16 JUNE 2015: Modi against modi

Ø  Prime Minister Narendra Modi found himself staring at his first full-scale crisis on Monday, with the Congress dragging him into the Lalit Modi imbroglio, dubbing it “Modigate” even as it continued to press for External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj’s resignation for her role in facilitating travel documents in the U.K. for the scam-tainted former Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner. But this was not all: the controversy has opened up old fault lines in the ruling BJP, reviving past rivalries. The first indication came when cricketer and BJP MP Kirti Azad came out in defence of Ms. Swaraj, while hinting at a feud within the party: on Twitter, he referred to a party insider playing a role in leaking information about Ms. Swaraj’s recommendation and her family’s association with Mr. Lalit Modi.

Ø  Keith Vaz, the senior Labour party Member of Parliament who is currently in the centre of a storm over allegations that he used his public position to facilitate the travel papers of IPL founder Lalit Modi, will not be investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Hudson.

Ø  The indefinite strike by students of the Film and Television Institute of India over the appointment of television actor-turned BJP politician Gajendra Chauhan as chairman intensified.

Ø  The final report of the Bibek Debroy Committee on restructuring the Indian Railways has suggested a process of gradual reforms, involving the introduction of commercial accounting practices and greater decentralisation of powers, allowing the entry of the private sector, and the setting up of an independent regulator. The committee has indicated a five-year time frame to implement the measures. One of the most transformative suggestions made is allowing private sector players to run trains. It has suggested exposing railway production units to competition, and the creation of an environment conducive to private investment by giving confidence to private players through transparent accounting processes. This has to be seen in the context of the failure of the public-private partnership route so far in both the road and railway sectors. There have been different reports in the past that have pointed to what ails the Indian Railways. For instance, in 2012 a committee headed by Sam Pitroda, then Adviser to the Prime Minister, submitted plans for the modernisation of the Railways at a cost of Rs.5.6 lakh crore over a 10-year period. The Debroy Committee report stands out in having identified definitive measures to effect a transformation, and setting a timeline.  But it will be a challenging task, especially the recommendations relating to opening up to the private sector and setting up an independent regulator. The committee has acknowledged that restructuring would be a humongous task, and quite cautiously used the term ‘liberalisation’ for the entry of private players — rather than privatisation or deregulation. The railway employee unions are already up in arms over the references to the private sector. This would be a difficult equation to manage. The suggestion to set up an independent regulator will equally pose a challenge. This will essentially mean setting up a body outside of the powerful and centralised Railway Board, which might resist such a move. The setting up of an independent super-regulator has been spoken about in the financial services space, but not much has happened on that front. However, all these suggestions merit immediate consideration. The Railways has suffered huge under-investment in capacities and today its very viability is a question mark. Now the onus is on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who initiated the setting up of this Committee, and Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, known for his dynamic approach, to take the railway unions into confidence and implement the measures. Both have declared the Railways is not going to be privatised, but the unions do not appear pleased. Winning their trust would be key to the implementation of the measures. That would determine if this will remain just another report or a game-changer.

Ø  India on Monday signed a motor vehicles agreement with three SAARC nations — Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal — that envisages seamless transit of passenger and cargo vehicles among these countries. Though a seamless cargo movement between the South Asian neighbours is expected to take much longer, Monday’s agreement at Bhutan’s capital Thimphu is expected to remove bottlenecks by allowing people easy access. The agreement signed on India’s behalf by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari will not only reduce transport costs, but also enhance multi-modal transport and transit facilities, enabling increased connectivity and promotion of greater trade among the four countries. “The Motor Vehicles Agreement is the ‘overarching’ framework to fulfil our commitment to enhance regional connectivity. This will need to be followed through with formulation of the required protocols and procedures in the shortest time possible to realise the ultimate objective of free movement of people and goods in the region,” Mr. Gadkari said. As per the agreement, the four countries will carry out a six-month work plan from July for the implementation of the BBIN MVA in accordance with the preparation of bilateral, perhaps trilateral or quadrilateral, agreements and protocols, installation of the prerequisites for implementing the approved agreements, among others. A similar motor agreement with Myanmar and Thailand is on the cards.

Ø  In a major technology demonstration ultimately aimed at cutting down the cost of satellite launches to one-tenth the present rates, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will flight test an indigenously developed re-usable satellite launch vehicle for the first time. Under the project, a plane will be flown into outer space at five times the speed of sound, deliver the payload and then land back like an aircraft. At present, the various stages in a satellite launch vehicle fall off in succession during launch and cannot be reused, making such launches expensive. Mr. Kumar said wind tunnel modelling and other tests had been completed. “It is in starting point. There is a long way to go,” he added. Minister of State for Department of Space Jitendra Singh said 11 satellites were launched in the last one year and by next year the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System would be operationalised. It will be only the third such system in the world. Mr. Singh launched an Android-based application ‘Sakaar’, an “augmented reality application” intended to give a real world environment to visualise ISRO projects. It provides in real time, three-dimensional models of Mars Missions, various satellites, launch vehicles and other projects of ISRO.