1 Despite budget cuts and financial difficulties, museums across the world have done well to attract more

visitors in the year that has just ended, but what lies ahead? The International Council of Museums, an organisation of museums and museum professionals from 137 countries, has cautioned that the current year would be critical, with no sign of improvement in the global economic situation. More than ever, museums have to urgently innovate ways of remaining relevant to society. This advice and urging, for an entirely different set of reasons, applies unequivocally to India's museums, particularly the government-administered ones. Of the nearly 1,000 museums in the country, over 90 per cent are state-run. The visitor experience they offer is far from enriching and museum practices they adopt are way below global standards. What is of serious concern is the pathetic state of the National Museum, the premier institution in the country. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture, which looked at its functioning last year, found about a quarter of the galleries closed for more than three years, signage and labels of artefacts poorly designed, hardly 7.5 per cent of its two lakh collections exhibited, and the art acquisition committee defunct for the past 16 years.

Complacency has cost Indian museums the funds they badly need. For example, even the measly Rs. 72.36 crore the Central government allotted in 2009-10, was not fully utilised. This led the parliamentary committee to conclude that allocation to the museums is enough. So where, then, does the solution lie? The first step towards a turnaround is to improve the quality, range and relevance' of the exhibits. Simultaneously, programmes to involve and engage people have to be put in place. The recommendations by the B.N. Goswamy Committee (2010) on improving museum infrastructure and administration ought to be implemented without delay. Museums across the world are looking at imaginative ways such as virtual displays to make their collections more publicly available' and show a wider volume of material'. Indian museums will do well to adopt these innovations. The Ministry of Culture has tied up with the British Museum for a modest training programme. This is commendable, but given the urgency, capacity-building should be radically stepped up and India's flagship museums placed in the hands of trained professionals selected from among the best in the world rather than babus and bureaucrats. 2 A little local censorship is less of an evil compared to messages being fully scrubbed out from the public domain worldwide. That would seem to be the logic behind microblogging website Twitter's proposed system of reactively withholding tweets in a specific country when there is a valid request from a legal authority. Under it, if such a request is received, some of the messages of users will go missing on the service, and only show up as a box declaring that they have been withheld. The jury is out on whether the new system will silence activists and campaigners; already, some users are talking of workarounds. Twitter acquired a reputation for aiding mass protests and creating strong social networks, notably in the Arab Spring and Occupy movements. Whether or not revolutions are fanned by determined tweeple', even 140 characters with a strong message can be too much for authoritarian

regimes. Rulers in many countries are uncomfortable that Twitter is now a household name, and its reach, at a billion tweets put out every four days, nightmarish. The actual effects of the micro-censorship are yet to unfold, but activists have a point when they say internet giants are too willing to make compromises on online freedoms in return for expanded business opportunities.

If easy censorship is a happy prospect for intolerant regimes, there is also the accompanying odium of being listed on a web-based rogues gallery maintained by researchers, such as Chilling Effects, to which Twitter will pass on their demands. India, which has gained notoriety for making many requests (mostly without success) to purge search results, blogs, YouTube videos, and so on for political reasons, must resist a further slide into intolerance for online speech. The Google Transparency Report for the country shows that during the first half of 2011, the majority of demands for censoring content came from executive agencies. Only a handful were backed by a court order. What makes the loss of online freedoms particularly disturbing is the lack of due process that must accompany an invasion of privacy in the physical world court authorisation to access personal information, enter the home, sift through materials, and make seizures. In democratic societies, it would be unthinkable for governments to violate the privacy of individuals in the way that web services and internet companies are being asked to. There is also the question that if commercial services looking for greater profit can be manipulated by governments, would it not be more attractive to develop non-profit, open source software, and social networking alternatives? Twitter and others like it who crave the support of millions must decide whose side they are on, oppressive regimes or the citizen.

3 The January 22 plebiscite has paved the way for Croatia part of the erstwhile Yugoslavia to join the European Union as its 28th member state in 2013. The move must be ratified in national parliaments across the EU. Regional security, access to the vast job markets, and investment inflows are among the potential benefits of EU membership. But neither was Zagreb's yes' vote emphatic, nor has the imminent expansion been greeted with particular enthusiasm by existing members. All told, a far-cry from the euphoria and excitement witnessed when the EU embraced the former Eastern Europe in 2004 or when the single currency was launched in 2002. Croatia enters the EU precisely when the danger of Greece's exit from the euro zone is looming and the time-table for the accession of prospective members appears indefinite. The lack of a coherent response to the debt crisis makes a bad situation appear worse. It is tempting to interpret the 44 per cent turnout in the referendum as a measure of democratic deficit. But then, voter apathy is not quite unheard of in this trans-national context. Secondly, it should be borne in mind that the EU vote followed close on the heels of a national general election in December. In that light, the roughly two-to-one approval of EU membership is significant.

Democracy, market economy, and rule of law are among the eligibility criteria for EU membership. Abolition of the death penalty is also a precondition for admission, and this reform perforce imparts a rational and humane aspect to the administration of criminal justice. The potential of such a step to bring closure to historic wrongs and build reconciliation among Balkan countries that are torn by bloody ethnic strife cannot be exaggerated. By admitting Zagreb, the EU will send out a signal to the other Balkan states that it attaches a high premium on cooperation with the Hague tribunal which is adjudicating the war crimes of the 1990s. This is of particular relevance to Serbia, whose position on Kosovo's independence' has pushed back its ambitions for EU membership. It is no mean challenge for the Balkans to balance their cherished values of national independence and sovereignty with the more current imperatives of regional integration. Consolidation of the EU would prove a formidable challenge owing to the machinations of extremist and anti-immigration parties. The bloc needs a new vision in the 21st century. 4 President Pratibha Patil might have meant well by using her Republic Day address to warn reformers not to shake the tree of state so hard in their drive to remove bad fruit that the tree itself is brought down but behind her arboreal metaphor lie contentious assumptions and unacceptable insinuations about the civil society movement against corruption. Nobody can disagree with the idea that India's democratic system must be safeguarded while introducing reforms in its political institutions such as a strong and effective Lokpal. Corruption in India, however, is much more than a case of some bad fruit. It is a deeply-entrenched, systemic problem that is corroding the nation, widening the gulf between ordinary citizens and those with access to power and privilege, and undermining the faith of people in democratic institutions. But if President Patil's metaphor was misplaced, so too was her analogy: equating the people's struggle for a strong anti-corruption institution with the bringing down of the entire edifice of democratic India. More than as a word of caution, her remarks seem intended to discredit the civil society movement against corruption. The easiest way to weaken a democratic movement for change is to suggest it is disruptive, inimical to long-term interests, and the cause of political instability. Through their choice of words, the drafters of Ms Patil's speech might have betrayed their intentions more clearly than they intended to.

Also, while calling for concord in dealing with matters of national importance, President Patil should have addressed her own government, and not the people of the country. It is the state that needs to accommodate the interests of different stakeholders on important issues by building political consensus and by being transparent in the way it functions. Actually, negativity and rejection, the states of mind President Patil warns the country against, are words that best describe the attitude and response-mechanism of the UPA government at the Centre. As such, introspection, and not words of advice and caution, would have suited the solemnity of the occasion better. As Ms Patil also pointed out, the country's foremost priority is

to remove poverty, disease and illiteracy. The government will certainly have to do a lot more in achieving sustainable, socially equitable growth. For that, the country needs a strong popular movement that puts pressure on the administration. Of course, civil society movements too have an obligation to be open and transparent, rational and inclusive. But if the Indian Republic is to flourish and prosper, the tree the President spoke about cannot be left to the mercy of politicians alone. 5 By filing a Special Leave Petition against the Karnataka High Court order directing payment of statutory minimum wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the United Progressive Alliance government has betrayed its insensitivity to the rights of the poor. The courts have ruled that payment below minimum wage amounts to forced labour, which is constitutionally prohibited. The Centre's implacable stand that workers employed under the scheme are not entitled to anything higher than the Rs.100 ceiling fixed by it smacks of perversity. Its position that the flagship rural employment scheme is de-linked from, and independent of, the minimum wages fixed by the respective State governments has been rejected not only by activists and economists, but also by the judiciary. Earlier, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had struck down the Centre's January 2009 notification freezing daily wages under the scheme at Rs.100. The Karnataka High Court has now not only ordered payment of the minimum wage fixed by the State government but also payment of arrears. While admitting the SLP filed after objections from Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh were peremptorily overruled by the Prime Minister the Supreme Court declined to stay the High Court direction although it afforded some relief by staying the payment of arrears.

At the same time, the apex court has offered some sage advice to the government, which claims it may have to bear an additional burden of Rs.1,472 crore annually, and settle arrears to the tune of Rs.7,472 crore: that the government should not appear to abrogate the rights of the workers in a scheme meant to benefit the country's poor and, instead, it must seek to harmonise MGNREGS with minimum wages. The massive employment guarantee scheme is, admittedly, being implemented with varying degrees of efficacy and usefulness. Ranging from complaints that not everyone is paid Rs.100 a day and that not all beneficiaries work to the same level of efficiency, to a widely reported grievance that the MGNREGS has adversely affected the availability of labour for farming, the scheme is not without its drawbacks or flaws. Yet, there can be little doubt that it has been a significant social intervention that has arrested distress-induced migration, provided succour to those living below meaningful subsistence levels, and has had a salutary effect on wage structures in other sectors. Instead of fighting the wage issue to the bitter end, the UPA should do the right thing and ensure that payments under the scheme fully conform to the prevailing law on minimum wages. 6 The problems surrounding German President Christian Wulff have compounded those Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing, to the point where her coalition government could collapse.

The presidency is largely ceremonial, but Mr. Wulff has been involved in murky financial deals and has now tried to intimidate the press. As Minister President of Lower Saxony from 2003 to 2010, he was evasive about a 500,000 home loan, which he later refinanced at a discounted rate, from a rich friend; he had holidays in the villas of other wealthy friends in Tuscany and Mallorca; and another associate paid for the Wulff family's upgrade at a luxury hotel during the Munich Oktoberfest. The Lower Saxony assembly is investigating possible procedural breaches, but Mr. Wulff, a career politician in the Chancellor's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, has made matters worse, leaving voicemails threatening the tabloid Das Bild and its owners, the Axel Springer group, with judicial consequences and war if they published the story. The President has also pressured the daily Die Welt, inviting accusations of attempted censorship and of conduct demeaning to the presidency.

Mr. Wulff is a particular liability for Ms Merkel because he is the second successive president to be embroiled in controversy; his predecessor Horst Khler, also from the CDU, resigned in 2010 after saying military involvement abroad was good for the German economy. Secondly, Mr. Wulff, a Merkel nominee, is less than popular with his party, which despite its majority in the relevant electoral college, the Federal Assembly, needed three rounds of voting to confirm his appointment. In addition, the CDU's coalition partners, the neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) and the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), are causing the Chancellor problems. The FDP has polled at 3 per cent or less for a year now, and is riven by internal feuding. The CSU leaders, for their part, are furious about being left out of coalition discussions on tax cuts. Meanwhile, the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Sigmar Gabriel has shrewdly offered to negotiate over a replacement president, while keeping in reserve the highly respected Joachim Gauck, a priest and rights activist. The CDU has its own headaches; having lost its Baden-Wrttemberg stronghold to the Greens in 2011, it faces provincial elections in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. Ms Merkel's personal ratings are good, but while losing one president may be a political misfortune, losing two presidents would look like very bad political judgment. The Chancellor and her coalition have a long, hard road to walk before the 2013 general election. 7 Notwithstanding the agreement reached on Wednesday between India and Norway which puts a temporary lid on the matter, the case of Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharya whose young children were placed in foster care by the Child Welfare Services in the Norwegian city of Stavanger raises disturbing questions. Last year, the couple's children, a boy of three and a girl aged one, were removed to an emergency shelter and then to a foster family, apparently on the grounds that their mother was not in a fit state to bring them up. In fact, the family court annulled the child services' decision to remove the children, but was itself overruled on appeal. Under the current order, the family will not be reunited until the children turn 18 in 2026 and 2028 respectively. Parental access will consist of three hours' contact a year, in three separate visits. A sense of shock in India is fully understandable over this use of state power in family life. Indian anxieties are also unlikely to be assuaged by Norwegian official statements that such

drastic interventions are rare, that the relevant service had visited the family weekly for several months, and that all the required procedures were followed; there is particular scepticism about the Stavanger Child Welfare Services' insistence that cultural prejudice played no role in the process.

The Norwegian authorities say they are bound by confidentiality and will neither confirm nor deny the account the parents have provided of what the child welfare officers found lacking in their treatment of the two children. However, even if their charges go beyond overfeeding, not using cutlery and sleeping in the same bed crimes every South Asian family is guilty of what seems odd is the extreme and irrevocable nature of the solution proposed. Surely a nanny state' which gives itself the right to send young children to foster care till they turn 18 should also provide counselling and support for those parents whose care is found wanting, establishing a clear and transparent road map for the family to be reunited as soon as possible? If the Bhattacharya siblings are as entitled to a safe, secure and happy childhood as other children in Norway, a logical solution would have been for the grandparents to be offered the chance to take care of them till the parents are sufficiently schooled in the fine art of Norwegian child rearing. For some reason, this option was not considered important, and it is perhaps only because of the Government of India's intervention that Norway has now allowed the children to be placed in the care of an uncle. If this sad story is to have a happy ending, however, the Stavanger authorities should consider inviting a child welfare expert from India or any other South Asian country to review the case-file and help the family resolve whatever problems really exist. 8 Ever since the disgraced South Korean stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-Suk's fraud in the papers retracted by Science in 2004 and 2005 brought the spotlight back on the malaise plaguing science, the number of researchers getting exposed for data falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism has been increasing. But the sobering fact is that this number is barely the tip of research misconduct. A recent British Medical Journal (BMJ) survey of nearly 2,800 doctors and medical academics revealed that 13 per cent of respondents claimed to have first-hand knowledge of someone inappropriately adjusting, excluding, altering or fabricating data. Two previous surveys in 1992 and 2001 had reported slightly lower figures 10 per cent and nearly 11 per cent respectively. Despite the problem being all pervasive, the United Kingdom has done little to tackle the issue. Last year, the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee found the general oversight of research integrity to be unsatisfactory. If the availability of modern tools and the pressure to publish papers is forcing many researchers to resort to unethical means, there is also little to deter them from cheating. With the exception of plagiarism, journals are not fully geared to spot all forms of cheating prior to publication. As a recent Editorial in Nature points out, libel laws indirectly prevent journals from even flagging proven cases of misconduct.

For reasons well known, universities and institutions have not been forthcoming in investigating cases on their own. The U.S. Office of Research Integrity has the power to block funding for a specified period to researchers found cheating. But it cannot investigate cases of misconduct on its own it has to depend on universities for taking up investigation. Similarly, journals that identify cases of cheating do not have the wherewithal or the power to investigate. Herein lies the biggest hurdle: universities can simply refuse to cooperate. According to the BMJ survey, 6 per cent of respondents were aware of cases of misconduct not being properly investigated by their institutions. The problem is particularly heightened in the case of developing countries like India where no system for investigating such cases exists. Since research misconduct is detrimental to the development of science, it is necessary to make laws that mandate universities to investigate cases thoroughly or allow third-party investigation. A solution has to be soon found before published journal articles lose their value and pre-eminent place in science. 9 The Reserve Bank of India has managed a delicate balancing act in the third quarter review of monetary policy 2011-12 unveiled on Tuesday. The reduction in cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 0.50 percentage point to 5.5 per cent will somewhat ease the tight liquidity conditions in the money market, while the decision to leave interest rates unchanged sends a clear signal that the apex bank is still not comfortable with the overall picture on inflation. With economic growth visibly slowing down something the apex bank acknowledges there was pressure to start the rate reduction cycle. But there are three major worrying factors on the inflation front. First, non-food manufactured product prices continue to be high; much of the drop in inflation in recent weeks was due to a fall in the prices of vegetables and seasonal products. Secondly, suppressed inflation in the form of artificially held down prices of petroleum products is quite significant. Finally, the depreciation in rupee value has also been feeding into core inflation. Given these, it was unrealistic to expect the RBI to embark now on the rate reduction cycle. However, the central bank has done its bit to encourage credit off-take by infusing liquidity (Rs.32,000 crore) through a reduction in the CRR. Despite the RBI's open market operations injecting Rs.70,000 crore over the past two months, money remained scarce, affecting credit flow to borrowers.

So, what are the prospects for the rate reduction cycle commencing soon? Not very bright, it appears. A lot depends on what the government does in the budget for 2012-13. The RBI is clear that the budget should come up with policy initiatives to induce investment and concrete measures for fiscal consolidation, if it is to start pegging rates down. This, especially the latter, is easier said than done. There are several factors that could impact the economy adversely. Not the least of them is the uncertainty in the euro zone, let alone the falling capital inflows in the context of a widening current account deficit. Inflation could once again spiral upwards if fuel prices, especially of diesel, are raised, as they should be. The escalating tensions over Iran portend more trouble, as they could drive up global oil prices forcing the government to pass the burden down the line. Adding wind to the inflationary sails will be a hardening of food prices, especially vegetables, which usually happens with the end of winter. All these, combined

with the lacklustre investment climate as evidenced by the declining levels of non-food credit off-take, means that there is enough for the RBI to worry about before it makes up its mind on turning around the interest rate cycle. 10 The series of bombings in Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city, which have killed 178 so far and for which the extreme Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility, reveal many interconnected problems. The attacks were mainly on police buildings, with a view to freeing members held for violent offences; an unspecified number of detainees escaped. Boko Haram killed 510 people in scattered attacks in 2011. The latest episode shows more planning, with police stations, government buildings, and churches being particularly targeted. The sect, founded in 2002, has changed its position over time. Its earlier demands were: the release of followers in captivity; justice for those killed; the withdrawal of the army from the north-eastern city of Maiduguri; and the nationwide imposition of Sharia law. Now, the group wants Christians expelled from the Muslim-majority north. In Hausa, Boko Haram means western education is sinful', and the sect has exploited long-term neglect of the north, which has seen the country's oil-derived benefits go largely to the Christian-majority southern states. The violence has had an effect; southerners settled in the north are starting to move out.

In response, President Goodluck Jonathan says his government will not rest until the terrorists are wiped out. Kano is under dusk-to-dawn curfew, and various northern states remain under emergency law. But a longer term response is also essential. There is widespread resentment in the northern region because of the country's unequal development; poverty and low educational levels mean hardliners there can spread hostility to the central government in Abuja, despite the fact that the 2009 crackdown on Yusuf's group was carried out by then president Umaru Yar'Adua, himself a northern Muslim. Secondly, the bulk of terrorist attacks have been in the northern states, with Muslims being the main victims. Furthermore, the north stands to lose much more than the south by any separation, because Nigeria's greatest foreign earner, oil, lies in the southern states. Above all, the overwhelming majority of Nigerians do not take religious differences to extremes; inter-faith marriages are common, and the public are angry about the same things, such as police brutality and official corruption. They also vote mainly on political lines; in the 2011 elections, Mr. Jonathan's Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) did very well in the north. While it makes short-term sense to treat the Kano attacks as primarily a security issue, the President needs to find effective ways of leveraging these qualities of Nigerian society into an effective political weapon against Boko Haram's deadly violence. 11 New Delhi needs to make an unreserved apology to Bangladesh for the brutal conduct of its Border Security Force personnel who were seen in a recent video torturing a Bangladeshi man. Not surprisingly, the telltale video has caused widespread outrage in Bangladesh. A remark by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee that the incident must not be hyped, echoed by a Bangladeshi Minister, seems only to have provoked more anger and fuelled opposition allegations against the Sheikh Hasina government for being pro-India. With the Bangladesh

Army claiming the other day that it averted a coup against the government by an anti-India section of officers, New Delhi needs to guard against becoming an unwitting cause for political instability in its eastern neighbour. Anti-India sentiment has been high in Bangladesh since the killing of three of its nationals by the BSF in two separate incidents on the border last month. A March 2011 agreement between the two countries not to use firearms in dealing with illegal activities on the border has brought down the number of such incidents, but the video is evidence that the guards feel free to use other forms of violence. It underlines the fact that such bilateral agreements on the management of their complex boundary are worth nothing unless accompanied by a change in the mindset of those responsible for it on the ground.

The distressing 11.56 minute footage, circulated through YouTube, is quite evidently a trophy video, the guards happy to pose as they strip their victim, tie his hands and feet, and beat him mercilessly while discussing among themselves other severe options of dealing with him. The man was a suspected rustler the border is notorious for cattle smuggling and it has been alleged by rights activists in Bangladesh that the guards were punishing him for not paying them a bribe. The guards appear to have such an entrenched sense of impunity that the thought of being found out and punished does not seem to cross their minds as they participate in the abuse. The BSF has suspended the eight guards involved in the distressing episode and ordered an investigation. While it may be convenient for the paramilitary to treat this as an isolated incident of rogue personnel, the enquiry needs to focus on the overall climate of impunity that makes such incidents possible. The BSF must also reflect if there is something missing in the training of its recruits that some of them are capable of such brutality. This is important because their conduct not only brings disrepute to the organisation but also risks jeopardising India's relations with an important neighbour. 12 Jobs, jobs and jobs. That was the central theme of U.S. President Barack Obama's State of the Union address this year. Not surprising at all because there are 13.5 million Americans who are unemployed today, and the jobless rate, though on the decline in the last three months, is still at an uncomfortable 8.5 per cent. And then, of course, there is the small matter that this is election year in America and the State of the Union address is one of the few opportunities Mr. Obama has to grandstand in the remaining period of his Presidency. It is, therefore, natural that he hit out at the outsourcing of jobs, yet again, though this time his ire was directed mostly against manufacturing companies. The President proposed that companies which outsource jobs should be denied tax benefits just as those that create them in the U.S. should be rewarded. While Mr. Obama's electoral compulsions are defensible, what is not is his understanding of why American companies, especially in the high-tech manufacturing sector, are moving jobs overseas. The simple fact is that it is not just cheap labour that is driving American companies overseas; it is also the availability of trained labour per se, in the required numbers, and the existence of efficient supply chains for high-tech gadgetry. The withdrawal of tax breaks might work if it were just the first reason; unfortunately for the President, this is not the case.

Apple is one of America's most admired companies but almost all its products are manufactured overseas. And cheap labour is not the only reason. As a recent article in the New York Times points out, Apple was forced abroad by the availability of talent, and in the huge numbers that it required. That such talent came relatively cheap was a bonus. While America leads in innovation, the fact is that it lags in producing the kind of trained workforce that high-tech companies need. This is something Mr. Obama has conceded in his address, saying that these companies have twice as many openings as the availability of such workers. Investing in education and training as the President promised will help but that will only be in the long-term. American corporations are competing in a global market and national commitments mean little to them. What is important is efficiency and these corporations will migrate to wherever they can find it in the world. Impeding them in their quest will not help but boomerang on Mr. Obama and the U.S. Preventing outsourcing is protectionism and as the Great Depression of the 1930s showed, protectionism worsens an economic recession. It can only be hoped that such populist rhetoric does not get sanctified as legislation in the run-up to the election. 13 To the list of path-breaking income tax cases that are used to interpret the law one more will now be added: Vodafone International Holdings B.V. versus the Union of India. The Supreme Court's judgment in the Vodafone case has long-term implications for tax administration and jurisprudence, especially when it comes to taxation of cross-border mergers and acquisitions. The most significant part of the judgment by a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, is its acceptance of investment structures in offshore tax-havens as genuine tax planning devices. Indeed, the verdict is a boost to tax planning through use of intelligent structures within the framework of the law so long as they are not outright sham structures conceived only to evade tax. In the Vodafone case, the structure of holding and subsidiary companies registered in offshore financial centres has been in place long before the transaction under dispute was put through. It was, therefore, evident that it was not a structure conceived merely to avoid paying capital gains tax. The court held that a transaction between two foreign companies involving share acquisition is not taxable in India even if the underlying asset is located here. This knocked the base off the Income Tax Department's contention that the transaction was taxable as the asset Hutch's telecom business was located in India.

The landmark judgment only means more trouble for a government that is already struggling to keep the fiscal deficit under control. An inflow of Rs.11,200 crore as tax would have been handy in a truly difficult year for revenues but ironically, the government will now have to refund Rs.2,500 crore to Vodafone, along with interest at 4 per cent. Worse, there could be revenue implications down the line as there are other such deals where the tax department could lose if the Vodafone case law is applied. Of course, the judgment sends out an extremely positive signal to foreign companies and investors on the rule of law and the independence and fairness of the judiciary. The Supreme Court's observation that certainty and stability are the

cornerstones of any fiscal system must have warmed the hearts of foreign investors who often complain of frequent changes in the tax laws. For its part, the government is unlikely to be a silent spectator to the loss of revenues from such deals in future. It will most certainly move to reinforce the relevant provisions in the new Direct Tax Code to specifically state that where the asset is situated in India, even deals between foreign companies involving share transfer in offshore entities will be liable to tax. 14 In a speech delivered last year to a gathering of India's finest scientific minds, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh invoked Nehru to point to the organic link between humanism, tolerance, reason and progress. The practice of science, he said, is based on both the search for truth and the adventure of new ideas. Precisely a year on, the government he presides over has betrayed those ideals. This newspaper has revealed how a plot' to kill the eminent author Salman Rushdie had been invented by the Rajasthan Police in a pathetic but successful attempt to dissuade him from participating in the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival. In the face of motivated protests from a gaggle of political opportunists and religious fanatics, the State government had first sought to stop Mr. Rushdie from visiting Jaipur. Upon discovering that he was, as a person of Indian origin, entitled to do so, it then resorted to a series of increasingly unsubtle coercive means to bring about that outcome. The real issue, though, isn't either Mr. Rushdie or The Satanic Verses, a book he wrote more than two decades ago and about which he has already profoundly regret[ed] the distress occasioned to sincere followers of Islam. It is that the search for truth and adventure of new ideas India so desperately needs has suffered a grievous blow. After the hounding of M.F. Husain and Taslima Nasreen by Hindu and Muslim fanatics, India has again betrayed its heritage of providing sanctuary to persecuted individuals and ideas, not to speak of its Constitution.

Occupying centre stage in the hall of shame is Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, who ought to have ensured his administration defended Indian law by securing Mr. Rushdie. Instead, fearful of being made a scapegoat within the Congress if the party does poorly in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh elections, he betrayed his constitutional obligations. The Rajasthan Police, for their part, must come clean on precisely who in their ranks fabricated the plot against Mr. Rushdie. Far too many Indians have lost their lives to terrorists for security to be made a plaything to serve a political agenda. The police officers concerned not just broke the law but have brought about the humiliation of the country. Self-styled Muslim leaders, as well as political groups who have opportunistically allied themselves with these forces over the years, should also be held to account for the real damage they have caused to democracy and secularism in India and, thus, to the interests of the religious community they claim to speak for. Mr. Rushdie is entitled to a full apology for this shameful episode and to an unconditional assurance that he is welcome in India at any time and place. Prime Minister Singh must ensure he receives both. 15 After a long time, there has been some good news on the economic front. The Index of

Industrial Production (IIP) for November released recently showed the output rebounding sharply; it rose by 5.9 per cent after contracting by 5.1 per cent in October. The headline inflation rate (Wholesale Price Index) that remained stubbornly high dipped to 7.47 per cent in December, its lowest since 2009. The rate of inflation was close to double digits during most of 2011, and in November it was above 9 per cent. Of special significance ahead of the Assembly elections across five States is the sharp deceleration in food inflation, which has helped push the monthly WPI inflation down. The rupee, which fell drastically in November and December last year, appears to have stabilised since the beginning of 2012. The domestic stock markets, of course, continue to be volatile, and the trading is nowhere near the peak. But it is of some comfort that they have not declined as much as many expected they would.

These are certainly welcome news, but it would be premature to conclude that the worst is over and economic recovery is round the corner. Macroeconomic data and corporate performance have not been inspiring so far, and global cues, especially from the crisis-ridden euro zone countries, have not helped either. Both industrial output data and inflation numbers need to be examined more closely to ascertain whether they indeed portend better times. The IIP numbers have been notoriously fickle. The November figures, for instance, were boosted by just two or three factors and do not suggest a broad-based revival. For one thing, electricity generation was up by 14.6 per cent. Whether this spectacular growth can be sustained is a difficult question, given the power sector's problems on the financial front and the shortage of coal. The 13 per cent increase in consumer demand was attributable to the festival season. On the other hand, capital goods production continues to shrink and the demand for credit has not picked up. Lower inflation has been possible partly because of the base effect: in December 2010 inflation had touched 9.45 per cent. Manufactured goods inflation remains elevated. All these will no doubt weigh with the RBI when it unveils the next instalment of the credit policy early next week. After hiking the rates more than a dozen times over a period of 18 months, it paused in December amidst slowing industrial production. It is doubtful that the recent good news, by themselves, will help the RBI resolve its dilemma, whether the interest rates should be cut or left untouched. 16 In an extraordinary judgment that must count among the sharpest indictments ever handed out to any State government, the Gujarat High Court has upheld Governor Kamla Beniwal's appointment of Justice R.A. Mehta as the Lokayukta over objections by Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers. The single judge bench of Justice V.M. Sahai ruled that, although the Governor was otherwise required to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers, she had become obliged to exercise her discretionary powers in this case, because it fell in the rarest of rare category where a spiteful Chief Minister and his brazen and irrational Council of Ministers had put democracy in peril by obstructing the appointment of the Lokayukta. The Gujarat government has expectedly moved the Supreme Court against the judgment. Regardless of the final outcome, what clearly emerges is the divergence between the Bharatiya Janata Party's strongly argued theoretical position in favour of a powerful and independent anti-

corruption ombudsman, and the wilful disrespect shown to the same institution by one of its own Chief Ministers a man showcased as a model chief executive at that.

The Gujarat Lokayukta has been headless since 2003, thanks to a protracted battle over the choice of nominee that saw Mr. Modi ranged against the Governor and the Chief Justice of the High Court. Mr. Modi not only insistently contested the primacy of opinion implicitly granted to the Chief Justice by the Gujarat Lokayukta Act, 1986, but remained stuck on a single name: Justice J.R. Vora, who figured in the panel initially proposed by the Chief Justice, but who subsequently rendered himself ineligible by virtue of his May 2010 appointment as a director of the Gujarat State Judicial Academy. The Chief Minister's intransigence unavoidably led to a situation of confrontation with the Chief Justice, who, after factoring in the State government's objections to Justice Mehta, concluded that he was a better choice for the office. Significantly, one of Mr. Modi's objections to Mr. Mehta was that he took part in a public hearing critical of the Gujarat Government's rehabilitation measures for the victims of the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom. The High Court ruling has admittedly raised genuine concerns about federalism and copycat activism by other State Governors. And yet the BJP cannot easily turn this into a case of Central overreach, ignoring Mr. Modi's own disregard of institutional due process. After all, who can overlook the ironic coincidence of the BJP joining forces with Anna Hazare at a time when its own government in Gujarat was giving shape to a Lokayukta ordinance that ousted the Chief Justice from the consultation process, appointing instead the Chief Minister as the chairperson of the selection committee? 17 If the fire that ravaged parts of the 18th century Kalas Mahal in Chennai this week is symptomatic of the callousness with which we treat precious heritage buildings in this country, the eagerness of the Tamil Nadu Minister concerned to demolish what remains of it suggests a disregard for history and aesthetics that is, quite simply, monumental. What is happening in Chennai is indicative of the state of heritage conservation in the country. At a time when the Archaeological Survey of India is celebrating its 150th anniversary, doubts about the protection of the Taj Mahal still persist. Many monuments have gone mysteriously missing as in Delhi. Varanasi, one of India's ancient cities, is yet to be comprehensively conserved. The greatest concern of all is the future of 700,000 unprotected heritage structures spread across many cities. As important as protected monuments, these buildings are the most vulnerable since they are in use and do not have sufficient legal protection.

Home to about 600 heritage structures, Chennai is notorious for losing its historic buildings to mysterious fires. Kalas Mahal is the fifth victim. What lies damaged, if not entirely lost, is an important piece of Indian history. The Kalas Mahal along with its adjoining structure, Humayun Mahal, is an early example of Indo-Saracenic architecture. A hybrid building style that combined Hindu and Saracenic elements originated here, spread across the country to reach Ajmer and

Baroda, among other places, and eventually influenced the architecture of New Delhi. When the British took over this palace from the Nawab of Arcot in 1859, they enhanced its architectural importance and creatively used it as a public office. Unfortunately, post-Independence, this nationally significant complex was neglected. Had these buildings been properly retrofitted, much of the damage could have been prevented. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has done well to intervene and stop the Public Works Department from hastily demolishing the Kalas Mahal. The committee she has constituted to study the condition of the building should do a scientific analysis, with nationally respected conservation experts leading the decision-making. It should also look at the entire building complex, and come up with a comprehensive plan to highlight the heritage value of the place. A well-restored Kalas Mahal will set a good precedent and Chennai could show the way for other cities to follow. 18 President Mahinda Rajapaksa's reiteration in his recent meeting with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna of his commitment to the 13th Amendment plus approach to solving the nation's Tamil question is to be welcomed, although it is only from Mr. Krishna that we know about this in the present instance. Of course, the President has articulated this commitment several times before, including in an interview to The Hindu in 2009. But what proponents of an early political settlement, including India, are concerned about is that more than two years after the LTTE's defeat by the Sri Lankan military, the country has made little progress in that direction. In the post-war period, as Mr. Rajapaksa moved to consolidate his political gains and the government made progress on rehabilitation, it was expected that he would also swiftly seek political closure to the decades-long ethnic issue. Indeed, the government has given several indications of its seriousness about a political settlement. It initiated talks with the Tamil National Alliance, the political representatives of the Tamil minority. It also set up a parliamentary select committee to discuss a political solution. The relaxation of the Emergency in 2011 was also an encouraging sign. The government sought to address international concerns about civilian casualties and human rights violations in the last phase of the war in 2009 by appointing the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, which has identified some areas for further action by the government. And yet, there has been little by way of concrete movement forward on the Tamil question.

Given President Rajapaksa's apparent conviction that the 13th Amendment should form the basis for a political settlement, it is time for him to move towards the specifics. Thus far, there has been articulation only about those subjects the government is unwilling to devolve, that is, police powers and land administration. The plus appears to be a reference to an upper house a Senate representing all the provinces. The Parliamentary Select Committee, which the government hopes to make the mechanism for drafting a political package, should not go the way of previous committees which did not lead to any substantive outcomes, but rather became a forum for sections opposed to a settlement. As the main representatives of the Tamils, the TNA should not shy away or be discouraged by extremist elements in the community from playing a constructive role in this process. Aside from allaying Tamil apprehensions about the

heavy military presence in Jaffna and the rest of the region, the government must plan to hold early provincial elections in the North. 19 Salman Rushdie is one of the world's great novelists. It is a disgrace that an unlawful fatwa, issued by the seminary Darul Uloom Deoband, has created a haze of uncertainty over his participation in the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF). Instead of dismissing the fatwa with the contempt it deserves and declaring that adequate security would be provided to Mr. Rushdie and for the safe conduct of the festival, the central and Rajasthan governments have adopted an attitude that is opaque and obfuscatory. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has conceded that Mr. Rushdie, who has a Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card that permits visa-free travel, cannot be prevented from coming to the State's capital. But he has also said that his government, which did not want a law and order problem, had informed the Centre of the prevailing sentiments about the writer's visit. Reports that the State government had prevailed on the JLF to cancel the invitation to Mr. Rushdie were followed by his scheduled events being taken off its website. However, the organisers have announced that they stood by their invitation.

Following the Deobandi fatwa, an odd bag of politicians, clerics, and fundamentalist organisations one of which offered Rs.1 lakh to anyone who hurled a shoe at him has attempted to revive the discredited old issue of injuring Muslim sentiments. The proximity of these orchestrated protests to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections gives the game away. The Booker Prize-winning novelist has made several visits to India following Ayatollah Khomeni's infamous fatwa of February 14, 1989 and the cowardly proscription of his novel The Satanic Verses in India; significantly, his visit to the inaugural edition of the JLF in 2007 passed without a hint of trouble. As the Supreme Court of India has underlined in a series of verdicts, including the landmark Ore Oru Gramathile judgment, it is absolutely vital that public authorities protect the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression in the face of intolerance and not resort to bans in the name of upholding law and order. Deoband may be one of Asia's largest seminaries but it has a record of staking out reactionary positions on a variety of issues. The Congress-led governments at the Centre and in Rajasthan should have sent a clear and strong signal that they would not allow Mr. Rushdie's visit to be sabotaged by those who feigned anger and hurt with an eye to a supposedly communal vote bank. It is an insult to the intelligence and good sense of India's 160 million-strong Muslim community to make out that it wants a prodigiously gifted writer, born in a Muslim family, to be treated as persona non grata in the land of his birth. 20 It is sobering to look back and recall that three decades ago tens of thousands of children in this country, many of them infants, were being crippled, even killed, by polio each year. The fight to vaccinate and protect our little ones from this dreadful condition has been long and hard; mistakes have been made, and lessons learnt. No Indian child was recorded as having fallen victim to the disease in the past year. Surveillance laboratories are carefully testing stool samples from children as well as sewage, making sure that naturally occurring wild forms of the

polio-causing virus are not circulating. Once that has been ascertained, India will be taken off the list of endemic countries. Currently, there are four countries in the list collectively known by the acronym PAIN (Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, and Nigeria). As the other 10 countries in the World Health Organisation's South-East Asian Region have already broken transmission, the process of certifying the whole region as free of indigenous, wild viruses two years' hence can begin. The Americas, Europe, and Western Pacific regions have already been certified as such.

India cannot lower its guard in the matter of immunising its children against polio for a considerable time to come. Even if the wild virus is no longer circulating in India, there is always the risk of an imported strain sneaking in. Wild polio transmission persists in six countries; every one of them except Angola had more cases in 2011 than in 2010. That includes Pakistan and Afghanistan. Last year, another nine countries, including China, were fighting outbreaks caused by imported viruses. At this stage, it is not clear when the wild virus will be vanquished globally. Nor are wild viruses the only problem. The oral vaccines, which have been successfully deployed to battle polio in India and other developing countries, are based on live but weakened forms of the virus. From time to time, those vaccine strains revert to virulence, becoming potentially as dangerous as their wild counterparts. The endgame in polio will therefore need a carefully planned strategy to discontinue the oral vaccine without giving room for the disease to come roaring back. Such a strategy could well involve introducing the inactivated polio vaccine (IPV), which uses killed viruses and is injected. The government must now seriously address these endgame issues. The sort of short-sightedness that led it to shut down a public sector IPV plant being established with French technical assistance in Gurgaon in the early 1990s is impermissible. The goal of freeing ourselves from all polio viruses can be achieved only by resolutely following a clear, well-considered strategy. 21 Indian cricket is at a critical juncture. The innings defeat in Perth the seventh successive Test loss overseas, caused by another failure of the batting in the face of consistent, quality bowling was an illustration of how far the former World No.1 has fallen. It was not just that India was stripped of its crown in England; the abjectness of the performances in these seven Tests has made people wonder how on earth the honour was earned in the first place. That is an unfair view. In the decade since the turn of the millennium, India under Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble, and M.S. Dhoni added another string to its bow. Traditionally very difficult to beat at home, India began to travel assuredly. Series wins in Pakistan, the West Indies, England, and New Zealand materialised; there were also defining drawn series in Australia and South Africa, the first to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the second to hold on to the No.1 ranking. India began 2011 with a Caribbean win, but gloom descended thereafter. Unlike in England, where injuries mitigated the dejection of defeat slightly, there has been no place to turn to for comfort in Australia. For the current squad is India's best at the moment; the critical mass, the great batsmen and the bowling spearhead, hasn't changed greatly from the team that had success abroad in the previous decade.

This, however, isn't a time for panic. Annihilation can be dispiriting, but it cleanses the mind, creates space for renewal. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to be the case with the BCCI, judging from the tenor of the Board's awards ceremony in Chennai (where there was no reference to the 4-0 drubbing in England) and other indications. When England suffered a clean sweep in Australia, it commissioned the Schofield Report; when Australia then lost the Ashes at home, it put in place the Argus Review. There was systemic change, envisioned and executed by passionate, intelligent, thoughtful people. Thus far the reaction of India's cricket administration has been near-sighted. India got to No.1 because a group of extraordinarily skilled, singularly determined cricketers rose above the system. But dominance was always going to be beyond them; it required the next generation, developed in a world-class structure and transitioned seamlessly into Test cricket. But the BCCI wasn't proactive. Several long-term issues remain as a result. The most important is the quality of pitches domestic cricket is played on, for this has the most direct influence on bowlers and batsmen. The very structure of domestic cricket and the priorities in scheduling the three formats also need rethinking. In the short term, a transition needs planning. It will be a test of the Board's intent and intelligence, and a portent of India's cricket future. 22 Which should prevail, concerns of energy security or of national security? The row the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is now confronted with is between the Petroleum and Defence Ministries over security clearance for oil and gas exploration in eight blocks off the east coast and in the Andamans. These blocks are among the 34 that the Petroleum Ministry awarded under the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) last year to Indian and foreign companies. The blocks were auctioned only after securing clearance from the Naval headquarters, according to the Petroleum Ministry. Yet, after the blocks were awarded in early 2011, the Defence Ministry refused permission for exploration activity in three specific blocks as the Navy was using these seas for submarine manoeuvres and training. Though a truce was reached, with the Navy promising to review its stand and the Petroleum Ministry agreeing to demarcate no-go zones for exploration, the stand-off continued forcing the PMO to intervene. The Petroleum Ministry has complained that its credibility in the eyes of prospective investors in oil exploration is at stake.

Energy security is important but national security is paramount, and in any clash between the two, the latter has to prevail. If oil exploration activity encroaches into the Navy's training and operational theatres, there is absolutely no way that it can be permitted. That said, there was evidently a lack of application of mind by the Navy and the Defence Ministry in the first instance that is, when the Petroleum Ministry referred the blocks to them before the auction. Having given permission, to retract it later and that too after the blocks were auctioned, is clearly not the right thing to do. The PMO has to question the Defence Ministry on this if only to ensure that such instances do not recur. As for the Petroleum Ministry, a lot of embarrassment could

have been avoided if it had decided not to auction blocks that fall in defence-sensitive areas, such as the ones the Navy is now objecting to. The problem arises because after nine rounds of NELP, all the easy-to-tackle blocks have been contracted out and what remain are the difficult ones from a technological or security standpoint. Maybe, it is time for the Petroleum Ministry to go slow on the auctions, which have not attracted much foreign investment anyway, and to focus on regulating the blocks that have been already contracted. Auctioning newer blocks is, after all, not the only way to increase oil and gas output. 23 In the age of Baba Ramdev and countless other copycat dispensers of yogasanas, it will hardly be seen as an aberration if school and college administrations decide to promote yoga among students. However, when yoga as a popular trend becomes yoga by diktat, as happened recently in Madhya Pradesh where the Bharatiya Janata Party government mobilised support for mass surya namaskar camps, the exercise does acquire a divisive subtext. The ostensible purpose of these camps, which saw heavy participation by schools, colleges, and other organisations many of them privately run and obviously feeling compelled to go along was to get into the record books. Yet questions do arise when the entire State Cabinet led by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan makes a fetish of performing a particular asana that is known to cause unease among Muslims, including secular sections otherwise supportive of yoga. The surya namaskar carries with it a suggestion of sun worship, which is anathema to orthodox Muslims. Indeed, the pattern was set in 2007 when the State government sought to make yoga and surya namaskar compulsory in schools.

The pressure eased only after the Madhya Pradesh High Court ruled against compulsory enlisting for yoga. Earlier in 2007, the State government had controversially made the singing of Vande Mataram compulsory. Ahead of the surya namaskar mobilisation this year, the government secured presidential assent for a draconian law against cow slaughter, which was followed by reports of attacks on Muslims. Clearly, a stint in power and more than a decade of coalitional leadership have not changed the BJP, whose single preoccupation is Hindu sectarian politics. Matters have been made worse by the Congress' emulation of the BJP's communal politics in reverse. With just a day to go for the announcement of the February-March 2011 State elections, the party blatantly unveiled a 4.5 per cent sub-quota for minorities. Subsequently, Law and Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed offered a further blandishment to the U.P. Muslims in the form of a promise to carve out a nine per cent quota for minorities within the 27 per cent reserved for the OBCs. The move earned the Minister a well-deserved rap on the knuckles from the Election Commission. But it also provided a handle to a combative Uma Bharti who seized it to raise the bogey of a second partition. As long as the BJP and the Congress feed off each other, India cannot hope to shed its debilitating communal baggage. 24 The controversy over the age of General V.K. Singh, the subject of an already heated and often unseemly public debate, is now threatening to get out of hand. With the Army Chief left

with no resort but to challenge the Defence Ministry in the Supreme Court in order to protect his integrity and honour, the issue has the makings of an unseemly civilian-military confrontation that could easily have been avoided had plain common sense prevailed over bureaucratic thick-headedness. There are a slew of documents including a birth certificate and a school-leaving certificate that prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that General Singh, whose father as well as grandfather were Army officers, was born on May 10, 1951. This is the date of birth recorded in the office of the Adjutant General, the Army's official record-keeper. The controversy has arisen because the Military Secretary another wing of Army Headquarters that maintains personal records relating to postings, transfers, and promotions records him as having been born on May 10, 1950. General Singh has been at pains to explain that the latter date, gleaned from an application form for entrance to the National Defence Academy when he was only 14 years old, was a mistake committed by a teacher of his. He has also revealed that the discrepancy was raised with two predecessor Army Chiefs but, strangely and for reasons the Defence Ministry has not yet disclosed, to no avail.

A brave and highly decorated officer, General Singh is recognised as a brilliant strategist and a reform-minded leader who is tough on corruption, as reflected in the hard line he adopted against erring officers in the Adarsh Cooperative Housing Society scam. The mudslinging and insinuations intended to portray him as someone fiddling with his birth date to hang on to the power and privileges of high office must be rejected with contempt. One major reason why his year of birth has become such a hot potato is that the date of his retirement will have a bearing on who will succeed him as Army Chief. By refusing to accede to General Singh's request to correct the official record on the basis of documented fact, the Defence Ministry has shown astonishing short-sightedness, and in the process tread on a proud soldier's sense of honour. Even now, rather than fight for a bad cause in the highest court in the land, a disputation that could have a bearing on the Army's morale, the government should backtrack and come up with a constructive solution. By conceding General Singh's just case and treating him with the respect and honour that are his due, it should be able to clear the decks for a smooth succession to the post he occupies. 25 The Union Cabinet is set to decide on permitting foreign airlines to pick up 49 per cent equity in domestic carriers. Under the existing rules, foreign investors, other than airline companies, can invest up to 49 per cent in domestic airlines. The move to liberalise the norm has to be seen in the context of the financial troubles that most domestic airline companies are embroiled in, none more than Air India and Kingfisher. The thinking appears to be that easing the norm will enable these troubled airline operators to attract equity investment from foreign carriers. Though this is an infinitely better option than a bailout using public funds, the reality is that there might not be too many takers among foreign airline companies for this. The first reactions from some of them such as Lufthansa, Emirates and Singapore Airlines, purported to have been interested in investing in domestic carriers, only confirm this. They have all said that there is no immediate plan to invest in airline companies in India nor is it an important part of their future

plans. Air Asia, a Malaysia-based low-cost operator, has gone a step forward and said that it would rather set up a subsidiary in India than invest in an existing carrier.

Offering 49 per cent equity to foreign airlines is obviously no magic wand to ward off the problems the airline industry is enmeshed in. It might probably help one of the most troubled operators to seek a partner but again, there is no guarantee on that. If the government is keen to rescue the airline industry, there are other things that it could do. It could, for a start, rationalise taxes and duties on aviation turbine fuel, which are at ridiculously high levels. Soaring oil prices have made fuel expensive and the high taxes only add to the burden. Fuel being the biggest item of cost for airlines, any relief on that front will be welcome. Secondly, we need a regulator who will keep his eyes open for sharp anti-competitive practices such as cut-throat fare setting by some players forcing the others to join in a fatal race to the bottom. Thirdly, applications to fly short-haul international routes should be cleared quickly, especially where there is room to do so under bilateral agreements. It is quite possible that despite all such assistance there will still be some airline companies that cannot be rescued mainly due to mismanagement or faulty decisions made in the past. Though it might be tempting to go to their aid with financial assistance, it will be best to leave them to their devices. The last thing the government should do is throw good money after bad, especially when it belongs to the public.