VICTORY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS

Women’s rights activist Hathloul freed from Saudi jail after almost 3 years

Loujain al Hathloul, who had campaigned to end a ban on women driving in the country, was arrested in 2018 and sentenced to six years in prison last December under a broad counterterrorism law.

In this file undated handout picture, Saudi activist 

Loujain al Hathloul poses for the camera. (Reuters)

Prominent women's rights activist Loujain al Hathloul was released from a Saudi prison after nearly three years behind bars, her family has said.

Hathloul, 31, was detained in May 2018 and sentenced in December to nearly six years in prison on charges that UN rights experts called "spurious" under broad counterterrorism laws.

The case has drawn international condemnation.

The court suspended two years and 10 months of her sentence, most of which had already been served.

She still faces a five-year travel ban ordered by the court.

"Loujain is at home !!!!!!" her sister Lina tweeted.

READ MORE: What it means for Saudi women to take the wheel amid growing tensions


Torture claims

Another sister, Alia, said Hathloul was at their parents' home in Saudi Arabia.

She posted a picture of Hathloul smiling in a garden, looking much thinner and with grey streaks in her hair.

Rights groups and her family say Hathloul, who had campaigned for women's right to drive and to end Saudi's male guardianship system, was subjected to abuse, including electric shocks, waterboarding, flogging and sexual assault.

Saudi authorities denied the accusations.

A Saudi appeals court dismissed the torture claims, citing a lack of evidence, her family said on Tuesday.

Amnesty International on Wednesday urged Riyadh to bring to justice "those responsible for her torture" and ensure Hathloul faces no further punitive measures like a travel ban.

Saudi officials have not commented on her conviction or sentencing.

There was no immediate comment on her release.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday welcomed the release.

"It was the right thing to do," he said.

The White House has said President Biden, who is taking a firmer line with Saudi Arabia than predecessor Donald Trump, expects Riyadh to improve its human rights record, including releasing political prisoners.

READ MORE: 'Reforms' in Saudi Arabia exist only as a tool to appease Western allies


Harsh criticism over human rights

Hathloul, detained along with several other women's rights activists, was convicted on charges including seeking to change the Saudi political system and harming national unity.

Saudi Arabia's rights record came under global scrutiny after the 2018 murder of prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents, which tarnished Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's image.

The prince denied ordering the killing.

Agnes Callamard, the independent UN rights investigator who led an international probe into Khashoggi's murder, welcomed Hathloul's release but said in a Twitter post that "the cruelty" of Saudi rulers that "violated her most basic right to physical and mental integrity" should not be forgotten.

READ MORE: Jamal Khashoggi: a murder case that continues to haunt Saudi Arabia





Many more victims

Diplomats have said the kingdom has appeared to be acting to address potential friction with the Biden administration.

Saudi authorities released two activists with US citizenship on bail this month pending trials on terrorism-related charges.

Last month, a Saudi appeals court nearly halved a six-year jail sentence for a US-Saudi physician and suspended the rest, meaning he did not have to return to jail.

Hathloul's family published her indictment after her case was transferred to a Specialised Criminal Court, established to try terrorism suspects but used in the past decade to prosecute perceived dissidents.

Authorities made few charges public.

The main ones against Hathloul included calling for an end to male guardianship and communicating with global rights groups, Saudi activists in the kingdom and abroad, and foreign diplomats and international media.

READ MORE: Saudi Arabia continues to target dissidents despite Khashoggi backlash

India restores 4G mobile internet in Kashmir after 550 days

SRINAGAR, India — India ended an 18-month-long ban on high speed internet services on mobile devices in disputed Kashmir, where opposition to New Delhi has deepened after it revoked the region's semi-autonomy.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The order late Friday lifted the ban on 4G mobile data services However, the order issued by the region’s home secretary, Shaleen Kabra, asked police officials to “closely monitor the impact of lifting of restrictions.”

A blanket internet ban, the longest in a democracy which rights activists dubbed as “digital apartheid” and “collective punishment,” came into effect on August 2019 when India stripped Kashmir of its special status and statehood that gave its residents special rights in land ownership and jobs. The region was also divided into two federally governed territories.

The move accompanied a security clampdown and total communications blackout that left hundreds of thousands jobless, impaired the already feeble health care system and paused the school and college education of millions. Months later, India gradually eased some of the restrictions, including partial internet connectivity.

In January last year, authorities allowed the Indian-controlled territory’s more than 12 million people to access government-approved websites over slow-speed connections.

Two months later, authorities revoked a ban on social media and restored full internet connectivity but not high speed internet. In August, 4G services were allowed in two out of the region’s 20 districts.

Officials have said the internet ban was aimed at heading off anti-India protests and attacks by rebels who have fought for decades for the region’s independence or unification with Pakistan, which administers another portion of Kashmir. Both countries claim the landlocked territory in its entirety.

Officials have also argued that such security measures were necessary to better integrate the region with India, foster greater economic development and stop threats from “anti-national elements” and Pakistan.

Many Kashmiris, however, view the move as part of the beginning of settler colonialism aimed at engineering a demographic change in India’s only Muslim-majority region.

Digital rights activists have consistently denounced the internet restrictions and said they represented a new level of government control over information. They were also criticized by lawmakers in Europe and the U.S., who called on the government to end the curbs.

Omar Abdullah, the region's former top elected official who was jailed for several months in 2019, welcomed the internet restoration. "Better late than never,” he tweeted.

Others criticized such voices, saying the internet is among the basic rights.

“I actually see some going out of their way to thank govt functionaries for 4G restoration,” Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of the Kashmir Times, said in a tweet. “They’re not offering us charity. We should be asking for compensation for our deprivation and losses.”

India often snaps mobile internet services in parts of the region as a tactic during counterinsurgency operations and anti-India protests.

According to the London-based digital privacy and research group Top10VPN, India ranked at the top in internet shutdowns in 2020.

The group in its January report said internet shutdowns in 2020 caused a loss of $4.01 billion globally and India was the most impacted while suffering a loss of $2.8 billion.

Most of India’s internet shutdowns have been enforced in Kashmir. But they also have used elsewhere by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Authorities have cut the internet at protest sites outside New Delhi, where tens of thousands of farmers for over two months have camped out against new agriculture laws. The move attracted global attention after pop star Rihanna on Tuesday tweeted a link of a CNN news report about India blocking internet services at the protest sites. It angered government ministers and Indian celebrities, who urged people to come together and denounce outsiders who try to break the country.

Aijaz Hussain, The Associated Press

Why Are Twitter Users Trying To “Expose” Greta Thunberg?

Since she first rose to prominence, 18-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg has faced (and expertly handled) opposition and harassment from many corners of the internet, including Twitter’s biggest cyberbully and least favorite U.S. president. But in a bizarre turn, figures in India are trying to “expose” Thunberg on Twitter, arguing that she that she and Rihanna (yes, Rihanna) are misrepresenting the ongoing farmer protests throughout the country and pushing a global conspiracy theory.

© Provided by Refinery29 HAMBURG, GERMANY – MARCH 01: Teenage Swedish activist Greta Thunberg demonstrates with high school students against global warming at a Fridays for Future demonstration on March 01, 2019 in Hamburg, Germany. Fridays for Future is an international movement of students who, instead of attending their classes, take part in demonstrations demanding for action against climate change. The series of demonstrations began when Thunberg staged such a protest outside the Swedish parliament building. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)

This week, Thunberg and Rihanna — along with a few other celebrities, including Mia Khalifa — tweeted out links to articles about the current protests in India, which have been ongoing since November. The protests, which are pushing back against recent laws that will strip farm workers of guaranteed wages, have been a point of contention within the country. In an effort to raise awareness, Thunberg shared a Google doc with information about how to help India’s farmers on social media. But she deleted that tweet after supporters of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, began tweeting #GretaThunbergExposed and questioning the purpose of the document.

“@GretaThunberg has exposed the global conspiracy that she is a part of,” wrote the Republic Media Network, a right-wing news channel in India. “If you read the contents of the Google doc that she shared, it’s clear that there’s an orchestrated, scripted, and well-funded plan to target India, Indian companies, and Indian democracy.”

It should be noted that Republic TV has been accused of spreading false news and bias in favor of the Bharatiya Janata Party. And now, they are falsely implying that Thunberg is at the center of some kind of international plan to attack Indian democracy. Like previous conspiracy theories about Thunberg, this one is wrong.

The protests date back to a series of laws implemented last September. The main takeaway is that, under the new legislation, workers won’t be given guaranteed wages and will instead be allowed to sell their crops to anyone, at any price. The government insists that this will help India’s economy, but farmers argue that the laws will only lower the costs of their goods and leave agriculture workers across the country vulnerable to exploitation.

To fully grasp the magnitude of the problem, it’s important to recognize how many people are impacted by these changes. Not only does the industry make up almost 15% of India’s economy, but 58% of Indians cite agriculture as their family’s primary source of livelihood. The Indian government released a response to Thunberg’s call to action, writing that the protestors represent “a very small section of farmers in parts of India” who simply have “reservations” about the new laws.

“The temptation of sensationalist social media hashtags and comments, especially when resorted to by celebrities and others, is neither accurate nor responsible,” the external affairs ministry wrote on Wednesday.

However, Thunberg isn’t the one presenting inaccurate, irresponsible information. Hundreds of thousands of farmers have participated in the protests; many have camped out around Delhi for months. The government has escalated its attempts to stop the movement by obstructing protestors’ access to food and water and, more recently, shutting down internet access. There have also been concerns about freedom of the press since multiple journalists were detained for purportedly “inciting” the farmers at the border between Delhi and Haryana.

The internet shutdown has especially impacted people in India and drawn national attention to the protests. “I work tirelessly in the day, helping with the arrangements at the protest site,” 25-year-old Harneet Singh told The Guardian. “Normally, a video call in the evening with the family would relieve my stress but the internet shutdown is choking us.”

Critics believe that the aim of the shutdown was to slash communication between farmers from different protest sites, and communication between protestors and the rest of the world. “The government does not want the real facts to reach protesting farmers, nor their peaceful conduct to reach the world,” Darshan Pal said in a statement, according to CNN. Pal is a leader from Samyukta Kisan Morcha, a united front of over 40 farmers’ unions that banded together to protest the new legislation. He added that the government is afraid of different unions contacting each other and teaming up. “Typically, these village groups work together against each other, but this time they have all united for the collective fight.”

The protests came to a head on January 26, also known as India Republic Day. Farmers entered the capital of Delhi and clashed with the police, who reacted with tear gas and batons. The conflict left many protestors and members of law enforcement injured, and Delhi police called it an “anti-national act.”

The reality is, Thunberg hasn’t been exposed as anything other than a staunch activist, and her role in the protests isn’t dissimilar from the role she has played countless times before. She’s using her platform to raise awareness and attract attention to an important movement. And she probably isn’t going to let a hashtag stop her.

1 tweet from Rihanna on farmer protests gets India incensed

NEW DELHI — It took just one tweet from Rihanna to anger the Indian government and supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party. The pop star linked a news article in a tweet drawing attention to the massive farmer protests that have gripped India for more than two months.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Now, senior government ministers, Indian celebrities and even the foreign ministry are urging people to come together and denounce outsiders who try to break the country.

“It is unfortunate to see vested interest groups trying to enforce their agenda on these protests, and derail them,” India's foreign ministry said Wednesday in a rare statement criticizing “foreign individuals” posting on social media. It did not name Rihanna and others who followed suit.

Tens of thousands of farmers have been hunkering down at the Indian capital’s fringes to protest new agricultural laws they say will leave them poorer and at the mercy of corporations. The protests are posing a major challenge to Modi who has billed the laws as necessary to modernize Indian farming.

Their largely peaceful protests turned violent on Jan. 26, India’s Republic Day, when a section of the tens of thousands of farmers riding tractors veered from the protest route earlier decided with police and stormed the 17th century Red Fort in a dramatic escalation. Hundreds of police officers were injured and a protester died. Scores of farmers were also injured but officials have not given their numbers.

Farmer leaders condemned the violence but said they would not call off the protest.

Since then, authorities have heavily increased security at protest sites outside New Delhi’s border, adding iron spikes and steel barricades to stop demonstrating farmers from entering the capital. The government had also restricted access to mobile internet at protest sites up until Tuesday evening.

The latest controversy started Tuesday when Rihanna tweeted to her more than 101 million followers: “Why aren’t we talking about this?!” She linked to a CNN news report about India blocking internet services at the protest sites, a favoured tactic of the Modi government to thwart protests.

The Associated Press and multiple other international news agencies have been covering the farmer protests for months.

Soon after Rihanna's tweet, international condemnation from human rights groups and outrage from Indian supporters of Modi’s party followed. And the foreign ministry accused “foreign individuals” and celebrities of “sensationalism,” without names.

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg and the niece of U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris, Meena Harris, were among those who tweeted their support, triggering a social media storm back in India.

Bollywood entertainers and sports stars, many of whom have long been silent on the farmer protests and often toe the government's line, tweeted in one voice.

They used hashtags #IndiaAgainstPropaganda and #IndiaTogether, echoing the government’s stand on the agriculture laws, and asked people outside India not to meddle with their country’s affairs.

“No one is talking about it because they are not farmers, they are terrorists who are trying to divide India,” actress Kangana Ranaut, a supporter of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, tweeted.

Rihanna’s and Thunberg's tweets also prompted responses from almost every senior leader of BJP, including Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Home Minister Amit Shah, who said that “no propaganda can deter India’s unity.”

The main opposition Congress party leader Shashi Tharoor said the damage done to India’s global image by the government’s “undemocratic behaviour” could not be restored by making celebrities tweet.

Tharoor in a tweet said Indian government getting “Indian celebrities to react to Western ones is embarrassing."

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram took a swipe at the foreign ministry and called its statement “puerile reaction.”

“When will you realize that people concerned with issues of human rights and livelihoods do not recognize national boundaries?,” Chidambaram tweeted.

Negotiations between representatives of the government and farmers to end the protests have failed. The government has proposed suspending the laws for 18 months but is not meeting the farmers' demands for a full repeal.

Sheikh Saaliq, The Associated Press

 Why has YouTube censored viewers in India from accessing songs related to the farmers’ protests? #IndianFarmers

The farmers’ protests are the biggest political threat Modi has seen

K S DAKSHINA MURTHY

The protests are arguably the biggest challenge to the authority of the ruling BJP government to date, and they are going nowhere.

The borders between Delhi and that of two adjoining states, by all accounts, resemble a conflict zone with fencing, barricades, coils of barbed wire, iron spikes cemented to the ground and scores of security personnel manning them. All of it was erected by the government to keep away protesting farmers from the Indian capital.

For the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government under prime minister Narendra Modi, the protests are the latest, and arguably the biggest, challenge to its authority.

After initially appearing to be conciliatory and holding several rounds of talks with the agitating farmers, the government has stepped back and let the protests be – possibly hoping that the steam will run out and that the farmers will return to their homes.

But contrary to the government’s hopes, the protests have intensified. More farmers, in their thousands, have joined in and there is no way of knowing which way the agitation will turn.

Negotiations reach a stalemate

The protests have turned out to be extraordinary in several ways. Farmers – across all classes – are out on the streets in full force, along with their families including scores of women and children.

According to eyewitnesses, the anger is palpable and they are determined to fight to the finish. Hundreds of thousands of farming families take turns to be at the protest site and it is working with rare efficiency despite the biting cold.

Their demand is for the repeal of three farm laws passed by the Modi government in August last year. The laws open up India’s vast agricultural economy to the private sector enabling corporates to directly buy farm produce and allows private companies to stock essential commodities like wheat and rice without any limit. The third law allows private players to directly sign deals with farmers away from the gaze of government regulators.

The government terms these laws necessary as part of agricultural reforms which will enrich farmers and release the enormous potential of this sector.

But the protesters are not buying into the government’s view.

According to them, undermining government regulators and supervisors will expose farmers to the volatility of the market. The Minimum Support Price (MSP), which the government announces every season to ensure that farmers don’t run into losses, will effectively become redundant and they fear that private corporations will drive down prices.

To begin with, the farmers demanded that the MSP be turned into a law as a guarantee that corporations wouldn’t indulge in price undercutting. The government refused and the farmers hardened their stance asking for the cancellation of all three new laws.

Despite holding eleven rounds of talks with the farmers’ unions, the government has been unable to convince them to give up their protests. The discussions have boiled down to one basic demand: repeal the laws.

The Supreme Court of India, in response to a petition, intervened and named a committee of four individuals linked to the agricultural domain to try resolve the stalemate. But the farmers rejected the committee as, according to them, all four were individuals who had on earlier occasions supported the new farm laws.

The government offered to suspend the implementation of the three laws for 18 months to give time for a resolution. But the farmers rejected the offer on the grounds that there is no legal option to keep the laws in abeyance, and that they wouldn’t take the government on its word.

Protesters are in for the long haul

The protests are being spearheaded by two umbrella bodies of farmers that in turn make up nearly 300 farmers’ groups across the country. And these unions are ideologically diverse, ranging from ones led by left parties to centrist-liberal groups that have worked among peasants for decades.

Having carefully organised and planned the protests, the farmers committed one serious blunder on January 26, India’s Republic Day, when a planned tractor rally into Delhi went awry. A section of renegade farmers broke away from the pre-decided route and stormed Red Fort, a high-profile structure that over the years has come to symbolise India’s nationhood.

It is here that the prime minister traditionally hoists the national flag and addresses the nation on India’s independence day.

The farmers forced their way into the Red Fort and hoisted the flag of the Sikh community near the one where the national tricolour was fluttering. The government and many across the political spectrum frowned on the farmers’ actions. The Modi government attempted to use the farmers’ misstep and public condemnation by sending in security forces to evict the protesters from the border.

However, the farmers’ unions themselves criticised those who had stormed the Red Fort and claimed that it was an attempt by sections close to the ruling BJP that tried to sabotage the protests. Once the farmers realised their agitation was in danger they flocked back to the Delhi borders in their thousands, pre-empting the security forces from evicting them.

According to the latest reports, more farmers have now turned out at the protest sites compared to before January 26. And farm leaders have categorically stated they are in it for the long haul. Reports quoting Rakesh Tikait, one of the leaders, said they “will not go back home until the laws are taken back.”

For the Modi government, the situation is tricky as one wrong move can hurt its chances of returning to power in 2024. There is no immediate threat as the ruling BJP has a comfortable majority in the Lower House of Parliament. Of the 543 seats, it holds 303 – well above the halfway mark of 272.

But the challenge to the BJP is in the long-term, as public perception about the government will matter. Elections in at least four state assemblies are scheduled in a couple of months. They may prove an indicator on which way popular opinion is moving over the farmers’ issue.

Besides the farm laws themselves, questions have been raised over the urgency in the manner in which the farm laws were passed in parliament.

Despite the long-term implications of the three farm laws, which seek to overhaul India’s agriculture economy, the government rushed the laws through without adequate discussion.

Agriculture under the Indian Constitution is a state subject and, some experts say, the federal government may have exceeded its mandate by passing the three laws.

Though farmers in their thousands from the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have been in attendance for the protests, others from farming communities in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala too have come out periodically in their own states in support.

The government would like its supporters to believe that the protests are restricted to one state – Punjab. But its pan-Indian character is there for anyone to see.

The situation, undoubtedly, is tense. Despite the veneer of a peaceful protest, the government knows it has to promptly handle the protests lest it blows up on its political fortunes.

Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT World.

Opinion: How India became a vaccine-making powerhouse

If 2020 will be remembered for a virus that paralysed our planet, 2021 should be defined by a vaccine that healed it. The coronavirus vaccine has had special meaning for India, a country that has emerged as the pharmacy of the world. While India has earned its reputation as a major pharmaceutical hub after decades of steadfast effort, its world-class vaccine ecosystem had not received much attention till the current pandemic was upon us

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© Provided by National Post A medical worker prepares to inoculate a police personnel with a Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine at the Police headquarters in Srinagar on January 4, 2021.

India’s inoculation programmes have by far been the largest in the world, with 27-million infants being immunized for 12 diseases annually. Audacious campaigns, such as the Pulse Polio drive, went beyond immunization, to eradication of a crippling disease. This immunization experience was backed by substantial R&D strengths, linking the public and private sectors, integrating academia and industry. India’s evolving vaccine eco-system propelled the country to innovate on vaccine discovery and bet on industrial-scale production. Today, 60 per cent of the global vaccine production capacity is located in India, enabling it to demonstrate the fastest rollout of Covid vaccines anywhere in the world.

Like Canada, India has pursued a science-driven policy in addressing the coronavirus challenge. India’s response to this pandemic has been tailored to the evolving situation in the unique context of huge demographic and geographic complexities. India crafted an effective domestic response with active surveillance, strong sub-regional monitoring, capacity building of frontline healthcare workers, risk communication and deep community engagement, while addressing the psycho-social needs of vulnerable populations.

All this enabled high recovery rates of over 97 per cent. India added capacity even as the country reeled under the pandemic’s early blows: PPEs were locally fabricated, 1.5 million were tested daily, and over a million critical care hospital beds were added. Effective medical interventions allowed India to limit the Covid fatality rate at 112 per million population, much below the global average, despite the challenges of a high population density and the need of many to get back to work.

Quick, smart decisions by a resolute leadership; effective and consistent application of prevention protocols; and a cooperative, vigilant citizenry, have allowed India to push down the infection rate. While the total numbers of infections seem high, the daily infection rates have declined sharply and the number of active cases at about 130 per million is one of the lowest in the world. With strong manufacturing, research and innovation capacities and a large vulnerable population, India rapidly became both a laboratory and hub of vaccine manufacture.

Manufacturing is only one part of the game. The pandemic has highlighted India’s role as a reliable partner in global pharmaceutical supply chains. These capacities have been built diligently over a number of years with active state prodding. India is a major supplier of pharmaceutical products and pre-cursors to global markets, including developed markets in the EU, U.S. and Canada. While India’s production of cost-effective and affordable pharmaceutical products is critical for developing countries in Asia and Africa, the country has also contributed to making health care affordable in many developed countries including Canada. During the pandemic, despite a surge in domestic needs, India continued to supply pharmaceutical pre-cursors and finished products, including essential medicines like paracetamol and hydroxychloroquine, to more than 60 countries in the world, Canada among them.

India began research into a possible vaccine as soon as data on the pandemic became available. Six Indian vaccines soon entered the global race, three indigenous and three joint ventures with global players. On January 03, 2021, India announced the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of two India-manufactured Covid-19 vaccines, namely, Covishield produced by the Serum Institute of India and Covaxin, produced by Bharat Biotech, in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research. The approval of Covaxin was conditional and in clinical trial mode with all recipients being tracked and monitored as in a regular trial.

India kicked off its domestic Covid-19 vaccination programme on January 16 this year, the largest such drive in the world with an initial target of 300 million people. Four million health workers received the first jabs within 18 days of the launch, the fastest rollout the world has seen. Driving the success of the project was a robust distribution network with upgraded cold chain equipment, continued training of health workers and a massive outreach and information campaign in support of the vaccination drive.

Last year, addressing the United Nations, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made a pledge that India’s vaccine production ecosystem and its innovative capacities would be made available to the entire world in combating the pandemic. This year, India is making good on that promise. The UN Secretary General said in January that India’s vaccine production capacity is ‘one of the best assets that the world has today’.

Even as India managed its own domestic Covid-19 vaccination programme, it started shipping the Covishield vaccine overseas. Reflecting a commitment to “neighbourhood first” and vaccine internationalism, India is providing over twenty million vaccine doses to more than a dozen neighbours and partner countries, helping them kick-start their own vaccine programmes. India’s Prime Minister told the World Economic Forum that more Indian vaccines would soon be available to the world. The made-in-India vaccines are more affordable, and easier to safely store and transport. This allows most less-developed countries to painlessly run their domestic vaccination programmes. Like Canada, India is also committed to the success of the GAVI Alliance; at the global vaccine summit in June 2020, India pledged a contribution of USD 15 million to GAVI. India has now opened commercial export of Covishield with first shipments already delivered to foreign shores.

If the virus was a global public bad that originated in China to quickly choke our world, the vaccine is a global public good that must be equitably available to bring relief to our suffering planet. India is playing a part in providing that healing hand.

Ajay Bisaria is the High Commissioner of India to Canada.

Why does India want to privatise public sector banks?

The Modi government takes the politically fraught step of selling its stake in banks, which have been losing money.

Months after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, 2008, the then Indian finance minister triumphantly said his country was able to weather the global financial crisis on the back of its strong banks.

“In the world’s leading countries, the finance sectors have crashed but we are still surviving because we nationalised our banking sector,” Pranab Mukherjee said.

Western financial institutions that had dabbled in fancy derivatives and securitised loans ran into trouble. Indian banks - many of them controlled by the state - stuck to the business of raising deposits and lending money to businesses.

But now New Delhi is desperately trying to sell some parts of the public sector banks (PSB) in an attempt to overhaul the banking system, which has been marred by a surge in bad loans.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government announced a plan to privatise two public-sector banks.

The names of the banks marked for a sell-off haven’t been officially released. But reports suggest that Punjab and Sind Bank and the Bank of Maharashtra, two relatively smaller lenders, are on the list.

The Indian government has already merged the PSBs, bringing their number down from 27 in 2017 to 12.

State-controlled commercial banks in which the government owns majority stake dominate India’s financial landscape, accounting for two-thirds of the outstanding loans.

Successive governments have struggled to stop the PSBs from bleeding money. In the past 12 years, more than 3.8 trillion rupees ($52 billion) of taxpayers money have gone into keeping them afloat, writes Tamal Bandyopadhyay in Pandemonium: The Great Indian Banking Tragedy.

Privatisation has been on the cards for some time. But it has been politically challenging as employee unions oppose the move and the PSBs are widely seen as filling a vacuum left by private lenders. India's state-run banks have played an important role in financing small and medium enterprises. (AP)

Glory days no more

Unlike private banks, which are driven by profits, New Delhi has used public-sector creditors to pursue developmental goals such as ensuring that people in rural areas have banking services and small businesses can get loans.

Public sector banks grew rapidly after the late Prime Minister Indra Gandhi, of the opposition Congress party, nationalised the banking sector in 1969.

Since then, banking services including loans for small businesses rapidly increased as the state-run banks opened thousands of branches and mobilised deposits from households.

“After nationalization, the breadth and scope of the Indian banking sector expanded at a rate perhaps unmatched by any other country. Indian banking has been remarkably successful at achieving mass participation,” Abhijit Banerjee, a MIT economist and a Nobel Laureate, wrote in a paper.

But nationalisation made the banks prone to political interference especially as politicians used them for poverty alleviation schemes that can help them win votes.

PSBs have also been hurt by the more tech-savvy private banks that are now capturing a bigger share of the deposits.

What went wrong

Contrary to general perception, the financial woes of the public sector banks are not solely a result of corruption and nepotism.

Over the years, the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank, has tightened regulations that require banks to set aside more of their capital to offset potential losses from loans, which might not be paid.

This basically taints the financial statements of the PSBs.

Indian public sector banks, which have lent heavily to corporate entities, also took a hit from the 2008 financial crisis which took a toll on domestic markets.

In the mid-2000s, India’s GDP was growing in double digits with businessmen hoping that the economic expansion will persist for decades to come as seen in China’s case.

Buoyed by the outlook, companies invested in plant and machinery and aggressively hired talent. They took on a lot of debt both from India’s public sector banks and from abroad.

A large part of the loans went into financing infrastructure projects such as power plants and steel mills. But a fall in global commodity prices amid an economic downturn hit company revenues and made it difficult for them to repay the loans.

High inflation led to a rise in interest rates, and consequently jacked up the cost of loans. The depreciation of the rupee piled a further burden on companies which had borrowed in foreign currency.

All of these factors have contributed to the problems that PSBs are facing now.
Source: TRT World

Out of this world:

Shepard put golf on moon 50 years ago

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Fifty years later, it remains the most impressive bunker shot in the history of golf, mainly because of the location.

The moon.

Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard and his crew brought back about 90 pounds of moon rocks on Feb. 6, 1971. Left behind were two golf balls that Shepard, who later described the moon's surface as “one big sand trap,” hit with a makeshift 6-iron to become a footnote in history.


Francis Ouimet put golf on the front page of American newspapers by winning the 1913 U.S. Open. Gene Sarazen put the Masters on the map by holing a 235-yard shot for an albatross in the final round of his 1935 victory.

Shepard outdid them all. He put golf in outer space.

“He might have put golf on the moon map,” Jack Nicklaus said this week. “I thought it was unique for the game of golf that Shepard thought so much about the game that he would take a golf club to the moon and hit a shot.”

Shepard became the first American in space in 1961 as one of NASA's seven original Mercury astronauts. After being sidelined for years by an inner ear problem he became the fifth astronaut to walk on the moon as Apollo 14 commander.

But he did more than just walk the moon.

Shepard waited until the end of the mission before he surprised American viewers and all but a few at NASA who did not know what Shepard had up his sleeve — or in this case, up his socks. That's how he got the golf gear in space.

“Houston, you might recognize what I have in my hand as the contingency sample return; it just so happens to have a genuine 6-iron on the bottom of it,” Shepard said. "In my left hand, I have a little white pellet that’s familiar to millions of Americans.”

He hit more moon than ball on his first two attempts. The third he later referred to as a shank. And he caught the last one flush, or as flush as an astronaut can hit a golf ball while swinging with one hand in a pressurized spacesuit that weighs 180 pounds (on Earth).

“We used to say it was the longest shot in the history of the world because it hasn't come down yet,” famed golf instructor Butch Harmon said with a laugh.

Harmon is loosely connected with the shot through his relationship with Jack Harden Sr., the former head pro at River Oaks Country Club in Houston whom Shepard asked to build him a 6-iron he could take to the moon. Harden managed to attach the head of a Wilson Staff Dyna-Power 6-iron to a collapsible tool used to collect lunar samples.

The shots did come down on the moon. Still up for debate is how far they went.

“Miles and miles and miles,” Shepard said in a light moment that was broadcast in colour to a captive television audience watching from nearly 240,000 miles away.

Not quite. The shot for years has been estimated at 200 yards, remarkable considering how much the bulk of his spacesuit restricted Shepard's movement. He had even practiced in his spacesuit in a bunker in Houston when no one was around.

On occasion of the 50-year anniversary, British-based imaging specialist Andy Saunders provided a more accurate account. Saunders, who is working on a book called, “Apollo Remastered,” worked out through digital enhancing and stacking techniques of video footage that the first shot went 24 yards. The second ball went 40 yards.

Former PGA champion Jimmy Walker hits a 6-iron about 200 yards on Earth. Walker, a space enthusiast with a skill and passion for astrophotography, worked with the USGA and Saunders as the Apollo 14 anniversary neared to see how far he could hit a 6-iron in one-sixth gravity of the moon.

“He was known for saying miles and miles,” Walker said. “They took my launch conditions and said my ball would fly 4,600 yards and it would have just over a minute of hang time.”

That would be a little over 2 1/2 miles.

That also would be a conventional 6-iron while wearing golf shoes and a sweater vest.

What stands out all these years later is Shepard even thinking about taking a golf club to the moon and back. The inspiration came from Bob Hope, who carried a golf club just about everywhere he went. That included a trip to Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston a year before the Apollo 14 mission.

According to USGA historian Michael Trostel, that's what made Shepard realize a golf shot would be the ideal illustration of the moon's gravitational pull. To build a club, he found the right person in Harden at River Oaks.

“He was incessant tinkerer with equipment,” said Brandel Chamblee, a Golf Channel analyst and longtime friend of Harden's son. "I would tease Jack and his father, any club they got had been ‘Hardenized.’ No club off the rack was ever good enough for them. They always changed the lie, the loft, the bounce. They used lead tape. It was apropos he made Shepard's 6-iron.”

Convincing his superiors took some doing. In a 1998 interview with NASA, Shepard said he ran his idea by the director of the Manned Spaceflight Center who told him, “Absolutely no way.” Shepard told him club and two golf balls wouldn't cost the taxpayers anything. And he would only do it if the entire mission was a complete success.

Shepard said he told director Bob Gilruth, “I will not be so frivolous. I want to wait until the very end of the mission, stand in front of the television camera, whack these golf balls with this makeshift club, fold it up, stick it in my pocket, climb up the ladder, and close the door, and we’ve gone.”

The actual club is one of the prize exhibits at the USGA Museum in New Jersey, which came with one awkward moment.

“He donates it at a ceremony at the 1974 U.S. Open,” Trostel said. "NASA called him later and said it was looking at the club for the Smithsonian. He said he already had donated it to the USGA Museum. They said, ‘Mr. Shepard, that’s government property.' We had a replica commissioned and gave it to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.”

For years, no one knew what golf balls he used and Shepard was determined to avoid any commercialism. Chamblee and Harmon unlocked the mystery this week, and it came with a twist.

They were range balls from River Oaks.

“Within the Hardens, the legacy is he gave him golf balls from the range that had ‘Property of Jack Harden’ on them,” Chamblee said. “Technically — if the balls aren't melted — Jack is the only person who owns property on the moon.”

All because of a one-handed swing by Shepard, still the only person to hit a golf ball on the moon.

“It was designed to be a fun thing,” Shepard said in the 1998 interview, five months before his death at age 74. “Fortunately, it is still a fun thing.”

Doug Ferguson, The Associated Press

Pope seeks 'Copernican revolution' for post-COVID economy

COPERNICUS WAS LABELED A HERETIC BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH OF HIS DAY, DR JOHN DEE A MONIST DEFENDED COPERNICUS THEORY THOUGH HE TOO DISPUTED IT AS AN ASTROLOGER

ROME — Pope Francis urged governments on Monday to use the coronavirus crisis as a revolutionary opportunity to create a world that is more economically and environmentally just — and where basic health care is guaranteed for all.

Francis made the appeal in his annual foreign policy address to ambassadors accredited to the Holy See, an appointment that was postponed for two weeks after he suffered a bout of sciatica nerve pain that made standing and walking difficult.

Francis urged the governments represented in the Apostolic Palace to contribute to global initiatives to provide vaccines to the poor and to use the pandemic to reset what he said was a sick economic model that exploits the poor and the Earth.

“There is need for a kind of new Copernican revolution that can put the economy at the service of men and women, not vice versa,” he said, referring to the 16th-century paradigm shift that stated the sun was at the centre of the universe, not the Earth.

He said such a revolutionary new economy is “one that brings life not death, one that is inclusive and not exclusive, humane and not dehumanizing, one that cares for the environment and does not despoil it.”

Francis has frequently called for the world to use the pandemic as a chance to re-imagine a global economy that values people and the planet over profits, and one where fraternity and solidarity guide human relationships rather than conflict and division.

The 84-year-old Francis hit those themes in his lengthy address, which was delivered in a larger reception hall than usual to provide greater social distancing for the 88 ambassadors who attended. At the end, Francis invited each one up but said he wouldn't shake their hands and urged them to keep their distance. Francis has been vaccinated against the virus.

In his speech, he called for basic health care to be provided to all. He noted that those on the margins of society and who work in the informal economy have been among the hardest hit by the pandemic, with the fewest social nets to survive it.

“Driven by desperation, many have sought other forms of income and risk being exploited through illegal or forced labour, prostitution and various criminal activities, including human trafficking,” Francis warned.

He said children have suffered from an “educational catastrophe" with closed schools, women have been victims of domestic abuse, the faithful have been deprived of communal worship and that all of humanity has been restricted from close human contact.

“Along with vaccines, fraternity and hope are, as it were, the medicine we need in today’s world," he said.

In addition to the pandemic, Francis listed other areas of particular concern, starting with the coup in Myanmar, which Francis visited in 2017. He called for political leaders to be “promptly released as a sign of encouragement for a sincere dialogue aimed at the good of the country.”

He called for the war in Syria to finally end, noting that 2021 marks its 10th anniversary, and urging the international community to “address the causes of the conflict with honesty and courage and to seek solutions." He praised the U.N. treaty prohibiting nuclear weapons and the extension of the START treaty between the U.S. and Russia.

He also called for disarmament efforts to extend to conventional and chemical weapons.

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press

Alberta expected to recognize essential COVID workers; NDP says get them top-up funds

EDMONTON — Premier Jason Kenney is expected to discuss a plan today to recognize Alberta's hundreds of thousands of critical workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Opposition NDP says Kenney needs to recognize it’s time to use hundreds of millions of dollars in available federal funding to top up wages.

NDP Leader Rachel Notley says the United Conservative government has used $30 million out of the $347-million maximum in eligible federal funding for essential workers under a deal brokered last year between Ottawa and the provinces.

The federal government promised to provide up to $3 billion if the provinces contributed $1 billion.

Notley says not only is the pay being denied to workers in high-risk jobs, but Alberta is also missing out on the effect the extra spending would have in stimulating the economy.

Kenney has said the government doesn't plan to leave $317 million on the table.

Last week, the premier said he has been consulting with the federal government and with workers in essential services to determine the best way to go ahead.

“We’re not leaving that money on the table,” said Kenney.

“We’ve made an application to the federal government to proceed with the additional $317 million.

“We’ve consulted broadly with the concerned sectors to determine the best way of framing this. We’ve looked closely at what other provinces are doing.”

It’s up to the provinces to decide which occupations are eligible for funding.

Notley said Kenny’s laggard approach has proven costly.

“This was a three-to-one sure bet on money in Albertans’ pockets and the premier chose to play politics rather than support them,” she said Tuesday.

“Even if Jason Kenney were to finally get to work and allow Alberta workers access to this funding tomorrow, Albertans have lost out on hundreds of millions in economic growth and over a thousand jobs at a time when they needed it most.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 10, 2021.

Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press