SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Wednesday, October 2, 2024 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
US special envoy for Taliban-ruled Afghanistan moved to different role (VOA)
VOA [10/1/2024 8:00 PM, Ayaz Gul, 4566K, Neutral]
The United States has reassigned its special representative for Afghanistan, leaving vacant a key position in its efforts to engage with the Taliban-ruled country.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced the decision Tuesday to reassign Tom West, while emphasizing that Washington’s commitment to the South Asian nation "remains an enduring priority."
Blinken said West would serve in a new role as the acting head of the Office of Sanctions Coordination at the U.S. State Department and commended him for working "tirelessly to ensure [that] both our national interests and the welfare of the Afghan people guided our policy in Afghanistan."
West was appointed as the special representative to Afghanistan in October 2021, two months after the Taliban regained power and all U.S.-led NATO troops withdrew from the country, ending 20 years of involvement in the war.
"Tom has skillfully led diplomacy on Afghanistan during a complex period," Blinken said. "Today’s global challenges are equally as complex, and I look forward to working with him on coordinating economic sanctions strategies across the U.S. government with our partners and stakeholders to achieve U.S. foreign policy priorities," he said without elaborating.
The Taliban takeover compelled Washington and other Western capitals to relocate their diplomatic missions from Kabul to Doha, Qatar, where Karen Decker serves as the chief of the U.S. Embassy. Blinken said Decker has been asked to lead Afghan diplomacy.
The de facto Afghan leaders have imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law, known as Shariah, banning girls’ education beyond the sixth grade, prohibiting women from most workplaces and access to public life at large across the impoverished country.
Taliban leaders reject international criticism and calls for reversing bans on Afghan women’s rights to work and education as interference in the country’s internal matters.
Blinken said that Rina Amiri, the U.S. special envoy for Afghan women’s and girls’ rights, would continue to lead her mission to ensure that "human rights, and particularly women’s rights, are prioritized."
Asif Durrani, who served as Pakistan’s special representative to Afghanistan until last month, said that many countries, including the U.S., are frustrated with the Taliban due to their treatment of women and their lack of an inclusive government in Kabul.
"Issues such as inclusivity or human rights, particularly girls’ right to education and women’s right to work, are issues that the American administration cannot afford to overlook and engage the Taliban in a meaningful way," Durrani said.
But he suggested the wars in Ukraine and Gaza have diverted Washington’s attention from the Afghan situation.
"It’s quite obvious that Afghanistan is not on the United States’ priority list, at least for the time being," Durrani said.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller rejected that view when asked by reporters Tuesday whether Afghanistan is still a U.S. foreign policy priority.
"Of course it is," he said. "And we will continue to stay engaged in Afghanistan. It remains an enduring priority."
Durrani said the U.S. cannot be blamed alone for the lack of improvement in Afghanistan. "The Taliban’s rigid attitude towards women’s education and their ban on women’s work is not winning them any friends or sympathy."
No country has officially recognized the men-only Taliban government in Kabul, mainly due to human rights issues and their sweeping restrictions on women’s freedoms.
The United States and allied nations have imposed financial and banking sector sanctions on Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover. Donors have cut economic development assistance, citing terrorism-related sanctions on several key leaders of the de facto government. Unheard, unseen, off air: Afghan law could erase women in media (Reuters)
Reuters [10/1/2024 12:02 PM, Emma Batha and Orooj Hakimi, 88008K, Negative]
Afghanistan’s draconian new "morality law", which bans women from speaking in public, could force them out of the media and silence those offering hope to girls already shut out of schools and studying at home, journalists and U.N. experts say.
Women presenters and journalists - many with families who depend on their earnings - fear they could lose their jobs after Taliban leaders said women’s voices were "intimate" and could lead to vice.
The new law, which has triggered international outrage, also states women must cover their faces in public and bans the publishing of images of "living beings", casting doubts over the wider future of television in the country.
"I’m deeply shocked," one journalist in Afghanistan told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
"First, they deprive women of education by closing girls’ schools, and now they want to silence women in society altogether. It’s a symbolic violence."
The journalist, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, said the law would make it very hard to conduct interviews and would force female presenters to quit their jobs.
Educational programmes aimed at teenage girls - who have been banned from school since the Taliban seized power in 2021 - might also have to stop if the rules are applied to the female teachers and presenters who front them, she said.
U.N. officials say the law, published by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in August, has not been fully implemented, but they are closely monitoring the situation.
"The potential consequences would be devastating," said Guilherme Canela, who heads UNESCO’s section for freedom of expression and safety of journalists.
"Women could completely disappear from the media, and the public sphere, in the worst-case scenario. How do you discuss issues relevant to society, and women in particular, if you don’t have women involved in the conversation?"
BROADCASTS SUSPENDED
Canela said it was hard to see how television could operate at all if the rule banning the portrayal of living beings was enforced.
The implications would be "absolutely massive", he said, particularly given television’s role in providing critical information in a country with limited internet access.
Canela pointed to coverage of last year’s earthquake in northern Afghanistan, which had provided life-saving information and included televised interviews with emergency and health workers. Such broadcasts would fall foul of the new rules.
Although the law has not been enforced on the media nationally, there are reports that the Taliban have suspended some broadcasts by a TV channel in the southern province of Kandahar, home to the movement’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.
Taliban officials - who say they respect women’s rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law - did not reply to a request for comment.
The latest restrictions follow a slew of pronouncements that have already barred women from university and most jobs, limited their freedom of movement and banished them from public spaces.
Although the media is one of the few sectors where women can still work, strict rules mean many have been forced out of news reporting and increasingly operate behind the scenes.
Canela said 80% of women journalists had lost their jobs since the Taliban took over.
Women journalists are not allowed to interview men, be interviewed by men or share office space with men. They also need a male guardian to accompany them for most travel.
The plethora of repressive edicts has also stifled women’s participation in the media in other ways with fewer and fewer willing to be interviewed or filmed.
JOB LOSS FEARS
Although some women still work as presenters, they have to cover their faces and mostly anchor morning shows rather than news programmes.
"Every day, I worry about what will happen to me if this (new) law is enforced," said one presenter, who withheld her name due to safety concerns.
"This will not only impact us socially, but also financially. The Taliban don’t seem to care how journalists’ families will manage their living expenses. It’s a great concern for many of us."
Media entrepreneur Hamida Aman also highlighted fears the new law could impact educational programming.
A number of TV and radio outlets have begun broadcasting educational content since the Taliban takeover using women teachers, journalists and presenters.
Aman who set up Radio Begum, which provides on-air schooling for girls stuck at home, said staff were concerned for their jobs.
"Most are the breadwinners in their families," she said. ‘Humiliated’ profession - Afghan media says abuses rising (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [10/2/2024 3:56 AM, Vivek N.D., 1198K, Positive]
Afghan journalists have reported hundreds of cases of abuses by government officials, including torture and arbitrary detention, as well as tightening censorship since the Taliban authorities returned to power.Reporters say they are frequently rounded up for covering attacks by militant groups or writing about the discrimination of women, and some report being locked up in the same cell as Islamic State fighters."No other profession has been so humiliated," said a journalist from the north who was recently detained and beaten."Me and my friends no longer want to continue in this profession. Day after day new restrictions are announced," he told AFP, asking not to be named for security reasons."If we cover (attacks) or topics related to women, we expose ourselves to threats by phone, a summons or detention."When the Taliban authorities seized power in 2021 after a two-decade-long insurgency against foreign-backed governments, Afghanistan had 8,400 media employees, including 1,700 women.Only 5,100 remain in the profession, including 560 women, according to media industry sources."We have recorded around 450 cases of violations against journalists since the collapse, including arrests, threats, arbitrary detention, physical violence, torture," said Samiullah, an official at a journalists’ association in Afghanistan, whose name has been changed for his protection.The Taliban authorities have not responded to several requests for comment on the reports.However, Hayatullah Muhajir Farahi, the deputy minister of information, recently said in a statement that media were allowed to work in Afghanistan on condition that they respect "Islamic values, the higher interest of the country, its culture and traditions".New laws and regulationsIn September, new regulations were slapped on political talk shows, media executives told AFP.Guests must be selected from a Taliban-approved list, the themes sanctioned and criticism of the government prohibited.Shows must not be aired live, allowing for recordings to be checked and "weak points" to be removed.The state radio and television station RTA no longer allows women to work as journalists, according to an employee within the organisation who asked not to be named.In southern Helmand province, women’s voices are banned from television and radio.Surveillance of journalists continues on social networks and the press survives through self-censorship.The London-based Afghanistan International channel, for which no Afghan is allowed to work anymore, accused Kabul in September of jamming its frequencies.A recent law on the "promotion of virtue and prevention of vice" which formalises the strict interpretation of Islamic law has further worried journalists.The law prohibits taking pictures of living beings and women from speaking loudly in public.Although the authorities "assure us that it will not affect the work of journalists, we see on the ground that it really has an impact," said Samiullah, from the journalist association."In July, we had two or three cases of abuse against journalists. In August, 15 or 16 cases and in September, 11 had been reported," he said."When we talk to the Ministry of Information, we receive assurances that things will improve," said Samiullah."But then we see how (intelligence officers) behave in the provinces, and it is worse."
‘Alone, lost, defenceless’Meena Akbari worked for Khurshid TV but had to flee the country in 2021 -- like hundreds of other Afghan journalists -- "due to numerous threats to (my) security".She said she still receives death threats on social media and is receiving psychological support.Arrested in 2023 for "espionage", the French-Afghan journalist Mortaza Behboudi, who worked for several French media outlets, was detained in Kabul for 10 months and said he was routinely tortured.Dozens of media outlets, also faced with economic hardship, have closed and Afghanistan has slipped from 122nd place to 178th out of 180 countries in a press freedom ranking compiled by Reporters Without Borders (RSF).Journalists told RSF that they had been locked up in cells with detainees from the Islamic State group.However, reporters are rarely held for long periods of time, RSF told AFP."They don’t need to fill the prisons with journalists to have a deterrent effect," said Celia Mercier, the head of the RSF’s South Asia team."Keeping them in detention for a few days can break them psychologically. After such an ordeal, journalists will try to leave the country," she added.Another law being prepared is intended to regulate the functioning of the media, according to the information and culture ministry."Journalists are very afraid," Samiullah said "They feel alone, lost, defenceless." Pakistan
Russia, Pakistan Barter Lentils for Rice Amid Payment Struggles (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [10/1/2024 5:52 AM, Staff, 27782K, Negative]
A Russian company will export chickpeas and lentils in exchange for tangerines and rice from Pakistan amid difficulties in cross-border payments due to Western sanctions, Tass news service reported.Under an agreement signed at the Pakistan-Russia Trade and Investment Forum in Moscow on Tuesday, Russia’s Astarta-Agrotrading will supply 20,000 tons of chickpeas while Pakistan’s Meskay & Femtee Trading Company will deliver the same quantity of rice, according to state-run Tass.The Russian side also plans to supply 15,000 tons of chickpeas and 10,000 tons of lentils in exchange for 15,000 tons of tangerines and 10,000 tons of potatoes from Pakistan.Russia is trying to find alternative ways to pay for imports and receive money for exports amid mounting US pressure on banks in countries that trade with the heavily sanctioned nation. Russia may also begin barter trading schemes with China, Reuters reported in August. Pakistani security forces kill 6 insurgents in a raid in the southwest (AP)
AP [10/2/2024 3:48 AM, Staff, 456K, Negative]
Pakistani security forces have killed at least six insurgents in a raid on their hideout in the country’s restive southwest, officials said Wednesday.
The raid targeted members of the Baloch Liberation Army in Harnai, a district in Balochistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan. It wasn’t immediately clear when the raid took place.
Balochistan has for years been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with several separatist groups staging attacks that target mainly security forces in their quest for independence. The province also has an array of militant groups that are active there.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi praised security forces for the raid. The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army killed dozens of civilians and security forces in attacks across the province in August.
On Sunday, gunmen stormed a camp of construction workers in the province’s Musa Khel district, torching bulldozers and other machinery. Initially, police said the attackers kidnapped 20 laborers but later it turned out they were unharmed and had fled the scene to escape the assailants. India
Indian foreign minister says does not share Ishiba vision for Asian NATO (Reuters)
Reuters [10/1/2024 11:27 AM, David Brunnstrom, 37270K, Neutral]
India does not share the vision for an "Asian NATO" called for by Japan’s new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Tuesday.Jaishakar told an event at Washington’s Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that unlike Japan, India had never been a treaty ally of another country."We don’t have that kind of strategic architecture in mind," he said when asked about Ishiba’s call. India and Japan, along with the United States and Australia, are part of the so-called Quad grouping of countries established as a counterbalance to China."We have ... a different history and different way of approaching...," said Jaishankar, who spoke at the U.N. General Assembly in New York last week and will meet U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell later on Tuesday.Ishiba on Tuesday said he would seek deeper ties with friendly nations to counter the gravest security threats his country has faced since World War Two.He has called for the creation of an Asian NATO, the stationing Japanese troops on U.S. soil and even for shared control of Washington’s nuclear weapons as a deterrent against Japan’s nuclear-armed neighbors, China, Russia and North Korea.He argues that the changes would deter China from using military force in Asia.The United States has brushed off the idea.The U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said last year that Washington was not looking to create a NATO in the Indo-Pacific and this month Daniel Kritenbrink, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, said it was too early for such talk.Ishiba nevertheless doubled down on his idea on Friday, telling a press conference that "the relative decline of U.S. might" made an Asian treaty organization necessary.On Sept. 21, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi joined U.S. President Joe Biden, Ishiba’s predecessor Fumio Kishida and Australia’s prime minister for a Quad summit at which they announced joint security steps in Asia’s trade-rich waters in the face of growing challenges from China.However, even though the Quad is increasingly addressing security matters, India has stressed that it is not intended as a military alliance. India’s Army Chief Takes Cautious Stance on China Border Talks (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [10/1/2024 5:48 AM, Sudhi Ranjan Sen, 27782K, Negative]
India’s army chief said resolving a border dispute with China will depend on negotiations and the issue still remains “sensitive,” signaling a more cautious approach from the military than recent diplomatic statements from the two countries.Speaking at an event in New Delhi on Tuesday, General Upendra Dwivedi said there had been a breakdown of trust with China as a result of the conflict and the border is “stable, but not normal.” The “loss of trust is the biggest casualty,” Dwivedi said.The army chief’s comments follow recent positive signals from the foreign ministers of the two nuclear-armed nations about progress on the border talks. China’s Defense Ministry said last week that the two sides have narrowed their differences and reached broader consensus about the withdrawal of troops from some parts of the border.Dwivedi said that while there had been some movement on the diplomatic side, the military commanders will “sit together to see how this translates on the ground.” He added that “it is for diplomats to gives options and possibilities.”The two nations, which share a 3,488-kilometer (2,167 miles) unmarked border, have been locked in their worst border dispute in four decades after clashes between soldiers in June 2020 left 20 Indian and at least four Chinese troops dead.Both sides have moved fighter jets, artillery guns and missiles closer to the border, while thousands of troops were deployed. India’s government also imposed additional restrictions on Chinese businesses and investments since the border skirmish.The two nations have held several rounds of diplomatic and military talks with incremental progress. At least two points of friction still remain.Both sides need an acceptable solution, Dwivedi said, adding that New Delhi wants the border deployments to return to what they were prior to the 2020 skirmish.“The Indian military remains prepared for any eventuality,” he said. ‘Deeply concerned’ India urges for restraint as conflict escalates in West Asia (Reuters)
Reuters [10/2/2024 4:01 AM, Tanvi Mehta, 16637K, Neutral]
India said on Wednesday it was "deeply concerned" by the escalating conflict in West Asia and urged for restraint and protection of civilians as Israel prepared to retaliate against a barrage of Iranian missile strikes."It is important that the conflict doesn’t take a wider regional dimension and we urge that all issues be addressed through dialogue and diplomacy," India’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.New Delhi also advised its nationals on Wednesday to avoid all non-essential travel to Iran. India Names New External Members in RBI’s Rate-Setting Panel (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [10/1/2024 12:07 AM, Anup Roy and Siddhartha Singh, 27782K, Positive]
India’s government appointed three new external members to the central bank’s committee that decides interest rates, just a few days before a scheduled policy meeting.The three new monetary policy committee members, who will join three RBI officials on the committee led by Governor Shaktikanta Das, in the monetary policy meeting from October 7-9 include: Ram Singh, director at Delhi School of Economics Saugata Bhattacharya, economist and fellow at the New-Delhi based Center for Policy Research Nagesh Kumar, director and chief executive at the Institute for Studies in Industrial DevelopmentThe new members will have a term of four years, according to the finance ministry notice. They will replace the three outgoing external members — Ashima Goyal, Jayanth Varma and Shashanka Bhide — whose term expires Friday. The overhaul of the MPC comes as a wave of global easing kicks off following half a point cut by the US Federal Reserve last month. Governor Das is also facing calls to cut interest rates as the economy shows signs of moderation.While inflation was below the target in July and August mainly due to statistical reasons, the RBI expects it to rebound again in September, complicating the outlook for rates. Das has previously said he’s not considering a cut unless price gains stay durably around its target aim. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg predict the RBI will likely ease only in December.“We think it is too early to take a view on the policy tilt of the new external members. As of now, we see limited merit in changing our view that the first rate cut may come only by December,” said Madhavi Arora, an economist with Emkay Financial Services Ltd. However, a stance change in October is not fully ruled out, she said.Saugata Bhattacharya is an economist with over three decades of experience in economic and financial markets analysis, policy advocacy, infrastructure and project finance. Prior to his current role, he served as the chief economist at Axis Bank. In his interviews, before becoming a member of the rate-setting panel, he said that inflation trajectory was “manageable” but a room to lower interest rates will open up only in December.Nagesh Kumar is a well-known trade economist and has previously served as a director at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission of Asia and the Pacific. Kumar has written extensively on India’s approach to building more manufacturing capacity and believes that right policies can help the South Asian nation emerge as a global manufacturing hub. Ram Singh holds post-doctorate degree in economics from Harvard University, with contract theory, public economics, public private partnerships, and law and economics as key research interests. Singh also taught at the Brown University, University of Hamburg and has been Commonwealth Fellow at the London School of Economics. Thousands march in India as doctors resume strike (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [10/2/2024 4:28 AM, Staff, 456K, Neutral]
Tens of thousands of people packed the streets of one of India’s biggest cities after doctors resumed a strike and called fresh rallies over the rape and murder of a colleague.
The discovery of the 31-year-old’s bloodied body at a state-run hospital in Kolkata two months ago rekindled nationwide anger at the chronic issue of violence against women.
Doctors in the eastern city went on strike for weeks in response and walked off the job again on Tuesday, saying pledges by the West Bengal state government to improve safety and security at hospitals had been unmet.
They were joined on Tuesday evening by thousands of people from all walks of life for a huge protest march, with many carrying the Indian tricolour flag and some staying out until dawn on Wednesday.
"We want to send out the message that our protests will not end until we get justice," rally organiser Rimjhim Sinha, 29, told AFP at the march.
Kolkata is days away from the start of a festival held in honour of the Hindu warrior goddess Durga, the city’s biggest annual religious celebration.
Sinha said that the dozens of civil society groups backing doctors’ calls for public protests would use the occasion to demand an end to violence against women.
"The festival of worshipping Goddess Durga epitomises the victory of good over evil," she said. "This year it will turn into the festival of protests."
With further demonstrations called over the coming days, a senior police official told AFP on condition of anonymity that more than 2,500 extra officers had been put on active duty around Kolkata.
The victim of the August attack is not being identified in keeping with Indian laws on media reporting of sexual violence cases.
Her father attended Tuesday’s march and told AFP that his family was still "devastated" two months after her death.
"My daughter’s soul will not rest in peace until she gets justice," he said.
Doctors had briefly returned to limited duties in emergency departments last month, only to strike again in defiance of a September order from India’s top court to fully return to work.
They say that the state government’s promises to upgrade lighting, CCTV cameras and other security measures in hospitals have not been fulfilled.
Tens of thousands of ordinary Indians took part in the protests that followed the August attack.
One man has been detained over the murder but the West Bengal government has faced public criticism for its handling of the investigation.
Authorities sacked the city’s police chief and top health ministry officials.
The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus, which also sparked weeks of nationwide protests. Doctors in India’s Kolkata resume strike, demand action on safety (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [10/1/2024 10:18 AM, Staff, 25768K, Negative]
Indian doctors in the West Bengal city of Kolkata have resumed a strike to protest against the rape and murder of a female colleague.
The doctors restarted their action on Tuesday and said their demands for hospital safety improvements had not been met.
Doctors from the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, which represents about 7,000 physicians in the state, reinstated partial services last month, citing the flood situation in parts of the state.
"Unless we receive clear action from the government on safety, patient services, and the politics of fear, we will have no choice but to continue our full strike," the group said in a statement.
The rape and murder of the 31-year-old female doctor in Kolkata, the capital of the eastern state, set off a wave of protests by doctors demanding greater workplace safety for women and justice for their slain colleague, prompting India’s Supreme Court to create a hospital safety task force.
In its latest hearing on Monday, the court urged the state government to put in place all measures by October 15 to meet the doctors’ demands.
Union calls for greater security
Union spokesman Aniket Mahato said the West Bengal state government had failed to deliver on its promises to upgrade lighting, CCTV cameras and other security measures in hospitals.
"The state government has failed to provide safety and security in the workplace," he told AFP news agency.
Mahato said doctors would return to the streets on Tuesday night to insist the government meet its pledges and to demand justice for their murdered colleague.
While the protests began in Kolkata, they quickly spread across the country, including the capital New Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra.
One man has been detained over the murder, but the West Bengal government has faced public criticism for its handling of the investigation.
The city’s police chief and top health ministry officials have been fired by authorities.
The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus, which also sparked weeks of nationwide protests. In India, warming climate pressures scientists to keep developing tougher seeds (AP)
AP [10/1/2024 9:00 PM, Sibi Arasu, 31638K, Neutral]
Unpredictable rains and increasing heat aren’t just making life more difficult for the people of Rayanpet, a village in India’s arid south. They’re also taking a toll on the thousands of acres of rice grown here.
"We used to know when it would rain and for how long and we sowed our seeds accordingly," said P. Ravinder Reddy, a former soldier who turned to farming on his family’s land 16 years ago. "Now it’s so unpredictable and many times the seeds don’t sprout either because there’s too much rain or it’s completely dry."
Fortunately for Reddy, agricultural research organizations in India have been working for years to engineer rice seeds that can better withstand the vagaries of climate. He’s been experimenting with the new varieties for the past five years, and said they’re giving better yields with less water and are more disease-resistant.
"I have planted them across a quarter of my 25-acre field because there’s still demand for older varieties but I think in a few years, we will use only these tougher seeds," Reddy said.
India is one of the world’s largest producers and consumers of wheat and rice. Research organizations here, like their counterparts around the world, have long worked to produce seeds that increase yields, withstand drought or resist plant diseases. It’s a growing need as a changing climate leads to more extreme and unpredictable weather.
According to a United Nations report released earlier this year, more than 700 million people went hungry last year and over a third of the global population is unable to afford a healthy diet, thus increasing the urgency for resilient seeds that can produce food reliably. Apart from India, other programs including a United States government program and privately funded projects are helping develop climate-resilient crops in Africa, Central America and other Asian countries.
As India is among the countries most vulnerable to climate impacts, these new seeds are essential in ensuring it produces enough food for its people as well as for export.
Defending against climate shocks
As climate change intensifies, India’s nearly 120 million farmers - most with less than 5 acres of land - are seeing their livelihoods threatened by erratic rainfall patterns, rising temperatures and increased pest infestations.
Some are taking to what is called natural farming - techniques like using natural fertilizers and planting crops alongside trees and other plants that can protect crops from wind, erosion and some extreme weather - to deal with climate change. But that can mean reduced yields, and India’s federal government is also promoting the use of climate-resilient seeds that don’t compromise yields.
Increasing salinity in groundwater, heavy rainfall over short periods, prolonged droughts and even increasing nighttime temperatures can affect rice seeds, experts say.
"We really need these seeds to deal with these multiple issues created by global warming," said Ashok Kumar Singh, former director of New Delhi-based Indian Agriculture Research Institute and a scientist who specializes in plant genetics and breeding. Singh has overseen the creation of multiple successful rice varieties to withstand pests and various plant diseases. And his organization, with funding from the federal agriculture ministry, has released more than 2,000 climate-resilient seed varieties in the last decade.
Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released 109 climate-resilient seeds across crops that included cereals, pulses and oilseeds like peanuts. India’s federal government has announced plans to ensure at least 25% of land tilled for paddy in the country will be sowed with climate-resilient seeds in the coming "kharif" or winter crop season.
"We are breeding for multiple stressors, including heat and disease resistance," said Janila Pasupuleti of International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, based in Hyderabad. Pasupuleti said that this approach not only stabilizes yields but also enhances the nutritional quality of crops, benefiting both farmers and consumers.
Logistical issues that need ironing out
Even as scientists are creating climate-resilient seeds regularly, making sure the seeds reach the maximum number of farmers is critical.
Ensuring that farmers know about such seeds, can afford them, and are trained to use them properly is as important as creating the seeds, said Aditi Mukherji, director for climate change adaptation and mitigation at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and an author of several United Nations climate reports.
Mukherji noted that India’s green revolution in agriculture, which took place in the 1960s when agriculture was modernized to ensure food security and increase yields of food grains such as wheat and rice across the country, succeeded because such services were available and well-coordinated by state and federal governments at that time.
Agriculture scientists also say there’s a need for more funding for research and development - equivalent to at least 1% of the agricultural gross domestic product, said Singh, the agriculture scientist.
In Rayanpet village, Reddy is preparing to sow rice seeds for the winter season in a few weeks, and says he hopes to expand the area that gets the climate-resilient seeds.
"It’s good to keep trying new seeds as after some time all of them will have some issue or the other. If the government can also make sure we get good prices for our crops after harvest, that would help farmers like us a great deal," he said. India braces for above-average rains, rising temperatures in October (Reuters)
Reuters [10/1/2024 8:24 AM, Rajendra Jadhav, 88008K, Neutral]
India is likely to receive above average rainfall in October after unusually high volumes for the past three months, a senior weather department official said on Tuesday, which could damage summer-sown crops ready for harvesting.
October’s rainfall is projected at more than 115% of the 50-year average, said Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director-general of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Farmers have begun harvesting summer-sown crops such as rice, cotton, soybeans, corn, and pulses. Rainfall during this period could disrupt the harvesting and damage the crops.
Even in September above-average rainfall, arising from a delayed monsoon withdrawal, damaged some summer-sown crops in certain regions of India.
India received 11.6% more rainfall than average in September, following 9% and 15.3% above-average rainfall in July and August respectively, the IMD data showed.
"The weather department is predicting heavy rain in the first half of October, right when most farmers are harvesting their crops. This has farmers really worried," said a Mumbai-based dealer with a global trade house.
However, the rains in October may also enhance soil moisture, benefiting the planting of winter-sown crops such as wheat, rapeseed, and chickpea.
The withdrawal of the monsoon started nearly a week later than usual this year, but it is likely to fully withdraw from the country around mid-October, Mohapatra said.
India’s annual June-September monsoon provides almost 70% of the rain it needs to water farms and replenish reservoirs and aquifers, and is the lifeblood of a nearly $3.5 trillion economy. Without irrigation, nearly half of Indian farmland depends on the rains that usually run from June to September.
In October, maximum and minimum temperatures in most parts of the country are likely to be above normal, Mohapatra said. India’s economic mismatch: not enough jobs and not enough workers (Financial Times)
Financial Times [10/1/2024 11:47 PM, John Reed, Jyotsna Singh, and Chris Kay, 14.2M, Neutral]
Ajesh Kumar, a college graduate in a village in Haryana, a rural state bordering Delhi, recently applied to work as a cleaner. But there were more than 400,000 jobseekers for an estimated 5,000 positions, making the 30-year old’s chances about one in 80. “There’s just no hope, no chance” of getting one of the government posts, Kumar said, which are prized because of the guaranteed hours, wages and benefits, however low, of public sector work. Among the applicants were two of his family members.
Kumar is one face of India’s most intractable public policy issue: a chronic shortage of formal jobs in the world’s most populous country and, according to companies, a corresponding shortage of suitable candidates to fill them.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s economic record will again be on the agenda in Haryana on Saturday in one in a string of regional polls in which the opposition will seek to build momentum against his Bharatiya Janata party. The opposition managed to push the BJP into a parliamentary minority for the first time since 2014 in nationwide elections this year, in part by highlighting persistently high joblessness.
India’s economy is failing to create enough jobs for its young and growing population and train the skilled workers its companies need to harness that demographic dividend. This mismatch is feeding widespread grievances and represents one of the biggest challenges for Modi as he enters his second decade in power.“Every month about a million formal job seekers are being added to the workforce,” says Rituparna Chakraborty, co-founder of Teamlease, which describes itself as India’s biggest staffing company. “Nine out of 10 of them go into the informal sector — jobs where there is no employment contract, no social security benefits, no protection, and no wage guarantees.” “The poorest Indians tend to take on daily wage jobs in things like construction because there aren’t too many alternatives,” says Shruti Rajagopalan, senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, in Virginia.“The people in the middle are still waiting, and would rather hold out for a government job, or work on the family farm because at least it provides them food security.”
Modi’s government has taken steps to tackle India’s joblessness. In the first post-election budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an apprenticeship scheme aimed at benefiting 10mn young people over five years. The government has also promised training subsidies for companies, stipends for apprenticeships and help for vocational schools to amend their curricula to align with job market demands.
In its previous term, Modi’s cabinet also cut corporate taxes and took steps to amend labour laws in a bid to stimulate job growth.
Corporate India, however, laments a shortage of qualified candidates for its top jobs. Conglomerate Larsen & Toubro said in June that it faced a shortage of 45,000 skilled labourers and engineers across its businesses, which range from construction to information technology.
Analysts said the skills gap bodes ill for Modi’s “Make in India” manufacturing push, and attests to neglect and uneven standards at Indian secondary institutions.“So many people come out of these colleges, but we can do a lot to make them more employable in the industry,” K Krithivasan, chief executive of Tata Consultancy Services, India’s biggest IT company, told the Financial Times earlier this year.
Mohandas Pai, chair of private equity firm Aarin Capital and former chief financial officer at IT giant Infosys, said most industries were struggling to find skilled workers as India’s economy expands at an annual clip of about 7 per cent, with job openings outpacing the supply of employable workers.
At the same time, he said: “Many industries are not willing to spend money to hire them, skill them and train them.”
A study published this year by Quess Corp, an Indian business service provider, and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry argued that India faced a wage — rather than an employment — problem. About 80 per cent of jobs pay less than Rs20,000 ($238) a month, not enough to meet rising living expenses, the study’s authors argued.
On the supply side, economists say cumbersome labour regulation is also holding back industry from creating jobs. Much of the legislation only kicks in for companies employing 10 people or more, points out George Mason University’s Rajagopalan. “Either people are not hiring the 10th worker, or they hire the worker informally,” she said.
Modi’s government in 2020 approved an overhaul of India’s patchwork of labour laws, which regulate areas ranging from maximum shift hours to the number of clocks per factory floor. But the reforms have yet to take effect.
There is even disagreement over how to measure India’s unemployment. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, a think-tank, publishes the most widely cited indicator, which is conducted monthly. In August, it showed a jobless rate at 8.51 per cent, and unemployment on a rising trend. “This is a pretty high unemployment rate in a country growing at 7 to 8 per cent per annum,” says Mahesh Vyas, CMIE’s managing director. “We have also been seeing the unemployment rate very high for a long period now in both rural and urban regions.”
Modi’s political circle favours the Periodic Labour Force Survey, which reports quarterly rural and urban unemployment rates and shows the jobless rate at below 5 per cent and falling.
Analysts said the discrepancy was because of what counted as work, including part-time agricultural work.
Vyas claims the definition of a job in the PLFS is “too relaxed”. He also pointed to growth of India’s net fixed assets at companies, which he said served as a proxy for employment and joblessness and has been growing at only about 5-6 per cent in recent years.“Employment will increase only if investments increase, and I don’t see that,” Vyas said.
Kumar, in Haryana, for example, might or might not qualify as unemployed depending on who is counting. He is earning some money on commission for a company that sells cattle feed, and is considering setting up a dairy business with his brother.
Like many young Indians, he also aspired to an army post, completing a correspondence degree in political science and passing the written test three times. But he was rejected in the interview.“You need sources and contacts when you reach that level,” Kumar said. “I did not have them.”“I have given up looking for jobs,” he added. ‘Life is pretty brutal’: concerns in India over high-pressure corporate jobs (The Guardian)
The Guardian [10/2/2024 12:00 AM, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, 92.4M, Neutral]
For the average Indian, the working week is now longer than ever – totalling almost 47 hours.
According to recent labour data, India now has one of the most overworked labour forces in the world, enduring longer hours than in China, Singapore and even Japan, a country renowned for its relentless work culture. On average, Indians work 13 hours longer every week than an employee in Germany.
Almost 90% of those working in India are employed in the informal sector, which is largely unregulated and exploitative. However, concerns have also begun to be raised about the working conditions of those in formal employment, particularly those in India’s corporate sector where working practices have remained largely unchanged in decades and critics say pursuit of profit remains king.
In July, Anna Sebastian Perayil, a 26-year-old chartered accountant at the India offices of corporate accounting giant Ernst and Young, died four months after joining. In a letter written in the aftermath, her mother said that the “overwhelming” high-pressure work environment had taken a heavy toll on Perayil and eventually led to her death.“She worked late into the night, even on weekends, with no opportunity to catch her breath,” said her mother’s letter, which went viral across India. “The relentless demands and the pressure to meet unrealistic expectations are not sustainable, and they cost us the life of a young woman with so much potential.” She also noted that no-one from the company had attended her daughter’s funeral.
One former Ernst and Young employee, who asked to remain anonymous to protect their job, said that the toxic culture alleged by Peyaril’s mother was standard practice at the firm, and came from the very top.“Life is pretty brutal and everyone is overburdened,” he said, describing it as the norm to work 12- or 13-hour days, finishing up around 10pm, and regularly working both days on the weekend.
The belittling and degradation of staff was commonplace, he added, with employees viewed as resources rather than human beings. “There is an extreme hierarchy,” he said. “Senior managers were known to terrorise junior staff to keep everyone on their toes constantly. They would shout and throw files around and people would often be reduced to tears.”
One issue he highlighted was just how competitive and sought after roles at these companies were in India. Growing numbers of young Indians are now going to universities and getting qualifications such as accounting, yet the number of positions in the corporate sector has not risen to meet demand and only 40% of graduates are employed. Often there are tens of thousands of applicants for a single position, with global firms such as Ernst and Young seen as particularly aspirational.“There’s no incentives for big corporates to change their practices because executives know that if one person won’t do it or quits, there are thousands of other people who will take their place,” he said. “The sole focus is productivity and long hours, with no thought for the wellbeing of employees. It’s hard to see that changing anytime soon.”
In the aftermath, Ernst and Young’s India head, Rajiv Memani, released a statement stating that the allegations of high pressure were “completely alien to our culture” and said he attached “the highest importance to the wellbeing of our people”.
In a further comment to the Guardian, Ernst and Young said they were “deeply saddened” by Peyaril’s death. “We are taking the family’s correspondence with the utmost seriousness and humility. We place the highest importance on the well-being of all employees and will continue to find ways to improve,” they said in a statement.
However many have pointed out that excessive demands were not only the preserve of the big accounting firms in India. Narayana Murthy, one of the founder of India’s biggest IT firm Infosys, suggested last year that Indians should be prepared to work 70-hour weeks to ensure the growth of the country.
Ravneet, who previously worked at an IT company, described a similarly toxic work environment where employees were not allowed to talk or socialise in the workplace, had all their breaks closely monitored and had their pay arbitrarily docked.“Everything we did was so heavily policed,” he said. “They knew they could exploit people because everyone is desperate and wait years to get these kinds of jobs. They can’t afford to lose them, so they don’t complain even when we know when we are being exploited or labour laws are being broken.”
Ravneet said working there had taken a major toll on his mental health before one day he was fired, with no reason given.
Employees in other sectors, from media to entertainment, said the problem was endemic there too. Sara, who has worked in corporate events for over a decade, said it was completely normalised to work 16-hour days and be given tasks on at 11pm Sunday night and told to have them done by first thing Monday morning.“These companies actually encourage gruesome office politics because they think it’s good for business to have employees feeling uncertain and threatened in their jobs, so they will work harder,” she said.
She eventually went freelance to free herself from some of the toxic corporate culture of the office where she worked. “You barely have time to eat or sleep properly and in the end you lose sight of yourself completely,” she said. “Of course it takes a huge toll – but no one seems to care.” India’s toilet-building plan saves thousands of babies, report says (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [10/1/2024 4:14 PM, Kiran Sharma, 2.4M, Neutral]
A government-backed sanitation project has resulted in the building of more than 117 million toilets in India, which a science journal has attributed to possibly having saved the lives of up to 70,000 babies.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made it his government’s mission to create an "open defecation-free" (ODF) India under the "Clean India" campaign launched on Oct. 2, 2014.
The mission was mainly focused on rural areas in the South Asian nation, with a public investment of more than 1.4 trillion rupees ($16.7 billion), according to government data. Authorities say the rural sanitation coverage increased from 39% in 2014 to 100% in 2019 during the program’s first phase. The second phase running up to 2025 is aimed at sustaining the ODF status and managing solid and liquid waste.
The mission is the largest behavioral change program globally. The age-old practice of defecating in the open has stubbornly endured as patriarchal Indian families objected to having latrines inside houses -- despite numerous hardships faced by women of going to the toilet in open areas outside the home. This was rooted in a centuries-old cultural resistance to installing a toilet alongside a prayer room or kitchen, and it was considered cleaner to defecate in the open regardless of its contribution to the spread of diseases.
"Toilet access and child mortality have a historically robust inverse association in India," says the study published in September in science journal Nature, pointing out that the post-Swachh Baharat Mission (SBM) period in India showed accelerated reductions in infant and child mortality compared to the pre-SBM years.
"Based on our regression estimates, the provision of toilets at-scale may have contributed to averting approximately 60,000-70,000 infant deaths annually," the report noted. "Our findings show that the implementation of transformative sanitation programs can deliver population health benefits in low- and middle-income countries," it added.
The study analyzed the infant mortality rate (IMR), or the number of children dying before reaching the age of one out of 1,000 live births, and the under-five mortality rate in 35 states and 640 districts spanning 10 years from 2011 to 2020.
According to Abhishek Kumar Sinha, a medical doctor who is state program officer working to strengthen the health system in India’s eastern state of Bihar, the SBM has contributed to reducing both the IMR and the maternal mortality rate (MMR).
"Improved sanitation reduces the spread of infectious diseases like diarrhea, cholera, and typhoid, which disproportionately affect infants, children, and pregnant women. Reducing waterborne diseases directly lowers IMR and improves maternal health," he told Nikkei Asia.
"The Swachh Bharat Mission, through its focus on sanitation, hygiene, and clean water, has had a positive effect on public health, contributing to reductions in both MMR and IMR across India, especially in rural areas," Sinha added.
However, some argue that toilets that were constructed under the SBM are not being properly utilized. "Many of these [toilets] in rural areas have no water supply and are being used as granaries or storage," Duru Arun Kumar, a New Delhi-based professor of sociology, said.
On Oct. 2, 2019, India claimed that it was open defecation free, coinciding with the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, who also propagated cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation.
Nevertheless, Kumar said, "there are very strong cultural reasons" which still prevent many people in villages from using household toilets even if they have constructed them. "They, especially men, still go outside [their houses] to relieve themselves."
"Besides, there is a serious water problem due to lack of direct supply [in several places in rural India] and people are still drawing water from the wells for drinking," she told Nikkei. "How can they have water in toilets then?"
In August 2019, the Modi government launched another program to provide a safe and potable tap water supply to rural households in partnership with the country’s states.
When the project was announced, about 32.3 million, or just 17%, of rural households were reported to have tap water connections.
An additional 110 million rural households had been provided with tap water connections as of Feb.4, bringing the total coverage to about 74%, according to an official statement. However, 26% of the total of more than 192.7 million rural households in India have yet to be connected. India and China Eye Indian Ocean’s ‘Pearl’ (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [10/1/2024 8:36 AM, Meenuka Mathew, 1198K, Neutral]
The "Pearl of the Indian Ocean" - Sri Lanka - may yet become a bone of contention between India and China, following the September 21 presidential election that catapulted Anura Kumara Dissanayake into the top job.
While reports before the elections suggested that a "geopolitical tug-of-war" may unfold in the near future, there is no denying that Sri Lanka will find itself strategically placed as far regional trade and regional security is concerned.
For both India and China, the Colombo and Hambantota ports will be critical points in the global shipping route and both countries will try to vie for control over major infrastructure projects.
Dissanayake declared, immediately after assuming charge, that he would not prefer to be "sandwiched" between India and China, especially when both were "valued partners." This indicated that he aimed to remain equidistant from the two regional powers even as he said that both countries could provide financial aid while seeking to build close ties with the West, Middle East, and Africa.
There is, however, no doubt that both India and China have great capacity to influence Sri Lanka’s bilateral relations with the two regional powers.
The island nation has maintained a close-friend approach towards India for decades, based on historical, cultural, security and economic relationships. There was undoubtedly a setback to this relationship in the last decade or so, especially during the presidency of Mahinda Rajapaksa who had leaned toward China. At that time, Sri Lanka and China sought to deepen their strategic cooperative partnership.
The Rajapaksa regime’s post-civil war development initiatives had a pro-China approach. As a result, China, as Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor, secured influence in the island nation through projects such as port city and infrastructure development. However, the fall of the Rajapaksa clan ensured an erosion of Chinese influence in Sri Lanka’s badly mauled economy in the last two years.
Following the 2022 economic crisis, India played a pivotal role in supporting Sri Lanka when it intervened swiftly to extend a $4 billion lifeline, which surpassed the International Monetary Fund’s 48-month bailout of $3 billion.
During the pre-election campaign of the National People’s Power - a coalition of political parties led by Dissanayake - it was vocal in opposing the sale of national assets to foreign companies, highlighting a threat to Sri Lanka’s national interests. The NPP strongly opposed the Adani Group’s acquisitions of the country’s port, renewable energy, and airport sectors.
Five days before Sri Lanka went to the polls on September 21, Dissanayake said he would "cancel" a wind power project awarded to the Indian conglomerate earlier, if he won the election.
The Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP), the extreme left party that Dissanayake leads, has been labeled as pro-Chinese in its approach to foreign policy and is often described as an outfit that continues to oppose policies involving neighboring India. Suffice it to say that the JVP was opposed to Indian military intervention in the island nation’s civil war in the late 1980s.
Compared to Dissanayaka’s opponents in the run-up to the presidential race, the NPP’s foreign policy is not being articulated clearly, creating uncertainty about how the new leadership would approach the neighbors and maintain old diplomatic relations with India and China.
Long before the presidential election, New Delhi had tried to warm up to Dissanayake, extending an invitation in February to the NPP leader to visit the Indian capital. Dissanayake did visit New Delhi and met senior officials, including India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
Following Dissanayake’s electoral victory, the Indian High Commissioner in Colombo was among the first foreign diplomats to meet and congratulate the president-elect.
It would perhaps have served Indian interests better had Ranil Wickremesinghe or Sajith Premadasa won the election as both are known for their pro-New Delhi stance. This would have allowed India to play a bigger role in the Sri Lankan economy and regional security, especially in the backdrop of its generous financial support to Colombo in the aftermath of the economic crisis.
For its part, New Delhi would seek to continue to engage with Colombo, primarily over the issue of the welfare of Tamils of Indian origin, greater connectivity, continuation of its energy-related projects, interests of its fishermen, and keeping China’s military from using Sri Lankan ports.
After a pro-China president assumed power in the Maldives on the crest of an "India Out" campaign, the Indian government sought to promote Sri Lanka as a tourist destination.
There has been speculation that the JVP’s ideological position would draw it closer to China, but Dissanayake has not spelled out snapping ties with New Delhi, an indication that he may prefer continued bilateral engagement with its northern neighbor.
It is in India’s interest to maintain friendly ties with Sri Lanka, given that its nuclear power plants, space research centers, and naval bases are in southern India and closer to Sri Lanka.
There is hope that Sri Lanka’s ties with India could even improve under the Dissanayake dispensation as he had recently said he would not allow any other power to use his country’s sea, airspace, and land to threaten India.
As a strategically important littoral state, Sri Lanka under Dissanayake will have to carefully navigate its ties with both India and China. Sri Lankan analysts are of the opinion that Dissanayake will balance between New Delhi and Beijing, although this will be a "tightrope walk" considering both Indian and Chinese interests in the Indian Ocean Region.
The burden of Chinese loans partly caused the 2022 economic collapse, which, surprisingly, allowed India to chip in with financial and material aid.
However, given the geopolitical outcomes in the Maldives and Bangladesh, Indian influence in Sri Lanka will depend on how adroitly it manages its diplomatic ties with the Dissanayake regime. India: Police detain 600 striking Samsung workers at protest (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [10/1/2024 12:05 PM, Staff, 16637K, Negative]
Indian police on Tuesday detained around 600 employees of Samsung Electronics, one of the world’s largest semiconductor and computer chip manufacturers, and union members for organizing a street protest.
For the past four weeks, thousands of employees of the South Korean company in India have been on strike over their working conditions near the factory in Chennai and at other locations.
According to senior state police official Charles Sam Rajadurai, the protesters were detained because their march was causing public inconvenience.
What are the protesters demanding?
The workers are asking for a wage increase, working days capped at eight hours, and recognition of the factory’s main union, CITU.
The Chennai plant is Samsung’s second-largest in the country and generates nearly one-third of Samsung’s annual revenue in India, which amounts to $12 billion (\u20ac10.8 billion).
According to the union, Samsung workers in Chennai earn an average of 25,000 rupees (roughly $300) per month and want that figure to increase to 36,000 rupees within three years.
When did the protests begin?
The strike began on September 9. Since then, thousands of Samsung workers in India have been demonstrating in a makeshift tent near the factory.
The union claims that police are detaining thousands of workers. "Since September 9, at least 10,000 workers have been detained," said union member S. Kannan to the EFE news agency, albeit adding that most were soon released.
Local media have also reported hundreds of arrests in recent weeks.
So far, negotiation attempts have failed, increasing tension between the company and the strikers.
How has Samsung reacted?
Samsung has threatened striking workers with dismissal, although it says it is open to negotiating a consensus solution with them.
According to the company, workers at the Chennai factory earn nearly twice as much as similar workers in the same region.
The South Korean company also operates another factory in India, located in Noida, near New Delhi.
Samsung employees at factories in South Korea, the country’s largest company, also went on strike earlier this year.
The National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU) represents 24% of the company’s workforce there, with around 31,000 members. NSB
Nepal to send more skilled workers to Japan: labor minister (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [10/1/2024 12:04 PM, Eugene Lang, 2376K, Positive]
Nepal is looking to send more workers to Japan, especially those who will qualify for skilled visas, Nepal’s labor minister told Nikkei in an interview in Tokyo.In Nepal, 500,000 people enter the labor market every year, according to Sharat Singh Bhandari, Nepal’s minister of labor, employment and social security. But with just 100,000 job opportunities available in Nepal annually, some 400,000 need to work overseas, Bhandari said.Many Nepalese work in construction in places like the Middle East and Malaysia, but the pay levels in those countries are not appealing, said Bhandari. The country seek to send more people to Japan and South Korea, he said.Some argue that fewer workers are seeking to work in Japan due to the effects of the weak yen and the slower growth in pay compared to other developed nations.But for Nepalese, Japan remains an attractive, advanced economy, and its wages are attractive, Bhandari added.There were roughly 176,000 Nepalese nationals living in Japan at the end of 2023, according to data from Japan’s Immigration Services Agency. That equates to the sixth largest foreign population by place of origin.Some are believed to be applying for student visas to Japan with the intent of finding employment. Bhandari said while the government has no intention of preventing Nepalese students from studying abroad, there should be a clear distinction between studying abroad and working as a migrant. If a Nepalese person is going to work in Japan, it should be as a specified skilled worker, he said.Candidates applying for the specified skilled worker visa need to pass tests demonstrating their professional skills and Japanese language proficiency. But in Nepal, there is an insufficient number of testing centers, while other administrative infrastructure is lacking.In many cases, the testing application website is overloaded with traffic, preventing people from completing the application process.There should be four to five testing sites in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, as well as one or two testing sites in each of the country’s other provinces, said Bhandari. The country is asking the Japanese government for assistance in improving the testing environment, Bhandari added.Bhandari arrived in Tokyo to participate in a bilateral employment conference hosted by the Japan Association for the Employment of Foreign Nationals. During a speech at the conference, Bhandari said working in places like Japan would help alleviate poverty and inequality in Nepal. Central Asia
Oil Majors Restart Talks With Kazakh Government on $5 Billion Kashagan Sulfur Fine (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [10/1/2024 8:35 AM, Nariman Gizitinov, 27782K, Negative]
Partners in the giant Kashagan oil field have restarted talks with the Kazakh authorities aimed at settling a potential $5 billion environmental fine, according to people familiar with the matter.Oil majors including Eni SpA, Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp. and TotalEnergies SE have drafted proposals related to allegations they stored too much sulfur at the field, the people said, asking not to be named because the talks are private. The proposal comes as Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court may issue a preliminary ruling rule on the dispute this week, the people said.The companies are proposing making an additional investment in social projects of $110 million over the next two years, an expense that would be recoverable from Kashagan’s revenue under the production sharing contract, the people said. They would also found a multimillion dollar social development fund, contributions to which wouldn’t be recoverable, the people said.The venture also proposed making additional payments related to the supply of liquefied petroleum gas to the government, the people said. That would effectively take the form of a discount from the venture on LPG sales to the state, people said.In return, the proposal would oblige the state to withdraw sulfur-damage compensation claims in Kazakhstan and all environmental damage claims in international arbitration, the people said. The government would also need to change domestic environmental laws related to water treatment to avoid any future claims against the oil producers, who would not admit any fault in the settlement, the people said.Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry and the Environment Protection Ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment. Shell and Exxon referred questions to Kashagan’s operator, NCOC, which wasn’t immediately able to comment. Among other partners in the field, Inpex Corp. declined to comment, while Eni and TotalEnergies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. CNPC didn’t respond to a request for comment outside normal business hours. The $55 billion Kashagan development in the Caspian Sea has been plagued by delays and cost overruns. Kazakh authorities has being pushing for higher revenue from the country’s oil fields and sued the joint venture partners in international arbitration for more than $160 billion in damages. Most of that amount reflects lost revenue, but it also includes damages related to alleged environmental violations and deals affected by corruption.The main international arbitration process related to the dispute is due to start next year, the people said.The Kashagan venture has appealed to Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court, seeking to overturn an earlier appellate court decision that supported the government’s claim that too much sulfur was being stored at the facility, as well as other alleged violations related to water treatment and emissions. The operator, which has denied any wrongdoing, initially won a challenge to the environmental rulings in a lower court last year.The settlement proposal also includes a commitment by oil companies to reduce sulfur storage at the field to 700,000 tons, which is roughly the storage limit set by the government, the people said. Over 3 Decades Into Independence, Property Protections in Kazakhstan Remain Weak (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [10/1/2024 7:54 AM, Rustem Amangeldi, 1198K, Neutral]
Back in 2013, Bakhyt Nurmuhambetova, a businesswoman from Kazakhstan’s largest city, Almaty, believed that she was investing in something akin to the Kazakh Dream.
Not only was she putting her hard-earned income into prime real estate in the country’s capital, Astana, she was doing so in time to take advantage of the predicted scrum of tourists at the international Expo that Astana was going to host four years down the line.
Nurmuhambetova’s 350 square meter plot in the Expo City project stared straight out at the site slated for the main pavilion. She intended to build a shop.
The plot cost her nearly 95 million tenge, or just over $600,000 at the time.
But Nurmuhambetova’s dream turned into a decade-long nightmare, thanks to a pattern of events that have repeated time and again in Kazakhstan’s property market, spotlighting weak protections for buyers and predatory and opportunistic behavior on the part of both state- and privately-owned developers.
Work on the project stalled in 2014, with the privately-owned developer Azbuka Zhilya apparently in financial distress and unable to continue the project. Construction only recommenced in 2020 - three years after the Expo took place and four years after Azbuka Zhilya’s founder, one-time lawmaker Erkanat Taizhanov, skipped the country.
In 2016, Taizhanov was detained by police in Austria after Kazakhstan issued an arrest warrant, but after a period under house arrest, he was let go.
The following year, the Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s office acknowledged that Austrian authorities were still waiting for the full handover of a case that accused Taizhanov of defrauding over 2,000 property investors at Expo City and several other developments to the tune of more than $100 million.
It is not clear how actively authorities are pursuing his extradition.
By this point, Nurmuhambetova had joined a cooperative of Expo City investors that reached an agreement with a government-backed construction company, Elorda Kurylys Kompaniyasi (EKK), to complete the project.
Nurmuhambetova’s legal representative in the cooperative, a relative, was persuaded to sign an agreement on her behalf stating that she agreed that changes in the design of the project were possible. The agreement also stated that she would be prepared to increase her payment if her premises were expanded as a result.
Fast forward to the present, and Nurmuhambetova is in court with EKK.
Rather than the Expo-facing property that she paid for, the state-owned developer has offered her three separate premises set back from the street, provided she can cough up an extra 39 million tenge, or $88,000.
Her other option? Take a payment of just over $200,000 and give up her interests in the project.
At the same time, the front-facing plots of the complex have been reallocated to other buyers by a private developer with whom EKK concluded an unexplained partnership agreement.
And while the investors in Azbuka Zhilya’s initial project have been forced to accept inferior plots, the front-facing properties are being sold by the private developer for around $750,000.
"I have lost 11 years of my life waiting for the construction to be completed," Nurmuhambetova said in an interview with The Diplomat.
"Is it fair that I will now have to lose at least $300,000 as well?"
Like Mushrooms After Rain If a successful entrepreneur like Nurmuhambetova can lose big in an investment in the center of the capital, then it is hardly surprising that poorer Kazakhs and first-time buyers are also vulnerable.
For provincial news websites, stories of construction scams and petitioning "dolshiki" - the Russian word for shareholders in property projects - are regular fare.
Nevertheless, as Kazakhstan’s biggest cities and centers of wealth, it is logical that Almaty and Astana have witnessed some of the country’s biggest construction scandals. The fact that these tales of woe have occurred right under the authorities’ noses has inevitably given rise to the suspicion that unscrupulous officials are somehow in on the act.
Powered by rising energy prices, Kazakhstan began experiencing massive economic growth around the turn of the century, with a knock-on effect for the housing market. From one year to the next, prices for real estate rose massively.
In 2005 the most expensive real estate in Almaty was around $2,000 per square meter - a series of cottages close to an upscale wellness club controlled by then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s daughter, Alia Nazarbayeva. By the following year, that top-end figure had grown to around $6,000-$7,000.
By the first half of 2007, the premium figure was closer to $10,000, at a time when costs in non-elite regions had soared to between $2,000-$3,000.
The reckoning was not long in coming.
In the second half of 2007, the ripples of a brutal global financial crisis originating in the United States reached Kazakhstan, popping the local real estate bubble.
Kazakh banks ceased lending for unsecured mortgages almost instantly, depriving developers of sales and scaring off buyers. As construction companies lost their long lines of credit and went bankrupt, the government formed commissions.
Authorities acknowledged that tens of thousands of buyers had been affected, and spent several hundred million dollars on support for banks and some companies in the sector.
Buyers, typically in the form of cooperatives, succeeded in winning court judgments that allowed them to assume ownership of half-built projects, but they got no compensation for the lost time and - in some cases - lacked alternative living space in the interim.
But they still had to find somebody to finish the job. As a result, some of those who invested in 2006-2007 had to wait up to a decade to receive their housing, while a new boom - this time focused on the capital - began in around 2012-13.
Authorities’ Neglect or Collusion?
The Law "On Shared Participation (Shareholding) in Construction," passed in 2016 was supposed to improve buyer protections. It set strict stipulations for private developers, who, according to its provisions, should only be able to attract advance capital from would-be buyers if those stipulations are met.
Developers should be able to show that they own a land plot to build on, have a building permit from government agencies, and possess a guarantee from a bank that construction will be completed.
But the law hasn’t achieved what it set out to do.
In an interview with the Atameken Business news outlet at the end of 2016, a member of the Astana city council’s government commission on problems related to housing developments said that five fraud cases involving developers had impacted as many as 10,000 buyers in Astana alone.
The commission member, Tatiana Chursina, cited as an example the case of Bakytzhan Toimbetov, a developer who was jailed after his company took shareholder money for six housing developments with names like "Praga" and "Tokyo" but failed to progress any of them.
"The investigation found that Toimbetov invested the shareholders’ money in the restaurant business in Almaty. As he explained in court, since the restaurant business is very profitable, he planned to use the profits for the construction of the housing development. In addition, he also invested in a factory," Chursina told the outlet.
Yet what of the authorities? After all, the law stipulates that developers must demonstrate ownership of the land for their proposed project, have the relevant permits from government agencies, and bank guarantees before attracting buyers. How did the authorities not know a housing development advertised on giant billboards lacked compliance with these provisions?
At what point does neglect become complicity?
One thing is clear - both state-owned construction companies and the private companies that they subcontract to make plenty of money in the process of completing housing developments.
In many cases, cooperatives like the one Nurmuhambetova joined are forced to make peace with design changes that make the project more profitable and the development less comfortable for living or business.
Industry sources moreover indicate that the construction companies charged with completing projects also have a record for getting money from the budget for elements already completed by the first developer - in other words, stealing.
Since EKK stepped in, along with its partner from the private sector, Qazaq Invest Build, building costs at the development formerly known as Expo City have soared. This fact is reflected in two documents - one titled Contract No. 47 and the other an addendum to that contract - reviewed by this author and signed by Qazaq Invest Build and the housing cooperative.
The documents show that construction costs over the span of just over two years (between February 2020 and May 2022) increased by 76 percent in local currency and by more than 50 percent in real terms. Basic costs for the completion of the project now total more than 300,000 tenge per square meter, which do not include the cost of landscaping and connection to infrastructure.
Private construction companies that this author interviewed this year said that it would be possible to build a housing development of this type from scratch and make a profit if costs were pegged at 180,000-190,000 tenge per square meter.
Moreover, the 2022 addendum includes an allocation of the equivalent of around $6 million for underground parking, despite the fact that underground parking was already built.
EKK last year refused to provide an interview to this author on the topic of the Expo City project. In a written response, the company cited the refusal as being due to a busy schedule. The company moreover pledged that construction would be completed by the first half of this year. That has seemingly not happened.
The author has also contacted Qazaq Invest Build, whose ultimate beneficiary, Salamat Akhmetov, is a counselor in the Astana city council and a representative of Kazakhstan’s ruling party, Amanat. As of publication there has been no response. The Last Fishermen Of Kazakhstan’s Aral Sea (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [10/2/2024 4:27 AM, Petr Trotsenko, 235K, Neutral]
Tastubek is a small fishing village located on the coast of the Aral Sea. When the waters of the sea receded due to Soviet-era irrigation projects, life here effectively stopped.
After the completion in 2005 of a dam that attempted to revive a corner of the barren sea, a small fishing industry was revived. Now the northern Aral sea is receding once more, but fishermen in the village of Tastubek still take out their boats each day to catch what they can.
In the predawn twilight, the steppes around the Aral Sea look bleak and endless.
The only features seen from the train I’m riding in are concrete power poles and the occasional herd of camels chewing the dusty grass.
My route runs from Kyzylorda to Aral, a city in southern Kazakhstan that once stood on the shore of a lake so huge that it was called a sea. The railway station here is still called "Aral Sea," although there hasn’t been a shoreline here for decades.
From Aral, it’s another 70 kilometers farther to reach the coast of the shrunken sea.
In the late 1980s, the shallowing Aral Sea split into two parts. The Syr Darya River flowed into the northern part, and a dam was planned that would seal up the inflow of the Syr Darya and prevent any of its waters draining towards the southern half of the Aral Sea
At first, the dam was made from sand and clay which was twice washed away. Eventually the World Bank allocated money for the construction of a concrete barrier, and in 2005 a 13-kilometer dam was completed. But it was far from a perfect fix.The concrete dam is just 6 meters high, and the northern sea occasionally overflows into the south along with fish that die in the salty water on the other side of the barrier.
Now some are calling for the dam to be raised by another 6-8 meters to enable the northern sea to rise higher. But such an extension would require a massive investment.
In the mid-2000s, the project to save the northern Aral was considered a success. The reservoir filled up, salinity decreased, and fish stocks rebounded. The full revival of the Aral is still being discussed, but with less optimism than before due to the diminishing waters of the Syr Darya River.
In Aral, I step off the train and climb into a four-wheel-drive vehicle to cross the remaining desert to reach Tastubek, a village near the Aral Sea. Fishermen and cattle breeders live in the settlement; there are no other ways to make a living.
My driver, Serik, is a middle-aged Kazakh, born and raised in Aral. Serik heard from his parents about how the Aral Sea once lapped near Aralsk; he’s too young to have seen it for himself.
Serik’s mother worked at a fish factory for 25 years. “It was a large factory, you could call it a city-forming enterprise,” Serik says. “When there was water in the sea about 3,000 people worked at the factory.”
His father worked at a shipyard, but when the water receded, Serik says, "all of these enterprises closed."
Serik runs a business out of Aral taking tourists to some of the famous places around the Aral Sea. He once took visitors to the famous “ship graveyard” but locals recently sawed up the ships and sold them for scrap metal.
Tourism is a good business, Serik says, but it’s strictly seasonal. In winter, no one comes here.
As we bump along a dusty gravel road, Serik talks about what has changed here in recent years. He says health problems that once plagued people in the region have apparently become less common. “The wind used to carry salt from the bottom of the dried-up sea and almost every second person had problems with their lungs and their kidneys,” the driver claims. “But now we don’t complain, it seems we’ve become less sick. We’ve probably gotten used to it. And the Northern Aral has risen, there’s less salt.”
Today around 120 people live in Tastubek. There is a school, electricity, and a slow Internet connection.
In the 1990s, the Aral Sea became so shallow that Tastubek all but died out. Just seven or eight families stayed on, only because they had nowhere else to go. After the dam was built and the water began to return to the northern part of the Aral Sea, people started to return. These were mainly unemployed youngsters who hoped to survive by fishing.
I meet two fishermen brothers in Tastubek -- Serzhan and Nurzhan. The younger brother, Nurzhan, is engaged in fishing and breeds camels and horses. His wife, Aykorke, works as a schoolteacher and raises their four children.
Nurzhan is a short, quiet man who talks about himself reluctantly.“My father fished here, so did my grandfather, so I carry on the tradition. I like Tastubek, it’s calm and quiet, the sea is nearby, there’s fish,” he says.
"I could leave tomorrow if I felt like it, but I don’t want to. This is my home. In the summer we make fermented milk, in autumn we sell meat, and in the winter and spring we fish."
Nurzhan has a large new house, which is still being completed. In the yard, there is a pen for camels and several sheds. In the evenings, Aykorke milks the camels and begins the fermentation process for the fizzy milk that is a popular drink in Kazakhstan throughout summer. At the entrance to the house, hunting dogs sit waiting. In autumn they will be busy when Nurzhan starts shooting ducks along the coast and hares on the steppe.
Fishing is also partly seasonal. In winter and spring, fish in the Aral Sea are more active and easier to catch in nets. Through the cooler months, a fisherman’s haul also stays fresh longer for transport to city markets. In summer, the fish of the Aral Sea tend to swim deeper where the water is cooler and they can be hard to catch. Most of the fishermen working the Aral Sea in summer are catching fish only for themselves and their families.
The fish population is directly linked to the depth of the Aral Sea, locals say. When the water level sinks, so does the fish population. In 2019, water levels on the Syr Darya River were low and fish became scarce.“There were years [a long time ago] when we caught 80–100 kilograms a day, now that’s only a memory,” Nurzhan says.
On the shore when we visit in the evening, several Soviet-designed UAZ vehicles are already parked up and fishermen are busy preparing boats in the shallows. After 20 minutes to get their boat set up, Nurzhan and Serzhan are on their way in their small vessel.
The boat picks up speed and heads toward the sunset. The shore disappears from view and the greenish water foams under the propeller. Nurzhan sits at the stern, controlling the motor with one hand and holding a GPS navigator with the other. The device helps him find the exact place where he needs to set the nets.
The place where we stop is shallow enough that you can see the bottom. Serzhan says the sea has been getting shallower in recent years, although he says, "there’s a little more water this year, and there are more fish, too."
Back on the shore, after their nets have been cast, the brothers talk about the kinds of fish they can catch in the Aral. Carp, pike perch, and asp are caught here, among others. Nurzhan says that, in the late 1980s, flounder fry from the Sea of Azov were released into the Aral as it was drying. The fish unexpectedly thrived, apparently due to the saltiness of the sea -- ideal conditions for flounder. Once the dam was built and the water levels rose, the salinity decreased and the flounder eventually disappeared.
By the time we return to Tastubek, it’s getting dark. At the fishermen’s house, we eat boiled camel meat and settle in for a short sleep. In summer, it gets light early and you need to go back out to check your nets before sunrise.
The alarm goes off at 3:30 a.m. The village is totally silent. Even the dogs and birds are sleeping now; only bats can be seen fluttering through the night air in search of prey.
No one is really awake, so we just bump toward the sea in silence in the brothers’ old UAZ.
Even after boarding the boats and setting off, it is still dim when we reach the first float – a plastic bottle, indicating where the brothers’ net is. The first net brings in 18 medium-sized carp.
The second net brings in ten carp and two bream.
"This is normal for summertime," Serzhan says of the catch, though he sounds disappointed. A little further away, another boat is bobbing on the waves. It looks as if this competitors’ catch is not very rich either.
Seagulls circle overhead, hoping to snatch fish, but they don’t risk coming close; there are too many people in the boat. The brothers return the nets to the water and head back to shore.
Another day stretches ahead for the brothers filled with the usual concerns of rural life: horses, camels and fixing the UAZ, which is having engine problems again. Verdict Expected Soon in Trial of 11 Journalists in Kyrgyzstan (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [10/1/2024 9:44 AM, Catherine Putz, 1198K, Negative]
Last week, prosecutors in Kyrgyzstan asked that the 11 journalists arrested in January and put on trial in June on charges of organizing mass unrest be convicted and sentenced to six years in prison.
A verdict is expected on October 3.
The 11 journalists and media personnel - Saparbek Akunbekov, Tynystan Asypbekov, Aike Beishekeeva, Joodar Buzumov, Azamat Ishenbekov, Aktilek Kaparov, Akyl Orozbekov, Saipidin Sultanaliev, Makhabat Tajibek-kyzy, Maksat Tajibek-uulu, and Jumabek Turdaliev - are mostly current or former journalists with the Temirov Live investigative group, as well as its sister project Ait Ait Dese, Archa Media, and PoliKlinika.
Four of the journalists, including Makhabat Tajibek-kyzy, the wife of Temirov Live’s founder Bolot Temirov, have been in pre-trial detention since January 16. The remainder had been released to house arrest.
The case has come to define Kyrgyzstan’s autocratic slide under President Sadyr Japarov, which has featured also the passage of a "foreign representatives" law and the proposal of a new law imposing exorbitant fines for spreading "slander" and another regarding "false information." Media have long been under fire in the country, epitomized by the forced closure of Kloop - which nevertheless continues to operate.
Speaking in court, Tajibek-kyzy argued that the journalists have worked hard exposing corruption in Kyrgyzstan. "Based on the facts of our investigations, many corruptors and criminals are in prison today," she noted.
Temirov Live, for example, is a partner of the Organize Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which orchestrated the reporting on Raimbek Matriaimov that arguably has led to his current detention. (Never mind the small detail that he has been arrested before by the Kyrgyz government on corruption charges and released.)
Several media freedom and human rights organizations have spoke out stridently in defense of the detained journalists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Kyrgyz authorities to drop the charges. "The conviction of even a single one of the 11 Temirov Live investigative journalists on such clearly contrived and retaliatory charges would deal a further severe blow to Kyrgyzstan’s international reputation," said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator.
But Japarov has a different view. In a September 28 interview with state media outlet Kabar, Japarov pushed back on criticism of shrinking space for the freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan. "Freedom of speech in Kyrgyzstan exists, has existed and will exist," he said. "As for the 11 journalists, only two of them are real journalists," he added, questioning the education level of the accused. "How can one deny the fact that they were paid some money to sit on social media and spread false information calling for riots? Once again, false information calling for riots is not part of free speech."
The trial, which began on June 7, has been held behind closed doors, with the judge prohibiting photograph and video recording. What articles or reports form the basis of the alleged crime have not been specified publicly, nor has it been clarified whether and how their journalistic work called for or inspired riots.
Kyrgyz human rights defender Rita Karasartova, who attended the trial, told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service: "They demand six years in prison for each journalist. For what? Is journalism a crime?" Epitomizing fears of Kyrgyz journalists and human rights defenders more broadly, she added, "Is it a crime to compile journalistic materials, investigate, publish the investigation results, write about it? Is it a crime to criticize authorities?"
Lawyer Ulanbek Seyitbekov told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service that the charges against the journalists were not legal: "The charges are superficial and without evidence. There is not a word about the form of their sins."
Aktilek Kaparov, one of the charged journalists, expressed confusion, saying that he could not understand why the prosecutors were charging them for their work. "The prosecutors told us: They collected material for their articles, and then published it, saying that they received money for this [referring to a salary]."This is the same as saying that the sun is hot in the summer and cold in the winter. Should we judge winter for coldness and summer for heat?" Uzbek Teacher Fined For Hitting Student In Russian-Language Dispute (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [10/1/2024 12:30 PM, Staff, 1251K, Positive]
A teacher in Tashkent was fined 6.8 million soms ($534) for hitting a sixth-grade student who asked why she did not speak Russian during a Russian-language class. A video of the incident went viral, leading to the dismissal of the school principal. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on September 25 that Russia had requested official explanations from Uzbekistan. In response, Alisher Qodirov, deputy chairman of Uzbekistan’s parliament, said that Russia should focus on its own issues rather than interfering in Uzbekistan’s internal affairs. Indo-Pacific
Rice battle heats up as India, Pakistan lift export curbs (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [10/2/2024 12:00 AM, Abid Hussain, 25.8M, Neutral]
The global prices for different varieties of rice dropped on Monday after India and Pakistan made tit-for-tat moves to eliminate price caps and resume rice exports.
On Saturday, the Indian government lifted a ban on the export of non-Basmati white rice more than a year after it blocked overseas sales, with a larger crop yield in 2024 bolstering state warehouse reserves for domestic needs.
This decision followed Pakistan’s announcement a day earlier to withdraw the minimum export price (MEP) for all rice varieties, a measure that had been in place since 2023 and set at $1,300 per metric tonne for Basmati rice, and $550 for non-Basmati rice.
Pakistan’s decision was influenced by India’s earlier removal of the MEP of $950 per metric tonne for Basmati rice in September.
India and Pakistan are the only countries that produce Basmati rice, known as “scented pearl”, for its unique flavour and aroma.
In a notification issued on September 28, Jam Kamal Khan, Pakistan’s commerce minister, said the government acted on a request from the Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan (REAP) to eliminate the MEP.
Khan said the price floor was introduced last year in response to rising global rice prices and India’s export ban on non-Basmati rice, which was followed by New Delhi imposing some restrictions on the export of Basmati rice in August 2023.
With those bans, Pakistan in effect became the only exporter of Basmati rice – allowing it to charge top dollar through the MEP.“However, with the recent decline in international rice prices and India lifting its export ban, the MEP has become an obstacle for Pakistani rice exporters to remain competitive in global markets,” the minister said.
Khan projected that the move could boost Pakistan’s rice exports, potentially reaching $5bn in revenue this financial year. That will not be easy, however – because unlike last year, point out analysts, Pakistani rice will once again face off against its Indian competitor. And the Pakistani government’s decision to lift the minimum price on exports has upset many rice growers.
The battle for the rice market
India is the world’s largest rice exporter, accounting for nearly 40 percent of global rice trade and holding a 65 percent market share in the Basmati sector. Pakistan, the fourth-largest rice exporter after Thailand and Vietnam, retains the remaining 35 percent of the Basmati market.
In the 2022-23 fiscal year, India earned more than $11bn from rice sales, with more than 4.5 million metric tonnes of Basmati rice alone generating more than $4.7bn.
But in July 2023, high inflation, rising food prices, and concerns about potential production shortages caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon made the Indian government impose an export ban on non-Basmati rice, less than a year before national elections. This variety of rice is what India’s public distribution system relies on to fulfil domestic demand. A month later, India also imposed curbs on Basmati exports.
An unintended beneficiary? Pakistani rice exports.
As Indian rice became scarce, Pakistan emerged as one of the alternative suppliers for many countries, including those in the Gulf, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
From July 2023 to June 2024, Pakistan experienced more than 60 percent growth in its rice export volume and a 78 percent increase in value, generating nearly $3.9bn from the export of almost six million metric tonnes of rice, including about 750,000 metric tonnes of Basmati rice.
However, Chela Ram Kewlani, a former chairman of REAP, says now with Indian rice coming back to the international market in large volume, imposing a MEP would hurt Pakistani rice exports.“International market demand and supply is what regulates the rice price and now with India back in the business, our exports could have been impacted if we still had a MEP in place,” he told Al Jazeera.
Haseeb Khan, senior vice chairperson of REAP, also praised the government’s decision to lift the price cap, stating it would help Pakistani exporters strengthen their presence in new markets.“We have found buyers in Indonesia and the Philippines, and this decision will help us provide rice to these markets, along with our existing buyers in different regions,” he told Al Jazeera.
Khan, a Lahore-based exporter, acknowledged that Pakistani exporters will face competition from Indian peers, but said he was confident this challenge could be offset by sustained export levels.“We cannot compete with India in volume, but our bumper harvest means we expect to have larger quantities to export this year,” he added. Rice production in Pakistan has steadily increased over the years, except in 2022 when catastrophic floods damaged crops in Sindh province.
Last fiscal year, Pakistan’s rice output rose to nearly 9.8 million metric tonnes, with experts forecasting an increase to more than 10 million metric tonnes this year, potentially leading to higher exports.
Domestically, Pakistanis primarily consume wheat – more than 120 kg per person annually, among the highest in the world. Rice consumption is much lower at less than 20 kg per person annually. Most parts of India, by contrast, consume rice far more than wheat.
Farmer fears
While Pakistani exporters are celebrating the removal of the floor price, local farmers aren’t happy.
Mehmood Nawaz Shah, president of the Sindh Abadgar Board, a farmers’ organisation in the southern province of Sindh, argued that the removal of the MEP would prove detrimental to the interests of growers.“Exporters will benefit, but for us as farmers, this could lead to lower prices and reduced revenues,” he told Al Jazeera.“Volume-wise, we cannot compete with India, so we should have maintained some price floor instead of removing it entirely. Now anyone can sell at any price, which could perhaps increase sales volume but drive prices down,” he added.
Zahid Khwaja, a founder of REAP and a farmer from Lahore, echoed these concerns, noting the differing dynamics and strategies of the two countries.“India’s domestic issues led to their price floor and export ban, creating a market shortage. Now that they’ve lifted these restrictions, buyers will likely rush to stock up on Indian rice rather than continue purchasing from Pakistan,” he said.
Khwaja insisted that Pakistan should have retained some form of price control instead of eliminating it.“If we stick to this strategy, we may see a decline in both export quantity and revenue next year,” he warned. Twitter
Afghanistan
Jahanzeb Wesa@JahanzebWesa
[10/1/2024 3:01 PM, 4.2K followers, 8 retweets, 15 likes]
Let Afghan Girls Learn 1,111 days since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan and —systematically began denying girls and women the right to education. —Since August 2021, the hopes and dreams of millions of Afghanistan girls have been shattered.
Jahanzeb Wesa@JahanzebWesa
[10/1/2024 4:56 AM, 4.2K followers, 5 retweets, 14 likes]
Women—Freedom—Life Heather Barr, the associate director of Human Rights Watch, has urged the inclusion of Afghan women in efforts by several countries to hold the Taliban accountable for its violations of women’s rights at the International Criminal Court.
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[10/1/2024 11:35 AM, 73.7K followers, 8 retweets, 49 likes]
Interesting that US becomes the second country after Pakistan which as of today does NOT have a dedicated Special Envoy for Afghanistan with the ‘transition of Tom West’ from Special Rep on Afghanistan to Acting Head at the US Sanctions Department at US State Department — The US will continue to have a rep for Afghan Women and Girls - Pakistan scrapped the post last month. #Afghanistan Pakistan
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[10/1/2024 11:55 AM, 3.1M followers, 7 retweets, 13 likes]
The Head of Mission of World Health Organisation in Pakistan, Dr. Lou Dapeng presenting a certificate of elimination of TRACHOMA as a public health problem from Pakistan to the Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, today in Islamabad.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[10/1/2024 11:56 AM, 3.1M followers, 1 retweet, 7 likes]
Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif addresses a ceremony with regard to elimination of TRACHOMA as a public health problem from Pakistan.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[10/1/2024 9:52 AM, 3.1M followers, 139 retweets, 614 likes]
At the invitation of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim of Malaysia will undertake an official visit to Pakistan from 2-4 October 2024. Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim will hold meetings with Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif. The two sides will discuss a wide-ranging agenda to further strengthen Pakistan-Malaysia ties in diverse fields including trade, connectivity, energy, agriculture, halal industry, tourism, cultural exchanges and people-to-people contacts. They will also discuss regional and global developments.Shehbaz Sharif@CMShehbaz
[10/1/2024 12:02 PM, 6.7M followers, 1.1K retweets, 4.1K likes]
Heartening news for every Pakistani! Inflation is down to 6.9 %Continued improvement in macro-economic indicators is adding robust momentum to our economy which is poised to further accelerate ‘Ease of Living’ and will bring many positive changes for Common man, as well as investors and industry.
Imran Khan@ImranKhanPTI
[10/1/2024 9:01 AM, 20.9M followers, 12K retweets, 23K likes]
Message from the former Prime Minister, Imran Khan (30.09.2024)
The London Plan has been completely exposed. According to which PTI was supposed to be completely crushed, all cases against Nawaz Sharif were meant to be dismissed, and Imran Khan was meant to be imprisoned. The main character of this plan is (Justice) Qazi Faez Isa who, in line with the plan, is acting as a player rather than an umpire.
Qazi Faez Isa is shielding the injustice against us. He is hearing every case that can damage our political identity instead of cases involving our fundamental rights, level playing field in the elections, atrocities against women, and the wrongs against us. The role of Qazi is that of Justice Munir. In fact, he has become Justice Munir Pro Max because every decision he makes is contrary to justice and in favor of the Extension Mafia. The Extension Mafia, only to extend their tenure (in service), is bent upon destroying the country, and we will protest peacefully to stop them. The Extension Mafia is using an illegitimate parliament to hatch the heinous conspiracy of destroying the character of the Constitution through amendments. I warn them to desist from these constitutional amendments.
According to the London Plan, Nawaz Sharif was meant to have been made the captain. But he, too, was cheated and the Third Umpire took the captaincy for himself, making Nawaz Sharif merely the twelfth man.
Shehbaz Sharif has been busy building his narrative these days, blaming us for the May 9th (false flag) incidents as an insurance policy for PMLN. I advise him to have some courage and ask “them” for the CCTV footage of May 9yh. Once the footage is found, this will be an open and shut case.
Ali Amin Gandapur has given a fantastic statement. I fully endorse it. Society moves towards a revolution when its justice system fails it. And revolution is inevitable given the injustice that is being inflicted upon us. Our women are imprisoned, yet nobody is hearing their cases. Nobody in the system was bothered when an 80-year-old woman was charged with terrorism (for peacefully protesting). We have always protested peacefully, always obeyed the law, but the law is incapable of protecting us anymore.
I pay tribute to the people of Rawalpindi for the way in which they resisted fascism, where they stood firm despite being tear-gassed, shot by rubber bullets, and even live ammunition.
I would also like to express my appreciation for Ali Amin Gandapur and the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for the way they came out in large numbers and stood for Haqeeqi Azadi - genuine democracy, sovereignty, and the rule of law - and marched to Rawalpindi under the leadership of Ali Amin Gandapur to register their protest. Ali Amin Gandapur has played an active role in ensuring that my message reaches the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and awakens them.
Democracy means liberty. With democracy, comes the rule of law and accountability. The rule of Law ensures justice and the people have the right to hold their elected representatives accountable. Democracy is real freedom and we will continue our struggle until we attain that. Liberty is never served on a platter; it demands great sacrifice. My wife and I have been (wrongfully) imprisoned for fifteen months. Nobody should be afraid of going to jail. If jail couldn’t break me, you should not be afraid of it either. 1/2
Imran Khan@ImranKhanPTI
[10/1/2024 9:01 AM, 20.9M followers, 3.4K retweets, 5.4K likes]
A desperate effort is being made to subjugate the judiciary. Judges from the High Courts are writing letters to the Supreme Court but Qazi is destroying his own institution, in line with the London Plan. “They” want to reduce the High Courts to (the level of) Sessions Courts and abolish the Supreme Court so that they can control the superior judiciary just like they have managed the (makeshift) courts here in jail, which have handed down three convictions in five days to my wife and me. We will defend (the independence of) the judiciary and go to any (lawful) extent for the nation’s freedom. We will protest in Mianwali, Faisalabad, and Bahawalpur on October 2nd for the independence of judiciary and for democracy. We will also hold a protest at Minar-e-Pakistan in Lahore on October 5th. As for Islamabad, I have sent a message to Ali Amin Gandapur to call for a protest at D-Chowk on October 4th. Long Live Pakistan! 2/2
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[10/1/2024 11:20 PM, 213.6K followers, 38 retweets, 212 likes]
Pakistan shares a 560-mile border with Iran. It has good reason to be on edge amid this dangerous escalation between Iran and Israel. So far it’s avoided direct spillover effects from the broader crisis in the Middle East-other than a brief military crisis with Iran in January.
Madiha Afzal@MadihaAfzal
[10/1/2024 11:41 PM, 42.8K followers, 1 retweet, 10 likes]
Good economic news in Pakistan: inflation falls to 6.9% https://tribune.com.pk/story/2500121/annual-inflation-slides-to-35-year-low India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[10/2/2024 1:06 AM, 102.4M followers, 1.5K retweets, 4.9K likes]
As we mark #10YearsOfSwachhBharat, I salute the unwavering spirit of 140 crore Indians for making cleanliness a ‘Jan Andolan.’ Addressing a programme in Delhi.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi[10/1/2024 11:54 PM, 102.4M followers, 3.1K retweets, 23K likes]
Today, on Gandhi Jayanti, I took part in Swachhata related activities with my young friends. I urge you all to also take part in some or the other such activity during the day and at the same time, keep strengthening the Swachh Bharat Mission. #10YearsOfSwachhBharat
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[10/1/2024 11:34 PM, 102.4M followers, 2.4K retweets, 9.2K likes]
Today, we mark #10YearsOfSwachhBharat, a momentous collective effort to make India Swachh and ensure improved sanitation facilities. I salute all those who have worked to make this movement a success!
President of India@rashtrapatibhvn
[10/1/2024 3:48 AM, 25.8M followers, 383 retweets, 2.7K likes]
President Droupadi Murmu met the faculty and course members of the 64th NDC Course at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The President said that today, our security concerns extend beyond the preservation of territorial integrity and encompass other areas of national well-being, such as economic, environmental, energy security, and cyber security issues. Addressing these concerns requires intensive research and calls for a holistic approach.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[10/1/2024 10:20 PM, 3.2M followers, 68 retweets, 414 likes]
Pay reverential homage to Mahatma Gandhi on his Jayanti. His noble ideals and timeless message of peace and compassion are more relevant than ever.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[10/1/2024 4:49 PM, 3.2M followers, 411 retweets, 3.4K likes]
Delighted to hold talks with @SecBlinken today in Washington DC. We followed up on the Delaware bilateral and Quad meetings. Our discussions also covered deepening bilateral cooperation, situation in West Asia, recent developments in the Indian subcontinent, the Indo-Pacific and Ukraine.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[10/1/2024 11:46 AM, 3.2M followers, 194 retweets, 917 likes]
In conversation with Tino Cuellar of @CarnegieEndow today in Washington DC.
Rajnath Singh@rajnathsingh
[10/1/2024 10:56 PM, 24.3M followers, 43 retweets, 148 likes]
Sharing my interview with @smritikak from @htTweets where I discuss a range of subjects. Jammu and Kashmir is looking towards BJP with great hope and our acceptability has grown remarkably in the state. The BJP will win the assembly elections in J&K and Haryana. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GY2m263bUAAAtu2?format=jpg&name=medium Rajnath Singh@rajnathsingh
[10/1/2024 11:00 PM, 24.3M followers, 36 retweets, 232 likes]
Today, 02 October, I shall be in Haryana for election campaign. Looking forward to address election meetings in Sadhaura (Yamunanagar) and Pehowa (Kurukshetra). @BJP4Haryana NSB
Sabria Chowdhury Balland@sabriaballand
[10/1/2024 7:14 AM, 7.2K followers, 3 retweets, 12 likes]
Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus on Tuesday reaffirmed #Bangladesh’s continued support for the State of #Palestine and its people. "We will continue to support the cause of the Palestinian people.” Yunus pledges continued support for Palestine https://www.dhakatribune.com/360366
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[10/1/2024 5:18 AM, 110.1K followers, 206 retweets, 199 likes]
High-level foreign dignitaries President Dr Muizzu met with on the sidelines of the UNGA79 in New York. #UNGA79 #MaldivesAtUNGA79 https://x.com/i/status/1841044999594705101
Dr Mohamed Muizzu@MMuizzu
[10/1/2024 9:56 AM, 86.1K followers, 456 retweets, 581 likes]
The #Maldives, pursuant to the Article 63 of the @CIJ_IC Statute, filed the declaration of intervention to the Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip (South Africa vs. Israel). Israel must be held accountable for its unlawful acts in Gaza. The rule of law must be upheld, and Israel must cease its genocidal acts against the Palestinian people. The Maldives will always side with humanity, peace and justice, and in doing so, we will continue to stand with the Palestinian people. #Palestine must be recognised and established based on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Dr Mohamed Muizzu@MMuizzu
[10/1/2024 9:39 AM, 86.1K followers, 319 retweets, 354 likes]
Deeply saddened by the tragic news of floods and landslides in Nepal, which have resulted in the loss of precious lives and numerous injuries. My heartfelt sympathies to Prime Minister @kpsharmaoli and the bereaved families. I wish for a swift recovery for the injured and the safe return of those missing. The Maldives stands in solidarity with Nepal, our neighbour and friend, during this challenging time.
MOFA of Nepal@MofaNepal
[10/2/2024 3:26 AM, 259.8K followers, 1 retweet, 5 likes]
Hon Foreign Minister Dr Arzu Rana Deuba addressed the Second Meeting of Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Business Forum in Doha leading a Nepali delegation this morning.
MOFA of Nepal@MofaNepal
[10/2/2024 3:26 AM, 259.8K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
In her address, Hon Foreign Minister highlighted AI’s transformative potentials for business growth and underscored the need to forge enhanced collaboration among ACD Member States to respond to pressing challenges of data security, disinformation and digital divide, among others
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[10/1/2024 6:00 AM, 128.4K followers, 55 retweets, 565 likes]
Today (01), I met with S. Shritharan, Member of Parliament (MP) for the Jaffna District from the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), at the Presidential Secretariat. During our meeting, Mr. Shritharan congratulated me on our new governance, and we also engaged in a friendly conversation.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[10/1/2024 4:53 AM, 128.4K followers, 63 retweets, 616 likes]
This morning (01st), I met with Mr. Levan S. Dzhagaryan, Ambassador of the Russian Federation, at the Presidential Secretariat. During the meeting, Ambassador Dzhagaryan congratulated the new government and conveyed a personal message from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who expressed hope for the continued strengthening of bilateral relations between the two countries. The discussion focused on enhancing the longstanding bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and Russia. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to improving diplomatic ties while increasing cooperation in key areas such as trade, investment, culture, and education, emphasizing the importance of development in these sectors. Central Asia
UN in Kazakhstan@uninkazakhstan
[10/1/2024 5:35 AM, 1.2K followers, 3 retweets, 8 likes]
Today UN Plaza in Almaty welcomed Zhanibek Abdrashov, Head of the MFA Representative Office in Almaty. During the visit he met with the UNCT to discuss strengthening UN-KZ cooperation @MFA_KZ
Yerzhan Ashikbayev@KZAmbUS
[10/1/2024 9:41 PM, 2.7K followers, 1 retweet, 8 likes]
I was proud to share KZ best practices in repatriation of citizens from the conflict zones, contributing to the implementation of @UN SC Resolutions 2178 and 2396 at @USIP. Emphasised the «Zhusan» Operation and its role in reducing counterterrorism & ensuring regional stability.
MFA Tajikistan@MOFA_Tajikistan
[10/1/2024 9:52 AM, 5K followers, 2 retweets, 3 likes]
An event dedicated to the Role of Youth in Strengthening State Independence https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15861/an-event-dedicated-to-the-role-of-youth-in-strengthening-state-independenceBakhtiyor Saidov@FM_Saidov
[10/1/2024 10:18 AM, 8.5K followers, 7 retweets, 14 likes]
Had a productive meeting with the Secretary-General of @UNCTAD H.E. @RGrynspan who is visiting #Uzbekistan to attend the World Conference on Creative Economy. We discussed enhancing our cooperation with @UN Trade and Development, focusing on promoting investment policy, foreign trade, sustainable economic growth, assistance with UZ @WTO membership process, and more. Agreed to further actively collaborate in many promising dimensions.{End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.