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Jan 26, 2015
[PIB] USA to assist in development of smart cities in UP, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh
USTDA signs MoUs for development of Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam as smart cities
USTDA to fund feasibility studies and advisory services; US companies to mobilize resources
Giving a fillip to the programme of developing smart cities in the country, the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) today signed three Memorandums of Understanding on Cooperation to Support the Development of Smart Cities in Uttar Pradesh , Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh with respective state governments . The MoUs with specific reference to development of Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam as smart cities were signed in the presence of Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu.
Leocardia I.Zak, Director, USTDA signed the MoUs on behalf of USTDA while Shri Alok Ranjan, Chief Secretary , Govt. of UP, Shri C.S.Ranjan, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan and Shri I.V.R.Krishna Rao, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh signed on behalf of state governments.
Under the MoUs, the USTDA will contribute funding for necessary feasibility studies and pilots , study tours , workshops/trainings and other projects to be mutually determined . It will invite a Smart Solutions for Smart Cities Reverse Trade Mission delegation to the US, with delegates from the t here states. It will also fund advisory services to support the development of smart cities .
USTDA will collaborate with other US government agencies like the Department of Commerce, the U. S Export Import Bank and other trade and economic agencies promote greater US-India infrastructure development cooperation and to support development of smart cities.
USTDA will enable U.S Industry organizations to mobilize private sector expertise and resources to address important aviation and energy related infrastructure connected to developing smart cities.
Under the MoUs that came into effect today, the respective state governments will provide resources in support, coordination and facilitation of the development of smart cities including technical information and data related to smart cities planning, staff, logistical and travel support etc.
The MoUs referred to the U.S-India Joint Statement of September 30,2014 related to the first bilateral summit meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in which the US Government welcomed the India’s offer for US industry to be the lead partner in d eveloping smart cities in Allahabad, Ajmer and Vi sakhapatnam.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu observed that India-US cooperation has acquired a new dimension with the signing of MoUs which will make significant contribution to building smart cities.
Shri Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary(UD) , Dr.Samir Sharma, Joint Secret ary(Smart Cities) and other senior officials of the Ministry of Urban Development and USTDA were present on the occasion.
USTDA to fund feasibility studies and advisory services; US companies to mobilize resources
Giving a fillip to the programme of developing smart cities in the country, the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) today signed three Memorandums of Understanding on Cooperation to Support the Development of Smart Cities in Uttar Pradesh , Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh with respective state governments . The MoUs with specific reference to development of Allahabad, Ajmer and Visakhapatnam as smart cities were signed in the presence of Minister of Urban Development Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu.
Leocardia I.Zak, Director, USTDA signed the MoUs on behalf of USTDA while Shri Alok Ranjan, Chief Secretary , Govt. of UP, Shri C.S.Ranjan, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Rajasthan and Shri I.V.R.Krishna Rao, Chief Secretary, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh signed on behalf of state governments.
Under the MoUs, the USTDA will contribute funding for necessary feasibility studies and pilots , study tours , workshops/trainings and other projects to be mutually determined . It will invite a Smart Solutions for Smart Cities Reverse Trade Mission delegation to the US, with delegates from the t here states. It will also fund advisory services to support the development of smart cities .
USTDA will collaborate with other US government agencies like the Department of Commerce, the U. S Export Import Bank and other trade and economic agencies promote greater US-India infrastructure development cooperation and to support development of smart cities.
USTDA will enable U.S Industry organizations to mobilize private sector expertise and resources to address important aviation and energy related infrastructure connected to developing smart cities.
Under the MoUs that came into effect today, the respective state governments will provide resources in support, coordination and facilitation of the development of smart cities including technical information and data related to smart cities planning, staff, logistical and travel support etc.
The MoUs referred to the U.S-India Joint Statement of September 30,2014 related to the first bilateral summit meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in which the US Government welcomed the India’s offer for US industry to be the lead partner in d eveloping smart cities in Allahabad, Ajmer and Vi sakhapatnam.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri M.Venkaiah Naidu observed that India-US cooperation has acquired a new dimension with the signing of MoUs which will make significant contribution to building smart cities.
Shri Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary(UD) , Dr.Samir Sharma, Joint Secret ary(Smart Cities) and other senior officials of the Ministry of Urban Development and USTDA were present on the occasion.
Source - PIB
[Ed] Booster shot
The ECB’s massive stimulus for the Eurozone should help them combat low growth and low inflation
The European Central Bank’s quantitative easing moves to fight deflation and revive economic growth are expected to help restore confidence and keep financial markets relatively calm. Global markets had suffered ‘taper’ tantrums almost 18 months earlier when the US Federal Reserve first hinted that it would begin to withdraw the stimulus (a similar attempt at quantitative easing done in three rounds) as a prelude to raising rates. Since then the spectre of a Fed rate hike and the consequential flight of money from emerging markets including India to safer havens has hung heavily over the financial markets. Now that the US economy is on the rebound, it is clear that the Fed rate hike will happen later this year.
The ECB’s decision to inject €1.1 trillion through buying sovereign debt spread over 18 months from March 2015 will ensure that the negative impact of the Fed rate hike, particularly the outflow of funds from emerging markets such as India, is offset to some extent. It provides the Reserve Bank of India with more room to stay with the monetary easing course that it began recently with a 25 bps cut in repo rates. Over the last year the RBI kept an eye out on the possible impact of a Fed rate hike and held off cutting rates despite domestic inflation trending lower. Now it can breathe a tad easier. Also, the prospect of lower rates and additional money coming into Indian equity markets, combined with positive sentiments of economic revival, should keep markets buoyant. This will be important in the context of the government’s disinvestment programme during the next fiscal as well as fundraising efforts for corporates for the next stage of investments in the economy.
Quantitative easing does not however mean automatic deliverance either for the beleaguered Eurozone or for other countries that have tried it earlier, whether the US, the UK or Japan. It has at best bought some time for the respective governments to set their economies in order, undertake fiscal reforms and make themselves more competitive. Meanwhile, countries such as India that may be recipients of flows during the period of these unconventional monetary policies must simultaneously strengthen themselves to handle future outflows. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan drew attention last year to the need for greater sensitivity on the part of developed nations to the spillover effects of their monetary policies on other countries, particularly the emerging economies. But countries will continue to do what is in their interest and we are still a long way away from an environment in which central banks act in a coordinated manner and consider the impact of their policies elsewhere. But in an increasingly economically inter-dependant world, there is a case for adopting a larger vision and looking a little more closely at what is in the global interest.
The European Central Bank’s quantitative easing moves to fight deflation and revive economic growth are expected to help restore confidence and keep financial markets relatively calm. Global markets had suffered ‘taper’ tantrums almost 18 months earlier when the US Federal Reserve first hinted that it would begin to withdraw the stimulus (a similar attempt at quantitative easing done in three rounds) as a prelude to raising rates. Since then the spectre of a Fed rate hike and the consequential flight of money from emerging markets including India to safer havens has hung heavily over the financial markets. Now that the US economy is on the rebound, it is clear that the Fed rate hike will happen later this year.
The ECB’s decision to inject €1.1 trillion through buying sovereign debt spread over 18 months from March 2015 will ensure that the negative impact of the Fed rate hike, particularly the outflow of funds from emerging markets such as India, is offset to some extent. It provides the Reserve Bank of India with more room to stay with the monetary easing course that it began recently with a 25 bps cut in repo rates. Over the last year the RBI kept an eye out on the possible impact of a Fed rate hike and held off cutting rates despite domestic inflation trending lower. Now it can breathe a tad easier. Also, the prospect of lower rates and additional money coming into Indian equity markets, combined with positive sentiments of economic revival, should keep markets buoyant. This will be important in the context of the government’s disinvestment programme during the next fiscal as well as fundraising efforts for corporates for the next stage of investments in the economy.
Quantitative easing does not however mean automatic deliverance either for the beleaguered Eurozone or for other countries that have tried it earlier, whether the US, the UK or Japan. It has at best bought some time for the respective governments to set their economies in order, undertake fiscal reforms and make themselves more competitive. Meanwhile, countries such as India that may be recipients of flows during the period of these unconventional monetary policies must simultaneously strengthen themselves to handle future outflows. RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan drew attention last year to the need for greater sensitivity on the part of developed nations to the spillover effects of their monetary policies on other countries, particularly the emerging economies. But countries will continue to do what is in their interest and we are still a long way away from an environment in which central banks act in a coordinated manner and consider the impact of their policies elsewhere. But in an increasingly economically inter-dependant world, there is a case for adopting a larger vision and looking a little more closely at what is in the global interest.
Source - Business Line
Japan acknowledges authenticity of IS video
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Sunday branded the murder of a Japanese hostage by Islamic State (IS) militants as “outrageous and unforgivable” and demanded the immediate release of a second captive, amid a tide of global revulsion.
The apparent beheading of self-employed security contractor Haruna Yukawa was announced in a video generally agreed to be credible, and appeared to mark a grave turn of events in a crisis that has gripped Japan for nearly a week.
“Such an act of terrorism is outrageous and unforgivable,” Mr. Abe told broadcaster NHK.
“I condemn it strongly and resolutely,” he said, calling for the immediate freeing of Yukawa’s fellow captive, freelance journalist Kenji Goto.
In a city outside Tokyo, Shoichi Yukawa told of the horror he had felt when he learnt that threats to kill his son had been carried out.
“I thought ‘Ah, this finally happened’ and was filled with regret,” he said.
“I went totally blank, I was only sorry... I had no words,” he said. “In my mind I wish very much that this wasn’t true.”
Obama, Cameron react
U.S. President Barack Obama led the worldwide condemnation of what he called the “brutal murder”. Mr. Obama, who arrived in New Delhi on Sunday for a three-day visit, telephoned Mr. Abe from the Indian capital “to offer condolences for the murder... and to convey solidarity with the Japanese people”, said a White House statement.
British Prime Minister David Cameron decried the Islamic State movement’s “murderous barbarity”, and French President Francois Hollande labelled it a “barbaric assassination”.
Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbot called it “an absolute atrocity” carried out by a “death cult”.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the killing as “an odious crime”.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said the beheading “is yet another demonstration that this organisation’s ideology and actions are in breach of all universally recognised values and rights”.
Japan was continuing to analyse the images released overnight to confirm the authenticity of the video, said Mr. Abe, but he acknowledged it appeared credible.
The recording, which lasts nearly three minutes, shows a still image of a gaunt and drawn Mr. Goto holding what appears to be a photograph of Yukawa’s slain body.
It was posted with an audio recording in which a man claiming to be Mr. Goto blames Mr. Abe for his fellow captive’s death because he failed to pay a $200 million ransom.
The voice also reveals a new demand for the release of Sajida al-Rishawi, an Iraqi woman sentenced to death in Jordan for her part in multiple bombings in Amman in 2005 that killed 60 people.
Some commentators have noted that the voice does not resemble that heard on videos featuring Mr. Goto. However, one specialist interviewed by Japanese media was reported to have said it was “more than 99 percent certain” the voice was his.
IS confirms execution
Later in the day, IS’s official radio confirmed that its militants execute Haruna Yukawa, following the release of a video announcing the hostage’s death.
“The Islamic State has carried out its threat... it has executed Japanese hostage Haruna Yukawa after the expiry of the deadline given,” the Sunni extremist group said on Al-Bayan radio. — AFP
Source - The Hindu
India, U.S. to extend Defence cooperation pact
Aiming for a transformative defence partnership, India and the U.S. on Sunday agreed to extend the Defence Cooperation Agreement and identified four projects under the Defence Technology Trade Initiative (DTTI) for joint production and development and exploring cooperation for jet engines and aircraft carrier systems.
“Today, we have also decided to take our growing defence cooperation to a new level. We have agreed, in principle, to pursue co-development and co-production of specific advanced defence projects,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after holding extensive talks with visiting U.S. President Barack Obama here.
Mr. Modi said this would help upgrade the country’s domestic defence industry and expand the manufacturing sector in India.
Mr. Obama said the agreement would guide the bilateral defence cooperation for the next 10 years.
“We agreed to deepen our defence and security cooperation ... And in a major step forward for our relationship, defence technology and trade initiative will allow us to jointly develop and produce defence technologies,” Mr. Obama said.
In another significant step, the two countries agreed to set up a working group to explore aircraft carrier technology and design and develop jet engine technology in India.
The projects identified under the DTTI include next-generation Raven mini-unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), roll-on, roll-off intelligence kits for C-130 transport aircraft and mobile electric hybrid power source.
Indian Ambassador to the U.S. S. Jaishankar said these four projects were “pathfinder” schemes as they would determine how to go forward in defence co-development. Of these, two projects were with U.S. companies, while two were with the U.S. government.
Harsh V. Pant, Professor at King’s College, London, said: “There is an attempt now to make the DTTI more operational so that it becomes result-oriented. So far, since its institutionalisation in 2012, no major projects have emerged. And now certain projects have been clearly outlined on which work will begin. This is a major step forward and also very ambitious with the talk of working groups on aircraft carrier and jet engine technologies.”
Both leaders agreed to increase bilateral anti-terror cooperation, intelligence sharing and maritime security. “Our two countries will deepen our bilateral security cooperation against terrorist groups. And, we will further enhance our counter-terrorism capabilities, including in the area of technology,” Mr. Modi said.
Source - The Hindu
Pooja Thakur makes history
Wing Commander Pooja Thakur became the first woman to lead the ceremonial tri-service guard of honour inspected by U.S. President Barack Obama at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.
Wing Commander Thakur, from Rajasthan, belongs to the administrative branch of the Indian Air Force and is currently posted at ‘Disha,’ the publicity cell at the Air Force Headquarters.
She was commissioned into the IAF in 2001. She has been active in para-jumping and adventure sports, Air Force sources said.
Speaking to TV channels, Wing Commander Thakur said: “It is a very proud moment for me and the Indian Air Force, to be creating history, to present the guard of honour to the most powerful man in the world”
“The message it sends is that we all are equal. In the Indian Air Force, men and women receive the same training. It is not a job, but a way of life,” she added.
Wing Commander Thakur, from Rajasthan, belongs to the administrative branch of the Indian Air Force and is currently posted at ‘Disha,’ the publicity cell at the Air Force Headquarters.
She was commissioned into the IAF in 2001. She has been active in para-jumping and adventure sports, Air Force sources said.
Speaking to TV channels, Wing Commander Thakur said: “It is a very proud moment for me and the Indian Air Force, to be creating history, to present the guard of honour to the most powerful man in the world”
“The message it sends is that we all are equal. In the Indian Air Force, men and women receive the same training. It is not a job, but a way of life,” she added.
Source - The Hindu
List of Padma awardees
Padma Vibhushan
Name (discipline), State/country: L.K. Advani (Public Affairs), Gujarat; Amitabh Bachchan (Art), Maharashtra; Prakash Singh Badal (Public Affairs), Punjab; D. Veerendra Heggade (Social Work), Karnataka; Dilip Kumar (Art), Maharashtra; Jagadguru Rambhadracharya (Others), Uttar Pradesh; Malur Ramaswamy Srinivasan (Science and Engg), Tamil Nadu; Kottayan K. Venugopal (Public Affairs), Delhi; and Karim Al Hussaini Aga Khan (Trade and Industry) France/U.K.
Padma Bhushan
Jahnu Barua (Art), Assam; Vijay Bhatkar (Science and Engineering), Maharashtra; Swapan Dasgupta (Literature and Education), Delhi; Swami Satyamitranand Giri (Others), Uttar Pradesh; N. Gopalaswami (Civil Service), Tamil Nadu; Subhash C. Kashyap (Public Affairs), Delhi; Gokulotsavji Maharaj (Art), Madhya Pradesh; Ambrish Mithal (Medicine), Delhi; Sudha Ragunathan (Art), Tamil Nadu; Harish Salve (Public Affairs), Delhi; Ashok Seth (Medicine), Delhi; Rajat Sharma (Literature and Education), Delhi; Satpal (Sports), Delhi; Shivakumara Swami (Others), Karnataka; Kharag Singh Valdiya (Science and Engg), Karnataka; Manjul Bhargava (Science and Engg), USA; David Frawley (Others), USA; Bill Gates (Social Work), USA; Melinda Gates (Social Work), USA; and Saichiro Misumi (Others), Japan.
Padma Shri
Manjula Anagani (Medicine), Telangana; S. Arunan (Science and Engg), Karnataka; Kanyakumari Avasarala (Art), Tamil Nadu; Bettina Sharada Baumer (Literature and Education), J&K ; Naresh Bedi (Art), Delhi; Ashok Bhagat (Social Work), Jharkhand; Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Art), Maharashtra; Lakshmi Nandan Bora (Literature and Education), Assam; Gyan Chaturvedi (Literature and Education), Madhya Pradesh; Yogesh Kumar Chawla (Medicine), Chandigarh; Jayakumari Chikkala (Medicine), Delhi; Bibek Debroy (Literature and Education), Delhi; Sarungbam Bimola Kumari Devi (Medicine), Manipur; Ashok Gulati (Public Affairs), Delhi; Randeep Guleria (Medicine), Delhi; K.P. Haridas (Medicine), Kerala; Rahul Jain (Art), Delhi; Ravindra Jain (Art), Maharashtra; Sunil Jogi (Literature and Education), Delhi; Prasoon Joshi (Art), Maharashtra; Prafulla Kar (Art), Odisha; Saba Anjum (Sports), Chhattisgarh; Ushakiran Khan (Literature and Education), Bihar; Rajesh Kotecha (Medicine), Rajasthan; Alka Kriplani (Medicine), Delhi; Harsh Kumar (Medicine), Delhi; Narayana Purushothama Mallaya (Literature & Education), Kerala; Lambert Mascarenhas (Literature and Education), Goa; Janak Palta McGilligan (Social Work), Madhya Pradesh; Veerendra Raj Mehta (Social Work), Delhi; Tarak Mehta (Art), Gujarat; Neil Herbert Nongkynrih (Art), Meghalaya; Chewang Norphel (Others), Jammu and Kashmir; T.V. Mohandas Pai (Trade and Industry), Karnataka; Tejas Patel (Medicine), Gujarat; Jadav Molai Peyang (Others), Assam; Bimla Poddar (Others), Uttar Pradesh; N. Prabhakar (Science and Engg), Delhi; Prahalada (Science and Engg), Maharashtra; Narendra Prasad (Medicine), Bihar; Ram Bahadur Rai (Literature and Education), Delhi; Mithali Raj (Sports), Telangana; P.V. Rajaraman (Civil Service), Tamil Nadu; J.S. Rajput (Literature and Education), Uttar Pradesh; Kota Srinivasa Rao (Art), Andhra Pradesh; Bimal Roy (Literature and Education), West Bengal; Shekhar Sen (Art), Maharashtra; Gunvant Shah (Literature and Education), Gujarat; Brahmdev Sharma (Literature and Education), Delhi; Manu Sharma (Literature and Education), Uttar Pradesh; Yog Raj Sharma (Medicine), Delhi; Vasant Shastri (Science and Engg), Karnataka; S.K. Shivkumar (Science and Engg), Karnataka; P.V. Sindhu (Sports), Telangana; Sardara Singh (Sports), Haryana; Arunima Sinha (Sports), Uttar Pradesh; Mahesh Raj Soni (Art), Rajasthan; Nikhil Tandon (Medicine), Delhi; H Thegtse Rinpoche (Social Work), Arunachal Pradesh; Hargovind Laxmishanker Trivedi (Medicine), Gujarat; Huang Baosheng (Others), China; Jacques Blamont (Science and Engg), France; Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin (Others), Maharashtra (Posthumous); Jean-Claude Carriere (Literature and Education), France; Nandrajan ‘Raj’ Chetty (Literature and Education), France; George L Hart (Others), USA; Jagat Guru Amrta Suryananda Maha Raja (Others), Portugal; Meetha Lal Mehta (Social Work), Rajasthan (Posthumous); Tripti Mukherjee (Art), USA; Dattatreyudu Nori (Medicine), USA; Raghu Rama Pillarisetti (Medicine), USA; Saumitra Rawat (Medicine), UK; Annette Schmiedchen (Literature and Education), Germany; Pran Kumar Sharma alias Pran (Art), Delhi (Posthumous); and R. Vasudevan (Civil Service), Tamil Nadu (Posthumous).
Source - The Hindu
[Ed] Yet another QE programme
The ECB now joins the Fed, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan in the list of central banks of developed economies that resorted to unconventional monetary policies to ward off recession and deflation. While such policies may or may not work for them, they certainly are a cause for serious problems for emerging economies such as India. The effect of the withdrawal of the U.S. stimulus programme on India’s markets, currency and the economy is well-documented. The inflation in stock prices driven by generous capital flows and the subsequent problems when the bubble was pricked are too well known for elaboration. And that is precisely why Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan questioned the extended application of unconventional monetary policies; in a public speech last year, he decried the “competitive monetary easing” by developed economies without regard to how it affects other countries. Already, Switzerland and Denmark have felt the impact of the ECB stimulus; the Swiss National Bank was forced to delink the franc from the euro last week leading to a massive jump in its value overnight, while Denmark had to cut rates to maintain its currency’s peg with the euro. The EU is India’s largest trading partner and any depreciation of the euro will affect exporters even as there is the likelihood of strong capital flows into the Indian markets, driving up asset prices. It is time to brace for volatility, once again.
Source - The Hindu
Advani, Bachchan, Dilip Kumar get Padma Vibhushan
Senior advocate K.K. Venugopal, nuclear scientist M.R. Srinivasan, philanthropist Veerendra Heggade and Sanskrit scholar Rambhadracharya and Karim Al Hussiani Aga Khan are the other awardees of the Padma Vibhushan.
Among the 20 names to be awarded the Padma Bhushan are senior advocate Harish Salve, journalists Swapan Dasgupta, Rajat Sharma, former Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami, constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap and Carnatic vocalist Sudha Raghunathan.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates, and Fields Medal winner Manjul Bhargava have also been named for the Padma Bhushan.
Economist Bibek Debroy, now a member of the Niti Ayog, and lyricist Prasoon Joshi, who worked on the advertisement campaign for the BJP’s Lok Sabha campaign, are among the 75 people to be conferred with the Padma Shri award. IT honcho Mohandas Pai, badminton player P.V. Sindhu, woman cricketer Mithali Raj, filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Arunima Sinha, the first woman amputee to climb the Mount Everest, are the other prominent names on the list.
Source - The Hindu
ON DAY ONE, THE NUCLEAR DEAL IS DONE
On economic issues, the two sides did not announce any agreements.
Source - The Hindu
[Ed] Critical transition in Saudi Arabia
The death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, at the age of 90, beckoned a cautiously orchestrated transition of power to his successor Salman in the Al Saud dynasty that holds power in the nation. King Salman has pledged that the succession would be managed smoothly, with continuity in policies and stability in internal as well as foreign relations. Given the rising violence and political instability in the region, and the glut in oil supply and consequent fall in prices, this transition of power is a critical moment. Salman, who has been crown prince since 2012, is now 79 years old and not in the best of health. Clearing any sort of uncertainty, Prince Muqrin, followed by Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, 55, have been declared the crown princes to succeed King Salman. Although the monarchic succession plan seems to be clearly mapped out, the House of Saud is said to be riven by factions and internal feuds. Whether order will prevail within the royal family is hard to speculate, given the secretive nature of its internal affairs.
The transition of power is happening at a time when politics in the region is beset with uncertainty. Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and Shia-dominated Iran, with their decades of rivalry, are closely following the turmoil in Yemen since the resignation of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. The Shiite rebel group Houthi, suspected to have affiliations with Iran, has often accused Saudi Arabia of meddling in the country’s internal affairs. Riyadh has been praised for its effective counter-terrorism activities, especially with the Islamic State-dominated Iraq on its northern borders. Saudi Arabia continues to have favourable strategic partnerships with the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. Even with the global glut in supply, King Salman is likely to continue pumping crude, keeping prices low, with no apparent intention to alter policies anytime soon. India maintains significant economic ties with Saudi Arabia, which is its biggest supplier of oil, accounting for 20.18 per cent of the imports in 2013-14. India accounts for 11 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s exports and 7.2 per cent of its imports. Remittances from Indians in Saudi Arabia amount to a substantial sum. From a socio-economic perspective, India has a lot at stake in the stability of the country. Given the centrality of Saudi Arabia to western economic interests, the West has often treated the country as an exception when it comes to human rights issues. The fact is that Saudi Arabia has an incredibly poor record in the matter of ensuring civil and political rights. Public flogging, beheading, and a general climate of intolerance are hallmarks of its criminal justice system. Women still do not have even the fundamental rights of speech, movement and assembly.
The transition of power is happening at a time when politics in the region is beset with uncertainty. Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia and Shia-dominated Iran, with their decades of rivalry, are closely following the turmoil in Yemen since the resignation of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. The Shiite rebel group Houthi, suspected to have affiliations with Iran, has often accused Saudi Arabia of meddling in the country’s internal affairs. Riyadh has been praised for its effective counter-terrorism activities, especially with the Islamic State-dominated Iraq on its northern borders. Saudi Arabia continues to have favourable strategic partnerships with the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe. Even with the global glut in supply, King Salman is likely to continue pumping crude, keeping prices low, with no apparent intention to alter policies anytime soon. India maintains significant economic ties with Saudi Arabia, which is its biggest supplier of oil, accounting for 20.18 per cent of the imports in 2013-14. India accounts for 11 per cent of Saudi Arabia’s exports and 7.2 per cent of its imports. Remittances from Indians in Saudi Arabia amount to a substantial sum. From a socio-economic perspective, India has a lot at stake in the stability of the country. Given the centrality of Saudi Arabia to western economic interests, the West has often treated the country as an exception when it comes to human rights issues. The fact is that Saudi Arabia has an incredibly poor record in the matter of ensuring civil and political rights. Public flogging, beheading, and a general climate of intolerance are hallmarks of its criminal justice system. Women still do not have even the fundamental rights of speech, movement and assembly.
Source - The Hindu
[Ed] Criticism over Ebola response prompts WHO to mull reforms
WHO’s executive board has planned to discuss proposals that could radically transform the United Nations health agency in response to sharp criticism over its handling of the West Africa epidemic.
“The Ebola outbreak points to the need for urgent change,” said Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO’s director-general. She acknowledged that WHO was too slow to grasp the significance of the Ebola outbreak, which is estimated to have killed more than 8,600 people, mainly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Critics say the kinds of reform being debated are long overdue.
Not at the helm
“The groundswell of dissatisfaction and lack of trust in WHO over Ebola has reached such a crescendo that unless there is fundamental reform, I think we might lose confidence in WHO for a generation,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights at Georgetown University.
“Ebola revealed all of WHO’s inherent weaknesses and the international community saw painfully what it was like to see WHO not being able to lead. That resulted in thousands of deaths that were completely avoidable,” he said. “If that doesn’t light a fire for reform, I don’t know what will.”
In reports issued to its 34-member board earlier this month, WHO identified major holes in its ability to stop outbreaks and “a culture that resists embracing operations, an essential element of emergency response.”
A year before Ebola broke out in West Africa, WHO’s outbreak department slashed its staff to save $6 million. In proposals discussed, WHO appears to be backtracking on that decision, saying it must develop operational expertise beyond its “skeleton complement” of logistics experts. The agency also conceded that, despite public expectations that it can respond quickly to health emergencies, it simply is not designed to do that.
WHO declared Ebola to be a global emergency in August. But it wasn’t until January 12 that Dr. Chan officially assigned Bruce Aylward, the agency’s lead official on Ebola, to work full time on the outbreak, according to an internal memo sent to WHO staff. Some experts expressed scepticism that the broad reforms being discussed by WHO would significantly change anything. “If we try to reform everything, then nothing will be done,” said Dr. Jean Clement Cabrol, a director of operations at Doctors Without Borders. He described certain parts of WHO specifically its Africa office, which was blamed by Geneva officials for blundering the early response as “dreadful.”
Dr. Gostin said no other agency has a mandate to protect public health that could easily replace WHO.
“If we didn’t have a WHO, we would need to create one,” he said. “But we need to make them politically accountable for their failures and force them to be leaders.”
[Ed] Reasons for remembering King Abdullah
His state visit to India as chief guest on Republic Day in 2006 paved the way for improved bilateral relations
“Has he looked after you well? I suspect he is a bit deficient in this matter,” the host enquired in deliberative baritone Arabic from the guest, a hint of humour being discernible. The guest assured him that he had been taken care of well. The 1994 conversation at royal palace in Riyadh would have qualified as easy banter, but for the participants being Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and visiting Indian Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Under discussion was the hospitality acumen of Dr Abdulaziz al-Zamil, Saudi Minister of Industry and Co-Chair of the bilateral Joint Commission.
King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, 90, who passed away on January 23, was indeed a thoughtful leader, also capable of surprises. The conventional wisdom of the Saudi watchers put him among the “conservative faction” of the House of Al-Saud, the royal family. His mother, who was from the Al-Rashid clan (long-standing rivals of Al-Saud), made him stand out. He was taciturn, closer to the country’s Bedouins, and a long-standing personal friend of Arab nationalist leaders, in contrast to the mainstream liberal faction, which is headed by the “Sudairi Seven.”
Stability and security
History is, however, likely to judge his two decades at the Kingdom’s helm (1995 to 2005 as regent and 2005-2015 as the King) in a more balanced and benign manner. There were many markers that stood out. King Abdullah steered the ship of Saudi Arabia with a consummate hand through various storms such as the 9/11 tragedy, which was perpetrated by 19 terrorists, 15 of them Saudis. For the next five years, as the world held its breath, the al-Qaeda led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden waged a no-holds terror campaign aimed at overthrowing the establishment in Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter and host of Islam’s two holiest shrines.
However, under King Abdullah’s watch, the Kingdom’s response to this existential challenge was firm, efficient and nuanced. The threat was overcome without disproportionate collateral damage or a schism between the enduring alliance among Al-Saud and the Wahhabi clergy. Later, when the “Arab Spring” contagion posed a different genre of threat, King Abdullah’s sagacious package of financial concessions and socio-political liberalisation avoided a catastrophe.
Wide-ranging reforms
King Abdullah would also be remembered for initiating some of the most far-reaching reforms in the country. These included curbing the excesses of the feared religious police, prioritising education, appointing women ministers and legislators, and planning to hold first direct elections for the local bodies. He became the first Saudi monarch to visit the Vatican and sponsor an international interfaith dialogue. These measures often did not go far enough, but were significant as the first steps towards modernising a deeply conservative Saudi society.
The 9/11 attacks precipitated the U.S.-led “global war against terror” and the “Arab Spring” — both causing widespread mayhem and ideological confusion. It can be argued that with the al-Qaeda and its derivatives, the Islamic State, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban, all jostling for Arab-Islamic centre-stage, Riyadh under King Abdullah managed to remain an influential player in maintaining stability and equilibrium.
The sharp swings in oil prices in 2008-09 and 2014-15 epitomise both Saudi’s role as OPEC’s largest exporter and its determination to protect its market share. During the past two decades under King Abdullah, the Saudi economy, nevertheless, came some way from its reliance on oil exports through diversifying measures such as incremental indigenisation through skilling of the labour force, establishing new industrial cities, deepening the share market, promulgating investment laws and joining the WTO.
In 2002, King Abdullah personally pushed for a plan to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict based on realism and mutual concessions. He also became the first Saudi leader to exchange state visits with China and Russia. Given Saudi diplomacy’s penchant for caution and discretion, these were tectonic shifts. Even as King Abdullah’s foreign policy evolved under various impetuses, a pro-West tilt and suspicion towards Iran persisted.
As per the Al-Saud tradition, Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, 79, was proclaimed the successor to the late King Abdullah. He in turn appointed Prince Mukrin as the new Crown Prince and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef as the Deputy Crown Prince. In his inaugural address, King Salman stressed continuity and indicated that many of the important functionaries are likely to be retained. With King Salman and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the “Sudairi Seven” appears to be back and the inevitable reordering of political echelons over the time would bear watching. Moreover, with regional turbulence and the oil prices on a roller coaster, the new team needs to hit the ground running.
Bilateral relations
In the bilateral context, King Abdullah’s State visit to India as chief guest on our Republic Day in 2006 was a defining event. It paved the way for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Saudi Arabia in February 2010. These two summits catapulted the ties from “correct and cordial” to “substantive and strategic” with Riyadh abandoning its hyphenation with Pakistan. The bilateral trade for the year ending on November 30, 2014 was over 46 billion dollars, making Saudi Arabia one of India’s top five trading partners and the largest source of its oil imports. Indian expatriates in Saudi Arabia number three million, the largest foreign community in that country. The Saudi embassy in India issued 1.2 million visas to Indians in 2014 — a record for a Saudi mission anywhere. These figures illustrate the surge in people-to-people ties. Mutual investments and business-to-business ties have also been picking up from a relatively smaller base. Discreet cooperation in security and anti-terror domains have been intensified.
India has reasons to be grateful to King Abdullah for ensuring that bilateral ties have realised much of their potential on the basis of shared interests and perceptions. King Salman, who visited India in 2010 and 2014, is expected to carry forward this momentum.
(Mahesh Sachdev is a retired Indian ambassador and an Arabist. He served in Saudi Arabia and was Director (Gulf).)
“Has he looked after you well? I suspect he is a bit deficient in this matter,” the host enquired in deliberative baritone Arabic from the guest, a hint of humour being discernible. The guest assured him that he had been taken care of well. The 1994 conversation at royal palace in Riyadh would have qualified as easy banter, but for the participants being Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah and visiting Indian Finance Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Under discussion was the hospitality acumen of Dr Abdulaziz al-Zamil, Saudi Minister of Industry and Co-Chair of the bilateral Joint Commission.
King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, 90, who passed away on January 23, was indeed a thoughtful leader, also capable of surprises. The conventional wisdom of the Saudi watchers put him among the “conservative faction” of the House of Al-Saud, the royal family. His mother, who was from the Al-Rashid clan (long-standing rivals of Al-Saud), made him stand out. He was taciturn, closer to the country’s Bedouins, and a long-standing personal friend of Arab nationalist leaders, in contrast to the mainstream liberal faction, which is headed by the “Sudairi Seven.”
Stability and security
History is, however, likely to judge his two decades at the Kingdom’s helm (1995 to 2005 as regent and 2005-2015 as the King) in a more balanced and benign manner. There were many markers that stood out. King Abdullah steered the ship of Saudi Arabia with a consummate hand through various storms such as the 9/11 tragedy, which was perpetrated by 19 terrorists, 15 of them Saudis. For the next five years, as the world held its breath, the al-Qaeda led by Saudi-born Osama bin Laden waged a no-holds terror campaign aimed at overthrowing the establishment in Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter and host of Islam’s two holiest shrines.
However, under King Abdullah’s watch, the Kingdom’s response to this existential challenge was firm, efficient and nuanced. The threat was overcome without disproportionate collateral damage or a schism between the enduring alliance among Al-Saud and the Wahhabi clergy. Later, when the “Arab Spring” contagion posed a different genre of threat, King Abdullah’s sagacious package of financial concessions and socio-political liberalisation avoided a catastrophe.
Wide-ranging reforms
King Abdullah would also be remembered for initiating some of the most far-reaching reforms in the country. These included curbing the excesses of the feared religious police, prioritising education, appointing women ministers and legislators, and planning to hold first direct elections for the local bodies. He became the first Saudi monarch to visit the Vatican and sponsor an international interfaith dialogue. These measures often did not go far enough, but were significant as the first steps towards modernising a deeply conservative Saudi society.
The 9/11 attacks precipitated the U.S.-led “global war against terror” and the “Arab Spring” — both causing widespread mayhem and ideological confusion. It can be argued that with the al-Qaeda and its derivatives, the Islamic State, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban, all jostling for Arab-Islamic centre-stage, Riyadh under King Abdullah managed to remain an influential player in maintaining stability and equilibrium.
The sharp swings in oil prices in 2008-09 and 2014-15 epitomise both Saudi’s role as OPEC’s largest exporter and its determination to protect its market share. During the past two decades under King Abdullah, the Saudi economy, nevertheless, came some way from its reliance on oil exports through diversifying measures such as incremental indigenisation through skilling of the labour force, establishing new industrial cities, deepening the share market, promulgating investment laws and joining the WTO.
In 2002, King Abdullah personally pushed for a plan to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict based on realism and mutual concessions. He also became the first Saudi leader to exchange state visits with China and Russia. Given Saudi diplomacy’s penchant for caution and discretion, these were tectonic shifts. Even as King Abdullah’s foreign policy evolved under various impetuses, a pro-West tilt and suspicion towards Iran persisted.
As per the Al-Saud tradition, Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, 79, was proclaimed the successor to the late King Abdullah. He in turn appointed Prince Mukrin as the new Crown Prince and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef as the Deputy Crown Prince. In his inaugural address, King Salman stressed continuity and indicated that many of the important functionaries are likely to be retained. With King Salman and Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the “Sudairi Seven” appears to be back and the inevitable reordering of political echelons over the time would bear watching. Moreover, with regional turbulence and the oil prices on a roller coaster, the new team needs to hit the ground running.
Bilateral relations
In the bilateral context, King Abdullah’s State visit to India as chief guest on our Republic Day in 2006 was a defining event. It paved the way for former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Saudi Arabia in February 2010. These two summits catapulted the ties from “correct and cordial” to “substantive and strategic” with Riyadh abandoning its hyphenation with Pakistan. The bilateral trade for the year ending on November 30, 2014 was over 46 billion dollars, making Saudi Arabia one of India’s top five trading partners and the largest source of its oil imports. Indian expatriates in Saudi Arabia number three million, the largest foreign community in that country. The Saudi embassy in India issued 1.2 million visas to Indians in 2014 — a record for a Saudi mission anywhere. These figures illustrate the surge in people-to-people ties. Mutual investments and business-to-business ties have also been picking up from a relatively smaller base. Discreet cooperation in security and anti-terror domains have been intensified.
India has reasons to be grateful to King Abdullah for ensuring that bilateral ties have realised much of their potential on the basis of shared interests and perceptions. King Salman, who visited India in 2010 and 2014, is expected to carry forward this momentum.
(Mahesh Sachdev is a retired Indian ambassador and an Arabist. He served in Saudi Arabia and was Director (Gulf).)
Source - The Hindu
[Ed] The love for sons and appropriate attire
Although urban Indians are slowly showing more openness in their attitudes towards women’s attire, this is not the case when it comes to the issue of son preference
As one of the world’s most socially heterogeneous societies, building solidarity across social groups has been a singular challenge in India. Social bias in India is pervasive across a range of key cleavages — whether caste or class, region or religion.
In this piece we discuss a different social bias, not between different castes and religions but within all castes and religions, namely gender. Last week, while launching the “beti bachao, beti padhao” initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called female foeticide a “mental illness” ailing the whole country. “We cannot call ourselves citizens of 21st century by practising such a crime,” he said. His comments describe the distressing persistence of female foeticide in contemporary India and underscore the broader scourge of gender bias in Indian society.
One might have expected that the major societal changes that have occurred over the past three decades — improvements in literacy and levels of education, rapid economic growth, and urbanisation — would have led to a decline in gender bias. While there is undoubtedly some improvement in the gender gap, the growing sex ratio problem and continued gender-based violence reveal just how far India still has to travel to bring dignity to half its population.
We focus on two different issues related to gender bias — son preference and norms on appropriate attire for women, which can be a form of social control. Between 2001 and 2011, the infant (0-6 years) sex ratio in India dropped from 927 females per 1,000 males to 914. In an attempt to understand the underlying attitudes which are behind India’s falling sex ratio, we asked Lok Survey respondents about their preference for the gender of their child. Respondents were asked the following question: For your family, is having more boys than girls preferred?
Overall, 34 per cent of respondents readily admitted that their family preferred having more boys. Given the sensitive nature of this question, this number is a lower bound since some people will undoubtedly give socially desirable responses. In order to estimate the true levels of son preference, we ran a “list experiment” which protects the anonymity of the survey responses. The respondents were randomly divided into two groups, given a list of statements, and then asked the number of statements with which they agreed. Only half of respondents were given a statement about son preference, and therefore, we were able to estimate the share of respondents who agreed to the sensitive statement by comparing the means of the two respondent groups. Using this technique, we found that once granted the cloak of anonymity, 48 per cent of respondents have a preference for sons in their family.
Son preference is widespread across Indian society with little variance across income classes, education levels, and rural/ urban areas.
Inter-State variation
Rather, what matters most is region. Inter-State variation on this issue exceeds variation on any other social cleavage in Indian society. The North-Western States do poorly, as expected, with Haryana (78 per cent) and Delhi (65 per cent) topping the list. Haryana and Delhi also had the largest gap between how people responded directly and how they responded in the experimental question, demonstrating that despite the high levels of son preference in those places, there is a social taboo in openly admitting it. Madhya Pradesh (59 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (58 per cent), and Punjab (55 per cent) also reported high levels of son preference in the experimental question and Kerala (15 per cent) reported the lowest. There was a strong correlation between the State-wise son preference as revealed in the experiment and the actual sex ratios of the States, suggesting that these attitudes are manifesting in sex-selective behaviours.
While son preference is manifest evidence of gender bias in the early years of childhood, there are many additional forms of bias and social control that women face throughout their lives, such as ‘suitable’ occupations or ‘suitable’ marriage partners. These are life-altering choices. But one dimension that is pervasive in the daily lives of young women is social control on what women wear. The survey explored this aspect by asking: Would you consider (the following clothing choices) inappropriate for young women in your neighbourhood when they go out with friends?
The part of the question in brackets was replaced by a type of clothing like “pants and shirt” or “shorts.” Although we first considered asking about young women “in your household” instead of “in your neighbourhood” in the pilot, we found that the question provoked conflicts in respondent households, which led us to rephrase the question. Clearly the question was fraught — because young women are trying to make their own choices instead of pliantly accepting what they are told is “appropriate.”
Seventy seven per cent of respondents felt that pants and shirt were inappropriate for young women and 92 per cent felt that shorts were inappropriate. However, there was a large difference between rural and urban respondents on this question, with 85 per cent of rural respondents disapproving of pants and shirt compared to 60 per cent of urban respondents. We attempted to understand which household attributes might drive respondents to report less restrictive attitudes on women’s clothing using multivariate regression analysis. Contrary to our finding on son preference, attitudes on women’s dress were driven by income, urbanisation and education. Ascriptive identities like caste and religion played a less significant role in how people evaluated the appropriateness of women’s clothing. In urban areas the income level of the household was the single most important factor impacting how respondents evaluated the appropriateness of clothing. For city dwellers, 65 per cent of the poorest families did not think that pants were appropriate for young women compared to 50 per cent of those with the highest incomes in our sample.
Conservative views on female attire are less prevalent amongst the more urban, wealthy, and educated members of Indian society, which may come as no surprise. The acceptance of different types of women’s attire is not just about patriarchy, it is also related to social status. Clothing is a marker of consumption, and adopting Western modes of attire is often used to signal status in urban areas.
As with son preference, there is significant regional variation in how families perceive the appropriateness of pants and shirt for young women. Goa (23 per cent disapproved) and Odisha (61 per cent) were the most open to women wearing pants. Although the smaller sample size for Goa data may have affected the results, the numbers for Goa are not too different than those for Mumbai. Haryana (88 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (88 per cent) and Bihar (86 per cent) were the least open. There were large differences in how respondents in major metro areas responded to the question. In Mumbai only 28 per cent of people thought that pants and shirt were inappropriate for young women compared to the 61 per cent in Delhi and 54 per cent in Kolkata.
Shameful reality
Gender discrimination in India is undoubtedly one of the county’s most shameful social realities. It is not just that it is inequitable and unfair; quite simply, any society where half the population suffers from social bias has already hobbled itself and its future. Although urban Indians are gradually showing more openness in their attitudes on women’s attire, this is not the case on the critical issue of son preference, an attitude that remains deeply rooted in India’s family ideals and social structure across a wide cross-section of society.
Clearly economic growth does not appear to be sufficient to remove the social incentives for having fewer daughters. Without frontally addressing some norms and structures, and fundamentally delegitimising gender bias in wider social discourse, there is little reason to believe that India will see a reversal in male child preferences in the foreseeable future.
(Megan Reed is the Research Coordinator at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania. Devesh Kapur is Director of CASI.)
As one of the world’s most socially heterogeneous societies, building solidarity across social groups has been a singular challenge in India. Social bias in India is pervasive across a range of key cleavages — whether caste or class, region or religion.
In this piece we discuss a different social bias, not between different castes and religions but within all castes and religions, namely gender. Last week, while launching the “beti bachao, beti padhao” initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called female foeticide a “mental illness” ailing the whole country. “We cannot call ourselves citizens of 21st century by practising such a crime,” he said. His comments describe the distressing persistence of female foeticide in contemporary India and underscore the broader scourge of gender bias in Indian society.
One might have expected that the major societal changes that have occurred over the past three decades — improvements in literacy and levels of education, rapid economic growth, and urbanisation — would have led to a decline in gender bias. While there is undoubtedly some improvement in the gender gap, the growing sex ratio problem and continued gender-based violence reveal just how far India still has to travel to bring dignity to half its population.
We focus on two different issues related to gender bias — son preference and norms on appropriate attire for women, which can be a form of social control. Between 2001 and 2011, the infant (0-6 years) sex ratio in India dropped from 927 females per 1,000 males to 914. In an attempt to understand the underlying attitudes which are behind India’s falling sex ratio, we asked Lok Survey respondents about their preference for the gender of their child. Respondents were asked the following question: For your family, is having more boys than girls preferred?
Overall, 34 per cent of respondents readily admitted that their family preferred having more boys. Given the sensitive nature of this question, this number is a lower bound since some people will undoubtedly give socially desirable responses. In order to estimate the true levels of son preference, we ran a “list experiment” which protects the anonymity of the survey responses. The respondents were randomly divided into two groups, given a list of statements, and then asked the number of statements with which they agreed. Only half of respondents were given a statement about son preference, and therefore, we were able to estimate the share of respondents who agreed to the sensitive statement by comparing the means of the two respondent groups. Using this technique, we found that once granted the cloak of anonymity, 48 per cent of respondents have a preference for sons in their family.
Son preference is widespread across Indian society with little variance across income classes, education levels, and rural/ urban areas.
Inter-State variation
Rather, what matters most is region. Inter-State variation on this issue exceeds variation on any other social cleavage in Indian society. The North-Western States do poorly, as expected, with Haryana (78 per cent) and Delhi (65 per cent) topping the list. Haryana and Delhi also had the largest gap between how people responded directly and how they responded in the experimental question, demonstrating that despite the high levels of son preference in those places, there is a social taboo in openly admitting it. Madhya Pradesh (59 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (58 per cent), and Punjab (55 per cent) also reported high levels of son preference in the experimental question and Kerala (15 per cent) reported the lowest. There was a strong correlation between the State-wise son preference as revealed in the experiment and the actual sex ratios of the States, suggesting that these attitudes are manifesting in sex-selective behaviours.
While son preference is manifest evidence of gender bias in the early years of childhood, there are many additional forms of bias and social control that women face throughout their lives, such as ‘suitable’ occupations or ‘suitable’ marriage partners. These are life-altering choices. But one dimension that is pervasive in the daily lives of young women is social control on what women wear. The survey explored this aspect by asking: Would you consider (the following clothing choices) inappropriate for young women in your neighbourhood when they go out with friends?
The part of the question in brackets was replaced by a type of clothing like “pants and shirt” or “shorts.” Although we first considered asking about young women “in your household” instead of “in your neighbourhood” in the pilot, we found that the question provoked conflicts in respondent households, which led us to rephrase the question. Clearly the question was fraught — because young women are trying to make their own choices instead of pliantly accepting what they are told is “appropriate.”
Seventy seven per cent of respondents felt that pants and shirt were inappropriate for young women and 92 per cent felt that shorts were inappropriate. However, there was a large difference between rural and urban respondents on this question, with 85 per cent of rural respondents disapproving of pants and shirt compared to 60 per cent of urban respondents. We attempted to understand which household attributes might drive respondents to report less restrictive attitudes on women’s clothing using multivariate regression analysis. Contrary to our finding on son preference, attitudes on women’s dress were driven by income, urbanisation and education. Ascriptive identities like caste and religion played a less significant role in how people evaluated the appropriateness of women’s clothing. In urban areas the income level of the household was the single most important factor impacting how respondents evaluated the appropriateness of clothing. For city dwellers, 65 per cent of the poorest families did not think that pants were appropriate for young women compared to 50 per cent of those with the highest incomes in our sample.
Conservative views on female attire are less prevalent amongst the more urban, wealthy, and educated members of Indian society, which may come as no surprise. The acceptance of different types of women’s attire is not just about patriarchy, it is also related to social status. Clothing is a marker of consumption, and adopting Western modes of attire is often used to signal status in urban areas.
As with son preference, there is significant regional variation in how families perceive the appropriateness of pants and shirt for young women. Goa (23 per cent disapproved) and Odisha (61 per cent) were the most open to women wearing pants. Although the smaller sample size for Goa data may have affected the results, the numbers for Goa are not too different than those for Mumbai. Haryana (88 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (88 per cent) and Bihar (86 per cent) were the least open. There were large differences in how respondents in major metro areas responded to the question. In Mumbai only 28 per cent of people thought that pants and shirt were inappropriate for young women compared to the 61 per cent in Delhi and 54 per cent in Kolkata.
Shameful reality
Gender discrimination in India is undoubtedly one of the county’s most shameful social realities. It is not just that it is inequitable and unfair; quite simply, any society where half the population suffers from social bias has already hobbled itself and its future. Although urban Indians are gradually showing more openness in their attitudes on women’s attire, this is not the case on the critical issue of son preference, an attitude that remains deeply rooted in India’s family ideals and social structure across a wide cross-section of society.
Clearly economic growth does not appear to be sufficient to remove the social incentives for having fewer daughters. Without frontally addressing some norms and structures, and fundamentally delegitimising gender bias in wider social discourse, there is little reason to believe that India will see a reversal in male child preferences in the foreseeable future.
(Megan Reed is the Research Coordinator at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania. Devesh Kapur is Director of CASI.)
Source - The Hindu
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