jun 26th, 2011 CE
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From: Arvind Kumar
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/analysis_indians-inclined-towards-free-enterprise_1559506 | | | Indians inclined towards free enterprise Published: Monday, Jun 27, 2011, 8:00 IST
By Arvind Kumar & Arun Narendhranath | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA This month 20 years ago, India embarked on the path of economic liberalisation. Since then, despite change of governments with parties of different ideologies ruling, the country has not swerved from liberalisation. In this eight-part series, the authors explore the contemporary history of the Indian economy, starting from the discussions of the 1940s to what economic system the country should follow to the present. In this, the first part, the authors describe the economic debates during the 1940s. The subsequent parts will be published every fortnight.
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OT
Report of Chinese Diversion of Brahmaputra river is wrong
Editorial, The Statesman, 27 June 2011
Diverting the Yarlung-Tsangpo, as the Brahmaputra is called in China, upstream of its Great Bend along the Tibet-Qinghai railway line through the Gansu corridor and finally to Xinjiang province in north-west China, was a plan of the Cultural Revolution-era when debate in that country was stifled by the oppressive political climate of the time. But after the disastrous Three Gorges dam on the Yangzi River, described by Shanghai Daily as “that monstrous damming project,” the grand plan of diverting Brahmaputra waters was abandoned. China’s water policy is not driven by geopolitics or ideology but by rational, cost-effective considerations. The price of transferred water would be far higher than alternatives such as desalination of sea water. China’s water resources minister Wang Shucheng, himself a hydraulic engineer, had said the proposal to divert Brahmaputra water was unnecessary, unfeasible and unscientific. “There is no need for such dramatic projects,” he said. According to “Information Extraction and Analysis of the Himalayan International Rivers” by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in the Ganges delta drainage system, which includes the Ganges, Brahmaputra and the Meghna rivers, water from China makes up only 8.8 per cent of the total natural runoff. Chinese leaders have acknowledged that the Three Gorges dam is facing geological, human and ecological problems. Sooner or later, the dam would silt up the reservoir basin and would have to be blown up. The dam has already lowered water levels in two of the country’s biggest fresh water lakes.
The media in India, ignorant of the position in China, periodically comes out with alarming stories of China diverting Brahmaputra water to Xinjian, and turning parts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam into vast deserts. Much of the catchment area of the Brahmaputra, in fact, lies within Indian territory. The latest satellite imagery seems to have set alarm bells ringing. All that the Chinese government has done is to accelerate construction of 28 run-of-the-river power stations at the Great Bend and downstream where the river begins its journey towards India with no storage facility for any other use. The new images received by the National Remote Sensing Centre in Hyderabad are visible in greater detail, and show even small structures and the movement of workers. China began work on its first major hydro-electric power project on the river at Zangmu in November last and it is expected to become operational in 2014. Indian and Chinese officials have set up a joint working group to cooperate on trans-boundary water issues. But in the absence of a water-sharing agreement, one is at a loss to understand what this working group could achieve. Alarmed by the ill-informed media reports on China diverting Brahmaputra waters, the BJP wants India to take up the issue with Beijing immediately. External affairs minister SM Krishna’s decision to set up a task force at the Indian mission in Beijing is encouraging. Without ascertaining the actual flow into the country from China and measuring any reduction in flows after a dam is built on the Chinese side, India cannot take any timely action. As veteran journalist BG Verghese has said, “We are locked in ignorance, they have knowledge. We are not aware of the implications or the geography, hydrology or the topography. The degree of illiteracy on this is frightening."
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