1971: When Delhi and Moscow came together.. Shri Radhey Shri Radhey.

On August 9, 1971, the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation was signed in New Delhi by the foreign ministers of both countries, Swaran Singh and Andrei Gromyko. The treaty was probably the most seminal foreign policy arrangement entered into by India in the 20th century. It undoubtedly had the most profound effect on the politics and geography of South Asia, cementing what many thought was the pre-eminence of India in the region.

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Given the tensions over East Pakistan in 1971 and the creation of Bangladesh by the end of that year, it is not surprising that many believe that India was primarily driven to sign the treaty by this crisis. But that is a superficial picture, countered through some superb research by Srinath Raghavan in his book 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh. When supplemented with a reading of the relevant portions of Jairam Ramesh’s excellent book, Intertwined Lives: PN Haksar and Indira Gandhi, it should provide a comprehensive understanding of how the treaty came to be signed.

Don’t use public interest as an additional ground to restrict free speech .. Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey..

In a recent decision, a division bench in the Bombay high court exercised a power that vests solely with the Parliament; it, in effect, amended the Constitution. Specifically, the judges introduced an additional restriction to the fundamental right to free speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a).

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The matter involved nine petitions that challenged Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) regulations in broadcasting (full disclosure — I work with broadcasters). The thrust of the petitioners’ argument was that TRAI’s economic regulations restrict the circulation of broadcaster programming, violating the broadcaster’s right to disseminate and consumer’s right to receive information, both of which are core components of the right to free speech.

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The Bombay high court, however, held that “public interest” serves as an additional ground on which the State may issue diktats to restrict free speech. This is problematic on three counts.

First, the high court overstepped its jurisdiction and stepped onto turf reserved for democratically elected legislators. A primary duty of the judiciary is to interpret laws, not create them.

Second, by reading in a vague notion such as public interest as a valid restriction on free speech in broadcasting, the court paved the way for greater State interference in television content, particularly news. As such, it failed to uphold the rights of citizens and operate as a check against abuses of State power.

Public interest is a fluid construct in Indian legal parlance, it is not defined, and it finds mention across a host of statutes, often justifying the more non-transparent elements of governance. For instance, Section 8 of the Right to Information Act uses public interest as a ground for the State to withhold information. Article 22 of the Constitution allows authorities issuing orders regarding preventive detention to maintain confidentiality about any facts related to such orders that it considers to be against the public interest.

The absence of a definition of public interest in legislation means that it falls to the judiciary to imbue it with meaning. However, courts tend to test public interest on a case by case basis. In Central Public Information Officer, Supreme Court Of India v Subhash Chandra Agarwal, related to RTI requests made to courts on the collegium process, judges’ asset declarations, and judicial elevations, the court held that information officers must determine what constitutes public interest. In addition, it reemphasised and cherrypicked wide statutory grounds for the State to withhold information from the public, including breach of confidentiality and fiduciary responsibilities. What follows is that the concept of public interest is often employed to protect the interests of powerful individuals and institutions..

Third, the Bombay high court did not adhere to the judicial precedent on the matter of reading public interest as an implicit restriction on free speech. The Supreme Court has remained mindful of the political dimensions of public interest and what might result if it allowed the State to restrict free speech on this ground. While the right to free speech in India is not absolute and comes with certain riders expressly listed under Article 19(2) of the Constitution, public interest never operated as a legitimate restriction on it. Article 19(2) does not mention it and the courts do not permit its entry as an implicit restriction on Article 19(1)(a).

In Indian Express Newspapers vs. Union of India, for instance, the Supreme Court observed that the framers of the Constitution purposefully omitted public interest from 19(2) to ensure that the State did not hold the right to free speech ransom when it wished to impose excessive burdens on the press.

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Rather than make a rational decision guided by constitutional principles, in this case, the Bombay high court, with due respect, usurped the jurisdiction of the legislature, failed to uphold press freedom on television, and disregarded for the precedent set down by higher courts. The order merits wider discussion and a review.

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In a first, drone research lab opens in Kerala tomorrow. Here's more on it Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey

The Kerala Police will launch a first-of-its-kind Drone Forensic Lab and Research Centre on Friday to address a rising security threat. The centre will be inaugurated by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, said Manoj Abraham, Additional Director General of Police, Thiruvananthapuram Range.

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Abraham, who has the additional charge of ADGP, State Crime Records Bureau and is the nodal officer of CyberDrome, said this lab-cum-research centre will look into both utility and threat aspects of a drone. Cyberdome is a technological research and development centre of the Kerala Police Department.

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Abraham said that “while analysing a drone at the research centre, we'll look into its origin, see its utility value such as using it for policing and devising anti-drone mechanisms to check its misuse as we saw in the case of drone activities at the border”.

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The court also took on record the submissions by Kapadia that Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation and Thane Municipal Corporation had also started home vaccination in their jurisdiction and said, “We encourage other corporations of this state to initiate measures for home vaccination of bedridden individuals following the same pattern adopted by BMC.” 

India needs a separate ministry to deal with the climate crisis.. Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey..

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a body of the United Nations that collects and analyses data on the advancement of the climate change process. IPCC’s reports are assessed frequently and emerge in a broad cycle of five-seven years. The sixth assessment cycle is underway at present. IPCC will release its full report by 2022, eight years after the last report was published. Its first report on the physical science basis of climate crisis is just out after it cleared several rounds of negotiation.

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Second, the earth’s temperature is increasing at a rate that has not happened in the last 2000 years. Apart from CO2, methane is also pointed out as Green House Gases (GHGs) that is contributing to global warming. This pace and business as usual scenario mean that it would be extremely difficult to keep the earth’s temperature below 1.5°C by end of the century..

Third, this would be the last chance for humanity to keep the world’s temperature limited to 1.5°C since the pre-industrial age. Every fraction of the warming matters for us as global warming is contributing to glacial retreat, rising heat waves, and warming of oceans that feed into the increase in frequency and severity of cyclones..

The next 10 years are crucial for humanity. We must work collectively towards bringing down the emissions and reduce them slowly to make them net-zero by 2050.

Delhi: A feel good master plan isn’t enough..Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Krishna..

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has published the draft Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) for 2041 for comments and suggestions. The draft MPD promises many elements to improve the quality of life for citizens on a sustainable basis: A 24-hour city, circular economy, blue-green networks, transfer of development rights, and transit-oriented development.

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The list is as long as a manifesto of a political party. But unlike manifestos, master plans are statutory documents with specific spatial proposals and realistic cost estimates that lead to their implementation. Yet, master plans are not implemented in Indian cities, because many of them are not feasible. Apart from weak institutional capacities and selective enforcement, there is one more reason why plans do not get implemented: Feel-good urban planning.

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This is the kind of planning where “feel-good” and fashionable terms are used, without any intention or commitment to do anything about it. If civil society groups put more pressure on the city authority, more terms or chapters will be added, and more promises will be made. This works perfectly well for the vested interests in a planning authority. They can continue to govern the city based on opaque regulations and ad hoc decisions, while ignoring or diluting the master plan. So, the modus operandi is to write what you like in the master plans, but circumvent the key proposals while detailing them out through rules and regulations.

We must have public, legally binding documents such as master plans to guide urban development in cities. They are one more instrument to ensure accountability from the otherwise opaque planning authorities. The “feel-good” urban planning in the master plans needs to be replaced with realistic and pragmatic urban planning.

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We must have public, legally binding documents such as master plans to guide urban development in cities. They are one more instrument to ensure accountability from the otherwise opaque planning authorities. The “feel-good” urban planning in the master plans needs to be replaced with realistic and pragmatic urban planning.

In the last 20 years, Delhi has seen a rapid expansion of its boundaries, development of the metro rail and the building of many flyovers and housing projects. Did MPD-2021 guide this development, or did the city develop despite the master plan? Or worse, did the master plan came in the way of taking some sensible decisions about the city? DDA must start by answering these uncomfortable questions, before finalising this new master plan..

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The sealing drive of 2007 should remind everyone about the fallacies of rigid norms, obsolete methods, and weak enforcement capacities. We do not learn from past failures in urban development and old practices with new names continue. MPD-2041 should make a start by acknowledging the implementation bottlenecks of the previous MPD-2021.

The draft MPD-2041 is comprehensive in terms of its coverage but not specific and at times, vague. It seems that depth is compromised on account of breadth. For example, DDA has been talking about “transit-oriented development” (TOD) for the last 20 years. It simply means ensuring that more people work and live next to transit lines with mix-use development and walkable neighbourhoods/work districts..

But the current draft of MPD-2041 does not have a single map indicating where these transit zones are planned. The TOD zones are to be identified and notified separately by DDA. Transit influence zones where new housing or workplaces will be proposed should be integral to the new master plan. Apart from a legally mandated land use plan, there are no other maps or specific spatial proposals as part of the current draft. This kind of vagueness is only helpful in remaining non-committal about the future of the city.

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Master plans around the country, at least the good ones, give broad cost estimates to implement the key proposals. Based on master plan estimates, the implementing agencies make their budgets. Any plan is implemented in India by breaking down the provisions through annual budgetary allocations. This is a major shortcoming in the draft of MPD-2041. There are no specific cost estimates given and the key proposals are not detailed.

Without the fiscal discipline of cost estimates and budgetary links, the “feel-good” urban planning has reduced the master plan draft to a wish list of sorts. Since the master plan of Delhi becomes a default planning manual for many cities and towns in north India, this is a terrible omission with its implications going beyond Delhi.

Without the fiscal discipline of cost estimates and budgetary links, the “feel-good” urban planning has reduced the master plan draft to a wish list of sorts. Since the master plan of Delhi becomes a default planning manual for many cities and towns in north India, this is a terrible omission with its implications going beyond Delhi.

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For the MPD-2021, a monitoring committee under the lieutenant-governor (L-G) used to meet once a year to remind every other agency that we have a master plan. What Delhi needs is an implementation committee — not only monitoring — under L-G (given the current structure) that oversees the progress of the master plan linked with a specific budget contributed by different agencies..

In absence of the clear implementation pathways, the master plan of Delhi may well remain a “feel-good” document. Eliminating implementation bottlenecks, developing specific proposals, making budgetary allocations, and assigning responsibilities are guaranteed ways of implementing a master plan. A good master plan is an implemented one.

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Pegasus: India needs urgent surveillance reform Hare Krishna Hare Krishna Hare Krishna..

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Information is power. A range of organisations — from private military firms such as NSO to various instruments of the State — collect information to empower governments. The quest for unbridled power and critical information often leads to using unprincipled and unlawful means..

Snooping is a grim reality since the days of Chanakya, or indeed, ever since human beings constituted themselves as political units and statecraft evolved. But while recognising the compelling circumstances that may make it necessary at times, it constitutes a grave threat to democracy..

In the case of Pegasus, the nature of the technology is additional cause for concern. The NSO Group co-founder is quoted as saying, “Pegasus is a Trojan horse that could be sent flying through the air to (break into) devices”.

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Climate crisis: No one will be spared Shri Radhey Shri Radhey Shri Radhey

Some recent news and headlines: Extreme flooding in Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh in India, and Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. Hundreds dead in floods in Henan (China). Heat wave in British Columbia (Canada) kills dozens. How do we make sense of all this?

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Climate scientists are wary of overstating risks, what is known as type 1 errors (false positives). But there is a real danger of type 2 errors (false negatives). As climate risks rise, type 2 errors can give policymakers a false sense of comfort that things are not so bad. After all, climate models have actually underestimated the scale of impact even at relatively lower levels of warming. Warm weather that could result in Arctic permafrost thawing is happening 70 years ahead of climate model projections.

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This week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the report of its Working Group I (on the physical science of the climate crisis), laying many doubts to rest. Global surface temperatures are 1.09°C higher in 2011-2020 than in 1850-1900. The world will breach 1.5°C of warming within the next two decades with extreme events rapidly rising.

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Weather attribution studies investigate whether specific extreme weather events are merely freak deviations from the normal range or whether they are made more likely (and worse) due to human-induced climate crisis. Take Verkhoyansk in eastern Siberia, known as the Pole of Cold for having recorded the lowest temperature north of the Arctic Circle (-67.8°C in 1892). This year, it registered the highest temperature ever within the Arctic Circle of 38°C. Studies now conclude that the severe heat wave in Siberia in 2020 would have been near-impossible without the human-caused climate crisis. The same applies to the heat wave in north-western United States and parts of western Canada this summer.

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We must, first, understand that extremes today could well become the norm tomorrow. Climate risks are non-linear and the past is not a good predictor of the future. Heavy precipitation events that happened once in 10 years in the pre-industrial era now likely occur 1.3 times each decade (rising to 2.8 times with 4°C of warming). South Asia and several parts of Africa will also face severe droughts with 1.5-2°C of warming.

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Moreover, our worries do not stop at our borders. It is tempting to dismiss disasters happening elsewhere as not being of immediate concern. But we must spot the warning signs because warming anywhere will impact our future everywhere.

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In the last 30 years, the Arctic region has warmed at 0.81°C per decade, more than thrice as fast as the global average of 0.23°C per decade. Melting ice is now the most important cause for sea-level rise — and revised estimates predict an over one metre rise in global sea levels by 2100. This is not the Arctic’s problem alone, but will severely impact coastal and low-lying areas all over the world.

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To compound the problem, blue sea water absorbs more heat than white sea ice. Melting sea ice, therefore, creates a feedback loop: More heat is trapped in sea water, which triggers more thawing. Arctic ice melt has slowed the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, a major ocean current that circulates warm water from the south to the north. The slowing is worse than in 1,600 years, and could disrupt rains from South America to West Africa to India.

Melting permafrost is another concern. Arctic permafrost holds nearly twice as much carbon as the atmosphere. On current trends, up to 89% of near-surface permafrost could disappear by 2100. This would release tens to hundreds of billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide and methane, adding to warming

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It would be foolhardy to dismiss these concerns as that of environmentalists alone. There are serious economic ramifications for India where nearly 75% of the labour force (380 million people) is exposed to heat stress. In 2030, India could lose 5.8% of working hours (a productivity loss equivalent to 34 million full-time jobs), according to the International Labour Organization. CEEW analysts find that there has been a six-fold increase in extreme flood events in Maharashtra since 1970. As India’s economic powerhouse, such vulnerability majorly threatens physical assets and financial investments.

The climate system is under unprecedented stress in human history. Rich people think they can escape. Poor people hope they can adapt. But the climate crisis will lead to untold misery, hundreds of billions of dollars of losses in infrastructure, widening inequalities and social instability. Regardless of where the extreme events occur, we will all be impacted adversely.

In a year filled with tragedy due to the pandemic, it might be too much to expect that people will care about weather extremes near the Poles. But the biggest lesson for us is that the distant is here and the future is now; the time to act was yesterday.

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