INDIAN financial markets are feeling hurt by the global financial crisis for quite some time. But last week they seemed particularly vulnerable to the contagion sweeping developed countries as well as most emerging economies. During the week, the Sensex lost 2,000 points.

India would have suffered if the present government under Congress was not stopped by the Left parties from further carrying out pro market reforms. The government was persisting with diluting equity and ownership in public sector banks, allowing Indian banks to get closely linked to subprime markets in the USA and carrying on other reforms that clearly would have taken India into the global financial market.

Foreign institutional investors who, in better times, pumped enormous sums of money into Indian stocks are pulling out in droves to shore up their balance sheets back home. On the positive side, India’s economic growth, though slightly diminished, is still expected to be impressive by global standards; most estimates place the GDP growth for 2008-09 at above 7 per cent. Inflation, currently ruling just below 12 per cent, is expected to drop, thanks to the sharply lower oil and other commodity prices in international markets.

There have been other manifestations of the global financial crisis also in India. As the foreign investors exit, there is considerable pressure on the rupee’s exchange rate. Forex reserves have fallen by $11.36 billion since the end of August. More ominously, the markets are facing a severe credit crunch and an unprecedented liquidity crisis. Overnight, money market rates have zoomed and several types of bank borrowers are being denied loans.

Reserve Bank of India has cut the CRR by 1.50 percentage points, a measure that would release about Rs.60, 000 crore. India has been spared, at least so far, some of the extreme consequences of the crisis. In the developed countries, there has been a serious erosion of faith in the financial sector. The mainline banking system in India, comprising primarily the public sector banks, has withstood the crisis very well.

All the banks have adequate capital. Public ownership of banks has proved to be a decisive factor in retaining the confidence of savers. In its extreme form, the financial crisis is also fuelled by psychological factors. The government and the RBI have done well to assuage the genuine concerns. They should continue to keep their communication channels open to the markets and lay investors and react fast to changing concerns and sentiments.

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Environemnt-India: Illegal Trade Decimating Wildlife

Malini Shankar

A great variety of endangered wildlife species end up feeding the illegal market for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) thanks to poor enforcement in stopping the trade, say experts and activists.

"The Chinese market is like a 'black hole' sucking in wildlife products from neighbouring countries," said Peter Pueschel, head of global Wildlife Trade Programme at the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), in an e-mail interview with IPS.

India, China's neighbour to the south, is most at risk with its vast biodiversity and poorly enforced laws.

According to the wildlife crime database maintained by the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), 846 tigers, 3,140 leopards and 585 freshwater otter (skins) were poached between 1994 and Aug. 31, 2008 and another 320 elephants were poached between 2000 and 2008 in India.

"Although many species used in TCM are now protected by national and international laws, illegal trade and poaching have increased to crisis levels as TCM's popularity has expanded over the last two decades," says Samir Sinha of the Indian chapter of the TRAFFIC, the Britain-based wildlife trade monitoring network.

"The problem is widespread, and mostly boils down to lack of political support," says Belinda Wright of the WPSI.

Elephants, tigers, leopards, mongoose, black bears, rhinos, snakes, butterflies, gorillas, otters, musk deer, antelopes, reptiles and products such as caterpillar fungus and porcupine quills form the bulk of the raw material for the TCM industry that, according to Interpol, is worth 20 billion dollars per year.

"We believe there is organised wildlife trade but it is difficult to identify," said Xu Hongfa, director of TRAFFIC – China in e-mail responses to queries from IPS.

According to most wildlife experts the illegal trade is helped along by the fact that Chinese authorities do little to curb the TCM industry because it is regarded as a part of East Asian culture. But Beijing can and does vigorously protect certain species such as the Giant Panda which has iconic status.

"Poaching the Giant Panda will result in severe punishment. According to Chinese law, anyone found poaching one Giant Panda will get at least a ten-year term of imprisonment,'' Xu said. ‘'Chinese government has taken action to improve the TCM market management but it is not very successful,'' he admitted.

"During a five-day period in June 2008, EIA (Environment Investigation Agency) investigators observed five traders who have been documented selling Asian big cat skins in previous years,'' said Debbie Banks of the London-based EIA, adding that Chinese authorities failed to act on information passed on to them.

"We pass sufficient information to enforcement authorities so that they take appropriate action. It is apparent that the authorities have failed in effective enforcement against persistent offenders,'' Banks said. ''It would not be appropriate for us to publish their details,'' she added.

Pueschel referred to a stock of 110 tonnes of ivory that disappeared from Chinese government custody in July 2008. "The main point here is that these incidents have not been taken seriously. It remains totally unclear where this ivory has gone. Nevertheless China has been designated an ivory importing country ("trading partner") supported by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) secretariat."

In May 2006 a consignment of 3,900 kg of ivory tusks was found concealed in a container of timber logs seized by customs officials in Hong Kong, revealing the ingenious methods used by wildlife racketeers. "The 'standard sizes' of cut ivory pieces make it easier to hide them inside any kind of packaging material," says Pablo Tachil a wildlife investigator based in Bangalore.

According to Tachil, Burma has emerged as a major staging point for the wildlife trade because of its location close to India and Burma and the major markets of South-east Asia. ''Burma is also an ideal hideout for poachers and traders, because of weak policing," he said.

What troubles activists is the continued demand for wildlife products around the world.

The popularity of ivory objects, for example, has grown in spite of the clear danger it poses to elephant populations and this, says Pueschel, is partly due to commercial sites on the Internet like eBay facilitating rampant trade. ''We continue to campaign for their banning all wildlife trade.''

An IFAW report in 2007 revealed that at least 90 percent of all investigated ivory listings on eBay were legally suspect. While eBay claims that its site allows 'shoppers to see the positive social and environmental impact' of each purchase, including whether it 'supports animal species preservation', activists say nothing is done by way of monitoring.

The animal most at risk of ending up as raw material for TCM is the tiger because it has long been revered in China as a symbol of power and strength and the belief that its products have potent medicinal properties. Only a century ago there were eight kinds of tigers, with over 100,000 wild tigers in the world. Today only five tiger subspecies exist, with fewer than 5,000 wild tigers in the world.

For India, the good news is that such events as the complete decimation of the tiger population in the Sariska reserve of Rajasthan state between 2002 and 2005 has caught the imagination of the public and helped authorities to ensure that traffickers are caught and brought to book.

Also in India several high-profile individuals have been caught in recent years and booked for poaching resulting in pro-wildlife wide publicity. These include the well-known film actors, Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan and India's former cricket captain, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi.

In June 2008, two Czech nationals were convicted for trying to smuggle out 'Delias sanaca', an endangered butterfly species listed under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act in the Singalila National Park near Darjeeling. And by September one of them was handed down a fine of Rs 60,000 (1,300 US dollars) and three years of simple imprisonment.

Such exemplary cases go a long way in helping authorities to prevent wildlife crime,'' Utpal Kumar Nag, forest officer in Darjeeling, told IPS. [Courtesy IPS]

(*Malini Shankar is a well-known wildlife photojournalist and documentary film maker).

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Nobel honours economist who told Bush to "Please go away"

PAUL Krugman, a professor at Princeton University who is best known for his New York Times columns -- frequently involving scathing assaults on the policies of the George W. Bush administration -- was awarded the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on international trade and economic geography.

"To be absolutely, totally honest I thought this day might come someday, but I was absolutely convinced it wasn't going to be this day," Krugman, a 55-year-old U.S. national, said in an interview with The Times Monday.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which administers the award, said it was bestowed on Krugman "for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity".

"This was definitely a 'real world' pick and a nod in the direction of economists who are engaged in policy analysis and writing for the broader public," Tyler Cowen, professor of economics at George Mason University, commented on his weblog "Marginal Revolution".

Krugman found new ways to explain what goods are produced where, and how capital and labour are distributed over countries and regions.

Most of the discussion going on on the Internet after the announcement of the prize committee, however, was not about Krugman's scientific achievement, but about the strong positions he took as a columnist, author and blogger.

Krugman served as an advisor to Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, and for a short time was a consultant to former president Ronald Reagan.

Back in 2000, a year after he joined The New York Times, Krugman spent a great deal of effort "trying to alert readers to the blatant dishonesty of the Bush campaign's claims about taxes, spending and Social Security", as he wrote in a column this year.

A staunch critic of the Iraq war, he has repeatedly cautioned against a potential victory for John McCain, the Republican contender in the Nov. 4 U.S. elections.

Just recently, Krugman stressed that "the Obama campaign is wrong to suggest that a McCain-Palin administration would just be a continuation of Bush-Cheney. If the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning is any indication, it would be much, much worse." Many observers are now wondering if the decision of the Swedish prize committee is sending a political message as well.

With recent publications, Krugman has influenced the arrangement of the federal plan to spend 700 billion dollars to cushion U.S. credit markets -- a topic he is long familiar with as his dissertation was on international finance.

Krugman received his B.A. from Yale University in 1974 and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977. He went on to teach at Yale, MIT and Stanford, and is now a professor at Princeton University in New Jersey, where he gives a course on international monetary policy and theory.

Starting with a short article published in the Journal of International Economics in 1979, Krugman has lifted the theory of international trade to a new level. His theory explained the increasing trade between countries that produce the same kind of goods -- a phenomenom that has grown since World War II.

While traditional theories were based on differences among countries that make them specialise and trade with other countries, Krugman found an explanation why, for example, a car-producing country is not only exporting cars but also importing them.

First, it is about economies of scale: Because mass production diminishes the per unit price of production, it is lucrative for companies to produce many units of a specific good -- and therefore develop their own brand.

Second, it is about consumers' lust for diversity, especially in highly industrialised rich countries: They simply want to chose between a large number of brands.

So while one country may produce luxury cars, another one may build smaller vehicles. And due to lower prices and greater product diversity, wealth and prosperity are increasing for people in both countries.

With his "new economic geography", Krugman later showed that the distribution of work and capital across regions depends on the trade-off between utilising economies of scale and saving on transport costs. Today's process of urbanisation can be explained with Krugman's theory.

The domination of already successful, large countries can also be explained through his findings as economics of scale, lower prices and diversity of products are easier to achieve there.

Krugman is the ninth U.S. laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in a row -- a prize that does not date back to Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896, but was created by the Swedish central bank in 1968.

He is also among a number of Nobel laureates who received the John Bates Clark medal, a renowned prize for young economists under age 40, which he won in 1991. [Courtesy IPS]

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Let save ourselves from Genetically Modified stuff

INDIA and her people are again threatened by the plunder of resources; her prosperity has become subject of exploitation and abuse. It is almost reappearance of the past. India was plundered for approximately two hundred years by a disparate group of East India companies from Britain, France, Portugal and Holland. The same history is being repeated now. The only difference is that the names of such companies are changed to the various multinational corporations producing highly toxic agro chemicals and GMOs to raise foods and drugs. The havoc that these companies are causing as a result is not only to the people of India but also the whole world. Some aspects of these unfortunate events are more disturbing now, because these MNCs had already ruined our system and even science is corrupted.

Lest it be forgotten ancient India possessed a glorious past with enormous wealth. The past glory of India was due primarily to its agricultural inventions from many thousand years ago. The cultivation of cow's milk, cotton fabric and cane sugar for human use stood as India's gifts to the world since the Indus Valley Civilization. Yogurt, butter, buttermilk and cheese curds were all invented in India. What made all these wonderful inventions possible in previous times was due to intra-species applications of selective breeding of crops and animals in contrast to the present inter-species genetic modification and the resultant GMOs. No toxic chemical was used for growing crops or for rearing cattle.

Our land is of Guru Nanak, who recited-”Pawan Guru, Paani Pita, Maata Dharat Mahat.” Our Vedic Knowledge also says the same thing. For us air is our guru, water is father and earth/soil is our mother. There is very clear message—we are made up of these three-father, mother and master. Air, water and food are basic building material of the bodies of all living beings. The moment we add any poison into any of these it will be straight transmitted to our bodies. But what is the ground reality. Our air, water and food contain the following types of poisons.

• Agrochemicals—Pesticides-Herbicides-Chemical Fertilizers
• GMOs
• Drugs and Pharmaceuticals--Hormones, Antibiotics and many more
• Industrial Toxins including toxic methods of electricity generation
• Rendered Dead Animal Wastes

Agrochemicals and industrial toxins have already played havoc in Punjab. Their levels in water, food and living beings are much beyond safe limits. As a result Punjab is facing a serious Environment Health Crisis. The health of our people is worsening day by day. The highly toxic chemicals being added en masse to our environment by burning of fossil fuels, chemical farming and industrial waste water are causing slow poisoning of human beings along with all other living beings. The old euphoria that infectious diseases will be eradicated /controlled with antibiotics and vaccines is gone. Old infectious diseases are becoming more dangerous and resistant, new infectious diseases (some of them very dangerous) are coming in a big way and there is a huge epidemic of non infectious diseases including cancers of various organs.

Kheti Virasat Mission and its affiliate Environmental Health Action Group in their interaction with general public , especially with farmers, medical professionals and vet nary scientists and during some field surveys it was found that immune system of humans and animals, which is a God given gift to remain healthy, has been grossly weakened by the slow poisoning. As a result of this weakened physiology we are more prone to infectious as well as non infectious diseases including various cancers.

Our reproductive system has become the easy target because of its sensitive nature. The sperm counts have fallen to half in two generations; the number of childless couples has tremendously increased; onset of puberty in female children has advanced by 2-3 years; puberty in male children has been delayed by 2-3 years; the prevalence of menstrual disorders have tremendously increased in all age groups; cysts and tumors of ovaries and uterus are more common now; the prevalence of spontaneous abortions, premature births, still births, congenital malformations and early childhood deaths have increased. There is an epidemic of congenital malformations—Hypospadias, Undescended Testes, Congenital Hernias, Neural Tube Defects including Anencephaly, Cleft Lip, Cleft Palate, T-O Fistulas, Mental Retardation, Cerebral palsy, Autism and large number of Metabolic Disorders. Mental Retardation in children has increased from 1 in 40000 to 1 in 40 in 40 years.

One thousand times increase. All these are because of large number of dangerous poisons in our environment. The child is highly vulnerable to environmental toxins because of fast multiplication of cells within the womb of mother and early childhood. We will need large number of Pingalwaras in Punjab in the coming years. Same phenomenon is happening in cattle and wild animals. Mortality and morbidity in the cattle has dramatically increased. Birds, particularly the carnivorous birds are fast dyeing and disappearing. Bees are fast vanishing. Same is happening with many other friendly insects.

GMOs are even worse in this regard. The whole of the plant is not only poisonous but capable of reproducing itself—so the living and multiplying factories of poisons. Agricultural technologies, unlike many other technologies, have a major impact on human beings and other life forms. This is because of the huge magnitude of this human activity – farming is spread over a major part of this planet's land and is the primary occupation of millions of people, especially in the third world. Further, these technologies will impact each one of us as we are all consumers of food.

Agricultural technologies also have the ability to leave lasting impacts, as the lesson from chemical pesticides has shown us. Fate of future generations can be sealed one way or the other by agricultural technologies deployed at any particular point of time. A closer look at agricultural technologies pushed as "modern science & technology" shows that science is certainly fallible and it is more than clear that decisions related to agricultural technologies should not be left to the so-called "experts" alone. Farming itself is a complex process with impacts spilling over onto communities and their very lives and livelihoods. Understanding of such a complex process cannot be left to reductionist science and its believers.

Genetic Engineering (GE) of agricultural crops affects all of us as it compromises the very safety of the food that we consume. Further, it is also one more 'treadmill technology' like chemical pesticides which will only push millions of Indian farmers into deeper agrarian distress. GE in fact has very many similarities with chemical pesticides – promoted by the same companies, posing environmental and health hazards and drastic socio-political and economic impacts.

In fact, GE is worse since we are talking about living organisms being modified at the very fundamental level – at the level of genes and DNA (termed as the "building blocks of life"), in irreversible ways – a chemical molecule might disintegrate over a period of time but with a genetically modified organism, things are out of control since you cannot ever recall GMOs back once they are released – they reproduce and propagate on their own! Genetic engineering is based on imprecise and reductionist science and the results are quite unpredictable in many ways, including impacts on human health. There is documented evidence on the many health risks that GE crops and foods pose.

World over, only 12 countries have allowed GE crops to be grown on any significant level at all. An overwhelming majority of the countries have shunned genetic engineering in their farming and foods, even after nearly fifteen years of the first GE crop being released in the USA. It has been found that Genetic Engineering allows big multi-national companies to take over our food chain and change it in unpredictable ways to the point that farmer and consumer rights are badly trampled upon.

Consumers have no way of knowing what they are eating and how safe or nutritious their food is.
Even as GE is being thrust down on all of us as a "must-have-technology", lakhs of farmers are converting to non chemical and non GMO ecological farming. They find that their farm economics is improving even as their health and environment is restored. In Andhra Pradesh, supported by the rural development department, lakhs of poor women farmers are taking the lead to implement the world's largest ecological farming project which was taken up on seven lakh acres last year. This is just to let you know that our anti-GM resistance is not just on some emotional or philosophical grounds but is based on concrete evidence.

Recognizing serious negative healths, environmental and economic impacts of GM crops, the question arises, “Why would the farmers of any country accept this technology? Kheti Virasat Mission is of firm view that farmers in Punjab should consider the issues related to GM/Bt crops. The Punjab government and agriculture institutions who are promoting GM/Bt crops should also reconsider their stand.

Bt Brinjal will be first food crop for direct human consumption in the World. This is going to be disastrous. According to some studies the Bt toxin is 1,000 times more concentrated than in Bt sprays, which do not themselves have a history of safe use. Genetically modified Bt plants, and that includes Bt Brinjal, carry a toxin that is a thousand times more potent than what is used to kill insects.

The Bt gene that has been infused in Bt cotton (or Bt corn on which most of the laboratory rats studies have been conducted) is no different from the same gene drawn from a soil bacteria-Bacillus Thorencigensis that is now being incorporated in Brinjal. This gene releases a toxin within the plant that kills fruit-and-shoot borer insects. The Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco), now owned by the Monsanto, which is spearheading research on Bt Brinjal, claims that the genetically-modified Brinjal is safe for human consumption. But the world wide experiences are saying exactly opposite to what Mahyco is claiming.

Kheti Virasat Mission therefore demand that the government also take a stand that GE crops in India are not needed and are not desirable.

The same Monsanto tried to hide truth in rBGH case in Canada. We cannot trust Monsanto and its brothers-in-arms in India and Punjab.

We totally reject this falsification of Mahyco-Monsanto and the institutions working closely with them. KVM is of firm conviction that any effort to push Bt Brinjal in market is a social crime; it is unethical at all and it is an offense against humanity and nature.

KVM calls upon the people of Punjab and particularly the farmers to reject the GM / Bt crops. KVM also calls upon all farmers groups, Consumer organizations and health professionals to join hands to stop the commercial release of Bt Brinjal.

Building resistance against GMOs, Agro-Chemicals and corporate hijack of natural resources is a new freedom struggle. KVM urged upon all Punjabis to be part of this freedom movement to save our ecological heritage, to save our farmers and agriculture; to save health and food of the present and future generations being contaminated by GMOs, pesticides and environmental contaminators.

[A joint statement by Dr Shiv Chopra, Microbiologist, Canada and Umendra Dutt, Executive Director, Kheti Virasat Mission.]

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