What is 'two-part tariff' in Economics?

This refers to an unconventional pricing technique where a business first charges an upfront fee from consumers for its product and later charges them additional fees based on their per unit usage. A club, for instance, might charge its members a standard membership fee for basic entry privileges and then charge additional fees if members choose to use individual services that are offered by it. The two-part tariff system is considered to be a form of price discrimination that is often employed by profit-seeking businesses trying to maximise their total revenue by the means of fully capturing any consumer surplus that may be available.

Source: The Hindu, 17/12/2018

The spectre of deportation

The outcome of the NRC exercise has implications for India’s ties with Bangladesh

The last date for filing claims and objections for Assam’s National Register of Citizens (NRC) has been extended by the Supreme Court to December 31, from December 15. This exercise of compiling the NRC in the first place has sparked a debate around its political, economic and humanitarian consequences, and its implications for India’s relationship with its neighbours, particularly Bangladesh. In fact, there was some disquiet in Bangladesh when the Indian Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat, lent support to the NRC drive, claiming that those settled in Indian territory without legal jurisdiction posed a threat to national security.

Two-way traffic

Few seem to realise that there are legal as well as illegal Indian immigrants in Bangladesh too. According to the latest available Bangladesh government estimates of 2009, more than 500,000 Indians were working in Bangladesh. More recently, Bangladesh was reported to be among the highest source of remittances to India, behind the United Arab Emirates, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the U.K. Many Indian citizens are securing coveted employment opportunities in Bangladesh through multinational companies, non-governmental organisations, and trading activities. To put things into perspective, most of them are employed in advantageous jobs in Bangladesh while Bangladeshis in India are largely employed in low-paying jobs.

The ruling establishment in India maintains that the NRC is an administrative task overseen by the Supreme Court, and not a political gambit. However, some members of the ruling party have been making hateful anti-migration and anti-Bangladeshi comments that reflect poorly on the prevalent positive relationship between Bangladesh and India.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured the Bangladesh government that those excluded from the NRC will not be deported, Dhaka has so far been silent on the issue, terming it as an ‘internal matter of India’. This is seen as a signal that Bangladesh, already stretched in terms of resources and manpower to host Rohingya refugees, would not be acceding to a request of taking back Bengali-speaking Muslims in case deportation is initiated. Yet, some remain apprehensive, pointing out that Bangladesh had been similarly unconcerned about the Rohingya issue, which did not prevent the country from ultimately hosting more than a million Rohingya.

Neighbourhood first?

Mr. Modi came to power with proclamation of a ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. Midway in the final year of his term, the reality speaks quite differently. Nepal, once a time-tested ally, has tilted towards China since the 2015 Nepal blockade barring the entry of fuel, medicine and other vital supplies and holding the state to a literal siege. Nepal now has been given access to four Chinese ports at Tianjin, Shenzhen, Lianyungang and Zhanjiang in addition to its dry (land) ports at Lanzhou, Lhasa and Xigatse, as well as roads to these facilities, ending India’s monopoly to its trading routes. The India-Bhutan relationship has also been strained ever since India temporarily withdrew subsidies on cooking gas and kerosene in 2013, constraining bilateral ties. The Doklam stand-off in the summer of 2017 reinforced Bhutan’s scepticism towards Chinese expansionist plans across the region. Simultaneously, Thimphu has been underlining the landlocked kingdom’s aspiration to affirm its sovereignty. It has, for instance, stepped out of India’s diplomatic influence, as evidenced by its withdrawal from the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal (BBIN) motor vehicles agreement. The India-China power play has also cast its shadow over Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the last few years.

Against this backdrop of China making inroads into South Asia and India’s backyard, Bangladesh has so far been the most trusted ally of India. On the security front, it has cooperated in India’s crackdown on insurgents. Border Security Force (BSF) chief K.K. Sharma said last year that because of close cooperation with Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) “the number of training places and hideouts of these insurgents (in Bangladesh) has been reduced to almost zero.” Annual bilateral trade is set to cross the $9 billion mark, making it India’s biggest trading partner in South Asia. In addition, Bangladesh has facilitated connectivity with the Northeast by allowing the use of Chittagong and Mongla ports. However, the Teesta water-sharing issue remains unaddressed, non-tariff barriers on Bangladeshi exports persist and border killings are yet to become a thing of the past.

The NRC issue threatens to disturb the equilibrium in India-Bangladesh ties. It is vital to note that Bangladesh is heading for elections at the end of this month, and in poll campaigns, relations with India tend to be played up. Plans for deportation of those not on the NRC list are not only politically imprudent but also risk inciting unrest across the region. Previous similar exercises have not been effective and only resulted in alienating individuals from their natural rights.

Syed Munir Khasru, chairman of the Institute for Policy, Advocacy, and Governance, is based in Dhaka. E-mail: munir.khasru@ipag.org

Source: The Hindu, 17/12/2018

In Good Faith: The rights side of 70

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948, holds lessons for a more equitable future.

In his famous book, Man and the State, the French philosopher Jacques Maritain draws attention to the universal essence of human rights above ideologies. He says, “The recognition of a particular category of rights is not the privilege of one school of thought at the expense of the others; it is no more necessary to be a follower of Rousseau to recognise the rights of the individual man than it is to be a Marxist to recognise the economic and social rights.” At the time Maritain was writing these lines, he was deeply concerned with the political and philosophical situations of Europe and the world post World War II and during the Cold War. The practical challenge for a philosopher like Maritain was to formulate the means which could help people around the world to discuss their differences while respecting and assuring human dignity for everyone on the planet. Maritain was right to underline that a dignified life was based on the establishment of the basic needs and rights of every individual independent of his or her race, language, culture, religion or nationality. The core idea of this optimistic philosophy — that states and peoples can discuss practical issues and arrive at mutual agreements despite ideological differences — probably had an effect on René Cassin, the French legal scholar, who was later awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts in drafting the final version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

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In his speech to the UNESCO General Council in 1947, Maritain asked the key question about the challenge of overcoming obstacles posed by diverse cultures and ideological differences throughout human history. “How,” he asked, “can we imagine an agreement of minds between men who come from the four corners of the globe and who not only belong to different cultures and civilisations, but are of antagonistic spiritual associations and schools of thought?” Unsurprisingly, the members of the Human Rights Commission, under the leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady of the United States from March 1933 to April 1945), charged with the drafting of the declaration, were all well aware of the importance of this challenge. In that sense, from the very beginning, their task was as much philosophical as it was judicial. As such, in the manner of Maritain, who was in search of a new universal ethics, the commission members extended the theoretical foundations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights beyond “the narrow limits of the Western tradition”. Maintaining that human rights transcend religious and cultural differences, Cassin, nonetheless, recognised that they embodied generations of rights expressed by their humanistic and natural law foundations. Moreover, neither Cassin, nor the other drafters of the Universal Declaration were unaware of the contributions and influences of ancient philosophies and religions to the modern understanding of rights. However, influenced by the spirit of the French Revolution and its revolutionary motto “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité”, Cassin identified the four foundational blocks of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as “dignity, liberty, equality, and brotherhood”. By “dignity”, developed in the first two articles of the universal declaration, Cassin referred to all the values which were shared by individuals beyond their sex, race, creed and religion. As for “liberty”, it included articles three to 19, and emphasised on rights related to individual life, liberty and personal security. Under “equality”, Cassin understood rights related to the public sphere and political participation (articles 20 to 26), and, under “brotherhood” were economic, social and cultural rights (articles 27 and 28). Finally, the three last articles (28, 29 and 30) focused on the conditions in which these could be realised in society and the state.

However, the concept of rights — long recognised in historically significant laws, charters and constitutions such as the Magna Carta (1215), American Declaration of Independence (1776), Bill of Rights (1791) and the French Declaration of Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789), and at the foundation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 — did not succeed in overcoming the approaches of the states and individuals who distinguished between “themselves” and “others”. Let us not forget that out of then 58 members of the United Nations, only 48 ratified the universal declaration while Saudi Arabia, South Africa, the Soviet Union, Poland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, Byelorussia and Czechoslovakia abstained, because they were worried that the moral appeal of the document would endanger the sanctity of their domestic laws and regulations.

Consequently, despite Maritain’s call for the universality of human rights and Cassin’s insistence on their indivisibility, the Cold War rivalry between the two blocks and the admission of the newly independent states in the UN, ended with the adoption of two covenants in 1966 on civil and political rights, on the one hand, and, economic and social rights, on the other hand. However, despite the tireless struggles of three generations of individuals and institutions, and the impact of globalisation on human rights, the Universal Declaration is considered as a lantern of hope viewed from afar by political prisoners and refugees around the world. And yet, the philosophy of human rights continues to propel humanity into the future, where many still believe that justice, rights and peace can be constructed. Therefore, if the lessons of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are not learned, and if we do not consider the past 70 years, which separate us from the foundation of this monumental document as a positive journey; the future generations will have great difficulties in overcoming the challenges of the next 70 years.

Source: Indian Express, 17/12/2018

APSC prelims admit card 2018 released at apsc.nic.in

APSC CCE prelims admit card 201 8: Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) has released the admit card for combined competitive prelim examination (CCE Prelims) 2018. The examination will be held on December 30.

Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) has released the admit card for combined competitive prelim examination (CCE Prelims) 2018. The examination will be held on December 30.

Here’s direct link to download APSC prelims admit card

APSC prelims admit card: Steps to download from the official website

1) Go to APSC’s official website

2) Click on link for download of CCE Prelims 2018 admit card in the latest updates section

3) You will be directed to a new login page

4) Enter roll no and date of birth in dd-mm-yy format

5) Click on submit to download the call letter

Immediately after downloading the e-admission certificate, candidates should look for details given on it and inform the commission in case there is any discrepancy.

Note: Visit official website of APSC for latest news and updates.

Source: Hindustan Times, 16/12/2018

How the Indian voter has changed in recent years

Which way the Indian voter will swing and what would drive their choices? In recent years, the Indian voter has flummoxed pollsters, journalists, and even the most seasoned political observers. Gone are simple tropes and stereotypes about voters who only care about their ascriptive identities (read caste, region and religion) and exchanged their votes for some cash and alcohol. This election affirmed that the voter exhibits carefully reasoned political preferences, weighing complex issues of jobs, inflation, and agriculture

In the aftermath of the election results, much of the analysis has focused on trying to understand the nature of the verdict in five states and its implications for the upcoming 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The big question on everyone’s mind is: Which way will the Indian voter swing and what will drive their choices? In recent years, the Indian voter has flummoxed pollsters, journalists, and even the most seasoned political observers. Gone are simple tropes and stereotypes about voters who only care about their ascriptive identities (read caste, region and religion) and exchanged their votes for some cash and alcohol. This election affirmed that the voter exhibits carefully reasoned political preferences, weighing complex issues of jobs, inflation, and agriculture. Thus, it would be prudent to assess what we have learned about the Indian voter after this latest round of elections and what this means for the future of Indian politics.

First and foremost, Indian voters are turning out to vote in larger numbers than ever before. Not only has the gender gap in turnout declined, there is enough evidence to suggest that most social groups are turning out in equal proportions. The turnout gap between reserved and unreserved constituencies has become virtually non-existent. Lower turnout in metropolitan areas still remains a concern, but compared to most democracies around the world, voter turnout in India remains fairly high. The concerted effort of the Election Commission of India in this regard through various voter awareness programmes must be duly acknowledged.

Second, it is now becoming increasingly evident that voters are holding their leaders accountable for economic performance. Despite a popular narrative that paints the Indian voter as largely driven by identity issues, field reports consistently showed that voters were most concerned about agricultural prices, delivery of public goods, jobs, and corruption — all issues that can be associated with incumbent government performance. Emerging research in this area has not only demonstrated a positive relationship between the incumbent government’s electoral outcomes and economic growth at the state level, but also a positive correlation between voters’ assessment of their own economic condition (pocket-book voting) as well as the health of the national economy. This trend is likely to become more apparent as the size of urban and middle-class population increases further.

Third, the Indian voter is more informed than ever before. As campaigns are becoming increasingly sophisticated in reaching the voter — through WhatsApp and Facebook for instance — so too has the Indian voter diversified her sources of political information. When there is a political misstep, be it the Mandsaur firing in Madhya Pradesh or an incendiary remark, the voter is sure to find out. This diversity of political information also allows voters to make sense of their personal situations. For instance, a citizen concerned about local corruption or poor job creation in her village will understand it to be a more general phenomenon upon which to hold the incumbent accountable if similar reports stream in from across the state.

Fourth, emerging research suggests that women voters are displaying independent political preferences that defy basic stereotypes and may shift electoral outcomes. Politicians across the board are making great efforts to court the female constituency. For example, the Modi government has aggressively advertised its performance on certain central schemes, like the Ujjwala scheme guaranteeing LPG cylinders to homes, specifically targeting the women voters. Analysis of the time-series survey data also shows that women voters are increasingly making independent preferences at the polling booth and are more likely to participate in the electoral process as canvassers.

While identity issues are important predictors of whom an individual will support politically, this relationship is not axiomatic. In the past few decades, both India and its voters have undergone profound changes. The rapid changes in India’s political economy and informational environment is being manifested through significant electoral consequences and thus necessitating an examination of the “changing” Indian voter. The scale of the BJP’s victory in the 2014 election came as a surprise to many observers of Indian politics. As the campaign for the 2019 election gains momentum, researchers and observers of Indian politics face the formidable task of interpreting and analysing the verdict of 2019 elections. Understanding India’s changing voter is key to understanding the country’s democratic trajectory in the long term.

Neelanjan Sircar is assistant professor, Ashoka University and visiting senior fellow, Centre for Policy Research. Rahul Verma is a fellow, CPR. This is the third in a series of articles for the CPR Dialogues starting shortly in New Delhi. Hindustan Times is the print partner for the event.

Source: Hindustan Times, 16/12/2018

Only together can we fight climate change

With 98% urbanisation, Delhi already has the highest urban cover in India. It may be located far away from the melting glaciers and the surging seas, but it still faces the threat of climate hazards such as storms, floods, drought, heat waves, smog, groundwater depletion and outbreak of vector- and- water-borne diseases.

As global warming was hotly debated over the past two weeks in Poland’s Katowice, experts agreed that much of the responsibility of fighting climate change rested on cities that together contribute to over 70% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

A ‘Summary for Urban Policymakers’, released in Katowice last week, emphasised that changes to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius must be made not only by national governments and the private sector but also by cities and its citizens. The report sought interventions in the use of energy, land and ecosystems, urban infrastructure and industry.

With 98% urbanisation, Delhi already has the highest urban cover in India. It may be located far away from the melting glaciers and the surging seas, but it still faces the threat of climate hazards such as storms, floods, drought, heat waves, smog, groundwater depletion and outbreak of vector- and- water-borne diseases.

Studies have shown that during 1991-2013, high-temperature days in Delhi increased by 6.3 days per decade and that, since 1990, there was a consistent increase in the night temperatures in the city, leading to an overall warming. Researchers blamed rapid urbanisation and over-concretisation of land surfaces for turning Delhi into a heat island. This is aggravated by machine heat generated by vehicles, generators and air-conditioners.

After a long wait, the Delhi government says it has formulated a five-year climate change action plan, which it will soon submit to the Centre for approval. Like all other state plans, this one, too, will have to be revised next year to include the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions and the targets of the Paris Agreement. But an official involved in drafting the plan said the broad contours based on seven national missions — solar power, energy efficiency, sustainable habitat, water, greening, agriculture and strategic knowledge — will remain the same.

The biggest threat that Delhi faces, according to the official, is water stress. The NITI Aayog has already warned the city could effectively run out of groundwater by 2020. The natural sources have shrunk and the Yamuna water is over-extracted, leaving little to maintain the minimum flow required to keep the river alive.

Demand-side management and investment in recycling and reuse of water will be the key measure in Delhi’s climate change action plan, said the official. But no such plan can be complete without reviving the Yamuna, which remains the city’s best bet for long-term water security.

Methane fumes damage the climate, and according to the United Nations Environment Programme, waste reduction and management can cut global emissions by 20%. But garbage management is perhaps the most challenging aspect of Delhi’s climate action plan.

Three of the city’s four landfills ran out of space a decade ago but only one has been sealed for reclamation. In two of these, trash emits harmful methane and frequently catches fire. Landfills should anyway be the last option for waste management. Recycling reduces the trash load sent to dumpsites but is yet to take off across the city. Instead, municipalities have been installing waste-to-energy plants, which experts say, release toxic pollutants.

Coal-fired power plants are the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide. To decarbonise the grid, Delhi’s draft climate plan seeks to increase the share of renewable energy, mainly solar and wind. Right now, Delhi has only 3% of its power sourced from the renewables while at least 62% comes from coal.

Having shut down its coal-fired Badarpur plant, the government says it is making efforts to reduce dependence on older, inefficient thermal units located outside the city. It also set a target to source 18-20% of Delhi’s electricity from renewables by next year. This shift and schemes to augment local generation will be necessary to power the electric vehicles that the government aims to roll out soon.

Promotion of energy-efficient buildings, green streets and pavements, non-motorised transport and increasing tree cover etc are some of the other key priorities spelt out in the city’s climate action plan, the official said. But the real test will be on how quickly and efficiently it is implemented.

In a city where basic governance suffers due to multiple authorities, getting all agencies on board will be a task. At the same time, the plans chalked out by the neighbouring states may or may not mind or address the challenges of the National Capital Region. As we finally brace to meet the challenge, let’s remember that climate change follows no boundaries — administrative or political.

Source: Hindustan Times, 17/12/2018

When Ego Dies, A Noble Human Is Born

Is it possible to attain a state where the ego actually dies? Well, i’ve met one or two people in my life in whom it appeared that this had occurred – the ego had literally dissolved. But in those rare cases, i don’t think it was a result of the individuals’ own choice or effort – it was more like a spontaneous combustion, an act of grace. So i do believe that death of ego is possible, but i don’t think it is an attainable goal. If something like that is going to occur, it’s beyond our control, and it’s extremely unlikely for most of us. I don’t personally think it’s possible for anybody, through the power of their will alone, to eradicate the ego completely. But the point is, it doesn’t really matter. If you are willing to face and take responsibility for your ego’s self-centred motives, conditioned responses, and often irrational impulses to such a degree that you are able to choose not to act on them, they might as well not exist. lf you don’t act on them, the world is never going to know about them. There won’t be any karmic consequences. And that is a reasonable, realisable, attainable goal. So i am convinced that, in this way, it is possible to transcend ego to a profound degree, simply through the power of one’s own awakened intention to do so. First, recognise that you actually have an ego and begin to understand how it functions, and second, become deadly serious about transcending it in a way that is significant. But, getting a modern, narcissistic individual, to take seriously for more than a brief moment, the possibility of actually transcending their own ego, is a difficult task. That notion is just not part of our culture. But if it’s not going to happen as an act of grace, the individual has to want to achieve that more than anything else. Indeed, to take that kind of responsibility for oneself and one’s own enlightenment, is the ultimate challenge for any human being, and for most of us it’s just too demanding. Because we have been immersed in conditioned reactions and responses and ways of thinking for a lifetime, there is a very powerful momentum within all of us that doesn’t stop or die, simply because we decide one day that that would be a good idea. But if we want to evolve beyond ego, if we care deeply enough about the impact of our actions on others and the world around us, we can always choose, right now, not to act on any of it. At times it will be extremely difficult, emotionally and psychologically, but it is possible. That’s the high road. That’s the real spiritual practice: the inspired choice to cease to act out of ego, over and over again, at all times, in all places, under all circumstances. In my understanding, that would be as significant as the death of ego, if not more so. That would give birth to a noble human being, who has inherent self-respect, dignity and self-confidence, simply because he is being true to a higher intention in the face of the temptation to do otherwise.

Source: Times of India, 17/12/2018