News Wrap
AGD
The United Nations Target
for Official Development Assistance (ODA) was 0.7% of GDP of wealthy countries, set in the 1970s. Except for the Scandinavian countries the percentage was never reached. Through development partnership assistance, India will be offering $1.87 billion aid annually to African countries, over the next five years. Interest on these soft loans will be as low as 1.75% for poor countries, with extended repayment periods. Separately, India’s union ministry of external affairs indirectly funding about $0.7 billion, as development partnership spending. Other budgetary heads have portions of money allocated too. India’s total spending is $3.5 billion annually, or just under 0.2% of India’s GDP. Capacity absorption issues in receiving countries does not allow all the money to be spent in time. Over the past decade India has spent about $9 billion on aid. India continues to be a net aid recipient, as the incoming aid money is about 0.3% of GDP. India is spending on the war effort in Mali, the International Monetary Fund’s European Bailout programme and on vital interests in Afghanistan, Myanmar and Nepal.
Development and Welfare
As on 31 March 2011, relatively better developed Gujarat’s loan amount was Rs 1 lac 34 thousand crore, whereas West Bengal’s loan amount stood at Rs 1 lac 87 thousand crore. Today West Bengal has about Rs 2 lacs crore worth of debt. There is a lack of non-arable land for industry in West Bengal, but the state has around 20,000 acres of surplus land, lying with private industrial units which are either sick or closed. In some areas, there are around 100 acres of land, which is adequate for setting up large industries. ‘‘Sick’’ industries with improved financial conditions have not repaid loans worth Rs 500 crore in West Bengal. These industrial ventures have failed to modernize equipment, diversify products, and properly utilize existing land. The West Bengal State Labour Department has noted that building promoters have failed to deposit funds earmarked for the welfare of construction workers with civic bodies.
Slices of Antarctica
Parts of Antarctica are being claimed by Britain and Argentina, besides the long running disputes over the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands. There were ‘‘imperialist ambitions’’ in the UK government’s bestowing the name of Queen Elizabeth, on a disputed part of the Antarctic, as a Diamond Jubilee gift to the monarch. Territorial claims over the Antarctic, collide in the Argentine Antarctic Sector, and in the British Antarctic Survey. The referendum of March 2013, in the Falkland Islands having a population of fewer than 3000 people, has reopened the sovereignty question.
Economic problems relating to steep price rises has provoked a wave of looting and rioting, that has left several dead, since December 2012, in Argentine cities like Rosario and Buenos Aires. Opposition Trade Union groups are said to be orchestrating the unrest. The International Monetary Fund has charged that Argentine has manipulated data to understate economic problems.
Lebanon and Syria’s Civil War
Pockets of North Lebanon are being dragged into the Syrian conflict. Noura al-Tahta and a number of other villages in the North Akkar province along the Lebanon-Syrian border, have been subjected to Syrian shelling of artillery almost every night, since May 2012. Like other Sunni populated villages in the area, Noural al-Tahta strongly supports the Syrian revolution, and shelters refugees and Free Syrian Army (FSA) militants. Syrian shelling aims to hit FSA members who rush across the border into Syria at night, and to punish Lebanese who help the militants. Even as the Lebanese government is trying to remain neutral, Syria’s civil war is drawing in rival Lebanese Shia and Sunni factions in an increasingly sectarian conflict.
The Shia populated Bekaa Valley, lies further east along the border. The area is a fort of support for the Lebanese Hezbollah, an ally of the Assad regime. About 25 small villages populated by Lebanese Shia lie just across the border from the Syrian town of al-Qasr. The Bekaa Valley has been the scene of repeated clashes in recent months, between the FSA and Syrian troops, backed allegedly by Hezbollah. al-Qasr residents fear that the rebels are trying to empty Shia villages over the border to create a corridor, linking Sunni areas.
Being at the frontier of the Roman and Parthian empires, and having ancient churches and mosques, Syria is unusually rich in archeological sites. In the chaos of the civil war, which has already claimed more than 42,000 people, smuggling of looted antiquities is accelerating. Across the Lebanese and Turkish borders, artefacts are dug up or stolen from the many sites and then sold to clients from around the world. In an economy ravaged by war, excavating and selling antiquities, mainly mosaics, stone sculptures and small statues, has become a rare source of income for ordinary people.
Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 34, Mar 3-9, 2013
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