G-8 SUMMIT 2009

BY VINOD ERAT

G-8 Summits provide global leaders an opportunity to review economic and political along with socio-cultural conditions prevailing across the world.This year the 35th G-8 Summit was held at L'Aquila, Italy from 8th to 10th July.Apart from the existing members of G-8, leaders of the five Emerging Economies of the world namely India, China,Brazil, Mexico and South Africa also attended the Summit and it came to be known as G8+5 Summit.

The main agenda of the Summit included Climate change,global financial crisis,Energy security and nuclear energy,millennium development goals,poverty in Africa,Intellectual property rights among others.The main decisions taken by the leaders are as follows

• Industrial nations to avoid protectionism and ensure credit flows
• Joint commitment to provide resources to international financial institutions
• Call for a balanced conclusion to the Doha round of talks
• Participants to refrain from introducing any barriers to trade and investment
• WTO and other international agencies to monitor financial stability and the situation and report publicly on quarterly basis
• Commitment towards clean energy technology and reduction of Green House gas emissions
• Bridge the gap before the next G20 summit
• Next climate change summit in Copenhagen

The contentious issues at the summit were

• Reduction of emission of GHGs
• Funding and technology transfer for clean energy technology.The developed nations want IP protected clean energy technology to be transferred to developing nations at minimum or no license fee.
• Agriculture and Non Agriculture Market Access.
  

Nuclear Agriculture-A Boon for the mankind

BY VINOD ERAT


Nuclear agriculture is the safe application of nuclear technology in the various phases of agriculture with different objectives ranging from increasing the yield to processing foodstuff to modifying the genetic make-up of pests.

Below are given the application of nuclear technology in agriculture and food processing

1)Increase crop production: Exposing plants to small doses of radiation helps change the genetic make-up of plants and lead to improved varieties.

2)Develop hundreds of varieties of hardier, more disease-resistant crops— improve the nutritional value of some crops.

3)Irradiation is one of the most promising and effective treatments for many types of food preservation. It can reduce food losses (due to insect damage, disease and premature sprouting of tubers) increase the possibilities of expanding intra-regional and international food trade.

4)Many countries are looking at the advantages to be gained with irradiating 'high value/low volume crops' such as spices and fruits. Irradiation improves the hygiene quality of spices so that the strict controls imposed by big importers, such as the US and EU, can be met.

5)Irradiation also plays an important role in reducing the risk of transfer of pests and diseases from one country or region to another. Food products contaminated by soil, such as cassava tubers, are often infested with insects or nematodes. These are difficult to kill without the use of intensive chemical fumigation,irradiation is an effective alternative, rendering the pests sterile so that they are unable to breed and establish themselves in a new location.

6)In addition, the risk of food-borne diseases caused by Salmonella and E.coli pathogens can also be reduced with irradiation. This technology is ideally suited for foods of animal origin, especially those to be consumed raw or minimally processed. Rather like thermally pasteurising milk, irradiation can ensure the hygiene quality of meat and seafood products without significantly changing quality, taste or texture.

7)Protecting land and resources: isotopes measure soil, water and nutrient storage, soil erosion, and fertilizer and pesticide waste; they enable farmers to keep closer track of their operations and use vital resources more sparingly and effectively.


8)Increasing livestock production: scientists use isotopes to study hormones and learn more about reproduction cycles, which helps in areas such as the timing of artificial-insemination programmes.


To help developing countries progress in irradiation technology, international organisations such as FAO and IAEA are able to provide support in the training of irradiation personnel to meet international standards.

In India BARC is the regulating and co-ordinating agency.

Indo-China relations: Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin

By Vinod Erat

Facts—Aksai Chin is administered by China as Kargilik County in the Kashgar Prefecture of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, but India claims it to be a part of J&K. The line that separates Indian-administered areas of Kashmir from the Aksai Chin is known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Arunachal pradesh-The McMahon Line is a line agreed to by British India and Tibet as part of Simla Accord, a treaty signed in 1914. Although its legal status is disputed, it is the effective boundary between China and India. China rejects the Simla Accord, contending that the Tibetan government was not sovereign and therefore did not have the power to conclude treaties.^[4][5] Chinese maps show some 56,000 square miles (150,000 km²) of territory south of the line as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, popular known as South Tibet in China. Chinese forces briefly occupied this area during the Sino-Indian War of 1962-63.

Issues

1. Chinese claims that the 90,000 sq km tract of land on the eastern wing of the Himalayas, which broadly corresponds to Arunachal Pradesh and which has been under Indian administration since the 1940s
2. China does not recognize the McMahon Line (the British-delineated borderline between India and China)
3. China ready to acknowledge Indian sovereignty in the 'eastern tract' if India would abandon its claim to Aksai Chin, the 38,000 km tract of cold desert in Ladakh in the western Himalayas that China had brought under its control when its army "liberated" Tibet in 1951
4. In the 1950s and 1960s, when Tibet wasn't as well-connected by road-and-rail networks as it is today, control of Aksai Chin was of strategic importance to China in order to establish its authority in the combustible erstwhile kingdom. Likewise, for India, control of the 'eastern tract' was critical for it to maintain its hold on the fissiparous northeastern region
5. But India rejected this 'east-west' swap proposal on the principled ground that Chinese 'concessions' in the eastern tract were not concessions at all since China had never administered this area and had no right over it. And from its perspective, Aksai Chin was Indian territory that had been "illegally occupied" by China
6. Since October 1985, however, China has claimed right over the entire eastern tract, in present-day Arunachal Pradesh. In fact, Chinese negotiators have even turned their original swap proposal on its head, and have subsequently claimed that China would be willing to make concessions in the western tract (that is, Aksai Chin) if India reciprocated by giving up its claims in the eastern tract (that is, Arunachal Pradesh)!
7. In fact, China's about-turn on the east-west swap proposal may be linked to its changed geopolitical needs. With the completion of numerous road and rail links to Lhasa from other parts of China, and the heightened accessibility to Tibetan areas, Aksai Chin doesn't hold the same strategic significance that it did in the 1950s and 1960s.
8. Aksai Chin is the place "where not a blade of grass grows," as Jawaharlal Nehru once dismissively said. In contrast, Arunachal Pradesh has mineral and timber resources, and is also a potential source of hydroelectric power.
9. Recently China denied visas Indian officials from the border state into China.
10. Given its international stature and the economic power, it thinks that it is not compelled by any “compromises” to solveany issues and is ready to play the hard game.

Indo-China relations: Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin

By Vinod Erat

Facts—Aksai Chin is administered by China as Kargilik County in the Kashgar Prefecture of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, but India claims it to be a part of J&K. The line that separates Indian-administered areas of Kashmir from the Aksai Chin is known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Arunachal pradesh-The McMahon Line is a line agreed to by British India and Tibet as part of Simla Accord, a treaty signed in 1914. Although its legal status is disputed, it is the effective boundary between China and India. China rejects the Simla Accord, contending that the Tibetan government was not sovereign and therefore did not have the power to conclude treaties.^[4][5] Chinese maps show some 56,000 square miles (150,000 km²) of territory south of the line as part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, popular known as South Tibet in China. Chinese forces briefly occupied this area during the Sino-Indian War of 1962-63.

Issues

1. Chinese claims that the 90,000 sq km tract of land on the eastern wing of the Himalayas, which broadly corresponds to Arunachal Pradesh and which has been under Indian administration since the 1940s
2. China does not recognize the McMahon Line (the British-delineated borderline between India and China)
3. China ready to acknowledge Indian sovereignty in the 'eastern tract' if India would abandon its claim to Aksai Chin, the 38,000 km tract of cold desert in Ladakh in the western Himalayas that China had brought under its control when its army "liberated" Tibet in 1951
4. In the 1950s and 1960s, when Tibet wasn't as well-connected by road-and-rail networks as it is today, control of Aksai Chin was of strategic importance to China in order to establish its authority in the combustible erstwhile kingdom. Likewise, for India, control of the 'eastern tract' was critical for it to maintain its hold on the fissiparous northeastern region
5. But India rejected this 'east-west' swap proposal on the principled ground that Chinese 'concessions' in the eastern tract were not concessions at all since China had never administered this area and had no right over it. And from its perspective, Aksai Chin was Indian territory that had been "illegally occupied" by China
6. Since October 1985, however, China has claimed right over the entire eastern tract, in present-day Arunachal Pradesh. In fact, Chinese negotiators have even turned their original swap proposal on its head, and have subsequently claimed that China would be willing to make concessions in the western tract (that is, Aksai Chin) if India reciprocated by giving up its claims in the eastern tract (that is, Arunachal Pradesh)!
7. In fact, China's about-turn on the east-west swap proposal may be linked to its changed geopolitical needs. With the completion of numerous road and rail links to Lhasa from other parts of China, and the heightened accessibility to Tibetan areas, Aksai Chin doesn't hold the same strategic significance that it did in the 1950s and 1960s.
8. Aksai Chin is the place "where not a blade of grass grows," as Jawaharlal Nehru once dismissively said. In contrast, Arunachal Pradesh has mineral and timber resources, and is also a potential source of hydroelectric power.
9. Recently China denied visas Indian officials from the border state into China.
10. Given its international stature and the economic power, it thinks that it is not compelled by any “compromises” to solveany issues and is ready to play the hard game.