EHTNIC CONFLICT IN WESTERN ASSAM

•  Assam has seen riots between Bodos and Bengali-speaking Muslims a number of times. Altogether 113 people died when they fought in Kokrajhar in 1994, while 64 were killed in Udalguri in 2008. The latest round of violence has so far cost 79 lives.

 WHO ARE THE BODOS? 

•  Bodos are the earliest settlers of Assam belonging to the Bodo-Kachari family. They are found in areas stretching from eastern Nepal to Assam and the foothills of Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh.
• In Assam, they live mostly in Kokrajhar, Chirang, Bongaigaon, Baksa, Barpeta, Kamrup, Darrang, Udalguri and Sonitpur.
• Their estimated number in Assam is more than 15 lakh; over 90% of them are Hindus. 

 CHIEF REASONS BEHIND RIVALRY B/W BODOS & MUSLIMS:

• The tussle over control of land is attributed as the main cause of enmity.

• Bodos say most Muslim settlers are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. On the other hand, Muslims claim that Bodos are not in a majority in the region which is enough ground for the dissolution of the BTC. They complain that BTC provisions make it difficult for non-tribals to buy land there.

 BODOLAND TERRITORIAL COUNCIL (BTC):

• In 1988, Bodos started a violent campaign for a separate state with the slogan "Divide Assam 50-50". Some of them took up arms and founded outfits like the Bodoland Liberation Tigers (BLT) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland with their bases in Bhutan and Bangladesh.
• After a series of talks with the Centre and the Assam government, BLT fighters headed by Hagrama Mohilary agreed to accept autonomy under the concept of a-state-within-a-state on February 10, 2003. This paved the way for the formation of the Bodoland Territorial Council comprising Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Udalguri districts. 

 STATUS OF ASSAM ACCORD VIS-À-VIS INFILTRATION PROBLEM:

• Signed between the Centre and Assam leaders in 1985.
• Main clauses of the agreement were:

1. Detection and deportation of illegal migrants
2. Update of the National Register of Citizens
3. Erection of a border fence between India and Bangladesh.

• The government has found it difficult to detect and deport infiltrators because of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983, and Bangladesh's persistent refusal to acknowledge the presence of its citizens in India. 
• NRC up gradation faces strong resistance from the minorities. Most of the NE's borders with Bangladesh are yet to be fenced. The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court in 2005, put the onus to prove whether one is a non-national on the police or complainants.

UN MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT REPORT

• The UN Secretary General’s Millennium Development Report 2012 reveals that while the world has achieved targets of poverty reduction, improved drinking water supply and decreased number of urban residents in slums, it hasn’t done well on maternal health and child nutrition goals.

 STATUS OF INDIA:

• India is set to miss the Millennium Development Goal (MDG)-5 (on halving numbers of maternal deaths between 1990 and 2015) if it doesn’t accelerate the pace of progress.
• India has Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) of 212 per one lakh live births. India’s MDG target is to get the figure down to 109.
• India now has an IMR of 47, down from 125 per 1,000 live births in 1992.

 NUTRITION STATISTICS:

• India has the largest proportion of underweight children.
• Hunger is another huge challenge though India has reduced its poverty rates from 51 to 37 per cent between 1990 and 2012. 
• It fares poorly on all three standard indices used to measure child nutrition — stunting (height for age), wasting (weight for height) and underweight (weight for age), with 59 per cent children stunted, 42 per cent underweight and 11.4 per cent wasted

POWER GRID

• The power grid system is the electrical utility distribution system. A grid is basically a carrier of power. Whenever power is generated, it goes through a grid.
• India has 5 power grids — northern, eastern, northeastern, southern & western.
• The Northern Region Grid, which provides Power Supply to 9 States of Northern India including Delhi, experienced a widespread outage due to a grid disturbance that occurred on 30th July, 2012.

 IT’S FUNCTION:

• When power is evacuated to the grid from the power station, a frequency gets attached to it. It varies from 49.5 to 50.5 and this is the range in which power is distributed.
• The normal grid discipline is to maintain that frequency 

WHY THE GRID TRIPS:

• The trouble begins when more power is evacuated to the grid or more power is drawn from it. In the first case, the frequency goes up; while it goes down in the second case

 PROBLEM:

• The grid is threatened when frequency of power drops below 49.5 hertz, but the states did not stop overdrawing even when the frequency dropped below critical levels
• When the frequency drops to 48.8 hertz, the under frequency relays (UFRs) installed on the high tension lines start working
• These are programmed to start shutting down the grid to prevent a blow out

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BORDER PACT WITH BANGLADESH

•  A constitutional amendment to ratify the India-Bangladesh boundary agreement has got the nod from the Cabinet committee on security (CCS) and is likely to be placed before Parliament in the monsoon session. 

 BORDER WITH BANGLADESH:

•  India and Bangladesh share a 4,096km land boundary covering West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram.

 ABOUT LBA:

•  Manmohan Singh and his Bangladeshi counterpart Sheikh Hasina had signed the land boundary agreement (LBA) in Dhaka last year. 
•  An updated version of the Indira-Mujib agreement of 1974, the accord's ratification will require a constitutional amendment of Article 368.

 SIGNIFICANCE:

• The LBA will not only change contours of India's map, but will be the first resolved boundary with any neighbor.
• The agreement will formalize status quo on enclaves and areas under adverse possession, entailing neither transfer of territory nor people.
• Around 53,000 people residing in the enclaves, who have just been counted in the first ever census in these areas, will get the citizenship of the country they are living in.

 The strategic significance of this is incalculable. Even more than the Teesta river water treaty, the LBA is a big-ticket initiative that can galvanize bilateral ties. However, reservations on the part of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP have impeded its implementation. It's imperative to note that apart from Bhutan, Bangladesh is the only regional neighbor that currently has a positive relationship with India. India's inability to settle relations with neighbors comes in the way of its development and rise as a world power.

GS MAINS CRASH COURSE ( 45 days) STARTING 3rd August, 2012 - Friday at 12 noon.

ASEAN-INDIA MINISTERIAL MEETING

• The ASEAN-India Ministerial Meeting, an annual event, takes stock of the ASEAN-India partnership and deliberates on its future direction.
• India became a Sectoral Partner of ASEAN in 1992 and a Dialogue Partner in 1996. The relationship was upgraded in 2002 to the level of an Annual Summit Level Partnership.
• Venue of 10th ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers Meeting: Phnom Penh, Cambodi

AGENDA:

• China's aggressive posturing on the South China Sea
• Territorial dispute between China and southeastern countries, such as the Philippines and Vietnam

 IMPORTANCE OF MEETING:

• The 10th ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers Meeting is significant as India would be hosting a special ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit in December to mark 20 years of the relationship and 10 years of the summit level partnership.

IMPORTANCE OF ASIA-PACIFIC REGION FOR INDIA:

•  Asia-Pacific region is India’s leading and fastest growing economic partner, vital for its economic security; it deeply impinges on some of its domestic concerns, especially in the Northeast and in the Andaman Sea.
• It is linked to India’s maritime and ecological security and enables a coordinated holistic response in dealing with natural disasters like the tsunami and even pandemics.
• Its space impacts India’s conventional and non-conventional security environment, including threats of terrorism, piracy, transnational crime and spread of weapons of mass destruction in undesirable hands. 

 THURST AREAS FOR INDIA’S LOOK EAST POLICY:

• A major thrust has to be on integrating economic structures and systems with those of the Asia-Pacific and working towards a Pan-Asian economic community.
• Priority will need to be accorded to creating and augmenting all- encompassing regional connectivity and networking stretching from Myanmar to the Pacific coast.
• Myanmar and Thailand are pivotal to our Look-East Policy. Both are members of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Techno- Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC).
• China’s lengthening shadows and growing presence in neighborhood is best countered in this strategically important space through meaningful regional cooperation.
• Maritime security is likely to emerge as a key concern in the coming decades. India’s pivotal role in the Indian Ocean stretching up to the Pacific could contribute to ensuring freedom of the seas, peace, security from piracy.
• Asia-Pacific regional organizations like the East Asia Summit, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia-Pacific, the Asian Development Bank, the ARF, the Track II Council for Security Cooperation in Asia-Pacific and other dialogue arrangements and the many ASEAN-driven regional forum of which India is a member provide an opportunity to engage with China in the regional context.

India enjoys excellent bilateral relations with almost all the countries of the Asia-Pacific, free of conflict or differences. For the first time in many decades, India is becoming integral to Asia-Pacific peace, progress, security and stability. It is increasingly being seen as one of the pillars of the emerging politico-security and economic architecture of this rapidly changing region on the threshold of a promising century. The commemorative India-ASEAN summit to mark 20 years of the completion of the Look-East Policy later in the year cannot be allowed to be just a milestone event. India will have to give direction and substance to the agenda and priorities for the next decade of partnership. ASEAN, from all accounts, is eager and receptive to deepening and enlarging its engagement with a potentially powerful India.