rather than being the opposite, which it should have been. We repeat, jail the drunk pilots the first time itself; they’re playing with hundreds of lives.

INFORMATION PORTAL: US PROPAGANDA

US: Pranab is still the External Affairs minister

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s State Department considers Pranab Mukherjee to be India’s foreign minister! More similar gaffes inside...

Truth is stranger than fiction, but fiction does appear to have an irresistible appeal for two of the world’s largest administrative agencies, the US State Department and CIA. The official web portals and communiqués of the US State Department and CIA are splattered with notable misinformation and errors that would be necessarily considered highly affronting at a diplomatic level. 

Last week, we showed how both the State Department and CIA confidently misrepresented India’s map (and showed Kashmir as part of Pakistan) on their websites. We had no idea there was more to come – perhaps even ‘the’ reason for why the Americans seem to be making no headway with India on foreign affairs. The US State Department’s official website mentions that the Minister of External Affairs of India is (still) Pranab Mukherjee! S. M. Krishna, the current Foreign Minister of India since May 2009, has been notably left out of the State Department’s official communiqués. Incidentally, Krishna has also met Barack Obama in various forums, including at New York in September 2009. Not all listed information is wrong, though. Some US government letters are thankfully still reaching the right addresses in India. The Home Minister of India is correctly named as P. Chidambaram; and so are some other Indian politicians.

Mistakes on the CIA and State Department’s websites are not only India-centric but can be found in the case of other countries too. What’s interesting is that, in spite of the official websites of these respective countries portraying genuine information, the US has failed to recognise the same in its own records. First, the comical. In South Korea, three years ago, a series of protests against the CIA finally forced the agency to correct the information about South Korea’s origins (CIA had earlier amusingly stated that “South Korea has been a nation for a millennium;” South Korea, apparently a stickler for dates, protested en masse as this nation has been in existence only since the last 4000 years). This was apart from the CIA correcting the misrepresentation of the number of deputy prime ministers that South Korea had had. However, the country is still trying to convince the agency to rectify names of two locations on CIA’s map of South Korea.

On the same lines, Northern Cyprus is still being shown as a part of Republic of Cyprus, despite the region having gained independence in the year 1983, 27 years earlier. On another line, while the whole of Kashmir is shown as being “disputed”, Taiwan is peacefully included on the map of China. This has to be seen along with the fact that Taiwan is shown as a separate country on the US Department of State site with the names of its President and Prime Minister. And when it comes to Myanmar, both the CIA and US State Department list the country under its old name Burma. In 1989, Burma changed its name officially to Myanmar; a rename that was endorsed by the UN. Apparently, not by the CIA/State Department.

While some of the mistakes – including India’s foreign minister’s name – are evident typographical mistakes (and show the lack of intent within the government to keep critical diplomatic facts updated), some of the mistakes, like Kashmir or Taiwan, seem deliberate and evidently committed with political intent. This can be considered even propaganda if one were to assume the worst, as many institutions globally (including schools) refer to these websites for authentic information. There’s a thin line between a diplomatic error and a strategically planted insult. Imagine if were considering Bush still to be the US president.