News Wrap
AGD

Agricultural products comprise 7% of India’s merchandise exports to the European Union. During 2012-13, India’s total exports to the EU was around $27 billion. Since 2010, the EU has introduced increased checks on food products from India. Directing companies to check for contamination in food products from India, the EU has issued 46 notifications in November 2012. Earlier the monthly average was four to five alerts for Indian agricultural products. The high level of toxic substances may lead to a complete ban on products like groundnuts. Groundnuts, Curry Leaves and Okra (lady’s finger) exported from India to EU, are now undergoing 100% pre-export testing, alongwith a health certificate guaranteeing absence of harmful pesticides. The EU has been expressing concerns over aflatoxins in consignments of spices, okra, curry leaves and groundnuts. Sample tests sometimes do not indicate pesticide residues like aflatoxins, but when they reach EU inspection borders, the products exhibit aflatoxins. Groundnuts are exported by sea routes, and certain fungi like aflatoxins are produced when groundnuts come into contact with water.

Intolerance
At the annual literary festival in Jaipur, of January 2013, sociologist and commentator Ashis Nandy linked the so- called lower castes to high levels of corruption. Though the comments are a sweeping generalization, India’s upper class and upper castes fimrly believe that the newly empowered ‘backward’ castes indulge in rampant corruption, as soon as they occupy positions of authority. In they age of mass TV news, comments are no longer closed-door discussion. The ultimate effect has been a ‘fatwa type’ mindset on annoyed backward castes, and Mr Nandy fled Jaipur. Police cases have been registered against him under the Scheduled Castes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. While affirmative action may be justified, mobs are increasingly silencing contrary views.

Writer Salman Rushdie was to have participated in discussions at the Kolkata Book Fair (Jan-Feb, 2013) in connection with the release of Deepa Mehta’s film ‘‘Midnight’s Children’’, based on his award winning novel. The Shahi Imam of Tipu Sultan Masjid, Kolkata and other Islamist groups advised the State Government of West Bengal that Rushdie should not be allowed to enter Bengal for fears of a law and order situation. Fearing backlash from the Muslim community, Rushdie didn’t visit Kolkata.

Exodus from Poland
Ever since Poland joined the European Union in 2004, around 2.1 million Poles have emigrated to Western Europe’s industrialized countries. Poland’s economy continued to boom in 2008, even as Europe remained affected by the financial crisis. The flood of young Poles heading west has slowed to a trickle. Presently the Polish economy is weakening, and Poland is faced with another exodus. Poland has been hit by the slowdown in the eurozone, its main export market, and by a slump in domestic demand. Unemployment is urgently 14%. The first net increase in emigration since 2007, occurred when in 2011 about 60,000 more Poles left the country, than returned. The outflow is likely to accelerate in 2013, with economic growth forecast at 1.6%. Car makers in Poland have announced job cuts, creating ripple effects, as parts suppliers lay off workers. The average Polish migrant earns just over Euro 2000 a month, in Western Europe, while in Poland they would make a quarter of that. The available local jobs in Poland, tend to be in retail, or at the dairy. It is  estimated that between 500,000 and 800,000 Poles will leave.

Chemicals in China River

Late December 2012, more than 39 tons of a chemical compound called aniline, used in manufacturing and agriculture, leaked into a disused reservoir and a local river in Shanxi province, after a pipe burst. Almost a quarter of that amount moved into the Zouzhang river, and flowed east towards neighbouring Hebei province. The seepage of chemicals into a river connecting two North China provinces, prompted authorities in Changzhi to cut off drinking water, and those elsewhere to go on alert. The aniline leak has been traced to a faulty drainage valve of a plant owned by Tianji Coal Chemical Industry Group in the Shanxi City of Changzhi. The situation has been serious due to the amount of pollutants involved, and the toxicity of the substance. There was also a delay in disclosing to the public. Aniline is an oily but colourless and water soluble chemical intermediate, that is a probable carcinogen. Changzhi, the upper city in Shanxi province, boasts of coal mining, chemical production and steel manufacturing. Major pollution incidents damaged the Songhua River in North China’s Jilin province in 2005 and 2010. Garbage clogs dams, refineries damage marine life, and fertilizers ruin aquifers. Water pollution remains a serious problem in China.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 36, Mar 17-23, 2013

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